National Football Foundation

Brian Leonard starred in the Rutgers football renaissance from 2003-06 while collecting academic accolades and becoming a major force in the community.
 
Named a Freshman All-American by the College Football News, the Gouverneur, New York, native earned First-Team All-America honors for three consecutive years from Pro Football Weekly while also becoming a three-time All-Big East selection.
 
A tenacious blocker and threat to run or catch the ball from the backfield, he scored 45 career touchdowns for the Scarlet Knights.
 
The elusive fullback finished his career as Rutgers’ all-time leader in receptions (207), third in career all-purpose yards (4,643) and third in points scored (272).
 
A captain his senior year, he led Rutgers to a No. 12 national ranking and a 37-10 victory in the Texas Bowl, the school’s second consecutive bowl appearance after a 27-year drought. Leonard was inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
 
As a labor and employment relations major, Leonard held a spot on ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-District First-Team in 2005 while claiming academic all-conference honors three times. A community service stalwart, Leonard played active roles with the American Cancer Society, Read Across America, the Special Olympics and several children’s hospitals.
 
A second-round pick of the St. Louis Rams in 2007, he made starts at fullback and running back in his rookie NFL season, accumulating 486 yards from scrimmage. He subsequently played for the Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints.
 
Now living in New Jersey, Leonard annually hosts a football camp for children and the “Rally at the Alley,” a bowling fundraiser that has benefited the Embrace Kids Foundation since 2010.

Leonard co-founded and serves as managing principal of Red Knight Properties, a boutique multi-family and mixed-use real estate investment & property management company in New Jersey. The company now manages close to 300 properties throughout the area.