Kevin Eugene Lockett (born September 8, 1974) 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 and

punt returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...

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 ...

for the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

, Jacksonville Jaguars and

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

. 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 ...

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 ...

where he was a football and

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...

n. He went to high school at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa.

College

Lockett broke the school career touchdown receptions record in the same game that

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Bill Snyder William D. Snyder (born October 7, 1939) is a retired college football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at Kansas State University from 1989 to 2005 and again from 2009 to 2018. Snyder initially retired from the p ...

set the record for most career wins by a Kansas State football coach on September 30, 1995 for the

Kansas State Wildcats The Kansas State Wildcats (variously "Kansas State", "K-State", or "KSU") are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Kansas State University. The official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are generally used as c ...

. Prior to the formation of the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

in 1996, the

competed in the

Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

. As a member of the 1996 Wildcats, he led the Big 12 Conference in receptions per game. He was a 1996 All-Big 12 Conference first-team wide receiver. He was a 1996 first-team Academic All-Big 12 selection. On special teams, he made first blocked kick in Big 12 Conference history on August 31, 1996. He established the following Kansas State school records: career receptions (217, 1993–96), career receiving yards (3032, 1993–96) - broken 1998 by Tyler Lockett, career receiving touchdowns (26, 1993–96), single-game receptions by a freshman (8, 11/20/93), single-season receiving yards by a freshman (770, 1998) - broken 1998 by Aaron Lockett, single-season receptions by a freshman (50, 1993), career 100-yard receiving games (9, 1993–96)-broken 2000 by

Quincy Morgan Quincy Demond Earl Morgan (born September 23, 1977) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Denver Broncos. With the Steelers, he won S ...

, single-season receptions (72, 1996) - broken 1998 by

Darnell McDonald Darnell is a unisex given name and surname. The surname refers to a group of people in medieval ages who grew a plant called Darnel, which had intoxicatory properties. The last name originated in France, the plant can only grow in Mediterranean clim ...

, and single-season receiving touchdowns (13, 1995) - broken 2000 by Morgan. He led Kansas State in the following statistics, receptions (1993, 50; 1995, 56; 1996, 72), receiving yards (1993, 770; 1994, 583; 1995, 797; 1996, 882), and scoring (78, 1995). He also earned

distinction in 1995 and 1996.

Professional career

Kansas City Chiefs

The

selected Lockett in the second round of the

1997 NFL Draft The 1997 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 19–20, 1997, at the Paramount T ...

with the 47th overall selection. As a rookie, his only reception came in a November 23, 1997 contest against

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

for the Chiefs who went 13–3. This was the only playoff team that he played for. 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 ...

, he caught 19 passes for 281 yards, followed by the best year of his career with 34 receptions for 426 yards and two touchdowns for the 1999 Chiefs, and then 33 receptions for 422 yards and two touchdowns for the 2000 Chiefs. In week 4 of the

2000 NFL season The 2000 NFL season was the 81st regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XXXV when the Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants, 34–7, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Week 1 of the s ...

, he made a key third down reception on the clinching drive of the game as

Elvis Grbac Elvis M. Grbac (born August 13, 1970) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons, most notably with the Kansas City Chiefs. He played college football at Michigan, where he won the ...

engineered an 8-play 80-yard drive to earn a 23–22 victory over

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. His highest single-game yardage total came in week 9 of the 2000 season when he totaled 77 yards, including a first half touchdown against

. That season, he tallied 7 receptions the following week for 57 yards and then he became the regular punt returner for the rest of the season, totaling 24 returns in the final 7 games.

Washington Redskins

Following the 2000 season, he signed a two-year contract with the

. Although he was the third receiver with the Redskins for the 2001 season, he was considered a receiver who demanded coverage from one of the opposition's top defenders. His production slipped in the 2001 season, only recording 22 receptions for 293 yards with zero touchdowns, but he completed his only pass attempt for a 31-yard touchdown to Derrius Thompson after receiving a backwards pass from Tony Banks. On November 1, he was released by the Redskins after tallying 11 receptions (including two touchdowns) for 129 yards, and a second touchdown pass making him two-for-two.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Lockett signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars two days after his release from the Redskins, and had five receptions (including two touchdowns) in his seven games for the team. Although less productive in terms of yards and receptions, the

2002 NFL season The 2002 NFL season was the 83rd regular season of the National Football League. The league went back to an even number of teams with the addition of the Houston Texans; the league has remained static with 32 teams since. The clubs were real ...

gave Lockett his career-high 4 touchdown receptions (and a touchdown pass). He re-signed with Jacksonville in the spring of 2003, but did not play any games for the

Jaguars The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...

New York Jets

Lockett was signed by the

in mid-November. Lockett spent four weeks on the practice squad before being activated for the final three games in which he made 5 receptions for 76 yards.

Personal life

His son Tyler is a wide receiver for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

. Another son, Sterling was offered a scholarship to Kansas State for their 2022 recruitment class, and announced his commitment on January 1, 2021. His younger brother

Aaron According to Abrahamic religions, Aaron ''′aharon'', ar, هارون, Hārūn, Greek (Septuagint): Ἀαρών; often called Aaron the priest ()., group="note" ( or ; ''’Ahărōn'') was a prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of ...

played for 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 ...

for three seasons.