Eugene Brenton Lewis (born April 20, 1993) is an American 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 ...

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 ...

for the

Ottawa Redblacks The Ottawa Redblacks (officially stylized as REDBLACKS) (Canadian French, French: ) are a professional Canadian football team based in Ottawa, Ontario. The team plays in the East Division (CFL), East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

(CFL). 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 ...

for the

Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Penn State Lady Lions basketball, Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot ...

and

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the college athletics in the United States , athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman, Oklahoma, Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to ...

Early life

Lewis played four years of football at Wyoming Valley West. He joined

Ron Powlus Ronald Lee Powlus (born July 16, 1974) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in NFL Europe. He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. After his playing career, he was a quarterbacks coach f ...

and

Raghib Ismail Raghib Ramadian "Rocket" Ismail (born November 18, 1969) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver. He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish before moving on to both the Canadian Football Lea ...

as one of the most heavily recruited players from the Wyoming Valley Conference. Lewis was recruited to play at Penn State by coach

Joe Paterno Joseph Vincent Paterno (; December 21, 1926 – January 22, 2012), sometimes referred to as JoePa, was an American college football player, athletic director, and coach. He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions football, Penn ...

, though he also had offers from Oregon and Virginia Tech, among other schools.

College career

Lewis played for the

from 2012 to 2015. He was

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

in 2012. He transferred to play for the

in 2016. He played in 51 games, starting 19, during his college career, catching 122 passes for 1,569 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Professional career

Pre-draft

Lewis was rated the 71st best wide receiver in the

2017 NFL draft The 2017 NFL draft was the 82nd annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. It was held in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on April 27–29, returning to Philadelphia f ...

by NFLDraftScout.com. After going undrafted, Lewis attended rookie minicamp with 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 of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

and

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...

in May 2017.

Montreal Alouettes

Lewis signed with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: ''Les Alouettes de Montréal'') are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has disbanded twice and been re-established thrice. The Alouettes compe ...

of the

(CFL) on June 12, 2017. His first season in the CFL was quiet, playing on only two games and catching seven passes. Lewis briefly restarted his basketball career in November 2017 with the NEPA Stars & Stripes franchise in the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

. In the following two seasons in the CFL, Lewis became a starting wide receiver for the Alouettes, playing in all 36 regular season games and catching a combined 116 passes for 1,960 yards with nine touchdowns. Lewis was named a CFL East All-Star following the

2019 season Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' Dici ...

. After the 2020 season was cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic he re-signed with the Alouettes on December 16, 2020. Lewis had an outstanding season in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, catching 62 passes for 964 yards with nine touchdowns. His strong play was rewarded as he was named a CFL All-Star for the first time in his career. On December 16, 2021, Lewis and the Alouettes agreed to a contract extension through the

2022 CFL season The 2022 CFL season was the 68th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it was the 64th season of the Canadian Football League. The regular season began on June 9 and ended on October 29, with 18 games played per team over 21 week ...

. Lewis had an outstanding season with the Alouettes in 2022, playing in 17 regular season games and catching 91 passes for 1,303 yards with 10 touchdowns. He finished second in the league in receptions, and third in both receiving yards and touchdown receptions. He was named the East Division's Most Outstanding Player, earning the Terry Evanshen Trophy in the process. In late January 2023, as a pending free agent, Lewis took to social media to announce his intention to enter free agency in February.

Edmonton Elks

Lewis joined the

Edmonton Elks The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division (CFL), West Division and plays their home games at Commonw ...

as a free agent on February 14, 2023. On June 29, 2023, Lewis was placed on the six-game injured list with a knee injury. At the time of the injury he had played in three games, and caught 11 passes for 200 yards and one touchdown.

Ottawa Redblacks

On February 12, 2025, Lewis signed with the Ottawa Redblacks.

References

External links

Edmonton Elks bioMontreal Alouettes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Geno 1993 births Living people Sportspeople from Norristown, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Pennsylvania American football wide receivers Canadian football wide receivers Penn State Nittany Lions football players Oklahoma Sooners football players Montreal Alouettes players Players of Canadian football from Pennsylvania Edmonton Elks players Ottawa Redblacks players