Forgotten NFL Quarterbacks: Where Are They Now?

[Scrapman]

One of the biggest fears that professional athletes face is that dread of ?life after playing.? At one point, they?re bona fide celebrities and household names that are adored by the media and fans. But once their time in the limelight is over, that withdrawal of the attention and adulation can be rather hard for many former stars to deal with. More often than not, for all intents and purposes, they completely fade out of our lives.

That?s why we wanted to take a look at the most forgotten quarterbacks who were once among the very best that the NFL had to offer, but have long since been out of the spotlight. What are they up to these days? Let?s take a look. 25 former QB's so i'll split in two post ok!


Daunte Culpepper

The 11th pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, quarterback Daunte Culpepper set a new record in 2004, for the most total yardage produced by a quarterback in a single season (5,123 yards). During a seven-season tenure with the Vikings, he threw for 20,162 yards and 135 touchdowns. Culpepper achieved a passer rating above 96 and earned Pro Bowl nods for the 2000, 2003 and 2004 seasons. But in 2005, he suffered a severe knee injury, and was never the same player after that.

He played for three more teams, as well as a brief stint in the UFL, before retiring. Culpepper popped up in the news recently, after Sun Trust Bank filed a foreclosure lawsuit on his 9,867-foot home in Broward County, Florida.
Jake Plummer

A second-round pick in the 1997 NFL Draft, Jake Plummer is best known for leading the Arizona Cardinals to their first postseason win in over 50 years, and taking the Denver Broncos to the AFC Championship game in 2005. And yet, by the summer of 2008, Plummer was out of the NFL, after a falling out with former Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan, and a refusal to compete for a job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After retiring, Plummer competed as a professional handball player, hosting his own pro invitational, and advancing as far as the semifinals of the Idaho State Singles Championships of Handball.

Handball champion ships ? :mj07:

Donovan McNabb

Donovan McNabb was the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 through 2009, and led the Eagles to four straight NFC Championship game appearances between 2001 and 2004 (and took them there again in 2008), as well as the Eagles second Super Bowl appearance (in Super Bowl XXXIX). When he was traded away in 2010, he was the Eagles all-time leader in pass attempts, completions, passing yards, and touchdowns.

After retiring from the NFL, McNabb began his career as a television broadcaster, working for the NFL Network, Fox Sports 1, and ESPN Radio. In the summer of 2015, McNabb was arrested for DUI in Gilbert, Arizona, and served an 18-day sentence in prison (as well as a 72-day house arrest)


Drew Bledsoe

How quickly we forget that Drew Bledsoe was supposed to be the franchise-saving quarterback for the New England Patriots. The #1 overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft took the Patriots to Super Bowl Super Bowl XXXI, but more famously, eventually lost his job to perhaps the greatest quarterback of all time in Tom Brady. Bledsoe played for the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys for the remaining five seasons of his career; in 2006, he was eventually replaced by another exciting young quarterback in Tony Romo. After his retirement in 2007, Bledsoe founded the Doubleback Winery along with a close friend. One of the wines on his vineyard was ranked among Wine Spectator?s Top 100 wines.

:drinky:

Rex Grossman

After being taken in the first round of the 2003 NFL Draft, Rex Grossman was something of the turnover-prone, caretaker quarterback that helped ?lead? his Chicago Bears to a Super Bowl appearance in 2006. The Bears eventually parted ways with Grossman in 2008, which was followed by Grossman making stops with four NFL teams over the next seven years, including a brief stint as the starting quarterback of the Washington Redskins.

After retiring in 2015, when he failed to make the roster of the Atlanta Falcons, Grossman turned most of his attention to the medical staffing agency that he and his wife had found several years earlier.

Vince Young

When Vince Young left the University of Texas as a junior, he ranked #1 among all University of Texas quarterbacks, in terms of number of wins. Young led the Longhorns to the 2005 BCS National Championship, and then won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award in 2006. But Young?s career in the NFL began to devolve rapidly, thanks to a series of off-the-field incidents, injuries of his own, and clashes with former head coach Jeff Fisher.

