At Martin Luther King High School in Detroit, Michigan, Riley starred in football, basketball, and track&field.

[1] Karon Joseph Riley entered the National Football League by being selected by the Chicago Bears in the 4th round (103rd overall pick) of the 2001 NFL draft out of the University of Minnesota.

[6] On August 8, 2008, Riley was removed from the Gladiators roster and reassigned to the Arena Football 1 League office.

In 2019, Riley appeared in a recurring role on Bounce TV soap opera-drama Saints & Sinners.

He was the first replacement made in the series recast as the character Malik Thompson, previously portrayed by Anthony Dalton in 2018.