Bashir Levingston

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bashir Levingston
Date of birth	October 2, 1976
Place of birth	Seaside, California
Position(s)	Cornerback
College	Eastern Washington
Awards	2003 CFL Special Teams POY
Team(s)
1999-2000 2000 2002–Present	New York Giants Amsterdam Admirals Toronto Argonauts

Bashir Levingston [ba-SHAR] (born October 2, 1976 in Seaside, California) is a Canadian football cornerback and kick returner for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.

[edit] Pro career

Levingston was originally signed by the New York Giants in 1999 and spent two years on the team. Eventually, he was released from the team and allocated to NFL Europe with the Amsterdam Admirals where he earmed All-NFL Europe honors for his contributions on special teams. After being cut by the Edmonton Eskimos during their 2001 training camp, Levingston caught on with the Toronto Argonauts. Since being signed in 2002, Levingston has developed into one of the CFL's best kick returners, earning CFL Special Teams Player of the Week honors ten times in his career to go along with earning East Division All-Star honors in 2003 and 2004. Levingston was named the CFL's Outstanding Special Teams Player and the East Division Special Teams Player of the Year in 2003 as well. In 2004 he also won a Grey Cup with the Toronto Argonauts.

[edit] College career

Levingston played college football at Eastern Washington University, where as a senior he earned seven All-American Honors as a return specialist. He was also named first-team All-Big Sky Conference as a kick returner. He scored 12 touchdowns and totaled 1,597 all-purpose yards during his senior year at Eastern Washington. Livingston also is the leader for Division I-AA and is fifth on the all-time NCAA list in punt returns averaging 20.8 yards. He broke or tied seven I-AA records including kickoff returns for a touchdown in a game (three) and season (three), kickoff return yards in a game (326), average kickoff returns in a game (65.2), yards in kickoffs and punt returns in game (349) and touchdowns on kickoffs and punt returns in a single game (three) and season (six).