After finally leaving the NFL in 2014, Young had a failed attempt at resuming his professional football career, when another injury derailed his comeback attempt with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Young has also worked for the University of Texas as a development officer for program alumni relations.



Doug Flutie

Doug Flutie was the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Boston College, who famously threw the ?Hail Flutie? touchdown pass in a game against the University of Miami in November of 1984. Flutie then went from the United States Football League (USFL) to the Chicago Bears, then up to the Canadian Football League, where he was a six-time winner of the CFL?s Most Outstanding Player award. Flute returned back to the NFL, where he was best known for winning the starting quarterback job of the Buffalo Bills.

He finished out his playing career with the San Diego Chargers, and then briefly with the New England Patriots. After retiring, Flutie served as a college football analyst for ESPN and ABC, and then NBC Sports as a color commentator for Notre Dame Football.

Trent Green

In an alternate universe, Trent Green would?ve stayed healthy during the 1999 NFL preseason, and orchestrated the St. Louis Rams offense that would eventually be known as ?The Greatest Show On Turf.? But after being injured prior to that season, we all know that he lost the job to future Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner. Green finished his career playing with the Kansas City Chiefs for seven years, followed by brief stops in Miami and then St. Louis again. After retiring from the NFL, he didn?t stray far from the game, working as a color analyst first for Fox, and then for CBS.


Chad Pennington

The Jets thought they had a franchise quarterback when they drafted Chad Pennington with the 18th pick in the 2000 NFL draft. For a while it looked like he truly was going to be one of the ascending talents in the game. Despite several productive seasons, injuries and a lack of arm strength kept Pennington from fully achieving the level of success that would have put him in the league?s top tier at the position. Speaking of injuries ? Pennington was the first player in NFL history to become a 2x winner of the NFL Comeback Player of the Year. At the time of his retirement in 2010, Pennington was the NFL?s all-time leader in career completion percentage at 66%.

Nowadays Pennington lives in Kentucky with his wife and three children, and has a completely different line of work. He is heavily involved in the business of bulls ? breeding not riding. He opened his own stable five years ago and focuses on breeding this massive 1,500-pound animals. It?s one of the more unique post-NFL careers that can be observed right now.


Byron Leftwich

After putting up numbers that you could only expect to see on a video game while at Marshall University, Byron Leftwich was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the seventh overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft. Between a combination of injuries and immaturity, Leftwich was eventually replaced by David Garrard as the Jaguars starting quarterback. He finished his playing career in 2012 as a backup quarterback to Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh.

In the spring of 2016, Bruce Arians ? who coached Leftwich in Pittsburgh ? hired Leftwich as a coaching intern. Leftwich was later promoted to quarterbacks coach in January of 2017.

RICH GANNON

Rich Gannon went from being a journeyman backup quarterback for the first 12 years of his career, to magnificently orchestrating head coach Jon Gruden?s offense with the Oakland Raiders. Gannon was a two-time first-team All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowl selection while in Oakland, helping the Raiders advance to Super Bowl XXXVII (which they lost to Tampa Bay) in 2002.

Shortly after, the struggling Raiders were dismantled, and eventually Gannon was a casualty of that demolition job. Almost immediately after retiring, Gannon joined CBS Sports as an NFL game analyst, and now co-hosts The Sirius Blitz show on Sirius XM NFL Radio.

OK THAT'S HALF WAY POINT NEXT POST

 

[Scrapman]

Kordell-Stewart

Kordell Stewart didn?t earn the nickname ?Slash? because he could play guitar for a legendary rock band. Rather, it was because Stewart became the most versatile offensive threat the NFL had ever seen in the 1990?s, playing at least four different positions ? quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and kick returner ? for the Pittsburgh Steelers. In 2001, as the starting quarterback, Stewart led the Steelers to a 13?3 regular-season record, en route to an AFC Championship game appearance (which they lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion New England Patriots).

