James Edward McKnight (born June 17, 1972) 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 wi ...

wide receiver 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 ...

(NFL) for the Seattle Seahawks,

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 divi ...

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 p ...

and New York Giants. He played college football at

Liberty University Liberty University (LU) is a private Baptist university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia ( Southern Baptist Convention). Founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell Sr. and Elmer L. Towns, Lib ...

Early years

McKnight attended

Apopka High School Apopka High School is in Apopka in northwest Orange County, Florida, United States. The school has been named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. The school serves grades 9 through 12, and has a preschool with a main teacher and student teachers. ...

, where he

lettered Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

in football,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and track. He accepted a football scholarship to play for

under former NFL head coach

Sam Rutigliano Sam William Rutigliano (born July 1, 1931) is a former American football coach and current television football analyst for WEWS, the ABC affiliate in Cleveland. He served as the head coach for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football Leag ...

. He was forced to sit out his freshman season, however, due to the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

's Proposition 48 regulation. McKnight became a starter as a junior, registering 50 receptions for 711 yards and 5

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 Amer ...

s. As a senior, he had 39 receptions for 812 yards and 8

s. He finished his college career with 144 receptions for 1,948 yards (17.1-yard average), 17

s and eight 100-yard games.

Professional career

Seattle Seahawks

McKnight was signed 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 ...

by the Seattle Seahawks after the

1994 NFL Draft The 1994 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, 1994, at the Marriott Ma ...

on April 29. He spent the first ten games of the season on the practice squad, before being promoted to the active roster on November 19. In

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, he registered 14

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 ...

tackles. The next year, he was second on the team with 25

tackles. He slowly developed into a deep threat at wide receiver. In

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 ...

, he suffered a sprained knee injury in the preseason finale against the Cincinnati Bengals and missed the first 4 games of the regular season. He started 6 games, while registering 34 receptions for 637 yards and 6

s. In the ninth week against the Oakland Raiders, he had 4 receptions for 100 yards and one

, marking his first career 100-yard receiving game. In that contest, he teamed with Joey Galloway (7 receptions for 117 yards) to become the third pair of receivers in franchise history to top 100 yards in the same game. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, he was the team's third wide receiver, finishing with 21 receptions for 346 yards and 2

s. On June 24,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, he was traded to the

in exchange for a third round draft choice (#80-

Darrell Jackson Darrell Lamont Jackson (born December 6, 1978) is an American former college and professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons during the 2000s. Jackson played college football for ...

Dallas Cowboys

McKnight spent the 1999 season on the

injured reserve list The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

, after tearing the

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and th ...

in his left knee during the Blue-White scrimmage on August 5. In

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 S ...

, he became the team's leading receiver after Joey Galloway was lost for the season, registering 52 receptions for 926 yards and 2

s. He also had to adjust while playing with 3 different

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

s (

Troy Aikman Troy Kenneth Aikman (born November 21, 1966) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. After transferring from Oklahoma, he played college football at UCLA, ...

Randall Cunningham Randall Wade Cunningham Sr. (born March 27, 1963) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He spent the majority of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles and is also known for ...

and Anthony Wright).

Miami Dolphins

On March 16, 2001, he signed as a

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 ...

with the

, reuniting with offensive coordinator

Chan Gailey Thomas Chandler Gailey Jr. (born January 5, 1952) is a former American football coach. Most recently in 2020, he was the offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). Gailey has previously served as the hea ...

, who was his head coach with the

. He started 15 games, tallying 55 receptions for 684 yards and 3

s. In 2002, he was relegated to a reserve role after

Oronde Gadsden Oronde Benjamin Gadsden (pronounced o-RON-day) (born August 20, 1971) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins. He also was a member of the Frankfurt Galaxy of t ...

passed him on the depth chart, finishing with 9 starts, 29 receptions for 528 yards and 2

s. The next year, he was the team's third wide receiver and his production dropped to 23 receptions for 285 yards and 2

s. He was released on March 2, 2004.

New York Giants

On May 20, 2004, he was signed by the New York Giants. He was placed on the

after being sidelined with a

turf toe A metatarsophalangeal joint sprain is an injury to the connective tissue between the foot and a toe (at a metatarsophalangeal joint, one of the joints in the ball of the foot). When the big toe is involved, it is known as "turf toe". Causes Turf ...

injury since early in training camp. He wasn't re-signed at the end of the season.

Personal life

McKnight worked as a financial services advisor. He currently

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

the

Cypress Bay High School Cypress Bay High School is a public high school located in Weston, Florida open for students in grades 9−12. Cypress Bay is part of the Broward County Public Schools district. The school offers a wide variety of academic pursuits including 33 ...

wide receivers and track.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKnight, James 1972 births Living people American football wide receivers Dallas Cowboys players Liberty Flames football players Miami Dolphins players New York Giants players Seattle Seahawks players High school football coaches in Florida People from Apopka, Florida Players of American football from Florida