Jabari Amin Greer (born February 11, 1982) 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 ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

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 ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

and was signed by the

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. ...

as an

undrafted 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 ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. Greer also played for 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 ...

Early years

Born in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

, Greer moved to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

at age seven and later lived in

Jackson, Tennessee Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Located east of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population was 68,205 as of the 2020 United States ...

, where he attended

South Side High School Southside High School or South Side High School may refer to: *Southside High School (Gadsden, Alabama) *Southside High School (Dallas County, Alabama), a school in the Dallas County Schools system * Southside High School (Batesville, Arkansas) * ...

. At South Side, Greer was an all-state selection in football and won seven individual state track championships.

College career

During his college career at

, Greer participated in

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

as well as football. He broke the

110m hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a racing event, ten hurd ...

school record that had previously been held by Collin Henderson. He was the 2003 NCAA Indoor Champion for 60 meter hurdles. Greer was a three-year starter at

and broke a school record by playing in 51 games. He graduated from Tennessee in 2004 with a degree in psychology.

Professional career

Buffalo Bills

''NFL Draft Scout'' predicted Greer to be a fourth or fifth round pick in the

2004 NFL Draft The 2004 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 24–25, 2004 at the Theater at ...

, but Greer was not selected. Greer's scouting report noted that he lacked size, a factor that might pose "problems in handling the larger receivers." The

signed Greer on April 26, 2004 as an

. While in Buffalo he played mostly as a

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

or dimeback and on

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 ...

. In 2008, he started the first 10 games of the season, recording two Pick 6s before suffering an injury.

New Orleans Saints

On March 4, 2009, Greer signed a four-year contract with the

. He became a starter for the Saints and returned an interception for a touchdown in a game against the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

. He was injured on November 8, 2009, and missed most of the rest of the 2009 regular season, but returned in time to play a significant role in the playoffs. On February 12, 2014, three months after tearing his left ACL against the 49ers, Greer was cut by the New Orleans Saints to create more cap space for the team.

Retirement

On September 11, 2014, Greer announced his retirement during an appearance on

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 ...

. Greer now works as an NFL Analyst for

TSN TSN may refer to: Science and technology * Translin, DNA binding protein involved in microRNA function * Taxonomic serial number, a stable and unique taxonomic serial number issued by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System * The Science Netwo ...

in Canada, as well as a college football analyst for SEC Network. Greer also was an on air broadcaster for

Your Call Football ''Your Call Football'' was an interactive competition in which participants call plays in real time for a series of live exhibition American football games with players, some of whom have played in the NFL or CFL. The participants watch the gam ...

, an interactive game where fans call real time plays for players, including former

NFL 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 ...

players such as Greer.

Career statistics

Personal life

Greer became a single father after the passing of his wife, Katrina. He has established a non-profit foundation, the Greer Campaign, focused on programs to assist both single and married fathers in developing their parenting skills. Jordan Buie
"Dads question best path of fatherhood: Greer Campaign provides answers for local fathers trying to improve"
'' The Jackson Sun'', August 15, 2012.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Greer, Jabari 1982 births Living people African-American players of American football American football cornerbacks Tennessee Volunteers football players Buffalo Bills players New Orleans Saints players People from Jackson, Tennessee Sportspeople from Milwaukee Players of American football from Tennessee Players of American football from Milwaukee Track and field athletes from Milwaukee College men's track and field athletes in the United States 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American people