Eric M. Bieniemy Jr. (born August 15, 1969) 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 ...

coach and former

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 handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. The ...

who is the offensive coordinator for the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The t ...

. He played college football for the

Colorado Buffaloes The Colorado Buffaloes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Colorado. The university sponsors 17 varsity sports teams. Both the men's and women's teams are called the Buffaloes (Buffs for short) or, rarely, the Golden Buffaloes ...

and was recognized as a consensus All-American. Bieniemy was selected by the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

in the second round, 39th overall, of the

1991 NFL Draft The 1991 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 draft was held April 21–22, 1991, at the Marriott ...

. He also played for the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The club's home ...

and

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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

. After his playing career ended, Bieniemy returned to Colorado, where he served as their running backs coach. He served as the offensive coordinator at Colorado before becoming the running backs coach of the Chiefs. As a running backs coach in the NFL, Bieniemy coached

Adrian Peterson Adrian Lewis Peterson (born March 21, 1985) is an American football running back who is a free agent. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest running backs in football history. He played college football at Oklahoma, where he set t ...

and

Jamaal Charles Jamaal RaShaad Jones Charles (born December 27, 1986) is a former American football running back. He played college football for the University of Texas, where he won the 2006 Rose Bowl, and was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the third ro ...

, who made a combined seven pro bowls in eight seasons, as their running backs coach.

Early years

Bieniemy was born in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

lettered in football and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

at Bishop Amat High School in

La Puente, California La Puente ( Spanish for "The Bridge") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city had a population of 39,816 at the 2010 census and is approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. History The original inhabitants of th ...

, earning second-team All-America honors in football as a senior when he rushed for 2,002 yards and 30 touchdowns.

College career

Bieniemy was heavily recruited out of high school and chose to attend the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado s ...

. He was the nation's second leading rusher with the Buffaloes in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

with 1,628 yards, along with 17 touchdowns, and finished third in the Heisman Trophy balloting behind BYU's

Ty Detmer Ty Hubert Detmer (born October 30, 1967) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He won the Heisman Trophy in 1990 while playing college football for the BYU Cougars. D ...

(the winner) and

Notre Dame Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to: * Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France * University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States ** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...

Raghib Ismail Raghib Ramadian "Rocket" Ismail (born November 18, 1969) is an American former American and Canadian football wide receiver and kick returner. He played college football at Notre Dame before moving on to both the Canadian Football League (CFL) ...

. Bieniemy is Colorado's all-time leader in rushing (3,940 yards), all-purpose yards (4,351), and touchdowns (42). Nicknamed "Scooter" and wearing No. 1, Bieniemy earned consensus All-America honors in 1990 as part of Colorado's national championship team. He was a two-time first-team all Big-Eight performer, in 1988 and 1990, earning the conference's offensive Player of the Year honor as a senior. As a junior, Bieniemy was named to CU's prestigious 25-member "All-Century Football Team," the only active player at the time to be selected to the group honoring the first 100 years of Colorado Buffalo football.

Professional career

Bieniemy played from 1991 through 1999, and finished his career with 1,589 yards rushing, 1,223 yards receiving, 276 yards returning punts, 1,621 yards on kickoff returns, and 12 touchdowns (11 rushing and one kickoff return) while playing for the

and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

broadcaster

Chris Berman Christopher James Berman (born May 10, 1955), nicknamed "Boomer", is an American sportscaster. He has been an anchor for ''SportsCenter'' on ESPN since 1979, joining a month after its initial launch, and hosted the network's '' Sunday NFL Count ...

gave him the nickname "Eric 'sleeping with' Bieniemy", in reference to the

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the ...

film '' Sleeping with the Enemy''.

Coaching career

Early college jobs

Bieniemy returned to Colorado to complete his degree and was the running backs coach for the Buffaloes from

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

and was

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

running back coach from

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

, as well as the team's recruiting coordinator in 2005.

Minnesota Vikings

Following UCLA's

2005 Sun Bowl The 2005 Sun Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 30, 2005, in El Paso, Texas. Sponsored by the Vitalis brand of hair tonic made by Bristol-Myers, the game was officially known as the Vitalis Sun Bowl. It was the 72nd Sun Bowl. ...

victory, Bieniemy accepted a position as running backs coach 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 ...

in the

NFL 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 maj ...

. During his time as the Vikings running back coach, his leading rusher

, led the NFC in rushing with 1,341 yards in 2007 and also in 2008 with 1,760 yards, which was also top in the NFL. On July 26, 2010, Bieniemy was also named the Vikings' assistant head coach for the offense.

Return to Colorado

On December 2, 2010, Bieniemy returned to Colorado as offensive coordinator under new head coach

Jon Embree Jon William Embree (born October 15, 1965) is an American football coach and former player who is the Assistant Head coach & tight ends coach for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). He is a former head coach at Colorado. Pr ...

