Charles Alexander Jordan (born October 9, 1969) 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 ...

wide receiver who played 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 ...

for seven seasons from 1993 to 1999, as well as in the

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

Early years

Jordan was born in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, USA. His parents are Charles Jordan, Sr. and Roxie Jordan. Retired NFL wide receiver

Curtis Conway Curtis Lamont Conway Sr (born January 13, 1971) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the 1993 NFL Draft out of the University of Southern Ca ...

is his cousin. In addition to playing football at

Morningside High School Morningside High School is a public high school in Inglewood, California. It is the second largest high school after Inglewood High School in the city. History In 1951, the first two classes of students came to the Morningside Park area of Ingl ...

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

, he was a wrestler and a track star. Jordan set a

CIF Southern Section The California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) is the governing body for high school athletics in most of Southern California and is the largest of the ten sections that comprise the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF ...

2-A State track record in the 200-meters at 21:59 in 1987, the year he graduated. He planned on playing college football at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

but felt the student/athlete challenge wasn't a good match, so he enrolled at

Long Beach City College Long Beach City College (LBCC) is a public community college in Long Beach, California. It was established in 1927 and is divided into two campuses, the Liberal Arts Campus in Lakewood Village and the Pacific Coast Campus in central Long Beach ...

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. Surgery put him on the injured reserve list, and with LBCC running an

option offense An option offense is an American football offensive system in which a key player (usually the quarterback) has several "options" of how each play will proceed based upon the actions of the defense. Traditionally, option-based offenses rely on ru ...

that didn't match Jordan's talents, he left the program in 1988 with fellow Morningside wide receiver Alex Williams. Jordan became a member of the Family Swans, a

Bloods The Bloods are a primarily African-American street gang founded in Los Angeles, California. The gang is widely known for its rivalry with the Crips. It is identified by the red color worn by its members and by particular gang symbols, includin ...

set. He was shot four times, and he spent time in county jail. At one point, he was charged with murder, though the charges were later dismissed. Jordan also worked as a cook at Little Rascals, his uncle's soul food restaurant in

South Central Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as a ...

, and assisted at his aunt's beauty salon. Eventually, Jordan decided to return to college and play out his eligibility.

Career

Invited to the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

' mini-camp for draft choices in 1993, he made the team, though he didn't play a single game for the Raiders that season. In 1994 and 1995, he played for the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

. In 1996, he was signed by the

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

as a restricted free agent, receiving a three-year, $2.6 million contract. Coach Jimmy Johnson cut Jordan in the last of the three seasons following a November 1998 arrest after a nightclub fight that included charges of trespassing, battery on a law enforcement officer, and resisting arrest with and without violence. In his final NFL season, 1999,.he first played for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

and then returned to Green Bay. In 2001, he joined the

Memphis Maniax The Memphis Maniax were an American football team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The team was part of the XFL begun by Vince McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment and by NBC, a major television network in the United States. Home games were played ...

, an XFL team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Charles 1969 births Living people Players of American football from Los Angeles Los Angeles Raiders players Green Bay Packers players Miami Dolphins players Seattle Seahawks players Memphis Maniax players American football wide receivers Long Beach City Vikings football players