Daunte Culpepper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Daunte Culpepper | |
|---|---|
 Daunte Culpepper at the 2006 Miami Dolphins Training Camp. |
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| Date of birth | January 28, 1977 (age 30) |
| Place of birth |  Ocala, Florida |
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) |
| Weight | 265 lb (120 kg) |
| Position(s) | Quarterback |
| College | Central Florida |
| NFL Draft | 1999 / Round 1 / Pick 11 |
| Career Highlights | |
| Pro Bowls | 2001, 2004, 2005 |
| Awards | NFL awards College awards |
| Honors | Florida's "Mr. Football" as a high school senior in 1994 |
| Retired #s | Central Florida Golden Knights' #8 |
| Records | Holds several college records |
| Stats | |
| Statistics | |
| Team(s) | |
| 1999-2005 2006-present |
Minnesota Vikings Miami Dolphins |
Daunte Culpepper (born January 28, 1977 in Ocala, Florida) is an American football quarterback who currently plays for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. He played collegiately at Central Florida.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Daunte was raised by a foster mother, Emma Culpepper, as his mother was incarcerated. They lived in Ocala, Florida, where he attended Vanguard High School.
[edit] High school career
While attending Vanguard High School in Ocala, Culpepper lettered in football, baseball, basketball, and powerlifting.
[edit] College career
He struggled to get into college, not being able to get a high enough SAT score. Marquee football schools, such as the University of Florida, backed off from recruiting him when it was assumed he would not qualify. The University of Central Florida, however, offered to tutor him and help him achieve the necessary scores, and through this avenue he was able to qualify. Although the big football schools then came looking, Culpepper maintained his loyalty and enrolled at UCF.
Although he had a love for baseball, Culpepper committed to play football at UCF as a quarterback. He rewrote virtually all of the school's quarterback records (more than 30 in all), many held by Darin Slack since 1987. He also set an NCAA record for single-season completion percentage at 73.6%, breaking a 15-year-old mark set by Steve Young (71.3%). Culpepper accomplished a feat equaled by only two others in NCAA history when he topped the 10,000 yard passing mark and the 1,000 yard rushing mark in his career. He finished his career sixth on the NCAA's all-time total offense list for all divisions with 12,459 yards and was responsible for 108 career touchdowns (84 passing, 24 rushing).
After his junior season, he was being lured out of the collegiate ranks to enter the draft and join the NFL, but instead returned to UCF to graduate and play his senior year. UCF posted a 9-2 record, losing only to Purdue and Auburn.
[edit] College awards
- 1998 Sammy Baugh National Passer of the Year Award
- The Sports Network’s National Offensive Player of the Year with Ricky Williams
- 1998 First-team All-America selection by The Sports Network
[edit] Professional career
[edit] Minnesota Vikings
Culpepper was such an athlete he had a tough problem choosing baseball or football. In the draft he was being wanted by the New York Yankees, and Culpepper was eyeing his baseball career in New York, because then-Saints Mike Ditka was looking to draft Culpepper as a tight end. But Culpepper decided to take his chance at the NFL, and was drafted as drafted eleventh overall in the first round of the 1999 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings; he was the fourth quarterback chosen, after Tim Couch (1st overall), Donovan McNabb (2nd), and Akili Smith (3rd). In his first year, Culpepper saw limited playing time and did not throw a pass. His large build (6'4", 240 lb) and quick feet are considered a great advantage at his position, allowing him to avoid tackles while passing or running.
In 2000, he was named Minnesota's starting quarterback. He led the Vikings to victory in the first seven games of the season, and helped them finish 11-5 and advance to the NFC Championship game, where they were defeated by the New York Giants. During the season, Culpepper passed for 3,937 yards, 33 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions. He also rushed for 470 yards and seven touchdowns. One of Culpepper's most notable moments was against the Buffalo Bills, when he threw a pass across his body and the field to Randy Moss for a 39-yard touchdown pass, although the pass was atleast 60 net yards. At the end of the year, he was selected to his first Pro Bowl.
Culpepper struggled over the next two seasons, 2001 and 2002, throwing 14 touchdowns to 13 interceptions in 2001 and 18 touchdowns to 23 interceptions in 2002. The Vikings finished those seasons 5-11 and 6-10, respectively. Culpepper made a comeback in 2003, leading the Vikings to a 9-7 record, although they missed the playoffs. He passed for 3,479 yards, 25 touchdowns, and only 11 interceptions, and earned his second trip to the Pro Bowl. Another notable moment occurred in this campaign, when in the 20-16 comeback win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Culpepper ran the ball in for an 8-yard score. On the run, Culpepper barrelled into Derrick Brooks and Shelton Quarles, but was the first player up after the score.
In 2004, if not for Peyton Manning, Daunte would have likely been named NFL MVP. Culpepper enjoyed his best statistical season as a professional and, though they were only 8-8, the Vikings reached the playoffs for the second time with Culpepper. Passing for a league-leading 4,717 yards, a Viking-record 39 touchdowns, and only 11 interceptions, Culpepper was named to his third career Pro Bowl. Culpepper also broke Dan Marino's NFL record for combined passing and rushing yards, amassing 5,123 total yards. His 2,323 rushing yards from 2000-2004 also made him only the fourth quarterback in NFL history to run for more than 2,300 yards in a five-season period. (Michael Vick had 3,570 from 2002-2006; Randall Cunningham had 3,232 from 1986-1990; and Steve McNair had 2,387 from 1997-2001). Culpepper's career rushing average of 29.4 yards per game is fourth-best among quarterbacks in NFL history. Only Vick (52.1 yds/g), Cunningham (30.6 yds/g), and Bobby Douglass (29.8 yds/g) have averaged more rushing yards per game during their QB careers. After the 2004 season, Culpepper said the game had "slowed down" for him, saying "I feel like a Jedi Knight."[1][2][3]
His first two games of the 2005 season were disappointments, as the Vikings went 0-2 while Culpepper threw no touchdown passes, eight interceptions, and fumbled twice. Culpepper rebounded in the third week, throwing for 300 yards and three touchdowns while beating the New Orleans Saints. In 2005 he had six touchdowns, twelve interceptions, and five fumbles before getting injured in the seventh game (only winning two games). On October 30, he suffered a knee injury during a 38-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Culpepper sustained damage to three of the four major ligaments in the knee: the ACL, PCL and MCL. He was placed on injured reserve and began rehabilitation treatment near his home in Florida. Backup Brad Johnson took over in the Carolina game and after losing that one, they won the next six straight games and the team ended up with a 9-7 record. Daunte's final career won-loss record as a starter for the Vikings was 37-40 (48.1% winning percentage).
On December 14, 2005 Culpepper and three other players were charged with indecent conduct, disorderly conduct and lewd or lascivious conduct for their involvement in the 2005 Minnesota Vikings boat cruise scandal, according to court papers and news reports. The maximum penalty they could have faced was 90 days in jail. His defense contended there was racial discrimination among the prosecution. On April 4, 2006, however the charges against Culpepper were dropped owing to a lack of probable cause.
Culpepper was in negotiations with Zygi Wilf, the new owner of the Vikings, in regard to his contract with the team. Rumors surfaced that Culpepper was unhappy with his status in Minnesota due to the re-emergence of Brad Johnson following his injury. The Vikings wanted him to rehabilitate in Minnesota because they were not satisfied with his level of treatment in Florida, Culpepper refused this request. [1]
Later on, Culpepper expressed his desire to be out of Minnesota. According to the Associated Press, Culpepper said that if he was not traded, he wanted to be released. Culpepper said "because of the fundamental differences I have with management regarding the approach to my personal and professional life, I think it is the best business decision for both parties to go our separate ways."[4] Culpepper was not insistent on being traded to the Miami Dolphins, and orchestrated his trade without the services of his former agent. New Vikings coach Brad Childress likened his dealings with Culpepper to his dealings with Terrell Owens and said he never had a conversation with Daunte that didn't involve his contract and getting more money instead of football and the team. [2]
[edit] Miami Dolphins
Culpepper was traded to Nick Saban's Miami Dolphins in exchange for a second round draft pick. He changed his number from 11 (which he wore in Minnesota) back to his original number 8, the same number he had at Vanguard High School and the University of Central Florida. Culpepper has also noted that in his hometown to this day and even while wearing #11 for the Vikings, he's still referred to as "Eight" as a nickname.
