Kevin Ross (American football)
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| Position: | Cornerback | ||||||||
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| Date of birth: | January 16, 1962 | ||||||||
| Place of birth: | Camden, New Jersey | ||||||||
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| College: | Temple | ||||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1984 / Round: 7 / Pick: 173 | ||||||||
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Kevin Lesley Ross (born January 16, 1962) is a former American football cornerback and safety and the current cornerbacks coach for the Arizona Cardinals. Ross was drafted in the 7th round of the 1984 NFL Draft with the 173rd overall selection by the Kansas City Chiefs, where he spent his first 10 seasons. He also played two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, one year with the San Diego Chargers, then returned to the Chiefs for one season in 1997.
Playing career
Ross played high school football at Paulsboro High School in Paulsboro, New Jersey,[1] and went on to attend Temple University.
As the Chiefs' seventh pick in the 1984 NFL Draft, he became a starter his rookie season and perfected a classic bump-and-run coverage that made him hard to beat in the secondary. For his career in Kansas City, he picked off 30 passes and scored 5 touchdowns. Ross played in a total of 156 games for the Chiefs. He went to Atlanta as a free agent before the 1994 season and later returned to play in five games in 1997.
Along with former teammate Albert Lewis, Ross was named one of the NFL's top 10 all-time cornerback tandems by the NFL Network in July 2008.
Ross, known as "the Rock," went to two NFL Pro Bowls and was inducted into the Kansas City Hall of Fame in 2011. He is one of only three players in franchise history to score a touchdown in at least four different ways (two INTs, two blocked field goal returns, one fumble recovery and one blocked punt).
Coaching career
He was the assistant secondary and quality control coach with the San Diego Chargers from 2007 to 2009. After the Chargers' disappointing 2009 playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Chargers' administration announced that they would not renew his contract for the following season.[2] He was hired by the Raiders on March 5, 2010, as a defensive backs coach. He was not retained following the 2011 season. He has been the Cardinals' cornerbacks coach since 2013.
References
- ↑ Kevin Ross, database Football. Accessed November 26, 2007.
- ↑ San Diego Chargers' Norv Turner Fires Four Assistant Coaches ESPN.com, January 13, 2009