Kevin Eakin (born July 22, 1981) 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 wi ...

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 ...

. He was signed by the New York Jets of 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 ...

(NFL) as a

street 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 2005. He played college football at Fordham. Eakin was also a member of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Valley/Alabama Vipers,

Georgia Force The Georgia Force was an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States (part of suburban Atlanta) that played in the South Division of the American Conference. The team was owned by Doug MacGregor and Donn Je ...

and

Alabama Hammers The Alabama Hammers were a professional indoor football team based in Huntsville, Alabama. The team played in the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) from 2012 to 2015. The Hammers originally began play as an expansion team in the Souther ...

Early years

Eakin attended

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSDH or MSD) is a public high school in Parkland, Florida, United States. It was established in 1990 and is part of the Broward County Public Schools district. It is named after the writer Marjory Stoneman D ...

in Parkland, Florida and was a student and a letterman in football, basketball, and track. In football, he was a team captain and was named to the All-Broward County team. Kevin Eakin graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2000.

College career

Eakin was a 2 year starter for the Rams at Fordham University, starting his junior year and compiling a 19-6 record from 2002-2003, with 6,112 yards passing and 45 touchdowns for his career. In 2002, he led the Rams to their first ever Patriot League title.

Professional career

New York Jets

Eakin originally was signed by the New York Jets, who allocated him to the now-defunct Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe, where he was the starting quarterback ahead of former heralded #3 overall draft pick

Akili Smith Kabisa Akili Maradufu Smith (born August 21, 1975) is a former American football quarterback. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the first round (3rd overall) of the 1999 NFL Draft, the third quarterback in the first three choices, beh ...

. After being invited to Jets training camp in 2005, he appeared in 2 preseason games and was the last person cut before the season.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Eakin spent the next season in 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 ...

with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and spent most of the season as backup to controversial starter

Jason Maas Jason Maas (born November 19, 1975) is the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and a former Canadian football quarterback in the CFL. He is best known for his playing career with the Edmonton Eskimos where h ...

Buffalo Bills

After the

2006 CFL season The 2006 CFL season is considered to be the 53rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 49th Canadian Football League season. CFL News in 2006 It was announced on April 9, 2006 that the CFL had suspended the operat ...

, Eakin went right across the border and signed with the NFL's Buffalo Bills, who once again allocated him to Frankfurt. With the demise of NFL Europa, Eakin returned to Buffalo, but because of depth issues (he stood fourth behind J. P. Losman, Craig Nall, and draft pick Trent Edwards), he saw no playing time and was released. However, after the release of third string QB Craig Nall, Eakin was signed onto the Buffalo Bills practice squad to serve as the team's emergency quarterback.

Team Alabama

Eakin signed with Team Alabama of the

All American Football League The All American Football League (AAFL) was a proposed professional american football minor league. The league, which was to combine a professional pay structure with the requirement that all players be college graduates, had originally been sch ...

for the 2008 season, but the league was postponed indefinitely.

Tennessee Valley / Alabama Vipers

He is now signed with the

Tennessee Valley Vipers Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

of the

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

for the 2009 season as starting quarterback. Eakin was the Vipers starter for the final 15 games of the season last year, including the four playoff wins.

References

Alabama Vipers bioCanadian Football League bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eakin, Kevin 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Saint Paul, Minnesota Players of American football from Saint Paul, Minnesota American football quarterbacks American players of Canadian football Canadian football quarterbacks Fordham Rams football players New York Jets players Frankfurt Galaxy players Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Buffalo Bills players Tennessee Valley Vipers players Alabama Vipers players Georgia Force players Alabama Hammers players