| No. 73, 72, 71 | |||||||||||
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| Position | Defensive tackle | ||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
| Born | (1979-11-15)November 15, 1979 (age 46) Yonkers, New York, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | ||||||||||
| Weight | 323 lb (147 kg) | ||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||
| High school | Yonkers (NY) Roosevelt | ||||||||||
| College | Penn State | ||||||||||
| NFL draft | 2003: 1st round, 12th overall pick | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
* Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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Jimmy Wayne Kennedy (born November 15, 1979) is an American former professionalfootball player who was adefensive tackle in theNational Football League (NFL). He was selected by theSt. Louis Rams 12th overall in the2003 NFL draft. He playedcollege football for thePenn State Nittany Lions. Kennedy was also a member of theDenver Broncos,Chicago Bears,Jacksonville Jaguars,Minnesota Vikings, andNew York Giants. He wonSuper Bowl XLVI with the Giants against theNew England Patriots.
Kennedy attended Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, where he was a three-yearstarter on bothoffense anddefense. Under Coach Tony DeMatteo, Kennedy earnedAll-American, All-city, All-conference, All-state, and teamMVP honors. He also won a local High School Heisman trophy sponsored by theDowntown Athletic Club. In Kennedy's junior season, Roosevelt High was 12–0 and won the state championship. In his three years as a starter the team was 30–3. After his senior season of 1998 Kennedy played in the Governor's Bowl, in which the bestprep players of New York played the best high school players inNew Jersey.
A four-year starter atPenn State University, Kennedy was named the 2002Big Ten Defensive Lineman-of-the-Year and was a two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection. A semi-finalist for theLombardi Award, Kennedy finished his career with 213tackles, 14sacks, and 39 tackles-for-loss. He earned a Bachelor of Science in rehabilitation services in 2002.
In his freshman season, Kennedy played in 12 games, starting 6, and recorded 33 tackles and batted away 4 passes. In 2000, as a sophomore, Kennedy started all 11 games for Penn State and recorded 42 tackles and 6 sacks. As a junior, in 2001, he made 51 tackles and logged 1.5 sacks and was voted All-Big Ten for the first time.
As a senior in 2002, Kennedy was named a First-teamAll-American byThe Sporting News, andWalter Camp Football Foundation,The NFL Draft Report, and third-team honors from theAssociated Press. He recorded 87 tackles, 5.5 sacks and batted away 3 passes in 2002.
| Height | Weight | 40-yard dash | 20-yard shuttle | Three-cone drill | Vertical jump | Broad jump | Bench press | Wonderlic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | 323 lb (147 kg) | 5.2 s | 4.721 s | 8.069 s | 30.5 in (0.77 m) | 8 ft 4 in (2.54 m) | 24 reps | 20 | ||||
| All values from Penn StatePro Day except Wonderlic (NFL Combine)[1] | ||||||||||||
The 6'4", 320 lb. defensive tackle was the first round pick (#12 overall) of the St. Louis Rams in the 2003 NFL Draft.[2] On July 30, 2003, Kennedy signed a 5-year $9 million contract that included a $5 millionsigning bonus.[3] With two defensive tackles,Ryan Pickett andDamione Lewis, taken in2001, Kennedy played 13 games but did not make a start his rookie season, and made one tackle, one assist, and one pass batted.
The following year, Kennedy played in the final nine games of the season, starting 5 of them. During this time, he posted 16 tackles and onepass defensed. Kennedy started both postseason games where he registered nine tackles and one sack. On January 8, 2005, he recorded two tackles and one sack. He tracked downMatt Hasselbeck for a six-yard loss in the last minute of the fourth quarter of the Rams’ 27–20 win.
By2005, Kennedy had earned a spot as the Rams'nose tackle, played in 15 games and started the first nine games of the season. With a chance to finally play, Kennedy made a respectable 33 tackles, 3sacks, and one forcedfumble. On September 18, 2005, he posted four tackles with two sacks on his former teammateKurt Warner, along with first career forced fumble.
In 2006 Kennedy started all 16 games at nose tackle for the Rams for the first time in his career and recorded 39 tackles, one sack, one pass defensed, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries.[4]
Kennedy was traded to theDenver Broncos on June 8, 2007, for a 6th round pick in the2008 NFL draft. On September 1, 2007, the Broncos released him.
On December 11, 2007, theChicago Bears signed Kennedy and he played in the final three games of the2007 season, making three tackles. The Bears declined to match theJacksonville Jaguars's offer to Kennedy in the offseason.[5]
Kennedy signed a one-year, $655,000 contract with theJacksonville Jaguars on March 4, 2008.[5] He played six games with the Jaguars, making 5 tackles and a sack before being waived mid-season on November 24, 2008.[6]
TheMinnesota Vikings signed Kennedy on December 3, 2008, to help fill the void created whenPro Bowl defensive tacklesPat Williams andKevin Williams were suspended, but the NFL could not enforce their punishment after local judges stalled the matter indefinitely.[7] He had a solid year as the backup in the 2009 season recording 3 sacks in limited playing time. He became a free agent at the conclusion of the 2008 and 2009 season, but was re-signed both years. On July 28, 2011, he was released.[8]
TheNew York Giants signed Kennedy on August 23, 2011. After recording four tackles in the first five weeks of the season, Kennedy was suspended four games for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs on October 11.[9] The Giants went on to winSuper Bowl XLVI, earning Kennedy his first ring.
| Year | Team | GP | COMB | TOTAL | AST | SACK | FF | FR | FR YDS | INT | IR YDS | AVG IR | LNG | TD | PD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | STL | 13 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2004 | STL | 9 | 16 | 13 | 3 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2005 | STL | 15 | 33 | 23 | 10 | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 2006 | STL | 16 | 39 | 30 | 9 | 1.0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2007 | CHI | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2008 | JAX | 6 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2008 | MIN | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2009 | MIN | 13 | 18 | 15 | 3 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2010 | MIN | 9 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2011 | NYG | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | 92 | 129 | 95 | 34 | 8.5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Kennedy was the subject of an article inThe New York Times about racist practices at the banking firmJPMorgan Chase. In 2018, Kennedy attempted to deposit money earned from his football career at a local JPMorgan bank after talks with an employee who made a good impression on him, Ricardo Peters. Kennedy's ample wealth would have qualified him under normal circumstances as a "private client" who would qualify for a variety of perks. However, Peters, who is black, was fired from the bank for unclear and disputed reasons, and Kennedy's application buried. Kennedy recorded later conversations with the replacement employee at JPMorgan; in them, the new employee indicated that the regional manager was afraid of talking with a large black man like Kennedy, and that the coveted private client status was unlikely to come to Kennedy despite his large deposit. In addition, Ricardo Peters said that JPMorgan sometimes turned away black people with large savings; in one incident, Peters was directly discouraged by his boss from taking on as a client a black woman who had suddenly come into a large inheritance.[11]