NATE BURLESON

'Nathaniel Burleson' (born August 29, 1981 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is an American football wide receiver currently playing for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. He went to the University of Nevada, Reno, from which he was drafted in the third round of the 2003 NFL Draft. Nate is the younger brother of former Charlotte Bobcats guard Kevin Burleson.
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Contents

High school career

College career

NFL career

NFL Statistics

External links

High school career

Nate Burleson attended O'Dea High School in Seattle. While there, he won a total of eight letters playing football, basketball and track. As a senior, he was named ''The Seattle Times'' City Athlete of the Year.

College career

Nate Burleson played college football at the University of Nevada, Reno and finished with 248 receptions for 3,293 yards (13.28 yards per rec. avg.) and 22 touchdowns. He had an average of 7.8 receptions per game -- the best in WAC history -- and posted 138 receptions in a season, which is second in NCAA history. He was a finalist for the Fred Biletnikoff Award.

NFL career

Nate was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 2003. He showed promise during his rookie season, but didn't put up great numbers. In his second season, 2004, Nate emerged from the shadows when fellow receiver Randy Moss injured his hamstring. Nate was now the go-to-guy for Minnesota. He put up strong numbers and reached 1,000 receiving yards for the first time in his career.
On Friday March 24, 2006, Burleson signed a seven-year $49 million offer sheet to play with his hometown Seattle Seahawks. In retribution for the Vikings signing an offer sheet with former Seahawks guard, Steve Hutchinson, the Seahawks put clauses in Burleson's offer sheet which made it virtually impossible to match (similar to what the Vikings did with Hutchinson). The offer sheet stated that the entire $49 million would be guaranteed if Burleson plays five games, in one season, in the state of Minnesota, or if his average per year exceeded the average of all running backs on the team combined. The Vikings play eight home games a year in Minneapolis, and at the time of the offer sheet, the team spent far less than $7 million per year for its entire running back corps. On the other hand, Seattle was spending over $7 million a year on just one of its running backs (superstar Shaun Alexander). The Vikings had seven days to match the offer sheet but declined to do so. Minnesota received Seattle's third-round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft; Seattle, however, received no compensation for the departure of Hutchinson.

NFL Statistics

★ Year: Rec-Yards, Avg/Rec, TD

★ 2003: 29-455, 15.7, 2

★ 2004: 68-1006, 14.8, 9

★ 2005: 30-328, 10.9, 1

★ 2006: 18-192, 12.0, 2

★ Career to date: 145-1981, 13.7, 14-TD

External links

★ Nate Burleson at CBS Sportsline

★ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0607/gallery.nfcwest/content.4.html] at SI.com

★ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWdeuXmP7Ss