Although still recovering from a serious knee injury the previous year, Culpepper was able to attend and participate in all of the Dolphins offseason practices, including training camp. In early August, he made it public that he felt his knee was about 85-90% fully recovered. In his preseason game against Carolina he walked up to cornerback Chris Gamble and thanked him for injuring him, Daunte said if Gamble hadn't hit him like that he'd still be in Minnesota.[5]
He was off to a rocky start in his first two regular-season games, losing both of them with fans booing Culpepper and calling for backup Joey Harrington in the second game.[6] But he had an improved performance in the third game, winning 13-10 over the Tennessee Titans who had the second to last ranked defense in the NFL. However, the next week the Houston Texans with the last ranked defense in the NFL won their first game of the season against the Dolphins, although Culpepper didn't play a bad game.
At this point the Dolphins were 1-3 and their opponents were 1-11 when not playing Miami. After the Houston loss, coach Nick Saban noticed Culpepper having trouble in practice due to a nagging bruised shoulder injury and decided to rest Culpepper up a couple of practices.[7] On that Friday's practice Culpepper and Saban got into a loud, heated argument during practice. Saban had decided to bench Daunte until his shoulder recovers and he gets more of the mobility back that he lost due to his knee injury.[8]
On November 30, 2006, Culpepper underwent arthroscopic surgery on his previously injured knee to remove a piece of loose cartilage that was causing Culpepper difficulty [3]. On December 12, 2006 Culpepper was placed on Injured Reserve, officially ending his 2006 season. Head coach Nick Saban stated that although Culpepper was making progress in his rehabilitation, he and the medical staff felt it would be difficult for Culpepper to play in the next three weeks.[9]
On December 25, 2006, Steve Young appeared as a guest announcer during the Dolphins' second to last game and criticised Culpepper's work ethic. Culpepper saw this on TV from his box suite at Dolphin stadium and immediately walked down to the ESPN booth and waited for Steve Young to finish, then Daunte confronted Young about it and said he hasn't missed any meetings and that's not who he is. Young apologized and said though he heard Culpepper had been missing meetings he should've checked with Daunte first before repeating it. [4] After the season coach Saban left for a head coaching job at the University of Alabama after repeatedly denying rumors that he would leave. On January 21, 2007 the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that despite public assertions by Saban, privately his decision to bench Culpepper actually had little to do with his knee and more to do with his head.[5]
After the arrival of new head coach Cam Cameron, the starting job seems up for grabs, with both Culpepper, backup Cleo Lemon, whom Cameron has worked with in his previous job as offensive coordinator with the Chargers, and various other quarterbacks (most notably, Kansas City's Trent Green, who has been mentioned as being highly touted by Cameron) in the mix.
[edit] NFL awards
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[edit] College records
[edit] NCAA records
- Most Consecutive Completions to Start First Game as a Freshman: 12 vs. Eastern Kentucky on 8/31/95
[edit] UCF records
- Career 300-Yard Passing Games: 8
- Single Season Completion Percentage: .625 (238 of 381) in 1997
- Single Season 300-Yard Passing Games: 5 in 1997
- Single Season Interception Percentage: .026 (10 interceptions in 381 attempts) in 1997
- Single Season Rushing Yardage by a Quarterback: 438 in 1997
- Single Game Total Offense: 480 vs. Northeast Louisiana on 11/1/97
- Consecutive Pass Completions - Single Game: 15 vs. Samford on 10/11/97
- Single Rushing Yardage by a Quarterback: 95 vs. Northeast Louisiana on 11/1/97
- Touchdown Passes in Consecutive Games: 14
- Consecutive 300-Yard Passing Games: 4
- Consecutive Passes Without an Interception: 117
- Longest Run by a Quarterback: 75 vs. Kent on 10/4/97
[edit] Statistics
College Statistics
| Year | Team | Passing Yards | TD | INT |
| 1995 | UCF | 2071 | 12 | 10 |
| 1996 | UCF | 2565 | 19 | 15 |
| 1997 | UCF | 3086 | 25 | 10 |
| 1998 | UCF | 3690 | 28 | 7 |
NFL Statistics
| Year | Team | Passing Yards | TD | INT | Rating |
| 1999 | MIN | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- |
| 2000 | MIN | 3937 | 33 | 16 | 98.0 |
| 2001 | MIN | 2612 | 14 | 13 | 83.3 |
| 2002 | MIN | 3853 | 18 | 23 | 75.3 |
| 2003 | MIN | 3479 | 25 | 11 | 96.4 |
| 2004 | MIN | 4717 | 39 | 11 | 110.9 |
| 2005 | MIN | 1564 | 6 | 12 | 72.0 |
| 2006 | MIA | 929 | 2 | 3 | 77.0 |
- Passing Career to date: 21,091 Passing yards, 137-TD, 89-INT, QB Rating 90.8
- Rushing Career to date: 2,496 Rushing yards, 30-TD
[edit] Trivia
- Earned All-America honors and was named Florida’s Mr. Football by the Florida Athletic Coaches Association.