Since retiring, Stewart has tried his hand at working in the media, making appearances on ESPN?s College Football Live, NFL Live, and Mike and Mike In the Morning. He also had a stint as a co-host on an Atlanta radio sports talk show.

Jeff Garcia spent his early playing days with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League, when NFL teams passed on him when he came out of college in 1994. After winning a Grey Cup championship up north, Garcia made his way to the NFL, playing with seven NFL teams over the next 10 seasons. His first ? and most famous ? stop was with the San Francisco 49ers, which resulted in the public spat between him and wide receiver Terrell Owens.

In his post-playing days, Garcia joined the advisory board of an organization that tried to revive the defunct United States Football League (USFL), and then headed back up to Canada to coach for the Montreal Alouettes. In 2015, he also served as an offensive assistant for the Los Angeles Rams.

With the 118th pick in the 1993 NFL draft, the Green Bay Packers selected quarterback Mark Brunell from the University of Washington. The only problem for Brunell, the Packers already had some guy named Brett Favre, so playing time was scarce. Over the next two years, Brunell appeared in just two games with the Packers, and was eventually traded to the Jaguars for a 3rd round and 5th round pick. During his time in Jacksonville, Brunell developed one of the most versatile quarterbacks in the league, resulting in three trips to the Pro Bowl, and a lucrative string of contracts.

Brunell was active in investing his NFL earnings into other business ventures. In 2011, news broke that Brunell had lost almost all of his career earnings ($50 million) due to failed businesses, and he was forced to file for bankruptcy. According to court documents, Brunell sank his earnings into nine businesses, five of which failed. A majority of his fortune was spent (and lost) on real estate projects and fast food chains, both in the Jacksonville area. Brunell is currently a NFL analyst for ESPN and the head coach of a prep school in Jacksonville.

Quarterback Christian Ponder was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings with the 12th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, and started a majority of their games between 2011 to 2013. But Ponder?s career was doomed thanks to a poor supporting cast around him on the Vikings, a general lack of progression as a pro, and eventually issues with injuries. He left Minnesota after the 2014 season, and finished his career as a backup quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016.

Ponder now spends his days as the home-maker of the family, while his wife ? ESPN personality Samantha Ponder ? has actually become the more recognizable name in today?s sports scene.

Brad Johnson went from a quarterback in the World League of American Football, to a division-winning quarterback for the Washington Redskins, to a Super Bowl champion with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Johnson wrapped up his career in 2008 after spending the latter part of it as a backup for the Dallas Cowboys.

In his retired days, Johnson spends times supporting his various philanthropic organizations of choice, including the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Children?s Miracle Network, Brad?s Buddies and Gillette Children?s Hospital. He is also active in the United Way?s Hometown Huddle and Toys for Tots, and hosts a golf event that benefits the Ronald McDonald House.

Building off his incredible junior year at Baylor University, which culminated in winning the Heisman Trophy, Robert Griffin III went from the #2 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft to the NFL?s Offensive Rookie Of The Year and Pro Bowl selection that same year, helping the Washington Redskins win the NFC East division. But after suffering a devastating knee injury in the playoffs that year, followed by clashes with head coach Mike Shanahan and his successor Jay Gruden, the Washington Redskins eventually demoted and then released Griffin. He had an injury-plagued stint with the Browns in 2016, who also released him at the end of the year.

Griffin is currently out of football, and uses his social media accounts to try and lobby for another NFL job. He also got a divorce from his college sweetheart, whom he married after his first year with the Redskins and had a child with, and recently had another child with his current girlfriend, a former Florida State University athlete and Olympic Heptathlete, Grete ?adeiko.

