Chad Akio Morton (born April 4, 1977) 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 handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

and

kick A kick is a physical strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee strike). This type of a ...

punt 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 ...

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 major ...

. He was drafted from

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

late in the fifth round of the

2000 NFL Draft The 2000 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur U.S. college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 15– 16, 2000, at the The ...

by the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

. After a standout rookie year with the Saints, Morton played five more years between stints with the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

, the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) E ...

, and the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

. Morton was part of 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) North division. It is the thir ...

coaching staff when the team won the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A ...

. He is currently on 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) NFC West, West, which they rejoined ...

' coaching staff as a running backs coach.

High school years

Morton attended South High School in

Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay region of the metropolitan area. Torrance has of beachfront on the Pacific Oc ...

, where he was a letterman in

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 ca ...

College career

Morton was a running back for the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

Trojans in the late-1990s. A notable moment in Morton's college football career was in 1999, when he guaranteed a USC victory prior to a game against the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

who carried an eight-game winning streak against the Trojans. Morton ran for 143 yards in a USC victory. In 2010, it was named by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The co ...

as the fourth biggest moment in the USC-UCLA football rivalry.

Professional career

Drafted 166th overall (the fifth round) of the

by the

, Morton became one of very few rookie running backs in Saints history to get significant playing time (16 games) and make an impact on offense and as a kick returner his first year in the pros. He contributed a career-best receiving year 213 yards on 30 catches (7.1 yards per reception), plus 136 yards rushing, and 1,029 yards from 44 kick returnshttp://www.nfl.com/player/chadmorton/2504207/careerstats NFL Players: Chad Morton - Career Stats to the Saints' successful, 10-6 NFC West title-winning 2000 season. Morton's postseason contributions were especially crucial to the 2000 Saints. Following the New Orleans Saints' first ever playoff win, they hosted the Minnesota Vikings for the divisional round game, and Morton set the record for most receptions in a single playoff game by a rookie while tying the playoff game record for most receptions by a player, with 13NFL Playoff Records: Individual - Receiving
/ref> in the ultimately losing effort against the Vikings. Morton's career-best year at kick returner came with the 2002 New York Jets, as he earned .1,509 yards and two touchdowns (both TDs in a single game) returning kickoffs for Herman Edwards' Jets squad, which won the

AFC East The American Football Conference – Eastern Division or AFC East is one of the four divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). There are currently four teams that reside in the division: the Buffa ...

title that year and ran away with a blowout win in the first round of the playoffs before falling in the divisional round to the ultimate AFC Championship winners, the Raiders. He was a first alternate to the

2005 Pro Bowl The 2005 Pro Bowl was the NFL's all-star game for the 2004 season. The game was played February 13, 2005, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. The final score was AFC 38 – NFC 27. The most valuable player was Peyton Manning of the Colts. ...

as a kick returner. His last year playing football was 2006 with the New York Giants, as he suffered a career-ending ACL tear in Week 16 while covering a punt. On February 13, 2007, he was released by the Giants. Morton joined the Green Bay Packers in 2009 as the team’s coaching administrator, and he was promoted to assistant special teams coach in February 2010. Morton assisted the Pack's 2010 special teams units that ultimately won championship rings in

Super Bowl XLV Super Bowl XLV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

. With a coaching staff shakeup following the Packers' 2013 season, he left Green Bay. He is currently with the

as a running backs coach.

NFL records

* Most kickoff return touchdowns in a single game: 2 (2002 vs

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. T ...

) (tied with 9 others) * Longest overtime kickoff returned for a touchdown: 96 (2002 vs

) * Most receptions in a playoff game by a rookie: 13 (2000) * Most receptions in a playoff game: 13 (2000) (tied with 3 others)

Personal life

Chad Morton is of mixed ethnicity,

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...

and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. He is married to Tamra Morton. He is the younger brother of Eric Morton, Dartmouth WR and wide receiver Johnnie Morton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morton, Chad 1977 births Living people American football return specialists American football running backs Green Bay Packers coaches New Orleans Saints players New York Giants players New York Jets players Seattle Seahawks coaches USC Trojans football players Washington Redskins players Players of American football from Torrance, California African-American players of American football American sportspeople of Japanese descent 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople