Kanavis McGhee (born October 4, 1968) 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 ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

and

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

. He is a former

defensive linemen In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

coach 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 * Co ...

with the

Amsterdam Admirals The Amsterdam Admirals were a professional American football team based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, playing in the NFL Europe. History The Admirals were formed in 1995 as part of the NFL's plan to restart the World League of American Football, to ...

NFL Europa NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

. He coached as the defensive line coach at the

University of Colorado-Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

. He is currently the head coach and athletic coordinator at Sterling High School in Houston, Texas. McGhee was a business student while attending the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

. He studied business with an emphasis in marketing. Kanavis McGhee attended

Phillis Wheatley High School Phillis Wheatley High School is a secondary school located at 4801 Providence Street in Houston, Texas, United States with a ZIP code of 77020. Wheatley is a part of the Houston Independent School District. Wheatley, named after Phillis Wheatley, ...

in Houston and played college football at

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. During his career at Colorado, McGhee was one of the top defenders in college football, earning him first-team All-Big Eight honors, a finalist nomination for the prestigious

Dick Butkus Award The Butkus Award, instituted in 1985 by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, is given annually to the top linebackers at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of football. The award, named in honor of College Football Hall of Fame ...

and runner-up for the Rotary Lombardi Award. Both awards are given annually to top linebackers in college football. Kanavis was drafted in the second round (55th overall) of the

1991 NFL Draft The 1991 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 21–22, 1991, at the Marriott Mar ...

, as

by the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

, where he played for three seasons until he suffered a left knee injury in August 1993 and the Giants released him in May 1994. After this he joined the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

as free agent before returning to his hometown to play with the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

for the season of 1995. McGhee gained coaching experience while serving as head coach of Ross Shaw Sterling High School in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

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 ...

. In 2006, he spent the season with the

as defensive assistant, participating in the

coaching program. In 2007 McGhee returned for a second season and tutored the Admirals' defensive linemen. McGhee worked as a teacher at

Challenge Early College High School Challenge Early College High School (also known as Challenge Early College, Challenge High School, or CECHS) is a secondary school on the Houston Community College West Loop Campus in Houston. The school handles grades nine through twelve and is ...

. In 2010 he returned to Colorado as defensive line assistant under Jon Embree. McGhee has two sons, Davyon McGhee, who played for

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

, also as linebacker, and Kendall Gregory-McGhee, who played for the University of Minnesota as a defensive end.

Agent Allegations

In the October 18, 2010 issue of ''

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 ...

'', former NFL agent Josh Luchs alleges that he gave McGhee $2,500 while trying to persuade him to hire Luchs as his agent, while he still played for the University of Colorado. Luchs said McGhee told him his mother was about to be evicted from her rental home and needed the money. According to Luchs, McGhee never paid back the money and did not return his phone calls. If true, the payment would have been considered a major violation of NCAA rules regarding player eligibility.Confessions of an agent
''Sports Illustrated'', October 18, 2010. Kanavis McGhee has denied that he ever violated NCAA rules and

Alfred Williams Alfred Hamilton Williams (born November 6, 1968) is a former American football player. He was a linebacker and defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Cincinnati Bengals, San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos. His nicknames ...

, who was present at first meeting between McGhee and Luchs, has stated that the information in the article is not true.

Agent Allegations

References

External Links