Benjamin Stevenson Gay Jr. (born February 28, 1980) 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 ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

. He spent the

2001 NFL season The 2001 NFL season was the 82nd regular season of the National Football League (NFL), and the first season of the 21st century. The league permanently moved the first week of the regular season to the weekend following Labor Day. In the wake o ...

with the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

. Born in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, Gay was a star running back at Spring High School in Spring, Texas. As a senior in 1997, he was a ''USA Today'' first-team All-American. He chose Baylor over

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

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, and

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. However, five weeks into his freshman season in 1998, he was kicked off the team for rules violations. He eventually enrolled at Garden City Community College. Playing nine games in 1999, he rushed for 1,442 yards and 17 touchdowns but was dismissed from the team because of his grades and rules violations. He took a job as a

bouncer A bouncer (also known as a doorman or door supervisor) is a type of security guard, employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs, cabaret clubs, stripclubs, casinos, hotels, billiard halls, restaurants, sporting events, schools, concerts, or m ...

at a bar in

Garden City, Kansas Garden City is a city in, and the county seat of, Finney County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 28,151. The city is home to Garden City Community College and the Lee Richa ...

. In 2000, he was signed by 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 Commo ...

, but was released after the first preseason game. On July 20, 2001, he was signed by the Cleveland Browns. He spent the 2001 NFL season as third-string RB behind James Jackson and

Jamel White Jamel M. White (born February 11, 1978) is a former professional American football running back who also played for the Canadian Football League Toronto Argonauts. White is a former NFL player for the Cleveland Browns and appeared in games for ...

. His career game came in a 27–17 Browns win at

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on November 18, when he had his first 18 NFL carries for 56 yards, including one touchdown. On April 24, 2002, the Browns waived Gay, and he signed with the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

five days later. The Colts released Gay on August 19.

References

External links

NFL.com profile
1980 births Living people American football running backs Baylor University alumni Cleveland Browns players Players of American football from Houston Garden City Broncbusters football players Sportspeople from Spring, Texas {{Runningback-1980s-stub