Jeff Garcia

This article is about the football player. For the voice actor, see Jeff Garcia (voice actor).

Jeff Garcia

Career history
Calgary Stampeders San Francisco 49ers Cleveland Browns Detroit Lions Philadelphia Eagles Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Jeffrey Jason Garcia (born February 24, 1970) is an American professional quarterback currently employed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Garcia's professional career began in the CFL before becoming one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers in the early 2000s. After disappointing seasons in Cleveland and Detroit, Garcia resurrected his career in Philadelphia. Garcia is of Irish and Mexican descent.

Calgary Stampeders

Garcia was a standout quarterback while attending San Jose State. He started his professional career in Calgary with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. He won a place on Calgary's roster as their third string quarterback behind Doug Flutie and Steve Taylor when he threw two fourth quarter touchdowns in his exhibition game appearance in 1994. Soon he was named backup to Doug Flutie. In 1995, Flutie went down midway through the season with an elbow injury and Garcia took over as starter. In his second start filling in for Flutie, Garcia set a team record with 546 passing yards and 6 touchdown passes in the Labour Day game against Edmonton touching off an eventual quarterback controversy among some fans when Flutie later returned. Flutie ended up starting over Garcia in the Grey Cup that year which the Stampeders lost. After Flutie signed as a free-agent with the Toronto Argonauts in 1996, Garcia took over as the Stampeders' starting quarterback. During Garcia's three years as starter, the Stampeders finished with records of 13-5, 10-8, and 12-6 [1].

In 1997, Garcia won the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy, an award given to the Most Outstanding Player in the CFL Western Division. Garcia led the Stampeders to the Western Final in 1996 and to the Western Semi-Final in 1997. In 1998, he led the team to a Grey Cup victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and was named Grey Cup MVP. Garcia's memorable performance included an 80-yard, game-ending drive to set up the game winning field goal on the last play of the game [2]. Garcia was also named as the 1998 CFL All-Star at quarterback.

San Francisco 49ers

Following the Grey Cup victory, Garcia was signed as a backup to Steve Young with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. Over the summer, he had been fighting for a spot on the roster, but early in the 1999 season, Steve Young was sacked by Aeneas Williams and suffered his final professional concussion, knocking him out for the year. Garcia stepped in and finished the season.

The following season, with Young retired, Garcia kept the starting quarterback position and made his first Pro Bowl appearance. He set a new 49ers' team record with 4,278 passing yards in the 2000 season, although the team finished with a 6-10 record. In both of the next two seasons, Garcia led the 49ers to the playoffs.

Garcia had 31 and 32 passing touchdowns in the 2000 and 2001 season seasons, more than any other quarterback over those two seasons. As one of the top quarterbacks in the league, Garcia went to the Pro Bowl in three consecutive seasons (2000-2002).

On January 5, 2003, during the 2002-2003 playoffs, Garcia was a large part of the 49ers' comeback win over the New York Giants, the second largest comeback victory in NFL playoff history. In the game's third quarter, the Giants were up 38-14, with about 18 minutes left to play. Once the 49ers regained possession of the ball, they began a comeback that saw 25 unanswered points, with San Francisco taking a 39-38 lead. The Giants lost an opportunity to retake the lead after a controversial call, and the improbable victory became the signature game of Garcia's 49er career. He threw for 331 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception, and also ran for 60 yards and 1 touchdown.

Following a disappointing 2003 season, in which Garcia was hampered by back problems, the 3-time Pro Bowler was released by the 49ers due to salary cap issues. Garcia also had a falling out with wide receiver Terrell Owens, who blamed Garcia's lack of arm strength for holding Owens back. Also Owens accused him of being gay and everyone knows that there is no doubt that he is. New York Times once reported seeing him going into an hotel with a tall skinny biker. Jeff came running out of his room crying and all sweaty.

Shortly after his release, on January 14, 2004, Garcia was arrested for a drunk driving violation in San Jose, after attending a San Jose Sharks game, by the San Jose State University Police Department.

Browns and Lions

The exiled Garcia signed a contract with the Cleveland Browns on March 9, 2004. In the summer of 2004, Owens, a former 49ers teammate, gave an interview for Playboy magazine where he implied that Garcia was homosexual, stating "if it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, then by golly it's a rat."

