Kyle Kitchens (born January 25, 1996) is an American football defensive end playing for the Berlin Thunder in the European League of Football. 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 ...

for the Catawba Indians.

Early life and college career

Kitchens attended Decatur High School, where he played lacrosse, basketball and baseball, besides American football for the Bulldogs. He was named two-times All-State player and was selected for the All-Region team. For the 2014 college football season he committed to Catawba College in

Salisbury, North Carolina Salisbury is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, United States; it has been the county seat of Rowan County since 1753 when its territory extended to the Mississippi River. Located northeast of Charlotte and within its metropolita ...

in the NCAA Division II. There he quickly became a starter and core player in the team. He was the second overall defensive player to be named AFCA All-American Team three times in a row in NCAA Division II history. With his team, he won his conference in 2015. He left his college as an all-time sack leader (38.5) and with 71 total tackles for loss.

Professional career

Kitchens began his professional career with the Potsdam Royals in the German Football League (GFL) in 2019. In 14 games total he racked up 76 tackles, 31 tackles for loss, 16 sacks und four pass-break-ups. With that he was leading the league and was named GFL North All-Star Team. For the 2020 GLF season he went to the Hildesheim Invaders, where he wasn't able to play because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He then played in The Spring League for the 2020 fall season and in early 2021 for the Wild Aces in the

Fan Controlled Football Fan Controlled Football (FCF) is a professional 7-on-7 Indoor football league created in 2017 as the first sports league controlled by fans. All games are played at the Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Georgia and broadcast on Twitch, NBCLX, DAZN, Fub ...

league. For the first season of the European League of Football the Leipzig Kings with head coach Fred Armstrong signed Kitchens to their roster. Whilst the Kings had a 5-5 records, Kitchens lead the league with 12.5 sacks. He was named Defensive Player of the Year and All-Star Team at the ELF Honors. In November 2021 Kitchens signed with the Berlin Thunder for the 2022 season. He was Week-MVP in week 6 and was named again DPOY and first-All-Star Team member at the ELF Honors 2022. Kitchens was the first resigning of a player for the

2023 season 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

Professional statistics

Personal life

Kitchens also was member of the

Phi Beta Sigma Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as char ...

Fraternity at nearby Livingstone College and member of the Black Student Union on Catawba campus. He studied in an undergraduate degree in Sports Management.

References

External links

Kyle Kitchens
on ''footbowl.eu''
Kyle Kitchens
on ''europeanleague.football''
Kyle Kitchens
on ''europlayers.com'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kitchens, Kyle 1996 births Living people American football defensive ends Berlin Thunder (ELF) players German Football League players American expatriate players of American football American expatriate sportspeople in Germany