Live With CDP Sports Talk, Guest: Kurleigh Gittens Jr, Season #4, Episode #46, (November 3rd, 2022)

Kurleigh Gittens Jr, is a professional Canadian football wide receiver for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played U Sports football for the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks where he was the OUA Most Valuable Player in 2017. Gittens played U Sports football with the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks from 2015 to 2018. He immediately saw playing time as a rookie in 2015, playing in all eight regular season games and recording 40 receptions for 461 yards and two touchdowns He also returned kickoffs and punts, and notably scored a 101-yard kickoff return touchdown against the McMaster Marauders on October 17, 2015. In his fourth year in 2018, Gittens again posted dominant numbers as he caught 63 passes for 807 yards and three touchdowns and a career-high 39 punt returns for 396 yards and one touchdown.[2] However, the Golden Hawks finished with a 4–4 record and failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in his four years with the program. Nonetheless, Gittens was named a U Sports first-team all-Canadian at both the wide receiver and kick returner positions, becoming the first Laurier football player to be named to the first-team at two different positions (he was also the first to be named to a first-team and second-team the year prior). He also set the OUA record for career receptions with 206 and was just the fifth U Sports football player to record over 200 catches in a career.[ Of the five players to have reached this milestone, Gittens was the only one to accomplish this in four years, while the other four players did so in five years.[7] In the final CFL Scouting Bureau Rankings, Gittens was named the 16th best available player in the 2019 CFL Draft.[12] He was then drafted in the third round, 23rd overall, by the Toronto Argonauts in the 2019 draft and signed with the team on May 16, 2019.[He began the 2019 season on the practice roster, but was elevated to the active roster in week 3 and played in his first professional football game on July 6, 2019 against the BC Lions. As the season progressed, his role with the team grew as he was featured on kick returns where he recorded his first three kickoff returns, which totaled 53 yards, in the Labour Day Classic against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He caught his first CFL pass on October 5, 2019 from McLeod Bethel-Thompson in a game against the BC Lions.[14][15] With the Argonauts eliminated from post-season contention, Gittens started his first professional football game at wide receiver in the last game of the regular season on November 2, 2019 against the Tiger-Cats, but did not record any receptions.[14] For the season, he played in 13 games and recorded one catch for 10 yards, two punt returns for eight yards, 14 kickoff returns for 230 yards, and one missed field goal return for 12 yards.[14] Gittens did not play in 2020 due to the 2020 CFL season being cancelled. On December 29, 2020, it was announced that Gittens had signed an extension with the Argonauts.[16] In the first game of the 2021 Toronto Argonauts season against the Calgary Stampeders, on August 7, 2021, he scored his first professional touchdown on a 27-yard pass from McLeod Bethel-Thompson. In the pandemic-shortened 2021 CFL season, Gittens played in 13 regular season games where he had 50 receptions for 605 yards and four touchdowns and was named an East Division All-Star at season's end. He also played in the team's East Final loss to the Tiger-Cats where he had four receptions for 74 yards. #kurleighgittensjr #torontoargonauts #livewithcdp #podcast #canadianfootballleague #widereceiver #lauriergoldenhawks #yatescupchampion #ouafootball #guest #football #youtubechannel #facebooklive #twitter #audio #iheartradio #amazonmusic #applepodcasts #googlepodcast #spotify #anchorfm #breaker #pocketcasts #radiopublic #linkedin #barrycullenchevrolet #sponsorship #bmofield