Rhett Ellison

Rhett Ellison (born October 3, 1988) is an American football tight end for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League. He played college football for the University of Southern California (USC) Trojans. While at USC he played both fullback and tight end. He is the son of former NFL and USC linebacker Riki Ellison.

College career
Ellison played high school football at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, California, where he received some honors playing linebacker and tight end. Both major recruiting rating agencies of the time, Rivals.com and Scout.com rated him as a three star (out of five) recruit and in the 20s among other high school tight ends in his high school senior class. He was recruited by several BCS conference programs and, beside USC, received athletic scholarship offers from Arizona State, Cal, Oregon and Virginia Tech. He committed to USC on February 6, 2007, the day before National Signing Day, a part of a recruiting class that ranked in the top two in the country in 2007.

He redshirted the 2007 season, his freshman year with the Trojans.

NFL Draft
Ellison was taken in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL Draft, 128th pick overall, by the Minnesota Vikings. He was not expecting to be drafted, and as such was on a river excursion and not watching the draft when the Vikings called him to let him know he was about to be selected; the surprise was such that he cried in joy. Trojan teammate and 4th pick overall Matt Kalil was also selected by the Vikings in the first round. He is the second player of Maori heritage to play for the Vikings since David Dixon.

Personal life
He is of Ngāi Tahu descent and is related to the first captain of the All Blacks, Thomas Ellison, and current New Zealand rugby union players Jacob Ellison and Tamati Ellison.