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Brian Griese

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Brian Griese
refer to caption
Griese in 2013
No. 14, 8
Position:Quarterback
Personal information
Born: (1975-03-18) March 18, 1975 (age 49)
Miami, Florida
Height:6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight:214 lb (97 kg)
Career information
High school:Christopher Columbus
(Miami, Florida)
College:Michigan
NFL draft:1998 / round: 3 / pick: 91
Career history
Career highlights and awards
Career NFL statistics
TD–INT:119–99
Passing yards:19,440
Passer rating:82.7
Stats at Pro Football Reference

Brian David Griese (/ˈɡriːsi/ GREE-see; born March 18, 1975) is a former American football quarterback and current color commentator for Monday Night Football on ESPN. He was drafted by the Broncos in the third round of the 1998 NFL Draft. He played high school football at Christopher Columbus High School and later college football at Michigan.

Griese played three seasons at Michigan, leading the Wolverines to the 1997 National Championship (as recognized by the Associated Press). After being selected in the third round by the Denver Broncos in the 1998 NFL Draft, he earned a Super Bowl ring with the Broncos in his rookie season, as John Elway (for whom Griese served as the backup) led the Broncos to a victory in Super Bowl XXXIII over the Atlanta Falcons. Elway retired after the Super Bowl and Griese became the starting quarterback for the Broncos during the 1999 season. Griese was a Pro Bowl selection with the Broncos in 2000. After leaving the Broncos he started at quarterback for the Miami Dolphins (5 games in 2003), Chicago Bears (13 games in 2006 and 2007) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (21 games in 2004, 2005, 2008). He is the son of Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese.

Early years

Griese was born in Miami, Florida and attended Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, playing football, basketball and golf.

College career

Griese played college football at the University of Michigan from 1993 to 1997. Michigan did not offer him a scholarship, so he walked on to the football team. He turned down scholarship offers from Purdue (his father's alma mater) and Kentucky. After he was redshirted in 1993 and limited to placeholding duties in 1994, Griese took over as the starting quarterback after Scott Dreisbach was injured five games into the 1995 season. Griese started for the remainder of the 1995 season, capped by an upset of #2 ranked Ohio State, 31–23.

At the beginning of the 1996 season, Dreisbach regained his starting job and Griese returned to the bench, serving as the team's pooch punter. However, after Dreisbach struggled, Griese replaced him at halftime against Ohio State, where he led the Wolverines to another upset victory over the Buckeyes, 13–9. Griese finished the season starting in a 17–14 loss to Alabama in the Outback Bowl.

In 1997, Griese remained the starter. Along with Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson, he led the Wolverines to an undefeated season and a share of the national championship. Griese was selected as the MVP of the 1998 Rose Bowl, passing for 251 yards and three touchdowns in Michigan's win over Washington State.

In his Michigan career, Griese had a 17–5 record as a starter. The Wolverines won all three games against Ohio State in which he quarterbacked. He was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame on December 30, 2012.

College passing statistics

Season Att Comp Int Comp % Yds Yds/Comp TD Long
1995 239 127 10 53.4 1577 12.4 13 75
1996 61 35 2 57.4 513 14.7 3 69
1997 307 193 6 62.9 2293 11.9 17 58
Career totals 606 355 18 58.6 4383 12.3 33 75

Professional career

Denver Broncos

The Denver Broncos selected Griese in the third round of the 1998 NFL Draft. He began his career as a third-string back up to Bubby Brister and John Elway. He became a Super Bowl champion in 1998, though he spent most of the season on the sidelines. Following Elway's retirement in 1999, Griese became the Broncos' starting quarterback. Griese earned a 75.6 passer rating during his first season as starter, but improved the next year, raising it to 102.9. His efforts merited him an invite to the 2000 Pro Bowl.

Griese consistently completed a high percentage of his passes. He has had four seasons with a better than 64% completion rate, including one year (2004) when he completed 69.3% of his passes. Nevertheless, he was unable to establish himself as one of the elite quarterbacks of the league, due to injuries and a penchant for interceptions. He was released by the Broncos, following the 2002 season, and was replaced by former Cardinals starter Jake Plummer.

