Richard Owens (born November 4, 1980) 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 ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

. The

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

acquired him as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2004. 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 ...

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

. Owens was also a member of the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arri ...

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 ...

Early years

As a defensive lineman at

Middleburg High School Middleburg High School is a high school located in Middleburg, Florida. It is a part of the Clay County School District. The athletic teams are known as the Broncos. During the 2010–2011 year there were 1,783 students. MHS lost almost 300 st ...

, Owens was a first-team All-Area tight end and second-team All-Area. Owens caught 19 passes for 242 yards and recorded 46 tackles and four sacks as a senior, as well as averaging 14 yards per catch, had 51 tackles, three sacks and four blocked kicks as a junior. He was selected to athletic director's honor roll in his final two years. In 2006, Owens' high school number was retired before a Middleburg High School football game.

College career

While majoring in sports administration at the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

, Owens played under former Vikings offensive coordinator

Scott Linehan Scott Thomas Linehan (born September 17, 1963) is an American football coach who currently works as an offensive analyst for Missouri. He was most recently the passing game coordinator for LSU. He was previously the head coach of the St. Louis ...

. In 1999, he was

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

as a freshman. The following year, Owens played in all 12 games, starting three. He was selected to Conference USA All-Freshman Team. Although he had just one catch, it went for a 10-yard touchdown in a shutout win over

Grambling Grambling State University (GSU, Grambling, or Grambling State) is a public historically black university in Grambling, Louisiana. Grambling State is home of the Eddie G. Robinson Museum and is listed on the Louisiana African American Heritage ...

He also served as the team's backup longsnapper. In 2001, he played in thirteen games, and had three catches on the season, two of which went for touchdowns, including a nine-yard touchdown pass against

Southern Miss The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

and a 22-yarder against TCU. In 2002, Owens appeared in all thirteen games with starts in six of the last seven games. He was ranked sixth on the team with a career-high 20 catches for 182 yards and two touchdowns. He caught a career-high six balls for 72 yards and a score against TCU in his first start of the season, and had five catches for 39 yards against

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: L ...

in the

GMAC Bowl The LendingTree Bowl is a postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game that has been played annually in Mobile, Alabama since 1999. In 2021, the game was moved from Ladd-Peebles Stadium to Hancock Whitney Stadium, on the c ...

. In his senior year, he played in all thirteen games with four starts and finished seventh on the team with twelve catches for 121 yards and three touchdowns. Against

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

, he caught two passes for twelve yards and a touchdown. He also had two receptions for 23 yards and a touchdown at

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

as well as grabbing two catches for 22 yards vs.

Tulane Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

. He also recorded a seven-yard touchdown reception at

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. Owens finished his career with 36 catches for 371 yards and eight touchdowns, while also serving as the Cardinals' long snapper.

Professional career

Minnesota Vikings

In his three-year career, he accumulated 16 catches for 123 yards and one touchdown. In 2004, Owens started two of the eight games he played in. He caught eight passes for 69 yards and made three special teams tackles. He joined

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the la ...

Spencer Johnson and

long snapper In American football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a center on special teams whose duty is to snap the football over a longer distance, typically around 15 yards during punts, and 7–8 yards during field goals and extra point attempt ...

Cullen Loeffler Cullen Crawford Loeffler (born January 27, 1981) is a former American football long snapper. He played college football at Texas, and signed with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2004. Early years Loeffler attended Ingram Tom Moore Hi ...

as the only rookie free agents to make the opening-day roster in 2004 and was one of eight Vikings rookies to start a 2004 regular-season game. Owens joined LS Cullen Loeffler in a game vs.

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, opening at halfback and catching two passes for 16 yards. At

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, he started his second consecutive game, catching three passes for 17 yards in the 36–28 overtime win. In week two of the 2006 season, Owens caught a 16-yard touchdown pass, his first career touchdown, on a fake field goal attempt, thrown by Vikings kicker

Ryan Longwell Ryan Walker Longwell (born August 16, 1974Ryan Longwell
NFLPA.com. Retrieved November 22, 2014.

. On his way to the endzone, Owens dodged an attempted tackle by

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

defensive end

Julius Peppers Julius Frazier Peppers (born January 18, 1980) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end and outside linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels, ...

. The Vikings won the game 16–13 in overtime.

New York Jets

Owens signed with the

on July 14, 2009 and was waived on August 3, 2009.

Coaching career

Following his playing career in the NFL, Owens joined

Bobby Petrino Robert Patrick Petrino (born March 10, 1961) is an American football coach. He currently serves as the Offensive Coordinator for the Texas A&M Aggies. He is the former head coach for the Missouri State Bears. Previously, he served as the head coa ...

's staff at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

prior to the 2010 season. Owens had previously played for Petrino while at Louisville. He spent two years as a graduate student working with the tight ends before being hired by

Garrick McGee Garrick Ladell McGee (born April 6, 1973) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the wide receivers coach at Louisville. He was previously the quarterbacks coach at the University of Florida. McGee was the head football c ...

to serve as tight ends coach at UAB. After one season, Owens was promoted to

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

and wide receivers coach.

Personal

He is married to his high school girlfriend, Tina. Owens volunteered with the

Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

during 2004 season and has earned numerous state and national awards for his work with

Toys for Tots Toys for Tots is a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve which distributes toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas. The program was founded in 1947 by reservist Major Bill Hendricks. The ...

Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a US non-governmental, and nonprofit organization which was founded in 1976 by couple Millard and Linda Fuller. Habitat for Humanity is a Ch ...

, and FHA/HERO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Owens, Richard 1980 births Living people People from Middleburg, Florida Players of American football from Florida American football tight ends Louisville Cardinals football players Minnesota Vikings players New York Jets players St. Louis Rams players Coaches of American football from Florida UAB Blazers football coaches