PATTERSON, La. — Dajon Richard’s football career has taken him a long way from Patterson, but the former Lumberjack continues to find opportunities to keep playing the game that first made him one of the most dynamic athletes in St. Mary Parish.
Richard, a running back from Patterson, has signed with the Omaha Beef of the National Arena League after spending the 2026 season with the Dallas Bulls and Louisiana Rouxgaroux.
Omaha announced the signing this week, adding Richard to a roster that has regularly contended for championships in the indoor game.
According to the Beef’s announcement, Richard finished the 2026 season with 84 carries for 275 yards and six rushing touchdowns. He also caught 19 passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns.
For Richard, Omaha represents the latest stop in a football career defined as much by versatility and persistence as production.
That reputation began at Patterson High School.
Richard was far from a one-position player for the Lumberjacks. During his high school career, he lined up at quarterback, running back, wide receiver and defensive back, giving Patterson a player capable of impacting a game from nearly anywhere on the field.
Southern Miss later credited Richard with more than 2,000 all-purpose yards and 24 touchdowns during his senior season. He rushed for 1,783 yards and 22 touchdowns, caught 16 passes for 181 yards and two scores, and threw for another 131 yards.
He earned all-state and all-district recognition and was rated as a three-star recruit by both Rivals and 247Sports.
Richard had already established himself as one of the area’s most productive players the year before.
Louisiana Football Magazine reported that he accounted for 2,153 all-purpose yards and 21 touchdowns during his junior season, including 1,143 rushing yards, 563 receiving yards and 432 passing yards.
The production attracted college attention, and Richard initially committed to UTSA before reopening his recruitment and eventually signing with South Alabama.
His college career would include several stops.
After South Alabama, Richard continued playing at Hinds Community College in Mississippi, where he rushed for 437 yards on 72 carries in four games. He averaged 109.2 rushing yards per contest and scored three touchdowns.
One of his best performances came against Southwest Mississippi Community College, when Richard rushed for 149 yards and two touchdowns. The performance earned him MACCC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
His success at Hinds opened the door for another opportunity at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.
Richard transferred to Southern Miss and made an immediate contribution during the 2021 season.
He appeared in 11 games and finished second on the team in rushing with 447 yards on 94 carries, averaging 4.8 yards per attempt. He scored two touchdowns and closed the season with back-to-back 100-yard rushing performances.
Richard rushed for 120 yards against Louisiana Tech before following with 107 yards against FIU.
He later continued his career at Grambling State, where he recorded 58 rushing yards and a touchdown, before becoming part of Albany State’s 2024 signing class.
Albany State listed Richard as a graduate-student running back and noted his previous experience at Grambling and Southern Miss.
The moves could have ended the football road for some players.
For Richard, they simply became part of it.
Following college, he moved into professional indoor football during the 2026 National Arena League season.
Richard began the year with the Dallas Bulls before later joining the Louisiana Rouxgaroux.
By the middle of the season, he had become a significant part of Louisiana’s rushing attack. Omaha’s own game coverage noted that Richard had accumulated 214 rushing yards and five touchdowns, along with 108 receiving yards and two scores, between his time with Dallas and Louisiana.
He eventually became the Rouxgaroux’s starting running back.
That put Richard on the opposite sideline from the Omaha team he has now joined.
In the regular-season finale on May 30, Richard scored on a one-yard touchdown run against the Beef and finished with 32 rushing yards on nine carries. Omaha won the game 63-33.
A few months later, Richard became one of them.
Omaha has been one of the more established organizations in indoor football, with championships across multiple leagues.
The Beef won the Champions Indoor Football championship in 2021 and again in 2023 before capturing the National Arena League title in 2024. Omaha finished as the NAL runner-up in 2025 and returned to the postseason in 2026.
The Beef’s 2026 season included one of the more dramatic turnarounds in the league. Omaha opened 0-5 before winning six consecutive games, including a playoff victory over Sioux City, before falling to Southwest Kansas in the NAL semifinals.
Richard will now join a franchise accustomed to playing meaningful football late in the season.
It also gives the former Patterson standout another chance to extend a career that has already carried him through high school football in St. Mary Parish, junior college football in Mississippi, multiple NCAA programs and professional arena football.
The path has not been direct.
Patterson led to South Alabama. Then came Hinds, Southern Miss, Grambling State and Albany State. After college came Dallas, Louisiana and now Omaha.
Through every change, Richard has continued to find a place for his skill set.
The same versatility that made him difficult to defend at Patterson remains part of his game. He can carry the football, catch passes out of the backfield and adjust to the quicker pace and tighter space of arena football.
For people who watched him on Friday nights in Patterson, his career is another example of a local athlete carrying his game well beyond St. Mary Parish.
The uniform has changed several times.
The cities have changed even more.
But Dajon Richard is still running.