. In 2020, Bieniemy was offered the head coach position at Colorado but declined. Eric Bieniemy is ready to be a head coach. Which NFL team will finally take him?
/ref>

Kansas City Chiefs

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

head coach

Andy Reid Andrew Walter Reid (born March 19, 1958) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). Reid was previously head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 to 2012. From 200 ...

hired Bieniemy to be the running backs coach. Reid was familiar with Bieniemy as Reid had coached him on the Philadelphia Eagles. In

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, Reid promoted Bieniemy to offensive coordinator to succeed

Matt Nagy Matthew Nagy ( or ; born April 24, 1978) is an American football coach, and former arena football quarterback, who is the senior assistant and quarterbacks coach for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He was the head ...

who had been hired as the head coach of 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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

. In Bieniemy's first season as the Chiefs offensive coordinator, the Chiefs were first in the NFL in yards per game and points scored. The Chiefs scored the third-most points in a season in NFL history with 565. Additionally, Chiefs quarterback

Patrick Mahomes Patrick Lavon Mahomes II (born September 17, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). The son of former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Pat Mahomes, he initially played ...

became the second quarterback in NFL history, along with

Peyton Manning Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is an American former American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons. Nicknamed "the Sheriff", he spent 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Col ...

, to throw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in a season. The Chiefs reached the 2018

AFC Championship Game The AFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the American Football Conference (AFC) and one of the two semi-final playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the world. ...

where they lost to the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

. In

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, Bieniemy won his first Super Bowl when the Chiefs defeated the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

31–20 in

Super Bowl LIV Super Bowl LIV was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2019 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the National Football Conferen ...

. Bieniemy has been a primary head coaching candidate since the 2019 offseason, and he has been a commonly noted example within the large amounts of criticism over how few league owners were hiring minority candidates. Since the 2019 offseason, Bieniemy has had interviews and interview requests from 17 teams in the entire league — the Bengals, Dolphins, Jets, Buccaneers, Cardinals, Panthers, Browns, Giants, Falcons, Lions, Texans, Jaguars, Chargers, Eagles, Broncos, Saints and Colts — but has yet to be hired by any organization.

Legal issues

As a player at Colorado, Bieniemy was arrested along with teammate

Kanavis McGhee Kanavis McGhee (born October 4, 1968) is a former American football linebacker and defensive end. He is a former defensive linemen coach with the Amsterdam Admirals in NFL Europa. He coached as the defensive line coach at the University of Colorad ...

following a February 1988 bar fight. McGhee said the dispute arose after Bieniemy alleged that he had been called a "little n*gger" by a bar patron. He pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and fighting in public, and was sentenced to community service. Bieniemy also received discipline from head coach

Bill McCartney William Paul McCartney (born August 22, 1940) is a former American football player and coach and the founder of the Promise Keepers men's ministry. He was the head coach at the University of Colorado Boulder for thirteen seasons (1982–1994), ...

. In 1989, Bieniemy was ticketed in

Westminster, Colorado The City of Westminster is a home rule municipality located in Adams and Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. The city population was 116,317 at the 2020 United States Census with 71,240 residing in Adams County and 45,077 residing in ...

for driving a defective vehicle, and in

Aurora, Colorado Aurora (, ) is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties, Colorado, United States. The city's population was 386,261 at the 2020 United States Census with 336,035 residing in Arapahoe County, 47,720 residing in A ...

for speeding. In October 1990, his license was suspended for a year after another traffic violation. On March 21, 1991, Bieniemy was caught speeding and driving with suspended license on

I-70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a park and ride lot just east of I-695 in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the fifth-longest Interstate in the co ...

near

Rifle, Colorado Rifle is a home rule municipality in and the most populous community of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The population was 10,437 at the 2020 census. Rifle is a regional center of the cattle ranching industry located along Interstat ...

, going 92 mph in a 65 mph zone. On April 17, 1991, Bieniemy failed to appear in court on charges relating to the March 21 incident. A bench warrant was issued in Colorado for his arrest on April 23, 1991, two days after Bieniemy was drafted in the

. On July 4, 1990, Bieniemy pleaded no contest to interfering with a firefighter who had been performing his duties to extinguish a fire in Bieniemy's mother's garage. Bieniemy received an eight-month suspended sentence and was suspended for one game. Bieniemy was instructed to do 40 hours of community service and attend an eight-hour firefighting training session. An assistant city attorney said that Bieniemy failed to attend the firefighting training session as stipulated in the plea agreement, but Bieniemy asserted the session was optional. On September 27, 1993, Bieniemy was arrested in Boulder, Colorado, for allegedly harassing a female parking attendant. According to the police report, while with his friends, Bieniemy put his hand on the attendant's neck, startling her. She told police ," that Bieniemy and his friends took off their pants and began urinating nearby. Bieniemy was also named in an outstanding warrant on a charge of driving with a suspended license. As a result of this incident, Bieniemy was banned from the University of Colorado Boulder campus for one year. In April 2001, Bieniemy was arrested for driving under the influence and was docked a month's pay.

Personal life

Bieniemy and his wife, Mia, have two sons, Eric III and Elijah. His nephew, Jamal, plays basketball at

UTEP The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stude ...

. He also is a member of

Omega Psi Phi Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African-American fraternity. The fraternity was founded on November 17, 1911, by three Howard University juniors Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper and Frank Coleman, and their faculty ad ...

References

External links

Kansas City Chiefs: Coaching ProfileColorado Buffaloes: Coaching ProfileUCLA Bruins: Coaching Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bienemy, Eric African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football Players of American football from California Players of American football from New Orleans 1969 births Living people All-American college football players American football running backs Cincinnati Bengals players Colorado Buffaloes football coaches Colorado Buffaloes football players Kansas City Chiefs coaches Minnesota Vikings coaches National Football League offensive coordinators Philadelphia Eagles players San Diego Chargers players UCLA Bruins football coaches People from La Puente, California Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California Sportspeople from New Orleans 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople