Jerick McKinnon

Jerick Deshun McKinnon (born May 3, 1992) is an American football running back for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Vikings in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He played college football at Georgia Southern.

High school career

McKinnon attended Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Georgia, where he played football and ran track. In football, he played quarterback, running back and wide receiver. He was an Atlanta Journal-Constitution first-team all-state pick at quarterback. He was also tabbed first-team all-state the by Georgia Sports Writers Association as an athlete and named Region VII AAAA Player of the Year. He lettered four times on the gridiron for the Yellow Jackets, starting in each of his final three seasons. As a junior, he was a member of the team that won the region championship playing as a wide receiver en route to earning MVP accolades for the National Underclassmen Ultimate 100. He passed for 1,500 yards and rushed for 1,300 more as a senior, picking up Cobb County Touchdown Club Quarterback of the Year honors in 2009.

Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League (NFL) as an expansion team in 1960, and first took the field for the 1961 season. They are in the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC); before that, the Vikings were in the NFC Central, and before that they were in the NFL's Western Conference Central Division. The team has appeared in four Super Bowls, but lost all of them.

In May 2012, a bill was passed to build a new stadium for the team at the site of the Metrodome. The new stadium is expected to be open for the 2016 season. The Vikings played their home games at TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota while U.S. Bank Stadium is being built.

History

Professional football in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area (the "Twin Cities") began with the Minneapolis Marines/Red Jackets, an NFL team that played intermittently in the 1920s and 1930s. However, a new professional team in the area did not surface again until August 1959, when Minneapolis businessmen Bill Boyer, H.P. Skoglund, and Max Winter were awarded a franchise in the new American Football League (AFL). Five months later, in January 1960, after significant pressure from the NFL, the ownership group, along with Bernie Ridder, reneged on its agreement with the AFL and then was awarded the National Football League's 14th franchise, with play to begin in 1961.Ole Haugsrud was added to the NFL team ownership because, in the 1920s, when he sold his Duluth Eskimos team back to the league, the agreement allowed him 10 percent of any future Minnesota team. Coincidentally or not, the teams from Ole Haugsrud's high school, Central High School in Superior, Wisconsin, were also called the Vikings and also had a similar purple-and-yellow uniform design.

Georgia Southern University

Georgia Southern University is a public university located on a 900-acre (3.6 km²) campus in Statesboro, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1906, it is part of the University System of Georgia and is the largest center of higher education in the southern half of Georgia offering 117 academic majors in a comprehensive array of baccalaureate degrees and master's and doctoral programs. The university is the fifth largest university in the University System of Georgia, with a fall 2012 enrollment of 20,574 students Georgia Southern is classified as a Doctoral and Research University (2006) by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and as a comprehensive university by the University System of Georgia.

Georgia Southern University's intercollegiate sports teams, known as the "Georgia Southern Eagles," compete in the Sun Belt Conference in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I.

History

Georgia Southern University began as First District Agricultural & Mechanical School; its inaugural academic year began in 1908 with four faculty members and 15 students.

National Football League

The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The NFL is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, and the highest professional level of American football in the world. The NFL's 17-week regular season runs from the week after Labor Day to the week after Christmas, with each team playing sixteen games and having one bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, six teams from each conference (four division winners and two wild card teams) advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, played between the champions of the NFC and AFC.

The NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA) before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1923 season. The NFL agreed to merge with the American Football League (AFL) in 1966, and the first Super Bowl was held at the end of that season; the merger was completed in 1970. Today, the NFL has the highest average attendance (67,591) of any professional sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States. The Super Bowl is among the biggest club sporting events in the world and individual Super Bowl games account for many of the most watched television programs in American history, all occupying the Nielsen's Top 5 tally of the all-time most watched U.S. television broadcasts by 2015. The NFL's executive officer is the commissioner, who has broad authority in governing the league.