Chris Howard ( American football ) Christopher L . " Chris " Howard ( born May 5 , 1975 ) is a retired professional American football running back who played in the National Football League ( NFL ) for the Jacksonville Jaguars . Howard had been drafted by the Denver Broncos in the fifth round of the 1998 NFL Draft . His professional football career was haunted by fumble troubles , which caused the Broncos to release him before he played a regular season game for them . Howard began to have fumble problems again when the Jaguars acquired and promoted him to a role as a regular player . He had previously played for the Michigan Wolverines football team where in the 1997 NCAA Division I - A football season , his final year at Michigan , they won a National Championship . Howard led the National Champion 1997 Michigan Wolverines football team in rushing and was a Hula Bowl MVP in 1998 . Chris attended Louisiana high school football powerhouse , John Curtis Christian High School in River Ridge , Louisiana . He was formerly married to Gabrielle Union . Early years . Howard was born in Kenner , Louisiana . He enrolled at Michigan after playing for Louisiana High School football powerhouse John Curtis Christian High School . John Curtis won its 22nd Louisiana High School Athletic Association state football championship in 2007 , and all of them have come since the first in 1975 . However , there has been a history of controversy over whether the school steers its students away from the Louisiana State University Tigers football team to other football programs . Howard is one of thirteen Curtis alumni to make it to the NFL . Only three of those alumni attended LSU . College career . In four years at Michigan from 1994 to 1997 , he totaled 1876 yards rushing on 418 carries and added 429 yards receiving on 60 receptions . He totaled nine 100 - yard rushing efforts for Michigan including four during the 1997 championship season . In college , his biggest rushing effort was 127 yards against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in 1996 . However , he once rushed for 109 yards and 4 touchdowns against the UCLA Bruins . In addition , Howard also posted the fourth longest rush in school history , an 86 - yard rush . In 1996 , he had five 100 - yard games despite only playing in ten games as a junior . He totaled 725 yards rushing and ten touchdowns in the ten games . However , he was second on the team in rushing to sophomore Clarence Williams who tallied 837 yards in 12 games . In the 1997 championship season , he was the rushing leader for a fundamentally sound undefeated 12 – 0 Michigan team that did not have a 1000 - yard rusher or 500 - yard receiver . The team emphasized defense behind 1997 Heisman Trophy winning defensive back Charles Woodson . Howard totaled 938 yards rushing on 199 carries and 276 yards receiving on 37 receptions . He was second on the team in scoring to placekicker Kraig Baker with 7 rushing touchdowns and 1 receiving touchdown . He was complemented in the backfield by freshman Anthony Thomas who added 549 yards and 5 rushing touchdowns . One of the key games in Michigan ' s 1997 National Championship season was the game against the unbeaten Penn State Nittany Lions , then ranked Number 2 in the nation . Howard rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown in the win over the Nittany Lions , prompting Coach Lloyd Carr to comment : " I think that Chris Howard is a very underrated back . He proved that today . " Michigan controlled the game and led 34 – 0 after 3 quarters behind Howard ’ s best collegiate performance in terms of yards from scrimmage with 120 yards rushing and 41 yards receiving . The 1997 season concluded with a 21 – 16 win over Washington State in the January 1 , 1998 Rose Bowl . Howard led all rushers in the game with 70 yards rushing on 19 carries . He was also the North MVP for the 1998 edition of the Hula Bowl , an invitational college football all - star game . He rushed for 116 yards on 14 carries and was involved in the culminating score in the North ’ s second half comeback . He handed off to Joe Jurevicius on a reverse play which ended with Jurevicius passing to Brian Griese for a five yard touchdown pass . The North would lose , however , when the missed extra point left the door open for a game winning field goal . Professional career . Howard was selected by the Denver Broncos in the fifth round of the 1998 NFL Draft , but he had a difficult pre - season with the Broncos in 1998 , fumbling five times in two games . The Broncos released him from their practice squad in September 1998 , and he was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars . At the time , Jacksonville Coach Tom Coughlin said : " Chris Howard is a young man and he certainly still is developmental . A couple weeks into our system and I think he ' ll be a guy who can be counted on . But I ' m not going to say we ' re done with our evaluations just yet . " Coughlin said of Howard ' s fumbles with Denver : " It was carelessness . Basically , we ' ll start from scratch with him fundamentally here . " Howard had professional totals of 123 yards rushing on 41 carries and 37 yards receiving on five receptions . In 2000 , his final year , he fumbled twice on only 21 carries in the first two games . These were his final two career NFL games . Personal life . Chris Howard married actress Gabrielle Union on May 5 , 2001 . They separated in 2005 and their divorce was made final in April 2006 .