If you have to look carefully, then Harrington’s life after football spells more of a success story than his years on the field. His football career had a span of six years (unsuccessful ones at that!), and he had been lugging the ball for three different teams.
After his retirement, he opened a fancy sports-themed bar, which did not run for a long time. Then, he tried his hand at becoming a TV personality for Fox Sports and ultimately founded the Harrington Family Foundation. He now works in this foundation and helps to gather funds for students going for higher education in Oregon.
Joey Harrington
Harrington is a perfect example of fizzling out when being too good too soon! He appeared on the cover of NCCA Football 2013, a video game, but he could not take this success up to a professional level. Though he had quite a success in college, his name started to fade. At Oregon, Harrington had a compilation of 25-3 records in the span of his successful four-year career. After this period, which included bowl games as well, he declared for the NFL draft. The highest point of his career was when the Detroit Lions considered him third overall in the 2002 NFL draft.
Though this was considered to be the peak of his career, Harrington had reportedly said that the four seasons in Detroit were so horrible that it averted his interest in football altogether. It seems that Detroit certainly has a reputation for playing with people’s emotions when it comes to football!
Byron Leftwich
Don’t you remember Leftwich for the famous playing-with-a-broken-bone incident? Mostly known for making a mark at Marshall, the world remembers Leftwich today for brave-heartedly finishing a drive while their shin bone had been cracked! In his bid against Akron, he made sure that the people did not forget him too soon. However, if you are an ardent follower of the NFL, you would, of course, know that injuries are an inherent part of the players’ lives in the NFL quarterbacks.
Jacksonville took him as a seventh overall in the 2003 NFL Draft. Though he was a part of Jacksonville for the entire four seasons, his luck had been hard on him, and he could never play a full season due to several injuries. When he left the Jags, Leftwich had been summoned by various teams. One among these was Pittsburgh, for whom, in 2009, he had even won a Super Bowl ring as a backup.
Never Realy Said Goodbye
Leftwich did not leave football entirely and became a coach afterward. He built up his career in Arizona as a quarterback coach intern. His luck shone within a span of one year; Leftwich was offered the position of a full-time coach.
As a successful coach, his testing time came when, on 10th April 2018, Josh Rosen was drafted by the Cardinals as the tenth overall. It rests upon Rosen’s career now, which will determine whether Leftwich will be considered for the head coaching position.
Daunte Culpepper
What is the recurring word that you constantly hear while following the NFL quarterbacks? ‘A player has been injured!’ Injury is the most common theme in the lives of the players and has the capability to ruin someone’s career! While some players are able to get themselves back on the field after a gap, others might not be that lucky. Culpepper had the share of both sides of the extremes. He lost his mojo after experiencing a devastating knee injury.
In the 1999 NFL Draft, the UCF quarterbacks were taken by the Vikings with the eleventh pick. Culpepper, during his time as a Viking, made a record-breaking career by overthrowing the great Randy Moss.