Carl Edward Kidd (born June 10, 1973 in
Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Pine Bluff is the eleventh-largest city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Jefferson County. It is the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff Combin ...
) 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 wi ...
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, ...
and
defensive back who played in both 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 ...
and 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 ci ...
.
High school and college years
Kidd played
high school football
High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...
at
Pine Bluff Dollarway High School, and then played at
Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College
Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) is a public community college in Miami, Oklahoma. Established as the Miami School of Mines in 1919, NEO has an enrollment of approximately two thousand students. The Golden Norsemen is the school mascot.
...
.
["Carl Kidd."](_blank)
''www.databasefootball.com.'' Retrieved October 15, 2013. Kidd later played
cornerback
A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...
and
safety
Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.
Meanings
There are two slightly dif ...
at the
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...
,
lettering
Lettering is an umbrella term that covers the art of drawing letters, instead of simply writing them. Lettering is considered an art form, where each letter in a phrase or quote acts as an illustration. Each letter is created with attention to de ...
in 1993 and 1994. As a senior Kidd led the team in
punt returns and won the
Steve Little Award for the top Razorback
special teams
In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...
player. Following his senior season, Kidd was selected to play in the
Blue-Gray Classic all-star game in
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
.
Professional career
Oakland Raiders
Kidd was signed as a
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
Oakland Raiders after not being taken in the
1995 NFL Draft. He played a combined 29 games for the Oakland Raiders in
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...
and
1996. Kidd played in all sixteen games for the Raiders in 1996, grabbing the only
interception
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 ...
in his NFL career and returning 29 kickoffs for 622 yards.
"Carl Kidd."
''www.pro-football-reference.com.'' Retrieved June 30, 2014. Kidd then spent 3 years in various NFL camps before being signed as a free agent with the BC Lions
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place.
The Lions played their first seas ...
in 2000.["Carl Kidd."]
''www.cflapedia.com.'' Retrieved February 24, 2013.
CFL career
In 2002, Kidd was one of six Lions to be selected to the CFL Western All-Star team. He returned 2 interceptions for 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 Amer ...
s and was named BC's top defensive player and Player of the Week for week #14.
In 2003, he was named Defensive Player of the Week for week 8, was 6th in the CFL with 87 total tackle (football move)
Most forms of football have a move known as a tackle. The primary purposes of tackling are to dispossess an opponent of the ball, to stop the player from gaining ground towards goal or to stop them from carrying out what they intend.
The word ...
s and returned 2 interceptions for touchdowns.
In 2004, he recorded his 5th career touchdown, which was a 35-yard interception return versus the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Kidd was also the Lions leader with 54 defensive tackles.
In 2005, he missed the first 2 games due to injury but still led the Lions in special teams tackles (23) and had 2 sacks.
In 2006, he had 66 total tackles and 4 sacks with the Lions to help them win the 2006 Grey Cup. In what would be his final game, Kidd teamed with Javier Glatt
Javier Glatt (born October 10, 1981, in Calgary, Alberta) is a retired professional Canadian football linebacker who played for eight seasons in the Canadian Football League. He was most recently a member of the Edmonton Eskimos, but spent seven y ...
to cause a critical fumble that sealed the Grey Cup title for the Lions.
On March 27, 2007, Kidd announced his retirement from professional football at age 33.["Carl Kidd Retires."]
''www.boards.ign.com.'' Retrieved October 15, 2013.[Patterson, Jeff]
"B.C. Lion Carl Kidd always wore his heart on the field."
''www.straight.com'', June 6, 2007. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kidd, Carl
1973 births
Living people
African-American players of American football
African-American players of Canadian football
American football defensive backs
American players of Canadian football
Arkansas Razorbacks football players
BC Lions players
Canadian football linebackers
Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Golden Norsemen football players
Oakland Raiders players
Players of American football from Arkansas
Sportspeople from Pine Bluff, Arkansas
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American sportspeople