Burnham played college football for the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, the only NCAA Division I school that recruited him.
[1] After he developed a serious infection when he cut his arm in practice, he sat out his freshman year with redshirt status in 2008.
[4] Tulsa sought a waiver from the NCAA to allow Burnham to compete in his sixth-year given the early timing of his injury, but this request and its appeal were declined.
Initially playing on the practice squad, he made his pro debut in Week 13 against the Toronto Argonauts, in which he caught five passes for 90 yards and a touchdown.
Burnham had a breakout season in 2016, playing in all 18 games for the first time in his career he set personal bests in catches, yards and touchdowns.
[10] According to BC Lions head coach Wally Buono, Burnham had workouts with somewhere between 10 and 12 NFL teams between the end of the 2016 season and January 31, 2017, at which time pending CFL free agents were no longer allowed to work out with NFL teams until their contracts expired on February 14, 2017.
Identically to two years prior, on February 10, 2019, Burnham and the Lions agreed to a two-year contract extension.