Kris Durham (born March 17, 1988) 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 was drafted by 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 ...

in the fourth round of the

2011 NFL Draft The 2011 NFL Draft was the 76th installment of the annual NFL Draft, where the franchises of the National Football League select newly eligible football players. Like the 2010 draft, the 2011 draft was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York C ...

. 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 Georgia. Durham played in the

NFL 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 major ...

for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

, Tennessee Titans, and the Parma Panthers of the

Italian Football League Italian Football League (IFL) is the top level American football league in Italy established in 1980. History In the 1970's teams formed and played in Italy. In 1980 the first official American football league in Italy was established and crow ...

High school career

Durham was born in

Rome, Georgia Rome is the largest city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia metropolitan area, Rome, Georgia, metropolitan statisti ...

and was a stand-out wide receiver for the Calhoun High School Yellow Jackets

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 ...

team. In his senior year, Durham helped lead the Yellow Jackets to a 14–1 record and an appearance in the state championship under coach Hal Lamb. Coming out of high school, Durham was rated as a 3-star prospect by both Scout.com and Rivals Inc. Durham signed a scholarship to play for the University of Georgia and enrolled in January 2006.

College career

As a freshman in 2006, Durham recorded eight catches for 82 yards with Georgia. Durham improved in his sophomore season finishing with 11 catches for 169 yards. Durham played in the

2008 Sugar Bowl The 2008 Allstate Sugar Bowl was an American college football bowl game. It was part of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) for the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and was the 74th Sugar Bowl. It was played on January 1, 2008, in the Lo ...

against the University of Hawaii, catching three passes for 48 yards. Durham appeared in 10 games during his junior season in 2008. He caught 13 passes for a total of 199 yards and caught his first

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 of his college career. While participating in spring practice in 2009, Durham tore the labrum in his left shoulder and it was later announced that he would miss the entire 2009 season. As a senior, Durham set career-highs with 32 catches for 659 yards and 3 touchdowns, including 100-yard games against

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

and Vanderbilt. In his collegiate career with the Bulldogs, he caught 64 passes for 1,109 yards, and four touchdowns, in 47 games, of which he started 15.

Professional career

Seattle Seahawks

Durham was selected in the fourth round as the 107th overall pick in the

by the

. He signed a contract for four years and $2.504 million, which included a $464,260 signing bonus. In the 2011 season, Durham only played in three regular season games for Seattle before being placed on the

injured reserve list The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

. Durham was cut at the end of the Seahawks' training camp in 2012.

Detroit Lions

Durham signed with the Detroit Lions practice squad on September 2, 2012, and was elevated to the active roster on December 4, joining his former college roommate,

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Matthew Stafford. Durham recorded his first NFL touchdown catch in the Lions' final game of the 2012 season on December 30, on a 25-yard pass from Stafford. Durham enjoyed a more regular role with the Lions in 2013 after being elevated to a starter after a Week 3 injury to Nate Burleson. The Lions cut Durham prior to the 2014 regular season.

Tennessee Titans

On August 31, 2014, Durham was claimed off waivers by the Tennessee Titans.

Oakland Raiders

Durham signed with the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

in June 2015.

Parma Panthers

In 2017 and 2018, Durham signed with the Parma Panthers of the

. In 2017, Durham played 9 games, catching 33 passes for 509 yards and 2 touchdowns. In 2018, Durham played 10 games and had 46 receptions for 944 yards and 11 TD's. The Panthers lost in the league playoffs semi finals in both seasons, failing to reach the Italian Bowl Championship game.

Personal life

Durham is the brother-in-law of Los Angeles Angels pitcher

Blake Wood Blake Daniel Wood (born August 8, 1985) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Angels. Early life Prior to pla ...

. He has been involved in football as a coach in recent years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durham, Kris 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Rome, Georgia Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state) American football wide receivers Georgia Bulldogs football players Seattle Seahawks players Detroit Lions players Tennessee Titans players Oakland Raiders players American expatriate sportspeople in Italy American expatriate players of American football Calhoun High School alumni