Ahmad Rashad Merritt (born February 5, 1977) is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

. He was signed by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

in 2000. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Merritt was also a member of the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

Chicago Rush The Chicago Rush were a professional arena football team based in Rosemont, Illinois. The team was founded in 2001 and played in the Arena Football League's Central Division. The Rush qualified for the playoffs in 11 of 12 AFL seasons, during w ...

and

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The ...

Early life

Merritt was born in Chicago and named after former NFL running back and wide receiver

Ahmad Rashad Ahmad Rashad ( ; born Robert Earl Moore; November 19, 1949) is an American sportscaster and former professional football wide receiver. He was the fourth overall selection of the 1972 NFL draft, taken by the St. Louis Cardinals. He was known ...

, who was his father's favorite player at the time. Merritt attended

St. Rita High School St. Rita of Cascia High School is an all-boys Catholic high school located in the Ashburn neighborhood on Chicago's Southwest Side., United States. It is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, is operated by the Province of Our Moth ...

on Chicago's south side, where, as a senior, he earned All-America honors from '' Prep Football Report'' and '' SuperPrep''. He had 63 receptions for 1,240 yards and 23 touchdowns throughout his high school career. Merritt was a grade school, high school, and college teammate of former NFL player Tony Simmons. Merritt and Simmons both played and caught touchdown passes in

World Bowl IX World Bowl IX was the ninth championship game of the NFL Europe League. It was held at the Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam ArenA in Amsterdam, Netherlands on June 30, 2001. The game was between the Barcelona Dragons (NFL Europe), Barcelona Dragons, who ...

. In 2012, Merritt was inducted into the St. Rita High School Hall of Fame.

College career

Merritt started 21 games at wide receiver but primarily served as a return specialist through his four years at Wisconsin. He finished his collegiate career with 36 receptions for 528 yards and two touchdowns, 28 kick returns for 521 yards and 25 punt returns for 165 yards.

Professional career

Chicago Bears

Merritt is probably most remembered for his 47-yard

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

run on a reverse in the Bears 2001 divisional playoff loss to the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

(the last offensive touchdown scored for the Bears in Old

Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side, Chicago, Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears from the National ...

)https://www.espn.com/nfl/playoffs01/news/2002/0119/1314280.html. He was also the leading receiver of the 2001

World Bowl The World Bowl was the annual American football championship game of the World League of American Football, later called NFL Europe. The World Bowl was played each year from 1991 to 2007 (except 1993 and 1994). The first World Bowl was played ...

Champion

Berlin Thunder The Berlin Thunder were a professional American football team in NFL Europe. History The Thunder came into existence as an expansion team, after the London/England Monarchs franchise shut down operations, prior to the 1999 season. Home games f ...

NFL Europa NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally founded ...

Dallas Cowboys

Merritt was in training camp with the

in 2005 and was on the verge of securing a roster spot when he tore

ligament A ligament is a type of fibrous connective tissue in the body that connects bones to other bones. It also connects flight feathers to bones, in dinosaurs and birds. All 30,000 species of amniotes (land animals with internal bones) have liga ...

s in his foot and was given an injury settlement. He returned to the Cowboys in the offseason, but was later released a few days into training camp before the 2006 season.

Chicago Rush

Merritt started the first five games of the 2007 Arena Football season for the

, gaining 203 yards on 20 receptions with two touchdowns before being waived in early April.

Arizona Cardinals

Merritt was signed as a free agent by the

but spent his entire first season with the team on injured reserved after dislocating his ankle and breaking his fibula in a preseason game against the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

. He was re-signed by the team on March 26, 2008; however, he was released prior to the season on August 20.

References

External links

Arizona Cardinals bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merritt, Ahmad 1977 births American football return specialists American football wide receivers Arizona Cardinals players Berlin Thunder players Chicago Bears players Chicago Rush players Dallas Cowboys players Living people Players of American football from Chicago Wisconsin Badgers football players American expatriate sportspeople in Germany