Former Pitt DB Paris Ford Signs With Professional Team

Paris Ford wasn’t picked up by the UFL, but his professional football journey isn’t over.

Ford — a 6-foot-1, 190-pound defensive back from Pittsburgh, Pa. — was signed Friday afternoon by the Massachusetts Pirates of the Arena Football League. It’s the first professional opportunity that Ford has received since his time in the USFL last season.

It’s a major development for Ford, who previously played for the New Jersey Generals in the USFL. But it’s also pending an upcoming June 18 hearing with magisterial judge Armand Martin after Ford turned himself into police on March 27.

Ford was charged in March with two counts of aggravated assault, one count of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure and one count of recklessly endangering another person. The two counts of aggravated assault differ in that the first deals with Ford attempting to cause harm and the second deals with the use of a deadly weapon during the alleged assault, which police say occurred on March 15 on the 800 block of Third Street in Clairton, Pa.

The upcoming court case will shed more light on the future of his playing career.

Ford made strides in the Generals’ secondary last season, racking up 53 tackles (38 solo), two tackles for loss, an interception, three pass breakups, and he once again emerged as one of the hardest-hitting defensive backs in football.

The Generals selected Ford in the fourth round of the 2022 USFL supplemental draft, but he didn’t play much during his initial season in the league. His 2023 campaign was his first major professional campaign, the most he played since his third season with the Panthers.

According to PFF, Ford allowed just a 72.9 pass rating when targeted (fifth among USFL safeties), 0.40 yards per coverage snap (third) and had an open-target percentage of 44.4% (fourth).

Ford, who left Pitt in the middle of the 2020 season, spent the summer of 2021 with the Los Angeles Rams after joining the team as an undrafted free agent. He did not make the club coming out of training camp and did not play elsewhere that fall.

In four seasons at Pitt, redshirting in 2017, Ford racked up 136 tackles (89 solo), 5.5 tackles for loss, six interceptions (with one returned for a touchdown), 10 pass breakups and three forced fumbles.

Ford was a first-team All-ACC selection during his redshirt sophomore season in 2019 but left the Pitt program in the middle of the next season, following the team’s loss to Notre Dame on Oct. 24, 2020. But he still earned second-team All-ACC honors.

Massachusetts is 5-3 (5-2 in conference) through the halfway point of the AFL season, and the Pirates will continue the season Saturday afternoon with a matchup at home against the Tulsa Oilers.