Jamaica Rector (born August 10, 1981) is a former

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 ...

wide receiver in 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 ...

for 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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...

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, an ...

. He also was a member of the

Edmonton Eskimos 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 and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Comm ...

in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ...

. He played college football at

Northwest Missouri State University Northwest Missouri State University is a public university in Maryville, Missouri. It has an enrollment of about 8,505 students. Founded in 1905 as a teachers college, its campus is based on the design for Forest Park at the 1904 St. Louis World ...

Early years

Rector attended Celeste High School. He was a two-way All-state player both his junior and senior year. He was named Texas Class 1A Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. He also practiced

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the short ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

. He accepted a football scholarship from Division II

. As a freshman he was named a starter at wide receiver, registering 61 receptions for 1,081 yards, 9

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Americ ...

s, 11 kickoff returns for a 27.5-yard avg. and 18 punt returns for a 10.0-yard avg. As a sophomore, he recorded 78 receptions for 1,242 yards and 6

s. As a junior, he tallied 63 passes for 971 yards, 8

s, a 32.7-yard kickoff return average and 20 punt returns for 316 yards. As a senior, he collected 87 receptions for 1,203 yards, 15

s, 15 kickoff returns for a 24.0-yard average and 29 punt returns for a 16.6-yard avg. Rector left as the school's and conference's All-time most productive wide receiver, with 289 receptions (third in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

Division II history) and 4,497 receiving yards (second in

Division II history). He also set school records for

receptions (38), punt returns (112), return yardage (1,404), kick return average (27.5) In 2011, he was inducted into the Northwest Missouri State Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Rector was signed as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player 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 contract at present but who is a ...

by the

after the

2005 NFL Draft The 2005 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 23–24, 2005. The league also hel ...

on April 28. On August 30, he was waived before the start of the season and was signed to the practice squad. In the 2006 offseason, head coach

Bill Parcells Duane Charles "Bill" Parcells (born August 22, 1941) is an American former football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons. He rose to prominence as the head coach of the New York Giants from 1983 ...

took a liking to him and even called him the strongest player on the team pound-for-pound. He made the roster after registering a team-high 20 receptions for 245 yards in four preseason games. Rector was named the team's primary punt returner and fourth receiver but suffered an ankle sprain in the season opener against the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...

. After being declared inactive for the next 4 games, he was released on October 16 and was signed to the practice squad, in order to make room for

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

Marcus Coleman Marcus Coleman (born May 24, 1974) is a former American football defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Jets, Houston Texans and the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Texas Tech University. In 2018, ...

. In

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

, a knee injury forced him to miss time in training camp and was eventually cut on August 27.

Arizona Cardinals

On October 10,

, the

signed him to their practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster on December 1. He was declared inactive for 3 games. He was cut on August 30,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

Edmonton Eskimos (CFL)

On October 20,

, he was signed by the

of the

to their practice roster. In

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, he appeared in 14 games, recording 48 receptions for 532 yards and one

. On June 25,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, he was released at the end of training camp. He was re-signed on July 13. He appeared in 10 games, making 18 receptions for 204 yards. He was cut on May 2, 2011. He finished his CFL career with 24 games, 66 receptions for 736 yards and one

Personal life

Rector married his wife, Cara in 2007 and has three children.

References

External links

Jamaica Rector Makes First Cut On Harlon Hill Race
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rector, Jamaica 1981 births Living people People from Celeste, Texas Players of American football from Hunt County, Texas American football wide receivers Northwest Missouri State Bearcats football players Dallas Cowboys players Arizona Cardinals players Edmonton Elks players Players of Canadian football from Texas Canadian football wide receivers