Miami Dolphins

In June 2003 he signed with the Miami Dolphins. His stint with the Dolphins, where his father Bob Griese played his entire 14-year career, was brief, being released in February 2004. Griese was given the starting job when the Dolphins starting quarterback Jay Fiedler got injured. Griese had an excellent start as a Dolphin, passing for 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions in a blowout victory against San Diego.

First stint with the Buccaneers

Griese signed with and performed well for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and provided a catalyst for the jumpstart of the Tampa offense. Griese helped them to their only victories in 2004 with a 97.5 QB rating and to a 5–1 record in 2005 before succumbing to a torn ACL. Griese was cut by the Buccaneers in 2006 after the injury to his knee in order to free up money for the salary cap.

Chicago Bears

On March 21, 2006, he signed a five-year contract with the Chicago Bears.

After signing with the Bears, Griese saw limited action. Though he fared better than Rex Grossman during the 2006 preseason, coach Lovie Smith decided to keep Griese as the Bears’ second-string quarterback. He took late fourth quarter snaps at the end of major victories. Though Grossman started every Bears game in the 2006 season, Smith allowed Griese some extended gametime during week fifteen, after the Bears had clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. In a game against the Detroit Lions, Griese completed six of nine passes for 51 yards, which set up several game-winning Robbie Gould field goals. Smith called on Griese to relieve a struggling Grossman for the second half of the final regular season game against the Green Bay Packers. However, Griese did not fare a lot better, completing 5 of 15 passes for 124 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. While some Chicagoans questioned Grossman's ability to lead the Bears to the Super Bowl, Smith stood by Grossman, and declared him the team's starter throughout the playoffs. The Bears went on to win the 2006 NFC Championship, but lost Super Bowl XLI to the Indianapolis Colts.

After Grossman struggled during the first three outings of the 2007 Chicago Bears season, Smith turned to Griese to lead the team.[1] In his first outing as a Bears starter, Griese threw two touchdowns and three interceptions in a losing effort against the Detroit Lions.[2] The next week, he led the Bears on a game-winning drive against the Philadelphia Eagles, in which he called the plays due to a headset failure. Griese lost the starting job to Grossman after sustaining an injury against the Oakland Raiders during week ten.[3] Griese again replaced Grossman later in the season, after Grossman sustained a knee injury against the Washington Redskins.[4] However, with the Bears out of the playoffs, Kyle Orton started the remaining 3 games of the season.

Second stint with Buccaneers

On March 3, 2008, Griese was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in exchange for a sixth round pick in the 2009 draft.[5] He started the second game of the season, a home game against the Atlanta Falcons, which the Buccaneers won 24–9. Griese completed 18 of 31 passes, throwing for 160 yards with one touchdown. The next week, Griese played his old team, the Chicago Bears, and despite throwing 3 interceptions, he threw for 407 yards and 2 touchdowns to help the Buccaneers beat the Chicago Bears 27–24 in overtime on September 21, 2008. He also started the following week, and again despite throwing 3 interceptions, he completed 15 of 30 passes for 149 yards, 1 touchdown, and lead the Bucs to a victory over the Green Bay Packers 30–21. Griese found himself starting against the Atlanta Falcons again on December 14, 2008, subbing for Jeff Garcia who was sidelined with a calf injury. He completed 26 of 37 passes for 269 yards and threw 1 touchdown. But Griese also threw an interception and was sacked four times in all. The Bucs ended up losing the game in overtime 13–10. His career starting for Tampa Bay was 8–2. He was released on July 13, 2009.[6] After his release, Griese decided to retire from football.

NFL statistics

Year Team GP Com Att Pct Yards Avg TD Int Lng Fum Rate
1998 DEN 1 1 3 33.3 2 0.67 0 1 2 0 2.8
1999 DEN 14 261 452 57.7 3,032 6.71 14 14 88 6 75.6
2000 DEN 10 216 336 64.3 2,688 8.00 19 4 61 3 102.9
2001 DEN 15 275 451 61.0 2,827 6.27 23 19 65 4 78.5
2002 DEN 13 291 436 66.7 3,214 7.37 15 15 82 1 85.6
2003 MIA 5 74 130 56.9 813 6.25 5 6 80 4 69.2
2004 TB 11 233 336 69.3 2,632 7.83 20 12 68 3 97.5
2005 TB 6 112 174 64.4 1,136 6.53 7 7 80 2 79.6
2006 CHI 6 18 32 56.3 220 6.88 1 2 75 0 62.0
2007 CHI 7 161 262 61.5 1,803 6.88 10 12 81 2 75.6
2008 TB 5 110 184 59.8 1,073 5.83 5 7 38 1 69.4
Career 93 1,752 2,796 62.7 19,440 6.95 119 99 88 26 82.7

