Kevin Christopher Minter (born December 3, 1990) is an

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 wi ...

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, ...

who is a free agent. He was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the second round of the

2013 NFL Draft The 2013 NFL Draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall ...

. He played college football at

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

, where he earned first-team all-

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

honors.

Early years

Minter was born in

Suwanee, Georgia Suwanee is a city in Gwinnett County and a northeastern suburb of Atlanta in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 15,355; this had grown to an estimated 20,907 as of 2019. Portions of Forsyth and Fulton counties ...

, the son of Leonard Minter and Willie Mae Hollis. Minter attended

Berkmar High School Berkmar High School is a high school located in Lilburn, Georgia, United States. It has approximately 2,912 students, grades 9 through 12. Berkmar High School's principal is Durrant Williams. The school opened in 1966 to help overcrowding at ne ...

Lilburn, Georgia Lilburn is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. The population was 14,502 at the 2020 census. The estimated population was 12,810 in 2019. It is a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Geography Lilburn is located in western Gw ...

for his freshman and sophomore years before transferring to

Peachtree Ridge High School Peachtree Ridge High School (PRHS) is a public high school in Gwinnett County, in Suwanee, Georgia, United States. It is a part of Gwinnett County Public Schools. It is one of two public schools in the county to use block scheduling, the other be ...

in Suwanee for his junior and senior seasons. He was a starter for all four years of his high school career. In his junior year, he had 137

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football ** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking u ...

. In his senior year, he had 113 tackles and was named to the Class 5A all-state first-team."Kevin Minter Bio"
. lsusports.net. February 4, 2013. Retrieved February 14, 2013.

College career

Minter enrolled in

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

, and played for coach

Les Miles Leslie Edwin Miles (born November 10, 1953) is a former American football coach. He most recently served as the head coach at Kansas. His head coaching career began with the Oklahoma State Cowboys, where he coached from 2001 to 2004. Following t ...

LSU Tigers football The LSU Tigers football program, also known as the Fighting Tigers, represents Louisiana State University in college football. The Tigers compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Th ...

team from 2009 to 2012. He redshirted the 2009 season. The following year, he had 15 tackles. In 2011, he had 61 tackles and one sack. He had five tackles and a sack in the BCS Championship Game. In 2012, Minter had 130 tackles, which led the team and was the third-best total in the SEC. He also had 4.0 sacks. He had a career-best 20 tackles and two sacks against

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, and his 17 solo tackles versus Florida was an LSU single-game record. In the Chick-fil-A Bowl, he set an LSU bowl game record with 19 tackles. Minter was a

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 ...

finalist, a first-team All-SEC selection, and the LSU team MVP. ''

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 twi ...

'' named him to their All-American first-team. He left LSU after the season to enter the

. He ended his collegiate career with 206 tackles and 5.0 sacks. In 2012, he graduated from LSU with a bachelor's degree in general studies.

Professional career

Arizona Cardinals

Minter was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the second round, with the 45th overall pick, of the 2013 NFL Draft. In his rookie season, Minter contributed as a special teams player as he only played two defensive snaps while making four tackles. The following year, Minter appeared in all 16 games, starting four and totaling 44 tackles. The next two seasons, he started in all 32 games at linebacker, recording a combined 175 tackles and four sacks.

Cincinnati Bengals

On March 18, 2017, Minter signed a one-year contract with the Cincinnati Bengals. He played in nine games, starting seven, before suffering a hamstring injury in Week 14. He was placed on injured reserve on December 15, 2017.

New York Jets

On April 9, 2018, Minter signed with the New York Jets. He was released on August 31, 2018.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

On October 23, 2018, Minter signed with the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

, but was released eight days later. He was re-signed on November 13, 2018. He was placed on injured reserve on December 11, 2018. On March 13, 2019, Minter re-signed with the Buccaneers. On March 25, 2020, Minter re-signed with the Buccaneers. He was placed on the reserve/

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

list by the team on January 11, 2021, and activated on January 20. On March 20, 2021, Minter re-signed with the Buccaneers.

Personal life

He has been married since 2019 to Sydne Rie Minter, a Real Estate Agent in Atlanta. They have a son, Kevin Minter Jr and daughter, Santana Minter.

References

External links

LSU Tigers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minter, Kevin 1990 births Living people People from Suwanee, Georgia Sportspeople from the Atlanta metropolitan area Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state) American football linebackers LSU Tigers football players Arizona Cardinals players Cincinnati Bengals players New York Jets players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players