Henry Burris

Henry Armand Burris Jr. (born June 4, 1975) is a gridiron football coach, former professional quarterback, and a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

He is currently a tight end coach for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL) and was formerly an offensive quality control coach for the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Burris went undrafted in the NFL, and signed a contract with the CFL's Calgary Stampeders in 1997.

He spent the 1997 season on the Stampeders' practice roster.

Burris played in the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1998 to 2016.

He won three Grey Cup championships, two with the Calgary Stampeders, in 1998 and 2008, having spent 10 years of his career with them, and one with the Ottawa Redblacks in 2016.

He was also a sports broadcaster and football analyst at TSN, appearing as a panel member on the network's CFL on TSN broadcasts.

He had his first, limited playing time in 1998 in relief of Jeff Garcia and Dave Dickenson, while dressing for all of the Stampeders' games.

In 1999, he received more playing time as Dickenson's backup.

He replaced Dickenson in the third week game against the Edmonton Eskimos, leading the Stampeders to a come-from-behind victory.

He started the following two games against the Montreal Alouettes and BC Lions, leading the Stampeders to another victory in the former.

He was injured in the third quarter of the latter, and spent the rest of the season on the injured reserve with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

He moved on to the Saskatchewan Roughriders for his first opportunity to be a full-time starting quarterback.

He started the first 16 games of the Roughriders season, throwing for 4,647 yards and 30 touchdowns.

The Green Bay Packers took interest in him after the CFL season ended, and signed him to a contract.

Burris began playing in the NFL in 2001, when he spent several weeks as the Packers' third-string quarterback, without playing in a game, before he was released, and then he spent the rest of the season on their practice squad.

He was signed by the Chicago Bears in the off-season.

In six games for the Bears he completed 18 of 51 passes for 207 yards, with three touchdowns and five interceptions.

He received significant playing time only in the last two games of the regular season.

He was 8 of 22 for 50 yards and a touchdown against Carolina, fumbling twice, and 7 of 19 for 78 yards and four interceptions against Tampa Bay, for a 10.3 quarterback rating.

While his passing was quite poor he showed better than average running ability for a quarterback, finishing the 2002 season with 15 rushes for 104 yards.

The Bears assigned him to NFL Europe's Berlin Thunder in 2003 where he performed respectably.

Unhappy with being relegated to Berlin by the Bears, he returned to the CFL and the Roughriders, his former club.

He immediately became Nealon Greene's back-up.

A knee injury forced him to miss the better part of the season.

Burris returned to Canada in time for the 2003 CFL season, dressing for 10 games that season.

He returned his starting position in 2004, starting in 14 games over the course of the season, and leading the Roughriders to the 2004 Western Final, narrowly missing advancing to the Grey Cup.

The Roughriders lost the Western Final in overtime to the favored BC Lions.

In the off-season Burris rejected the Roughriders' contract offer in order to re-join the Calgary Stampeders.

In 2005, he took the Stampeders to the Western Semifinal, where they lost at McMahon Stadium to Ricky Ray and Jason Maas of the Edmonton Eskimos.

In 2006, he once again helped the Stampeders advance to the CFL playoffs, hosting their second home playoff game in as many years, but lost in the West Semifinal to his former team, the Roughriders.

In the 2007 playoffs the Stampeders once again faced off against the Roughriders in the Western Semifinal (this time played at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, where the Roughriders were hosting their first home playoff game since 1988).

Burris won the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award in 2010 and 2015.

At the time of his retirement Burris was third in all-time CFL passing yards and passing touchdowns.

While playing in the CFL, he was also a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats and spent time in the NFL with the Bears and Green Bay Packers.

Prior to his professional career, he played college football with the Temple Owls.

Burris attended Spiro High School in Spiro, Oklahoma, and won four varsity letters each in football, track, basketball, and baseball.

In football, he was named the Oklahoma Offensive Player of the Year as a senior.

Burris attended Temple University and finished with 20 passing records.

He left the university ranked second all-time in Big East Conference passing with 7495 yards.