Coming out of Oregon in 2002, the Detroit Lions happily selected quarterback Joey Harrington with the 3rd pick player selected in the 2002 NFL Draft. Based on his college success and projected potential, the Lions thought they had found their quarterback of the future.
Due to battles with coach Steve Mariucci, an awful offensive line, and poor personnel around him, Harrington struggled mightily during his time in Detroit. In his four seasons with the Lions, Harrington threw 60 touchdowns and 62 interceptions, and compiled a record of 18 wins and 37 losses.

He was traded to the Dolphins in 2005 in exchange for a 5th-round pick. He served as a backup for two more seasons before finally retiring in 2007 at the age of 29.

In the years since, Harrington has been involved with a ton of charity work, and has shifted his career to broadcasting, and is currently a college football analyst for NBC Sports. Overall, he?s been more successful in his broadcasting career than he ever was in his NFL playing days.

Josh Freeman was the third quarterback taken in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft, behind Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez. In just his second season, he won the starting job for the team that took him, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and led them to the playoffs with a 10-6 record. But from there, the rest of Freeman?s career was a trainwreck. He won four games as a starter the next year, and was benched the season after that.

By 2013, Freeman?s playing career was essentially over, though he did randomly make one appearance in a game for the Indianapolis Colts in 2015. As of late, Freeman is trying to prolong his playing career with tryouts in the Canadian Football League.

After spending time as Brett Favre?s backup in Green Bay in the late 1990?s, the Seattle Seahawks acquired quarterback Matt Hasselbeck prior to the start of the 2001 season. Hasselbeck went on to be their starter for the entirety of the decade, garnering three Pro Bowl selections in that time and leading them to Super Bowl XL in 2005.

He eventually retired from the NFL in 2016, and decided to join his brother Tim, who was working as an analyst for ESPN. Matt replaced legendary head coach Mike Ditka on ESPN?s Sunday NFL Countdown show. He also works on ESPN?s Monday Night Countdown broadcast as well.

After an absolutely spectacular career at the University of Miami, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted Testaverde with the 1st overall pick in the 1987 NFL draft. To say things didn?t get off to a good start would be a massive understatement. In his second season, the Bucs handed Vinny the keys to the car, and he rewarded them by throwing 35 interceptions in just 15 games.

Testaverde?s best seasons came much later in his career ? with the Ravens (age 33) and Jets (age 35). In 2007, after 21 seasons in the NFL, he officially retired. He ranks 4th on the all-time interceptions list ? with 267 career interceptions.

Testaverde is currently the quarterbacks coach at Jesuit High School of Tampa, where his son Vincent, Jr. attended. With all of his kids off at college, Testaverde and his wife Mitzi decided it was time to downsize from their 12,323-square-foot mansion in Tampa Bay. If you?re interested in purchasing Vinny?s home, it will cost you a cool $4.99 million.

Chad Pennington was selected in the first round of the 2000 NFL Draft, after a college career that included a lot of easy touchdown passes to Randy Moss at Marshall University. While Pennington was a heady, intelligent, and efficient quarterback, injuries destroyed his NFL career. Pennington is the only player to win the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award twice, doing so in 2006 and 2008, after missing most of the seasons prior.

After leaving the NFL for good in 2010, Pennington and his wife Robin have spent most of their time working with their ?1st and 10 Foundation,? which builds stronger communities by funding programs and institutions that seek to improve quality of life throughout West Virginia, Tennessee, and the New York metropolitan area.

Michael Vick?s career was basically a roller-coaster ride from the day he arrived in Blacksburg, Virginia, to play for the Virginia Tech Hokies. He was the #1 overall pick in the 2001 NFL Draft, and became one of the most exciting young players in the NFL.

That was followed by a series of legal troubles, which resulted in a prolonged jail sentence. From there, he not only got a second chance with the Philadelphia Eagles, but even a Pro Bowl selection and Comeback Player of the Year award in 2010.

Vick was eventually benched and released by the Eagles under the Chip Kelly regime, and last played in the NFL in 2015. In 2017, Fox Sports hired him to appear on their FOX NFL Kickoff show.

:0002