[7]

Broadcasting career

Since 2009, Griese has been employed by ESPN, working until 2020 as an analyst on the network's college football coverage. Griese also served as radio color commentator for 850 KOA (AM)'s coverage of Denver Broncos' football from 2010–2011.[8]

In 2020, Griese joined the booth for Monday Night Football, working alongside Steve Levy and Louis Riddick.[9]

Personal life

Griese was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and received his bachelor's degree in an individualized concentration from Michigan in 1997.

Griese is founder and board president of Judi's House, a children's grief support center in Denver, Colorado. Brian's mother, Judi Griese, succumbed to breast cancer when Brian was 12. The grieving process was hard for Brian, and so he established Judi's House to serve grieving children in the Denver area.[10]

He also helped establish what would become the Griese, Hutchinson and Woodson Champions for Children's Hearts golf weekend in May 2007. The event benefited the capital campaign for construction of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital as well as the Michigan Congenital Heart Center (MCHC) which resides within Mott. He also remains involved with the From the Heart Organization, a relationship that dates back to his playing days in Ann Arbor when he would visit Mott every week.

For his work with Judi's House, Griese was awarded the 2011 Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy, presented each year by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which celebrates and promotes the selfless service of people within the world of sports.[11] He was named the recipient of the Big Ten's Dungy-Thompson Humanitarian Award in 2014, and the Big Ten's Ford-Kinnick Leadership Award in 2015, becoming the first individual to be recognized with both of the conference's annual awards. These awards recognize Big Ten football players that have achieved success in the areas of leadership and humanitarianism after their college careers have ended.[12]

Brian and his father, Bob Griese, became the first father-and-son duo in NFL history to both win a Super Bowl.[13] Brian and his father wrote a book together, Undefeated (ISBN 0-7852-7021-3), published in 2000 about their lives through their undefeated seasons and living through the breast cancer illness and death of Brian's mother and Bob's first wife, Judi.

Griese married Brook McClintic, a clinical psychologist, in the Spring of 2004 on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The couple met while Griese was playing for the Denver Broncos. On April 6, 2006, Brian and Brook had their first child, a baby girl they named Annalia Rose.

References

  1. ^ Griese to replace Grossman at QB for Bears
  2. ^ NFL Game Center: Box Score - Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions - 2007 4 Archived October 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Grossman's late TD pass leads Bears past Raiders 17-6 - NFL - Yahoo! Sports
  4. ^ Fendrich, Howard (December 7, 2007). "Backup leads Redskins past Bears 24-16". USA Today. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  5. ^ "Bears trade Brian Griese to Tampa Bay". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008.
  6. ^ Kaufman, Ira (July 13, 2009). "Bucs cut Griese, sign third-round pick". Tampa Tribune. Archived from the original on July 22, 2009. Retrieved July 13, 2009.
  7. ^ "Brian Griese Stats". ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
  8. ^ Rice, Mike (July 31, 2012). "Eddie Mac is Back". denverbroncos.com. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
  9. ^ "Steve Levy, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese named as new MNF crew". ESPN.com. ESPN. August 17, 2020. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
  10. ^ Roger Lucas Savage. "Three unlikely friends unite for a greater good.[permanent dead link]", Your Business at Home Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 1, January 2008, p. 56
  11. ^ http://www.rwjf.org/patterson/product.jsp?id=72947&cid=XEM_205591 Archived April 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine l
  12. ^ "Griese Awarded with Big Ten's Ford-Kinnick Leadership Award". MGoBlue.com. CBS Interactive. November 24, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  13. ^ "Brian Griese - ESPN Press Room". espnpressroom.com. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
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