Kevin Ellison (American football)

Kevin Marcus Ellison (January 8, 1987 – October 4, 2018) was an American football safety in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the sixth round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He played college football at Southern California.

Kevin Ellison
refer to caption
Ellison during his college career.
No. 19
Position:Safety / Linebacker
Personal information
Born:(1987-01-08)January 8, 1987
Inglewood, California, U.S.
Died:October 4, 2018(2018-10-04) (aged 31)
San Fernando Valley, California, U.S.
Height:6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight:227 lb (103 kg)
Career information
High school:Redondo Union
(Redondo Beach, California)
College:Southern California
NFL Draft:2009 / Round: 6 / Pick: 189
Career history
 * Offseason and/or practice squad member only
Career NFL statistics
Player stats at NFL.com
For other people named Kevin Ellison, see Kevin Ellison (disambiguation).

Early years

Born in Inglewood, California, United States, Ellison attended Redondo Union High School, where he starred as a running back and linebacker. He achieved many honors and awards including Los Angeles Times All-South Bay/Westside Player of the Year, South Bay Daily Breeze All-Area Player of the Year, and All-Bay League MVP. He finished his high school career with a record 3,718 rushing yards on 578 carries and 297 tackles.

College career

Ellison graduated a semester early from high school and enrolled at USC in the spring of 2005 to pursue a social science economics degree. During his freshman season he spent most of his time as a back up safety and on special teams, and was selected to The Sporting News Pac-10 All-Freshman first-team. In 2006, he became the team's starting strong safety, finishing with 64 tackles, one interception, and 1.5 sacks. He made the 2006 Collegefootballnews.com Sophomore All-American second-team and was an All-Pac-10 honorable mention. In 2007 Ellison started all 13 games, finishing with 57 tackles, two interceptions, and two sacks.

Professional career

San Diego Chargers

Ellison was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the sixth round of the 2009 NFL Draft.[1] He started his first NFL game in week 6 against the Denver Broncos and recorded 7 tackles. He was waived on June 21, 2010.[2]

Seattle Seahawks

On June 22, 2010 Ellison was claimed off waivers by the Seattle Seahawks. He was waived on June 25, 2010 after failing his physical.[3] He then cleared waivers and signed in order to "adjust contractual issues." Once again, he was united with his college coach. On September 5, 2010, Ellison was released by the Seahawks.

Cathedral High School (Los Angeles, CA)

September 2011: Kevin Ellison became the Defensive Coordinator at Cathedral High School in Los Angeles, CA and was joined by his brothers, Keith who coaches the Linebackers and Chris who coaches the Defensive Backs.

Personal life

Ellison's brother, Keith, was a linebacker for the Buffalo Bills. Another brother, Chris, played for BYU in 1997 and 1998.[4]

On May 24, 2010, Ellison was arrested on possession of a controlled substance in Redondo Beach, California after a bottle of unprescribed vicodin pills that he was taking for a recent knee injury was discovered in his car during a routine traffic stop; the charges were later dropped.[5]

On June 14, 2012, Ellison was arrested again, this time for arson after starting an apartment fire in Liberty Lake, Washington which caused an estimated $50,000 worth of damage to the building. He claimed God told him to do it.[6]

Ellison died in October 2018 at the age of 31.[7][8] He had been walking on the Interstate 5 freeway when he was fatally struck by the driver of a vehicle.

In September of 2019, researchers at Boston University posthumously determined that Ellison had Stage II chronic traumatic encephalopathy from studying tissue samples of his brain.[9] He was one of at least 345 NFL players to be diagnosed after death with this disease, which is caused by repeated hits to the head.[10][11]

References
  1. "2009 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  2. "Chargers release safety Ellison". Espn.com. June 21, 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
  3. Johns, Greg (June 25, 2010). "Report: Ellison released after failing physical". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  4. "#56 Keith Ellison - Buffalo Bills". Archived from the original on 2008-03-12. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  5. "News - Around the NFL". NFL.com.
  6. "Ex-USC star safety: 'God' drove him to arson". Espn.com. 15 June 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  7. "Former USC safety Kevin Ellison dies at 31". ESPN.com. 7 October 2018.
  8. "Former USC football safety Kevin Ellison dies at 31". Reignoftroy.com. 6 October 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  9. "CTE CENTER NEUROPATHOLOGY REPORT" (PDF).
  10. "The driving force behind Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)". Concussion Legacy Foundation. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  11. Ken Belson and Benjamin Mueller (June 20, 2023). "Collective Force of Head Hits, Not Just the Number of Them, Increases Odds of C.T.E. The largest study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy to date found that the cumulative force of head hits absorbed by players in their careers is the best predictor of future brain disease". The New York Times. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
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