Justin Charles Gage (born January 24, 1981) 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 ...

wide receiver. 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 ...

at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

. He was originally drafted by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

in the fifth round of the

2003 NFL Draft The 2003 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League (NFL) teams selected amateur college football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936 NF ...

. After four seasons with the Bears, he later played another four seasons with the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...

College career

Gage attended the

where he played both

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 ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. He was on the Tigers basketball team that reached the Elite Eight in the

2002 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament The 2002 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 12, 2002, and ended with the champions ...

. In football, he started out as a quarterback, but moved to wide receiver in the spring of 2000. Coach Larry Smith converted him to a wide receiver and was fired that year.

Records

Gage holds the following records for football at the

: * Most receptions, game: 16 (at Bowling Green, 9/14/02) * Most receptions, season: 82 (2002) * Most receptions, career: 200 — 1999–2002 * Most yards gained, game: 236 (vs. Baylor, 11/10/01) * Most yards gained, career: 2,704 (Justin Gage, 1999–2002) * Most consecutive games with a reception: 34 (2000–2002)

Professional career

Gage spent four years with the Chicago Bears, but signed with the Titans as a free agent following the 2006 season. In 2007 Gage tied for the Tennessee Titans lead with 55 receptions and led the team with 750 receiving yards. Gage was released by the Titans on September 3, 2011.

Coaching career

In 2021, Gage was hired as the wide receivers coach for CBC High School near

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, Missouri.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gage, Justin 1981 births Living people American football wide receivers Players of American football from Indianapolis Players of American football from Missouri Jefferson City High School alumni Missouri Tigers men's basketball players Missouri Tigers football players Chicago Bears players Tennessee Titans players American men's basketball players High school football coaches in Missouri