Christopher Oji Darkins (born April 30, 1974) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL).

Biography

Darkins was born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Career

He attended high school at

Strake Jesuit College Preparatory Strake Jesuit College Preparatory (properly referred to as Strake Jesuit or Jesuit but often informally called Strake) is a Jesuit, college-preparatory school for boys, grades 9–12, in the Chinatown area and in the Greater Sharpstown district ...

and played collegiately at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. In

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, he was awarded the Bronko Nagurski Award as the team's most valuable player. He also earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in 1994 by setting a school record with 1,443 rushing yards on the season. Darkins career rushing total of 3,235 yards was third on Minnesota's all-time list when his career ended and remains fifth-best in program history. His 294 rushing yards against Purdue in 1995 is still the highest single-game total in Gopher football history. Following his collegiate career, Darkins was selected in the fourth round of the

1996 NFL draft The 1996 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The NFL draft, draft was held April 20–21, 1996 NFL seas ...

by the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

. Darkins was a member of the 1996 Super Bowl Championship team and the 1997 NFC Championship team that lost to Denver in the Super Bowl.

Awards

In 2015, Darkins was inducted into the University of Minnesota hall of fame.

Wrongful arrest and activism

On February 24, 2016, Darkins was arrested in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

for his alleged role in a drug trafficking and money laundering ring. On May 2, 2017, all charges were dismissed against Darkins by U.S. District Court Judge Marc Thomas Treadwell for want of prosecution. On October 10, 2018, Darkins was awarded a Congressional Certificate from the 18th District acknowledging that he was wrongfully accused and recognizing his work as a wrongful convictions activist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darkins, Chris 1974 births Living people American football running backs Green Bay Packers players Minnesota Golden Gophers football players Strake Jesuit College Preparatory alumni Players of American football from Houston Players of American football from San Francisco