Jarett Juma Porter Dillard (born December 21, 1985) is an American

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and 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 ...

wide receiver 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 ...

. Dillard achieved success as a

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 ...

player for

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

, while earning his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

. He was drafted by the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...

in the fifth round of the

2009 NFL Draft The 2009 NFL Draft was the seventy-fourth annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, on April 25 and 26, 2009. T ...

. Following his NFL career, Dillard embarked on a successful legal career. He attended the

South Texas College of Law South Texas College of Law Houston (STCL or South Texas) is a private law school in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1923, it is accredited by the American Bar Association. South Texas College of Law Houston is the oldest law school in the city of ...

, attaining his Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) degree. Dillard practices law in the State of Texas.

Early years

Dillard was born and raised in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

, Texas, the son of Porter and Robin Dillard. He has two siblings. Jarett was a valedictorian and Tai was a salutatorian at Sam Houston High School. Darik ranked third in his class at MacArthur High School. Tai played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), where she played for the

San Antonio Stars The San Antonio Stars were a professional basketball team based in San Antonio, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, as the Utah Starzz before the ...

. Tai also played basketball for The

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, while earning her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

Kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, biomechanical, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kinesiology to human health ...

. Presently Tai is

Assistant coach A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a Coach (carriage), horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultima ...

of the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large part via women's college compet ...

team. Brother Darik played football for

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

, while earning his

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

College career

In the 2006 season, Dillard captured national attention as no other

Rice Owls football The Rice Owls football program represents Rice University in the sport of American football. The team competes at the NCAA Division I FBS level and compete in the American Athletic Conference. Rice Stadium, built in 1950, hosts the Owls' home f ...

player had done. He shattered school receiving records on the way to becoming a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation's top receiver.

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 ...

's All-America first-team pick broke the NCAA season record for consecutive games with at least one touchdown catch. As a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

in 2006, he helped lead Rice to its first bowl game in 45 years (1961

Bluebonnet Bowl The Bluebonnet Bowl was an annual college football bowl game played in Houston, Texas. A civic group was appointed by the Houston Chamber of Commerce Athletics Committee in 1959 to organize the bowl game. It was held at Rice Stadium from 1959 ...

). Rice closed the season on a 7-1 run, capped by a come-from-behind victory over SMU to clinch a bowl game. During those 8 games, Dillard caught 55 passes for 826 yards and 16 touchdowns. In 2006, Dillard was named a finalist for the

Biletnikoff Award The Fred Biletnikoff Award is presented annually to the most outstanding receiver in American college football by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation, Inc. (TQCF), an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. The award was creat ...

, a first-team All-American by

, a second-team All-American by

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

, a second-team All-American by the

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...

Foundation, a second-team All-American by

Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

, and a second-team All-American by the

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 ...

. At one point Dillard had a streak of 15 straight games in which he had caught a

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 ...

pass, leaving only

Larry Fitzgerald Larry Darnell Fitzgerald Jr. (born August 31, 1983) is a former American football wide receiver. Fitzgerald played in the National Football League for 17 seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. He played college football at University of Pittsb ...

, who had 18 in a row, in front of him. In the

New Orleans Bowl The New Orleans Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2001. It is normally held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans; when the Superdome and the rest of the city suffered damage due to ...

, Dillard caught a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to set a new record for games with a touchdown in a single season (13), besting the mark he shared with Fitzgerald and

Randy Moss Randy Gene Moss (born February 13, 1977) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Tennessee ...

of 12 games in a season. In 2006, he caught a total of 21 touchdown passes, which set both Rice and

C-USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are ...

records. On four separate occasions (Army, UAB, Tulsa, and SMU) he caught three touchdown passes in the same game. He also accumulated 91 catches for 1,247 yards, including 7 games with at least 90 yards: UCLA (102), Texas (91), Florida St. (113), Army (171), UAB (111), Tulsa (137), and SMU (145). In 2007, Dillard caught another 14 TD passes, earning 1st team C-USA honors and being mentioned by several publications as all-American honorable mention (including 4th team selection by Sports Illustrated). Dillard is one of only 8 players to catch 40 TD passes in a career, a feat he accomplished when he was only a junior. Dillard holds the NCAA record for career touchdown receptions with 60, eclipsing the prior mark of 50 set by

Troy Edwards Troy Edwards (born April 7, 1977) is a former American college and professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. He played college football for Louisiana Tech University, became o ...

. Dillard and Rice quarterback Chase Clement hold the NCAA Division I-A record for career touchdowns between a quarterback-receiver tandem with 51, which has since been tied by

Zach Terrell Zachary Steven Terrell (born May 1, 1993) is an American football quarterback. He played college football for the Western Michigan Broncos where he won the William V. Campbell Trophy his senior year. He signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an und ...

and Corey Davis of Western Michigan. This total does not include the touchdown pass thrown by Dillard to Clement during the final game for both Rice Seniors in the

2008 Texas Bowl The 2008 Texas Bowl was the third edition of the college football bowl game, and was played at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The game was played at 7:00 PM US CST on Tuesday, December 30, 2008. The game, telecast on NFL Network, featured t ...

. After his senior year, he became the first Rice player to be named to the Football Writers All America team in 50 years (Buddy Dial in 1958).

Awards and honors

Finalist (2006) *

(2006) *

Texas Bowl The Texas Bowl is an annual postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game first held in 2006 in Houston, Texas. Each edition of the bowl has been played at NRG Stadium, previously known as Reliant Stadium. The bowl replaced ...

(2008) *

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

All-American (2008) *

All-American (2006, 2008) *

All-American (2006,2008) * AP All-American (2008) *

All-American (2008) *

East–West Shrine Game East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *'' East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...

(2009) *

Ed Block Courage Award The Ed Block Courage Award is an annual award presented to a player from each team in the National Football League (NFL) who are voted for by their teammates as role models of inspiration, sportsmanship, and courage. Named in memory of Ed Block, a ...

(2011) * Rice Athletic Hall of Fame (2015)

Professional career

2009 NFL Draft

Jacksonville Jaguars

Dillard was drafted by the

in the 5th round of the

. He is the second Rice player to be taken by Jacksonville after Brandon Green in 2003. On July 17 he was signed to a contract. Length and terms of the contract were undisclosed. As a rookie, Dillard caught six passes for 106 yards before suffering a broken ankle against the Jets in week 10 of the '09 season. Dillard was placed on the injured reserve list on September 11, 2010 due to a foot injury and did not play a down that year. Dillard was released by the Jaguars on May 7, 2012.

Detroit Lions

Dillard signed with Detroit on June 16, 2012, but was released on August 27, 2012.

Arizona Cardinals

Dillard signed with the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play t ...

on April 24, 2013. He was waived after given an injury settlement on August 24, 2013.

References

External links

Arizona Cardinals bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dillard, Jarett 1985 births Living people American football wide receivers Rice Owls football players Players of American football from San Antonio Jacksonville Jaguars players Detroit Lions players Arizona Cardinals players Texas lawyers African-American lawyers 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people Ed Block Courage Award recipients