Kanavis McGhee

Kanavis McGhee (born October 4, 1968 in Houston, Texas) is a former college football linebacker and National Football League defensive end. He is a former defensive linemen coach with the Amsterdam Admirals in NFL Europa. He is currently a defensive line coach at the University of Colorado-Boulder in Boulder, Colorado.

McGhee was a business student while attending the University of Colorado. He studied business with an emphasis in marketing.

Kanavis McGhee attended Phillis Wheatley High School in Houston and played college football at Colorado. During his career at Colorado, McGhee was one of the top defenders in college football, earning him first-team All-Big Eight honors, a finalist nomination for the prestigious Dick Butkus Award and runner-up for the Rotary Lombardi Award. Both awards are given annually to top linebackers in college football.

Kanavis was drafted in the second round (55th overall) of the 1991 NFL Draft, at 22, as defensive end by the New York Giants, where he played for three seasons until he suffered a left knee injury in August 1993 and the Giants terminated the final year of his contract in May 1994. After this he joined the Cincinnati Bengals as free agent before returning to his hometown to play with the Houston Oilers for the season of 1995.

McGhee gained coaching experience while serving as head coach of Ross Shaw Sterling High School in Houston, Texas. In 2006 he spent the season with the Amsterdam Admirals as defensive assistant, participating in the NFL Europa coaching program (a collaboration between the National Football League Players Association and NFL Player Development). In 2007 McGhee returned for a second season and tutored the Admirals' defensive linemen.

McGhee worked as a teacher at Challenge Early College High School in Houston, Texas. In 2010 Kanavis returned to Colorado as defensive line assistant under Jon Embree.

McGhee has a son, Davyon McGhee, who plays for Kansas State University, also as linebacker.

In the October 18, 2010 issue of Sports Illustrated, former NFL agent Josh Luchs alleges that he gave McGhee $2,500 while trying to persuade him to hire Luchs as his agent, while he still played for the University of Colorado. Luchs said McGhee told him his mother was about to be evicted from her rental home and needed the money. According to Luchs, McGhee never paid back the money and did not return his phone calls. If true, the payment would have been considered a major violation of NCAA rules regarding player eligibility. Kanavis McGhee has denied that he ever violated NCAA rules and Alfred Williams, who was present at first meeting between McGhee and Luchs, has stated that the information in the article is not true.