When talking about the best players on the New England Patriots roster, people like Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, James White, Julian Edelman, or Devin McCourty are the first names to come to mind. That is not to say that a player like Rex Burkhead has not proven to be a pivotal member of the team with plays that help them achieve success. His most recent contribution came in the 2019 AFC championship game against the Kansa City Chiefs where he scored the touchdown that secured his team’s victory and sent them to the Super Bowl. Here is a look at the career and personal life of one of the Patriot’s unsung heroes.
Rex Burkhead Biography (Age)
Rex Burkhead was born to Robyn and Rick Burkhead on the 2nd of July, 1990, in Lexington, Kentucky, however, he was raised in and around the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. Here, he attended and played both high school football and basketball at Plano Senior High School in Plano, Texas.
Burkhead was a stand-out athlete in his high school days. As a freshman, he was part of his school’s basketball team that won the Class 5A state championship. As a junior, he earned first-team all-district honors in basketball and also led his school to a state semifinal appearance in the Texas 5-A football playoffs on the back of a season where he recorded 1,762 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns. After his senior year (where he again earned first-team all-district honors in basketball), Burkhead chose to accept a football scholarship to attend the University of Nebraska.
In his freshman year of college football, Rex Burkhead recorded 346 rushing yards on 81 carries with three touchdowns in the nine games he appeared in. As a sophomore, He played in all 14 games, although as a backup, still managed to rush for 951 yards on 172 carries and 7 touchdowns. By his junior year, the running back became a starter and went on to record 1,357 rushing yards on 284 carries with 15 touchdowns to earn a first-team All-Big Ten selection. Expectations were through the roof for Burkhead’s senior college year, however, a knee injury sidelined him for 6 games that season and he only managed to record 675 rushing yards on 98 carries with 5 touchdowns.
NFL Career
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history in 2012, Rex Burkhead was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals with the 190th overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. His rookie season was plagued by injuries as he only managed to feature in one game. In the following campaign, however, he appeared in nine games, mostly on special teams. By 2015, the wide receiver began to gain more and more playing time as he featured in all of his team’s 16 regular season games, although primarily on special teams and also as a running back. He recorded 10 catches for 94 yards and 1 touchdown in that season.
In 2017, after his rookie scale contract with the Bengals expired, the New England Patriots signed him on a 1-year deal. He went on to impress the powers that be at the team and earned a three-year contract extension ahead of the following season.
What is His Salary?
Since putting pen to paper on a three-year $9.75 million deal with the New England Patriots in March 2018, Rex Burkhead has had an annual average salary of $3.25 million. Before that, he was earning $3.15 million from his 1-year contract with the Pats in 2017. All his earnings in recent time are a huge step up from his first deal when he joined the NFL. In 2013, the then-rookie signed a four-year contract worth $2.26 million which put his salary per year at just above $500,000.
Rex Burkhead – Wife
Rex Burkhead is married to his longtime girlfriend, Danielle Burkhead (nee Wiggans). It is said that the running back had dated his wife ever since they were teenagers. It is not clear if the pair met or attended the same high school, however, Danielle was reportedly born and raised in Plano, Texas, the same city where Burkhead attended high school and later married her on the 22nd of February, 2014.
Danielle is a 2013 graduate of Texas A&M, where she acquired a Bachelor’s degree in communications and a minor in Human Resources. She reportedly had internships at the East-West Ministries International and Utility Fleet Sales in 2012 and 2013 respectively but is now said to work as an Account Coordinator at Dunham+Company.
Height
Rex Burkhead, who recorded a 40-yard dash of 4.73 seconds and a 20-yard shuttle at the 2013 NFL Combine, has a height of 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) and weighs about 215 lb (98 kg).