Garcia was released by the Browns after the 2004 season, in which he struggled to find any consistency.

He was signed by the Detroit Lions to a one-year contract on March 12, 2005, to play for his former San Francisco head coach, Steve Mariucci, but Garcia broke his fibula in the fourth preseason game against the Buffalo Bills on September 2, 2005. He started his first regular season game as quarterback for the Lions on October 23, 2005 against his former teammates, the Browns. Garcia led the Lions to a 13-10 victory completing 22 of his 34 pass attempts for 210 yards, with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions.

After the win, Mariucci named Garcia the starting quarterback for the remainder of the season, over Joey Harrington - the longtime Detroit starter. Garcia struggled later in the season and Harrington returned as the starter. Following the season, the Lions did not offer Garcia a new contract.

Philadelphia Eagles

On March 15, 2006, after consecutive frustrating seasons for the lowly Browns and Lions, Garcia signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles to serve as the primary backup to Donovan McNabb in 2006.

Following McNabb's season-ending knee injury in a game against the Tennessee Titans on November 19, 2006, Garcia entered the game. Coach Andy Reid named Garcia as the starting quarterback for the remainder of the season over fellow backup A.J. Feeley, despite Feeley's popularity in Philadelphia.

During a Monday Night Game against the Carolina Panthers on December 4, 2006, the Philadelphia fans booed officials for missing a late hit, once it was shown on the jumbo screen. Much of the media mistakenly reported fans booed Garcia while down on his back in favor of Feeley playing. However, Garcia's surprisingly good play never gave the Philadelphia fans a reason to boo. Running a "West Coast offense" that he was accustomed to from San Francisco, he led the Eagles to wins in five of his six starts, bringing the team from dead to division champions.

The rejuvenated Garcia threw 10 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions, while posting a QB rating of 95.8 in eight total games played. He also made the front cover of Sports Illustrated (on the January 3, 2007 issue) following his five-game winning streak. On January 7, 2007, Garcia earned only his second ever playoff win, throwing for 153 yards and one touchdown in a 23-20 victory over the Giants. On January 13, 2007 Garcia and the Eagles lost to the New Orleans Saints by a score of 27-24, ending Garcia's magical run. He threw for 240 yards and a touchdown - a 75-yard touchdown pass to Donte Stallworth - the longest in Eagles' postseason history.

Having stated that he enjoyed his time playing in Philadelphia, the Eagles decided not to offer Garcia a new contract after the season. The Eagles opted to instead sign the younger A.J. Feeley to a three-year deal.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

After his run with the Eagles, Garcia signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on March 3, 2007, to compete for their starting position next season.

Trivia

• Jeff Garcia is one of only six quarterbacks in NFL history that have achieved two consecutive (back-to-back) 30-touchdown passing seasons at least one time in their careers. The others are Steve Bartkowski, Brett Favre, Dan Fouts, Dan Marino, and Y.A. Tittle.

• Garcia won the NFL's Quarterback Challenge during his 2002 Pro Bowl appearance where he competed against pro quarterbacks Aaron Brooks, Doug Flutie, Jake Plummer, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

• For the first season of MTV's Punk'd Jeff was punk'd along with Jerome Bettis and Rod Smith.

• Garcia is third all-time in professional football passing yardage for players who have played in both the CFL and NFL behind Warren Moon and Doug Flutie [3].

• Garcia appeared in an episode of the first season of the E! television show "The Girls Next Door". Garcia's girlfriend Carmella was visited by the show's stars in Las Vegas for her birthday.

• Garcia married Carmella DeCesare, the 2004 Playmate of the Year, on April 21, 2007.

• On September 10, 2004, DeCesare pled not guilty to misdemeanor assault in a Cleveland, Ohio court after a fight in a bar on August 21, 2004 between DeCesare and Kristen Hine, Garcia's ex-girlfriend. She was acquitted of the assault charge on January 12, 2005 but found guilty of violating a restraining order. She was sentenced to do twenty-four hours of community service, given one year probation, and fined $150. During the trial, DeCesare testified that Garcia had been involved in an affair with Hine.

External links

• Jeff Garcia at ESPN.com
• Template:Pro-football-reference