Jamel Richardson (born January 22, 1982) is an American 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 who was a

slotback Slotback, sometimes referred to as an A-back or slot receiver, is a position in gridiron football. The "slot" is the area between the last offensive lineman on either side of the center and the wide receiver on that side. A player who lines up ...

in 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 ...

(CFL). He won two

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

championships with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

, and was named the

Grey Cup Most Valuable Player The Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is awarded annually since 1959 to the player of the winning team who deemed to have had the best performance in the Grey Cup Game, the Canadian Football League's championship game. This award is pres ...

(MVP) of the

98th Grey Cup The 98th Grey Cup was a Canadian football game played between the East Division champion Montreal Alouettes and West Division champion Saskatchewan Roughriders to decide the champion of the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the 2010 season. ...

. Richardson attended

Corcoran High School Corcoran High School is a public high school located in Syracuse, New York, having approximately 1800 students. In 2005, it became a member of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. It is one of the top 1000 ranked schools in the country ...

before he was a two-year All-Foothill Conference in Basketball and All-American in Football at

Victor Valley College Victor Valley College is a public community college in the southeast corner of Victorville, California. It is part of the California Community College System. The Victor Valley Community College district includes Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Val ...

where he led the state in receptions and yardage.

High school

Richardson attended

where he played football. In 2011 he was inducted into the Corcoran High school athletic hall of fame.

Professional career

Saskatchewan Roughriders

Richardson played for four seasons, from 2003–2006, for the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...

. Over that span of time he caught 113 passes for 1471 yards and scored 4

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether Rush (gridiron football), running, Forward pass, passing, returning a Kickoff (gridiron football), kickoff or Punt (gridiron football), punt, or recovering a Turno ...

Dallas Cowboys

Richardson was signed by 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 ...

of 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 ...

in March 2007, but he faced an uphill battle at making the Cowboys' roster due to the depth Dallas had at the wide receiver position. On August 27, 2007, the Dallas Cowboys waived Richardson, along with seven other players, as part of its roster cuts prior to the start of the 2007 regular season.

Montreal Alouettes

On March 18, 2008, the Montreal Alouettes signed Richardson. In the 2008 season, Richardson was named a CFL All-Star after leading the CFL with 16 TD receptions while catching 98 passes for 1287 yards. Richardson made news on January 7, 2009, when it was reported that he turned down an offer from the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

of the NFL and chose to remain with the Alouettes for at least 3 seasons. He also drew interest from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater in ...

. On November 28, 2010 in the

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

vs. the

, Richardson helped the Alouettes to a 21-18 victory as well as receiving the

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

trophy. He was the first receiver to receive this honour since 2003. For six consecutive seasons Richardson amassed over 1,000 receiving yards; from

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

through the

2012 CFL season The 2012 CFL season was the 59th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it was the 55th season for the Canadian Football League. The pre-season began on June 13, 2012, and the regular season started on June 29, 2012. Rogers Centre ...

. On August 4, 2013, partway through the season, Richardson tore his LCL and ACL, in his left knee, during practice. He then missed the remainder of the

2013 CFL season The 2013 CFL season was the 60th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it was the 56th season of the Canadian Football League. The pre-season began on June 12, 2013 and the regular season began on June 27, 2013. Regina, Saskatchewa ...

. Following the season-ending injury, Richardson was part of the team's final cuts of 2014 training camp and was released on June 21, 2014.

Saskatchewan Roughriders II

After sitting out the regular season in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, Richardson signed with the

on December 22, 2014.Back at It: Richardson returns; inks deal with Roughriders
/ref>

Statistics

References

External links

Jamel Richardson official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Jamel 1982 births Living people African-American players of Canadian football American football wide receivers American players of Canadian football Montreal Alouettes players Saskatchewan Roughriders players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American people Players of American football from Syracuse, New York