Kirk David Morrison (born February 19, 1982) 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 with ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

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 ...

(NFL). He was drafted by the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

in the third round of 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 NFL draft, draft was held April 23–24, 2005 NFL seaso ...

and also played for the Jacksonville Jaguars and

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

Early years

Morrison attended elementary school at Sacred Heart, now called St. Martin de Porress, in Oakland, California. After 8th grade graduation he went to

Bishop O'Dowd High School Bishop O'Dowd High School is a Catholic, co-educational, college preparatory school in Oakland, California, administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and named for the late auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Jam ...

which is also in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. He won

varsity letter A varsity letter (or monogram) is an award earned in the United States for excellence in school activities. A varsity letter signifies that its recipient was a qualified varsity team member, awarded after a certain standard was met. Description ...

s in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

track & 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 events ...

. In football, he led his team to two HAAL championships and two Northern California section 3A championships, was a two-time All-HAAL honoree, and as a senior, was the HAAL Defensive Player of the Year.

College career

Morrison attended college at San Diego State University and had an outstanding playing career. While at SDSU, he was two-time Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year. Morrison is a brother of the Delta Epsilon chapter of

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never restricted membership on the basis of color, creed ...

Professional career

Oakland Raiders

Morrison played in all 16 games as a

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

, ending the season with 116 tackles and two pass deflections. He finished the 2006 season with a team leading 128 tackles, a sack, a defensive

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 Ameri ...

, and two

interceptions In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

. Morrison started the 2007 season with an interception in each of his first three games, joining Thomas Howard who had an interception through each of his first 4 games. He led the

with 120 tackles, and tacked on 10 passes defended and a quarterback sack to his totals. In 2008, Morrison ranked fifth in the NFL with 135 tackles. He also forced two fumbles and had one sack. He finished the 2009 season tied 6th in the NFL with 133 tackles. He forced three fumbles, recovering one, and had two sacks while playing most of the season with a dislocated elbow.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Morrison was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars along with a fifth-round pick in the

2010 NFL Draft The 2010 NFL Draft was the 75th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The 2010 draft took place over three days, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, with the firs ...

for the 108th pick in the same draft. Morrison's first game against his hometown and former team, the Oakland Raiders, was held in Jacksonville on December 12, 2010, the Jaguars won 38-31.

Buffalo Bills

On August 24, 2011, he signed with the

. On December 3, 2012, he was released by the Bills. He was signed again by the Bills on December 20, 2012.

Broadcasting career

It was announced in March 2011 that Morrison, along with Rob Dibble, will be part of Fox Overtime on FoxSportsRadio. In 2013 Morrison worked as a

color analyst A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

for

football games on the "Mighty 1090" radio (XX SPORTS RADIO) in San Diego and surrounding areas, teaming with play-by-play announcer

Ted Leitner TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depart ...

. For the 2017 season he was replaced by

Rich Ohrnberger Richard Paul Ohrnberger (born February 14, 1986) is a sports news satirist and former American football offensive guard. He was drafted by the New England Patriots 123rd overall in the fourth round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He played college footb ...

, when SDSU switched to iHeart Media (XTRA 1360 AM and KGB 101.5 FM) to broadcast Aztec basketball and football games. In August 2014 Morrison was named as one of several analysts who will team with

Dick Stockton Richard Edward Stokvis (born November 22, 1942), known professionally as Dick Stockton, is an American retired sportscaster. Stockton began his career in Philadelphia, then moved to Pittsburgh, where he worked as the sports director for KDKA-TV ...

to call ''

NFL on Fox The ''NFL on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox NFL'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports and televised on the Fox broadcast network. Game coverage is usually preceded by ''Fox NFL Kickoff ...

'' games on a rotating basis. On August 8, 2016, Morrison announced he was joining

ESPN Los Angeles 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 co ...

, covering

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...

games.

References

External links

*
San Diego State Aztecs bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Kirk 1982 births Living people African-American players of American football American football linebackers Buffalo Bills players College football announcers Jacksonville Jaguars players National Football League announcers Oakland Raiders players Players of American football from Oakland, California San Diego State Aztecs football announcers San Diego State Aztecs football players