Kyle Kitchens (born January 25, 1996) 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 ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is p ...

playing for the

Berlin Thunder The Berlin Thunder were a professional American football team in NFL Europe. History The Thunder came into existence as an expansion team, after the London/England Monarchs franchise shut down operations, prior to the 1999 season. Home games f ...

in the

European League of Football The European League of Football (ELF) is a professional American football league. The league (as of the 2023 season) consists of 17 teams located in Germany, Poland, Spain, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Czech Republic and France, with p ...

. He played college football for the Catawba Indians.

Early life and college career

Kitchens attended Decatur High School, where he played

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensi ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

, besides American football for the Bulldogs. He was named two-times All-State player and was selected for the All-Region team. For the 2014 college football season he committed to

Catawba College Catawba College is a private college in Salisbury, North Carolina. Founded in 1851 by the North Carolina Classis of the Reformed Church in Newton, the college adopted its name from its county of origin, Catawba County, before moving to its ...

Salisbury, North Carolina Salisbury is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, United States; it has been the county seat of Rowan County since 1753 when its territory extended to the Mississippi River. Located northeast of Charlotte and within its metropoli ...

in the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

. There he quickly became a starter and core player in the team. He was the second overall defensive player to be named AFCA All-American Team three times in a row in NCAA Division II history. With his team, he won his conference in 2015. He left his college as an all-time sack leader (38.5) and with 71 total tackles for loss.

Professional career

Kitchens began his professional career with the

Potsdam Royals The Potsdam Royals are an American football team from Potsdam, Germany. The club's greatest achievement is winning the championship in the last Eurobowl (2019) against the Amsterdam Crusaders just a year after they entered the German Football L ...

in the

German Football League The German Football League (GFL) is an American football league in Germany and was formed in 1979. Playing rules are based on those of the American NCAA. In 1999, the league switched its name from ''American-Football-Bundesliga'' to ''German Foot ...

(GFL) in 2019. In 14 games total he racked up 76 tackles, 31 tackles for loss, 16 sacks und four pass-break-ups. With that he was leading the league and was named GFL North All-Star Team. For the 2020 GLF season he went to the

Hildesheim Invaders The Hildesheim Invaders are an American football team from Hildesheim, Germany. The club's greatest success has been promotion to the American football Bundesliga, now the German Football League, in 1989 where it played for two seasons until 1991 ...

, where he wasn't able to play because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. He then played in

The Spring League The Spring League was an American football developmental league and scouting event (pro showcase) that played from 2017 to 2021 and was founded by Brian Woods. Aimed at professional athletes but not paying a salary or expenses, the league's go ...

for the 2020 fall season and in early 2021 for the Wild Aces in the

Fan Controlled Football Fan Controlled Football (FCF) is a professional 7-on-7 Indoor football league created in 2017 as the first sports league controlled by fans. All games are played at the Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Georgia and broadcast on Twitch, NBCLX, DAZN, Fub ...

league. For the first season of the

the

Leipzig Kings The Leipzig Kings are an American football team in Leipzig, Germany, that plays in the European League of Football (ELF). History The Leipzig franchise was announced along with Berlin Thunder and Cologne Centurions in March 2021, as part of t ...

with head coach Fred Armstrong signed Kitchens to their roster. Whilst the Kings had a 5-5 records, Kitchens lead the league with 12.5 sacks. He was named Defensive Player of the Year and All-Star Team at the ELF Honors. In November 2021 Kitchens signed with the

for the 2022 season. He was Week-MVP in week 6 and was named again DPOY and first-All-Star Team member at the ELF Honors 2022. Kitchens was the first resigning of a player for the

2023 season 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

Professional statistics

Personal life

Kitchens also was member of the

Phi Beta Sigma Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as char ...

Fraternity at nearby

Livingstone College Livingstone College is a private, historically black Christian college in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Livingstone College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Sout ...

and member of the Black Student Union on Catawba campus. He studied in an undergraduate degree in Sports Management.

References

External links

Kyle Kitchens
on ''footbowl.eu''
Kyle Kitchens
on ''europeanleague.football''
Kyle Kitchens
on ''europlayers.com'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kitchens, Kyle 1996 births Living people American football defensive ends Berlin Thunder (ELF) players German Football League players American expatriate players of American football American expatriate sportspeople in Germany