- Charity work while with the Vikings included working with the African American Adoption Agency (has been associated with AAAA since his rookie season and hosts Daunte Culpepper AAAA Celebrity Golf Tournament fundraiser) and serving as a keynote speaker at the United Way Reason To Be Thankful celebration.
- Was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 26th round of the 1995 Major League Baseball Draft.
- High school coach, Alex Castaneda, was one of five finalists for NFL High School Football Coach of the Year Award in 2000.
- During the 2003 offseason won the EA Sports Madden Bowl title among NFL players.
- Was featured in a spring 2004 production of Fox Sports Net's "Beyond the Glory," focusing on his remarkable childhood and development as a football player through high school to the NFL.
- Among all qualified quarterbacks in NFL history (at least 1,500 passing attempts), Culpepper ranks sixth in passer rating. [6]
- He once walked 5 yards on his hands to win a wager of $500 from a fellow Viking.
- Culpepper also appeared on the cover of the Madden NFL 2002 video game, and subsequently proceeded to have the worst year of his career until 2005, keeping with the superstition of the 'Madden curse'. Then-teammate Randy Moss appeared in the two previous years on the cover of Sega's rival football title NFL 2K and NFL 2K1.
- Culpepper also is one of the few players in the NFL to average over 1 fumble a game. (Many say this is due to his relatively small hands.)
- Culpepper's touchdown celebration is moving his hands in the motion that a basketball referee makes when calling traveling. This is due to the fact that in high school while on the basketball team, the referee called traveling when Culpepper was running in the ball for the game winning lay-up in the state championship. The celebration is featured in Madden NFL 07 and can be seen in its television commercial where Culpepper is playing against Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.startribune.com/150/story/168640.html
- ^ http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/4845488
- ^ http://cbs.sportsline.com/print/nfl/teams/report/MIN/8793803
- ^ http://sportsline.com/nfl/story/9292668
- ^ http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/recap/NFL_20060824_MIA@CAR
- ^ http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_football_dolphins/2006/09/culpeppers_stru.html
- ^ http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/football/15713421.htm
- ^ http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/football/15713504.htm
- ^ http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/football/pro/dolphins/sfl-1212dolqb,0,2176826.story?coll=sfla-dolphins-front
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official Website
- Daunte Culpepper at MiamiDolphins.com
- Daunte Culpepper at NFL.com
- Daunte Culpepper at ESPN.com
- Pro-Football-Reference.com - career statistics.
- Daunte Culpepper fantasy news and stats from Sandbox Fantasy News
| Preceded by Gus Frerotte |
Miami Dolphins Starting Quarterbacks 2006 |
Succeeded by Joey Harrington |
| Preceded by Jeff George |
Minnesota Vikings Starting Quarterbacks 2000-2005 |
Succeeded by Brad Johnson |
| Preceded by Darin Hinshaw |
Central Florida Starting Quarterbacks 1995-1998 |
Succeeded by Vic Penn |
| Preceded by Eddie George |
Madden NFL Cover Athlete Madden '02 |
Succeeded by Marshall Faulk |
| Miami Dolphins Starting Quarterbacks |
|---|
| Wood • Bo. Griese • Strock • Woodley • Marino • Fiedler • Br. Griese • Feeley • Frerotte • Culpepper • Harrington • Lemon |
| Madden NFL Cover Athletes |
|
'00: Barry Sanders | '00: Dorsey Levens | '01: Eddie George | '02: Daunte Culpepper | '03: Marshall Faulk | '04: Michael Vick | '05: Ray Lewis | '06: Donovan McNabb | '07: Shaun Alexander Related: The "Madden Curse" |
Categories: 1977 births | American adoptees | American football quarterbacks | Living people | Miami Dolphins players | Minnesota Vikings players | National Conference Pro Bowl players | People from Florida | People from Ocala, Florida | University of Central Florida alumni | UCF Golden Knights football players
