Brandon Latrel Keith (born November 21, 1984) is an

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

offensive tackle who last played for the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansio ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

. He was drafted by the

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, an ...

in the seventh round of the

2008 NFL Draft The 2008 NFL Draft was the 73rd annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, on April 26 and April 27 ...

. He played college football at

Northern Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois ...

. Coaches at Salt River High School in the Salt River Pima Indian County

High school career

Keith attended

McAlester High School The McAlester Public School District is a school district that competes and is classified as a 5A school district in McAlester, Oklahoma, United States. It serves the majority of McAlester, though parts of McAlester are in other school distri ...

McAlester, Oklahoma McAlester is the county seat of Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. The population was 18,363 at the time of the 2010 census, a 3.4 percent increase from 17,783 at the 2000 census,Shuller, Thurman"McAlester" profile ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History an ...

, where tallied over 70 pancake blocks earned first-team all-state honors from the ''

Daily Oklahoman ''The Oklahoman'' is the largest daily newspaper in Oklahoma, United States, and is the only regional daily that covers the Greater Oklahoma City area. The Alliance for Audited Media (formerly Audit Bureau Circulation) lists it as the 59th larges ...

'' and the ''

Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. Tulsa World Media Company is part of Lee Enterprises. The new owners announced in January 20 ...

'' as a senior in 2002. Considered a four-star recruit by ''

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heck ...

'', Keith was rated as the No. 20 offensive tackle in the nation. He committed to the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

, but did not qualify academically, and eventually headed for junior college.

College career

After redshirting his first year at

Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) is a public community college in Miami, Oklahoma. Established as the Miami School of Mines in 1919, NEO has an enrollment of approximately two thousand students. The Golden Norsemen is the school mascot. ...

, Keith received first-team all-Southwest League honors and second-team NJCAA All-American in 2004. Honoring his commitment to the Sooners, Keith was a member of the

2005 Oklahoma Sooners football team The 2005 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the University of Oklahoma in the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season, the 111th season of Sooner football. The team was led by two-time Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award winner, Bob Stoo ...

but did not see action. Unsatisfied with his role, he decided to transfer to

. Keith saw action in seven games for the Panthers, and started two. He missed four games with a bone bruise in his right knee. Keith was part of the offense ranked No. 11 in the nation in scoring (31.0 points/game) in 2006. In 2007, Keith started 11 games at right tackle, helping to guide the Panthers to a perfect 11-0 regular season and a No. 1 national ranking for six weeks. He received ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

'' All-America third-team honors and was named an honorable mention All-American by ''The Sports Network''.

Professional career

2008 NFL Draft

Despite impressive showings at Northern Iowa's Pro Day, where he ran a sub-5.0

40-yard dash The 40-yard dash is a sprint covering . It is primarily run to evaluate the speed and acceleration of American football players by scouts, particularly for the NFL Draft but also for collegiate recruiting. A player's recorded time can have a he ...

at 345 pounds, Keith was not regarded as one of the top offensive tackles in the draft, due to his unpolished footwork and lack of consistency. He was selected in the seventh round with the 225th overall pick by the

. After signing with the

on May 6, 2013, Keith was released by the Vikings on August 31, 2013 (along with 18 others) to get to a 53-man roster.

References

External links

Arizona Cardinals bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keith, Brandon 1984 births Living people People from Silsbee, Texas American football offensive tackles Northern Iowa Panthers football players Arizona Cardinals players Minnesota Vikings players Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Golden Norsemen football players