Mike Siani (American football)

Mike Siani (born May 27, 1950) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Colts.

Early life
Siani was a high school football star with the New Dorp High School "Centrals", in New Dorp, Staten Island, New York City, New York, graduating in 1968. At New Dorp, Siani played for legendary coach Sal Somma. Somma and Siani have been inducted into the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame.

College career
Siani attended Villanova University, where he not only played football but also excelled in baseball. Between 1968 (when he was still in high school) and 1972, Siani was selected on four occasions by three Major League organizations (the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Texas Rangers), but he never signed.

On the football field Siani wore number 88 and earned close to 30 achievement awards. He was selected to the 1971 College Football All-America Team. Siani was inducted into the Villanova University Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.

Professional career
Siani was the first round draft choice of the Oakland Raiders. In 1972, his first year in Oakland, he set multiple rookie team records for receiving and finished as the runner-up to Franco Harris as NFL Rookie of the Year. He played for the Raiders through 1977, appearing in 74 games with 32 starts, and he caught 128 passes for 2,079 yards and 13 TDs. With the Raiders having a surplus of wide receivers, the team traded Siani along with a 1979 third-round selection (72nd overall–traded to Houston Oilers) to the Colts for Raymond Chester and a 1979 second-round pick (33rd overall–traded to Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Dave Pear) on July 21, 1978. Siani played three seasons with the Colts before finishing his NFL career in 1980.

Personal life
When his playing career ended, Siani was an indoor football coach for several teams, being named the interim head coach for the Myrtle Beach Stingrays, Fayetteville Guard and Florence Phantoms. He was named the head coach of the Atlantic City CardSharks in 2004, and the Richmond Raiders of the American Indoor Football Association in 2010. Siani has been employed as a scout for the New Orleans Saints, and was the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach for the Princeton Tigers Varsity Sprint Football program in 2009.

Major League Baseball player Michael Siani is a distant relative of Siani's.

Books
“Cheating is Encouraged: A Hard-Nosed History of the 1970s Raiders” was authored by Mike Siani and Kristine Setting Clark.