Kareem Kelly

Kareem Kelly (born April 1, 1981) is a former American football wide receiver.

He set Pac-10 and USC freshman records for most catches (54, 11th on USC's single season chart) and receiving yards (902, the most by a Trojan since Keyshawn Johnson had 1,434 in 1995).

He was third in the Pac-10 in receiving yards (75.2).

As a 1997 junior, he made All-CIF Southern Section second-team, All-CIF Division I first-team, Long Beach Press-Telegram second-team and All-League while catching 43 passes for 560 yards (13.0 avg.) and 9 touchdowns.

Long Beach Poly was the CIF Division I champion.

In his 3-year career, his team went 36-5.

Former Trojans DeShaun Hill, Mike Pollard, Darrell Rideaux, Hershel Dennis and Winston Justice also prepped at Long Beach Poly.

He also starred on the schools track team, which won the 1997 and 1998 state titles.

He was a 1998 Super Prep All-American, Prep Star Dream Team Top 100, ESPN Top 100, The Sporting News 101 Prime Prospects, Rivalnet Top 100, USA Today All-USA honorable mention, Super Prep All-Farwest, Prep Star All-Western, Long Beach Press-Telegram Best in the West first-team (unanimous selection), Orange County Register Fab 15 first-team, Tacoma News Tribune Western 100, Las Vegas Sun Super 11 first-team, Cal-Hi Sports All-State second-team, All-CIF Southern Section first-team, All-CIF Division I first-team, Los Angeles Times All-South Coast/Southeast and Long Beach Press-Telegram Dream Team first-team as a senior at Long Beach (Calif.) Poly High.

In 1998, he had 50 receptions for 1,096 yards (21.9 avg.) and 17 touchdowns.

He had one game with 8 catches for 181 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Long Beach Poly was a CIF Division I finalist.

As a junior, he was the 1998 state 200-meter champion in a meet-record 20.76 and a member of the state winning 400-meter relay squad.

His best times are 10.28 in the 100 meters (the top time in the state in 1998) and 20.53 in the 200.

Kelly played college football and ran track at the University of Southern California and is #3 on the Trojans all-time receiving list with 204 catches; during his tenure at USC he set the school-record for consecutive games with a catch (48), which has since been broken.

As a senior at the 1999 Arcadia Invitational, he was first in the 200 meters (21.27).

At the 1999 CIF Division I meet, he was second in the 100 (10.54) and 200 (21.04), and ran on the winning 400 meter relay quartet.

At the 1999 CIF Masters meet, he won the 100 (10.30, tied for 12th in the world on the under-20 windy list in 1999) and 200 (20.61, fourth fastest under-20 windy mark in the world in 1999) and ran a leg on Poly's state record setting victorious 400 meter relay team (40.14).

He was the 1999 state champion in the 100 (10.47) and 200 (20.76), and ran a leg on the state meet record setting 400 meter relay squad (40.33).

In 1999, Kelly had the best season that any Pac-10 freshman wide receiver ever had.

As the often-used backup to Windrell Hayes (he even started the Oregon State and Arizona games when Hayes was injured), he appeared in all 12 games in 1999 and caught 54 passes (second on USC) for a team-best 902 yards (team-high 16.7 avg.) with 4 touchdowns.

He was the only Trojan with a catch in every game in 1999.

He had 4 outings with 100 receiving yards (104 at University of Hawaii, 100 at Arizona, 129 against Stanford and 170 at Cal).

He was named the 1999 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and to the 1999 The Sporting News Freshman All-American second-team.

He also returned 5 punts for 14 yards (2.8 avg.) and ran 2 reverses for 17 yards (8.5 avg.).

He began his USC career catching 5 passes for a game-best 104 yards at Hawaii.

Against San Diego State, he had 6 catches for 98 yards (both game highs), including a 13-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter (the game's decisive points) as he outleaped an Aztec defender (who ripped off his helmet on the tackle).

He had 5 catches for 87 yards at University of Oregon, 3 receptions for 56 yards against Oregon State, and then 6 catches for 100 yards at Arizona.

At Notre Dame, he hauled in a 58-yard pass to set up a score.

He caught 8 passes for 129 yards (both game bests) against Stanford, then had 9 catches for 170 yards (both career and game bests) with a 72-yard touchdown (a USC 1999 long reception) at Cal. He had 6 catches for 51 yards against Arizona State, added a 10-yard reception at Washington State, had 3 grabs for 32 yards (with a 22-yard touchdown) against UCLA and 1 for 7 yards versus Louisiana Tech.

Kelly started at wide receiver as a sophomore in 2000.

He started 8 times (Penn State, Colorado, San Jose State, Oregon State, Stanford, Arizona State, UCLA and Notre Dame) at split end and once (California) at flanker.

He missed the Arizona game after spraining his ankle and straining his quadriceps at Oregon State.

He was the much-used backup in the other 2 games (Oregon and Washington State).

Overall in 2000 while appearing in 11 games, he led USC in receptions (55) and yardage (796 yards) for a 14.5 average with 4 touchdowns.

He also carried the ball 5 times on reverses for 8 yards (1.6 avg.) and returned 6 punts for 22 yards (3.7 avg.).

He was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the sixth round of the 2003 NFL Draft.

World junior record holder over indoor 50 meters 5.67 sec. He played college football at USC.

He has also been a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL), Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League (AFL), the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), and the Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League (UFL).

He played football at the high school level at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California.