Joe McKnight
New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame
Football, 2004-16
John Curtis Christian School/USC/NFL
Inducted: 2025
Photo Courtesy of Nola.com.
The New Orleans area has produced a long line of legendary football players. The barroom debate over which of those stars is the best of all time will likely never be resolved. However, there can be no argument that Joe McKnight must be included in the conversation.
“In my 30-plus years covering sports in New Orleans, there has never been a better, more impactful player than Joe McKnight,” said Doug Mouton, the sports director of WWL-TV. “He was an amazing defensive back, a shut-down corner, but he could do everything else as well. If Curtis needed a touchdown, they found a way to get the ball in Joe’s hands, and he usually got it done, from anywhere on the field.”
After a junior season in which he scored 22 touchdowns (nine rushing, five receiving, four punt returns, three interceptions, and one kickoff return) and led John Curtis Christian School to the state championship, he also lettered in basketball and track – winning the Class AA state championship in the 100-meter dash. All while dealing with the region’s devastation from Hurricane Katrina. He was officially on the nation’s radar as a superstar. And he delivered on that promise.
As a senior in 2006, McKnight shared national high school player of the year honors (Parade Magazine) with future Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen. He earned the honor despite his statistics not being overwhelming – he ran for 719 yards and had 735 receiving yards.
“I had a USA Today reporter call and say that Joe’s stats don’t match up with some other guys around the country,” said J.T. Curtis, who has coached John Curtis Christian School for 55 years, winning 28 state championships and 623 games – more than any other high school coach in history. “I asked him to do me a favor and look at his averages. We were as good as any team in the country and many of our games were over by halftime.”
The averages? The 6-0, 190-pounder needed just 45 carries to reach 719 yards – an average of 16.0 yards per carry. And his 735 receiving yards came on just 24 catches – 30.6 yards per catch. He recorded 14 rushing touchdowns and 13 receiving TDs meaning that he hit paydirt on nearly 40 percent of his offensive opportunities. He also added three special teams scores as the Patriots posted a 14-0 record to win their second straight state title.
“As a player, he was probably the most versatile player I’ve had,” said Curtis. “He was a guy who excelled in all areas. He was an outstanding running back, a guy who played in the secondary, and a tremendous returner. He could do all of that and did it with passion.”
“Everybody in the world wanted to be Reggie Bush,” posted New Orleans native Tyrann Mathieu, who was a high school freshman in 2006, on social media. “Us in New Orleans wanted to run the ball like Joe McKnight.”
One of his greatest performances came on Sept. 26, 2006, when John Curtis, ranked No. 11 in the nation, went on the road to challenge No. 1 ranked Hoover (Ala.) High, winners of five of six state championships in Alabama’s largest classification – and the subject of a popular MTV documentary. After falling behind 14-0, Curtis turned to its superstar. And he delivered. McKnight had 70 rushing yards on five carries, he caught three passes for 134 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and he intercepted a pass in the final minute to seal the victory.
“Hoover was extremely talented, they had a number of players signed to the SEC, and it was a big game – ESPN was broadcasting it,” Curtis remembered. “They jumped on us in the first quarter, but we were a good team too. We maintained our poise, and then Joe took it over. And the team knew he would. That was the demeanor he brought to every game. And the team followed his lead.”
In 2016, WGNO’s Friday Night Football ranked him as the top player in its 25 years of coverage. The Times-Picayune tabbed McKnight as the Male High School Athlete of the Decade of the 2000s.
“We were a really good team and when we’d have control of a game, Joe would come to me and say, ‘Let the other guys have a shot. I had a chance to play when I was a freshman, give them a chance now.’ He was so unselfish,” said Curtis.
“For a guy with his notoriety and ability, he just wanted to be a teammate,” Curtis continued. “He was just one of the guys. That’s what made him the kind of teammate he was and the kind of person he was. He was very loyal and he just wanted to be Joe.”
He shocked some in the region by choosing USC over LSU for college, but the chance for a new start appealed to McKnight. In three seasons with the Trojans (2007-09), he rushed 347 times for 2,213 yards (17th all-time at USC) and 13 touchdowns as well as 66 catches for 542 yards (8.2 yards per catch) and two more scores despite battling injuries and sharing carries with a loaded running back room. His 6.38 yards per carry ranks second all-time at USC to Reggie Bush.
Photo Courtesy of USC Athletics.
“All of his success, and all the awards, that didn’t mean much to Joe. He just wanted to play football,” said his mother Jennifer McKnight. “I don’t think it dawned on him that he was great. He just played the game, it was effortless, and he did it like nobody else could.”
“College football is different today,” Curtis said. “Seeing [Heisman Trophy winner] Travis Hunter play this year reminded me of Joe. I think Joe could have had the same type of impact and been the same type of player with the way the game is played today.”
McKnight was drafted in the fourth round (112th overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. He played for New York from 2010-12, earning All-Pro recognition as a return man – he had returns of 107 and 100 yards during his tenure. He joined the Kansas City Chiefs for the 2014 season and was seemingly back on track after catching two touchdown passes in his second game. Four days later, he tore his Achilles tendon.
He played for the Edmonton Eskimos and the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL in 2016 – he averaged over six yards per carry over the final three games of 2016 with the Roughriders.
With promise once again in play, he returned to New Orleans following the season.
On Dec. 1, 2016, he was killed in a traffic altercation in Terrytown at the age of 28.
Photo Courtesy of USC Athletics.
“Joe meant everything to me,” said LSU star and John Curtis alum Duke Riley prior to wearing McKnight’s No. 4 in his final collegiate game less than a month after the death of his mentor. “Honestly, I wanted to be a baseball player and then I saw what he could do with a football and how he could change the view of kids my age with a football in his hand. I know football meant everything to him. It was his life and he made football my life.”
“I still watch his games, like he’s watching it here with me,” said Jennifer McKnight. “That’s the Joe I knew, he could see the field, he knew what the coach wanted him to do. I just saw him playing good football like it was supposed to be played.”
