Christopher Collins Warren II (born January 24, 1967) is a former professional
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
player, a
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 ...
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 11 seasons. He played from
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
to
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
, primarily 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 ...
, but also for the
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...
and the
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...
.
Early years
Born in
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 censu ...
, Warren was raised in the metropolitan
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
area and attended
Robinson Secondary School
James W. Robinson, Jr. Secondary School is a six-year public school in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Known as Robinson Secondary School, it is located in Fairfax County, a suburb southwest of Washington, D.C.
Opened in 1 ...
in
Fairfax, Virginia
The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...
. After an outstanding
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 ...
career with the
Rams
In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
in
Charlottesville
Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...
, but transferred after two years with the
Cavaliers
The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ). It ...
and finished at
Ferrum College
, mottoeng = Not Self, But Others
, established =
, type = Private college
, president = David L. Johns
, city = Ferrum, Virginia
, country = U.S.
, c ...
, a
Division III
In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below.
Association football
*Belgian Thir ...
school in rural southwestern
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. He was selected by the Seahawks in the fourth round (89th overall) of the
1990 NFL draft
The 1990 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 22–23, 1990, at the Marriott Marq ...
.
Professional career
Initially seeing action as a
kick returner
A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...
, Warren's breakout season as a professional came in
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
, when he rushed for 1,017 yards. He followed that season with three more years with at least 1,000 yards rushing, setting a career-high in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
with 1,545 rushing yards. In
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
, Warren set another career-best with 15 rushing
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 Ameri ...
s.
Warren was a three-time selection for
Pro Bowl
The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players.
The format has changed thro ...
in three consecutive seasons (1993, 1994, & 1995). By the end of his stint in Seattle he held the Seahawks' career rushing record, logging 6,706 total rushing yards for the franchise from 1990 to
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
. In
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
Shaun Alexander
Shaun Edward Alexander (born August 30, 1977) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the ...
eclipsed that record.
In 2018, Warren is a
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...
nominee along with fellow Seahawks running backs
Shaun Alexander
Shaun Edward Alexander (born August 30, 1977) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the ...
and
Ricky Watters
Richard James Watters (born April 7, 1969) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). Watters played ...
.
Car crash
On December 1, 1994, Warren and teammates
Lamar Smith
Lamar Seeligson Smith (born November 19, 1947) is an American politician and lobbyist who served in the United States House of Representatives for for 16 terms, a district including most of the wealthier sections of San Antonio and Austin, as w ...
and
Mike Frier
Michael Anthony Frier (March 20, 1969 – December 31, 2015) was a former American football defensive end/ defensive tackle in the National Football League. He played collegiately at Appalachian State University and professionally with the Ci ...
were involved in a collision in
Kirkland, Washington
Kirkland is a city in King County, Washington, United States. A suburb east of Seattle, its population was 92,175 in the 2020 U.S. census which made it the sixth largest city in the county and the twelfth largest in the state.
The city's downto ...
, in which Smith's vehicle crashed into a utility pole. Warren and Smith walked away with minor injuries, while Frier took the brunt of the impact, becoming paralyzed from the waist down as a result.
NFL career statistics
Personal life
Warren now helps out coaching for the
Edison High School football team in
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...
. Warren has two sons, Chris III and Conlin, and two daughters, Ariana and Kayla.
Chris Warren III was a running back for the
Texas Longhorns
The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...
for the 2015 through 2017 seasons; he then declared for the
2018 NFL Draft
The 2018 NFL Draft was the 83rd annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2018 NFL season. The draft was held on April 26–28 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; it was the first draft ...
.
On May 7, 2018, Chris Warren III signed an undrafted free agent contract with the
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...
. As of 2020, he is the running back coach for the
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (also known as TJHSST, TJ, or Jefferson) is a Virginia state-chartered magnet high school in Fairfax County, Virginia operated by Fairfax County Public Schools.
The school occupies the buil ...
.
Honors
*1990: First-team All Rookie by
Pro Football Weekly
''Pro Football Weekly'' (sometimes shortened to ''PFW'') is an American sports magazine, founded in 1967, and website that covers the National Football League (NFL). It was owned by Pro Football Weekly LLC and headquartered in Riverwoods, Illinoi ...
, College and Pro Football Newsweekly.
*1991: First-team
All-AFC by
Football News
A national championship in the highest level of college football in the United States, currently the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is a designation awarded annually by various organizations to their selection of the best coll ...
.
*1993: AFC Pro Bowl Squad, AFC Offensive Player of Week 3 (At
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
)
*1994: AFC Pro Bowl Squad, Seahawks Most Valuable Player (Voted By Teammates), First-team
All-AFC (
Pro Football Weekly
''Pro Football Weekly'' (sometimes shortened to ''PFW'') is an American sports magazine, founded in 1967, and website that covers the National Football League (NFL). It was owned by Pro Football Weekly LLC and headquartered in Riverwoods, Illinoi ...
\
Pro Football Writers Association
The Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA), sometimes known as Pro Football Writers Association, is an organization that purports to be " heofficial voice of pro football writers, promoting and fighting for access to NFL personnel to best serve ...
/
Football News
A national championship in the highest level of college football in the United States, currently the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is a designation awarded annually by various organizations to their selection of the best coll ...
), Second-team
All-NFL by
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
, College and Pro Newsweekly, Football Digest, AFC Offensive Player of Week 5 (At Pittsburgh 9/25).
*1995: AFC Pro Bowl Starter; Seahawks Most Valuable Player (Voted By Teammates); First-team All-AFC (Pro Football Weekly/Pro Football Writers Association,
United Press International
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...
, Football News), Second-team All-NFL (AP, College and Pro Football NewsWeekly, Football Digest); All-Madden Team (Selected By FOX-TV's NFL Analyst John Madden)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warren, Chris
1967 births
Living people
American football running backs
Dallas Cowboys players
Ferrum Panthers football players
Seattle Seahawks players
Virginia Cavaliers football players
Philadelphia Eagles players
American Conference Pro Bowl players
Sportspeople from Fairfax County, Virginia
People from Silver Spring, Maryland
Players of American football from Virginia
Robinson Secondary School alumni