height_ft weight_lbs playing_years birth_place career_footnotes article_title import position playing_teams records birth_date height_in cfl number honours college name imagewidth
5 170 2005-2007 2008 port arthur , texas * offseason or practice roster only tony tompkins
 yes wide receiver kick returner edmonton eskimos montreal alouettes * eskimos record 21 november 1982 9 813 14 eskimos ' most outstanding special teams player -lrb- 2005 -rrb- ' most outstanding rookie -lrb- 2005 -rrb- eskimos stephen f. austin tony tompkins 150
tony tompkins

tony tompkins -lrb- b. november 21 , 1982 -rrb- is a former canadian football league wide receiver and special teams player .
standing at only 5 ' 8 '' , tompkins is just one of many diminutive kick return specialists to have found success in the cfl .
after attending stephen f. austin university , tompkins signed with the edmonton eskimos as the replacement for former kick returner winston october .
as a rookie in 2005 , tompkins participated in the 93rd grey cup in vancouver , where he set a record for the longest kickoff return in a grey cup game by taking the ball 96 yards for a key touchdown , helping the eskimos take victory .
after the grey cup , tompkins believed that he was entering his option year , and as such that he would have a chance to try and sign with a national football league team .
tompkins , who did not have an agent when he signed his first contract , in fact signed a `` two '' - year contract with a club option , thus requiring him to report to the eskimos for one more season than he expected .
tompkins 's agent alex balic attempted to persuade the eskimos to release tompkins but they refused .
tompkins and balic briefly considered legal action , but in the end tompkins agreed to return to the eskimos for the 2006 cfl season .
tompkins made $ 40,000 cad with the eskimos in 2006 , well below the nfl league minimum and returned 75 punts for 501 yards , 57 kickoffs for 1,145 yards , and ten missed field goal returns for 209 yards , finishing with the eskimos ' most all-purpose yards with 1,855 .
in the 2007 cfl season , tompkins led the eskimos in punt return yardage , kickoff returns , and missed field goal return yards and finished the year second on the team in all-purpose yards .
in february 2008 , tompkins signed as a free-agent with the alouettes .
he was released by the alouettes in june 2008 .
