Kerry Watkins (born May 16, 1979) is a former professional

Canadian football Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...

wide receiver who spent his entire eight-year career with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (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 East Division of the Canad ...

of 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 ...

. He was named a CFL East All-Star in 2005, 2006 and 2008, and a CFL All-Star in 2005. Watkins won Grey Cup championships in 2009 and 2010 with the Alouettes. He played college football for the

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), located in Atlanta, Georgia. The teams have also been nicknamed the Ramblin' Wrec ...

Professional career

New England Patriots

Following his college career, Watkins signed with the New England Patriots 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 May 2003. He was later released during the following August after spending training camp with the team.

Montreal Alouettes

Watkins signed with the

of the

in June 2004. He played in four of the first five games but missed the rest of the season due to a shoulder injury. In 2005, he recorded his first touchdown, his first 1,000-yard receiving season and his first CFL All-star selection. He was part of the 2005 Alouettes' foursome of 1,000-yard receivers, tying the record (set by the 2004 Alouettes receivers of Ben Cahoon with 1183 yards, Jeremaine Copeland with 1154 yards, Thyron Anderson with 1147 yards, and Kwame Cavil with 1090 yards) for most 1,000-yard receivers on one team in a season. Kerry Watkins' 1364 yards receiving on the 2005 Alouettes team combined with the performance of Watkins' fellow Alouette receivers Terry Vaughn (1113 yards), Ben Cahoon (1067 yards), and Dave Stala (1037 yards) making the 2005 Alouettes only the second team in CFL history to have four receivers on one team reaching the 1,000-yard receiving mark in one season. Watkins' 2005 season was statistically his best, setting career highs in receptions (97), yardage (1,364) and longest reception (75 yards) while also scoring the second-most touchdowns in a season with nine. In

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; ...

, Watkins scored ten touchdowns. Watkins would go on to record five straight 1,000-yard seasons between 2005 and 2009 while falling just short in 2010 with 970 after he missed five games due to injury. He won Grey Cup championships with the Alouettes in 2009 and 2010, making a critical 17-yard catch in the 2009 game to put the Alouettes in field goal range to kick the winning points. His 2011 season was curtailed due to injury where he only managed to catch 31 passes for 395 yards and three touchdowns. Nonetheless, he finished the season in second place on the Alouettes all-time receptions list at 515 catches, behind all-time franchise and CFL leader

Ben Cahoon Ben Cahoon (born July 16, 1972) is a former professional Canadian football slotback who spent his entire career with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. He won the award for the Most Outstanding Canadian in the CFL two years i ...

. Following the 2011 season, Watkins announced his retirement on January 31, 2012.Veteran Alouettes receiver Kerry Watkins retires
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Statistics

References

External links

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KerryWatkins.com Official WebsiteMontreal Alouettes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watkins, Kerry 1979 births Living people People from LaPlace, Louisiana African-American players of Canadian football American players of Canadian football American football wide receivers Canadian football wide receivers Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football players Montreal Alouettes players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople