Gregory "Greg" Jennings, Jr. is a professional American football wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League.
Biography[]
Greg Jennings, the son of a pastor at Progressive Deliverance Ministries and a church missionary, attended Kalamazoo Central High School where he was all conference in three sports: football, basketball and track. Jennings, nicknamed Superman because of his personality on the field, played wide receiver, running back, outside linebacker and defensive back as a three-time letterman for the football team, was a second-team all-state selection his junior year, when he had 28 catches for 648 yards and eight TDs. And, as a senior in 2000, he helped Kalamazoo Central to a 7-3 record, its best since 1975, and its first Big Eight Conference title. Also he earned three letters in basketball, helping school to a 24-4 record and a berth in the Class A state finals as a senior and earning second-team all-state honors. In track, he ran a leg on the state championship 4x100-meter relay team as a junior and won the state long jump title as a senior (21 feet, 9 inches). All in all, nowadays he is one of the three of the top athletes ever to come out of Kalamazoo.
Jennings attended Western Michigan University. He finished his career there with 238 receptions for 3539 yards and 39 touchdowns. Jennings was a red-shirt freshman in 2002. He missed 8 games due to a broken ankle bone. In the 8 games he did play, he caught 10 passes for 138 yards. In 2003, he was second on the Broncos with 56 catches for 1,050 yards and 14 touchdowns. He finished the 2003 season with 1,734 all-purpose yards. He was named to the second team All-Mid American team. In 2004, he led the Broncos with 74 catches for 1,092 yards and 11 touchdowns. He tallied 1,415 all-purpose yards. He was named to the All-MAC team. In 2005, he had 98 catches, and led the nation in catches per game, with 8.91. He had 1,259 yards with 14 touchdowns. His 5,093 all-purpose yards is a WMU record, and ranks 8th in MAC history and received the Mid-American Conference's Vern Smith Leadership Award, given annually to the league's most valuable player, and was named MAC Offensive Player of the Year. Jennings became only the 11th player to gain over 1,000 yards three times in college career.
He was drafted out of Western Michigan University in the second round, 52nd overall, of the 2006 NFL Draft. The Packers signed Jennings to a four-year contract on July 25, 2006; was reported that the deal was worth $2.85 million, including a $1.24 million signing bonus. Jennings was named the starting wide receiver for his first professional regular season game in 2006.
That same year he caught the 75-yard TD pass from Brett Favre; it was Favre's 400th TD pass for his career, a milestone reached only by Favre and Dan Marino. This was also Jennings' first 100 plus yard game and he was voted NFL Rookie of the Week. Jennings was also named to the NCAA All Rookie team at the end of the season.
In 2007 he caught a game winning 57 yard TD pass from Favre with less than two minutes to play; this was Jennings 1st touchdown catch in 2007, as well as Favre's 420th career touchdown pass, tying him with Dan Marino for the most TD passes in NFL history. A week later Jennings caught a 16-yard pass from Brett Favre and broke the all-time touchdown pass record Favre had shared with Dan Marino. Later that year he hauled in the first ever touchdowns pass by quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Another month passed and Jennings and running back Ryan Grant each had a touchdown, making it the first time two Packers players have each scored a touchdown in the same four consecutive games.
Jennings collected 80 receptions for 1,292 yards and 9 touchdowns in the 2008 season.
In 2009 Jennings received a new three year extension which will pay him $26.35 million and includes $16M guaranteed. It also includes a $11.25 million signing bonus.
In 2010, Jennings recorded another 1,000 yard receiving season with 1,265 yards on 76 receptions, matching his career high in touchdowns with 12. This helped his Packers upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, 31-25.
Injuries cut short his next two seasons, first going down with a knee injury late in the 2011 season (preventing him from recording what would have been his fourth consecutive 1,000-yard season) and sustaining a groin injury halfway through the 2012 season. Jennings intended to have groin surgery during the season but had to postpone it due to Hurricane Sandy.
After the 2012 season, Jennings left the Packers and signed with the Vikings for five years and $47.5 million, with $18 million of that money guaranteed. He started 15 games for Minnesota and had a resurgence of sorts, posting 804 receiving yards and four touchdowns despite lacklustre play from the Vikings' quarterback position.
He started the Greg Jennings Foundation in 2008, which sponsors the annual Greg Jennings Celebrity Golf Classic to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Milwaukee, and framed and built his first Habitat for Humanity house in June 2008 in Milwaukee with proceeds from the first tournament. The foundation also hosted a charity bowl-a-thon in his hometown. He too holds the annual Greg Jennings Football Camp in New Berlin, Wisconsin, and the annual football camp in Kalamazoo.
In April 2009, Jennings was honored with Professional Achievement Award at 12th annual Lee Remmel Sports Awards Banquet.
On Criminal Minds[]
Jennings portrayed Evidence Tech Jennings in the Season Five episode "...A Thousand Words".