Michael Bishop (football player)

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Michael Bishop
Date of birth May 15, 1976 (age 30)
Place of birth Flag of United States Galveston, Texas
Position(s) Quarterback
College Kansas State
NFL Draft 1999 / Round 7/ Pick 227
Stats
Statistics
Team(s)
1999-2000
2001
2002-present
2004-2005, 2007
2006
2007		 New England Patriots
Frankfurt Galaxy
Toronto Argonauts
Grand Rapids Rampage
Chicago Rush
Kansas City Brigade

Michael Paul Bishop (born May 15, 1976 in Galveston, Texas) is a quarterback in the Arena Football League with the Grand Rapids Rampage and the Canadian Football League with the Toronto Argonauts. Bishop previously played with the NFL's New England Patriots during the 2000 season. He was also one of the best quarterbacks in the country during his days at Kansas State, beating out UCLA's Cade McNown for the 1998 Davey O' Brien award.

Contents

[edit] Junior College Years

Bishop attended Blinn College (Brenham, Texas) and he led his team to a 24-0 mark and two NJCAA National Titles.

[edit] The NCAA

Bishop played NCAA football as a member of Kansas State University where he was an All-American. He was heavily recruited by a number of Division I programs as a Defensive Back, but decided upon Kansas State as Head Coach Bill Snyder was the only coach to offer Bishop an opportunity to play his desired position of Quarterback. In 1997 in his first year at Kansas State, Bishop competed for the starting Quarterback position with Jonathon Beasley, another prized Quarterback recruit from the 1996 class. During the 1997 football season, Kansas State won 11 games including a Fiesta Bowl victory over Syracuse University and Donavon McNabb by a score of 35-21. Kansas State's only loss in the 1997 season came to the University of Nebraska, the eventual National Champions. At this point in time this was the only loss in Bishop's collegiate career, and set Kansas State up for a National Champioship run of their own in the 1998 season. After the 1998 season, he won the Davey O'Brien Award and finished second in the voting for the Heisman Trophy to Ricky Williams.

[edit] The NFL

Bishop signed with the New England Patriots in 1999, but was inactive for all but one game. In training camp that year, Drew Bledsoe was asked by a young fan who could throw farther, him or Michael Bishop. Bledsoe's response was Bishop. This was one of the first of many signs that fans wanted Bishop to be named the Patriots starter. It was not until the 2000 season that he actually played in his first ever professional game. During that season, he saw only limited playing time, passing nine times with three completions. After he threw a 44-yard Hail Mary touchdown at the end of the first half in a game against the Indianapolis Colts, several Patriots fans, upset with the poor play of starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe throughout the season, demanded that coach Bill Belichick name Bishop the starter. [1]

In 2001, Bishop played for the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe. He was released by the Patriots in August 2001.

[edit] The CFL

Although he has immense physical talent, he has never been able to translate that to solid results on the CFL field since joining the league in 2002. In that year, Bishop was traded from the Calgary Stampeders (who owned his CFL rights) to the Toronto Argonauts along with two 2002 late round draft picks for Michel Dupuis, a 2003 first-round draft pick, and a conditional 2003 draft pick. Bishop had some brief stints as a starting quarterback with the Argonauts, but was predominantly a backup. Between 2002-2005, he completed 206-of-446 passes for 3,192 yards, 17 touchdowns and 32 interceptions for a quarterback rating of 53.2. He also rushed for 768 yards and 7 touchdowns. With his propensity for throwing more interceptions than touchdown passes and an inclination to run with the football, his quarterback intelligence came into question by many CFL fans. Despite the criticism, he performed satisfactorily while Damon Allen was injured during the 2004 CFL season and won a Grey Cup championship with them that year. On April 21, 2006, the Argonauts released Bishop only to re-acquire him four months later on August 11, more than halfway into the 2006 CFL season. In this season, the bulk of Bishop's playing time involved being inserted into the game exclusively during short yardage situations. During the 2006 East division semi-final, however, Bishop came in to replace Damon Allen late in the 4th quarter and heroically threw two spectacular touchdown passes to Arland Bruce III and R. Jay Soward, propelling the Argonauts to the East division Final.

In the 2006 Eastern Final against the Montreal Alouettes, Bishop again found himself replacing the struggling Damon Allen in the 3rd quarter. Down 23-3, Bishop was able to throw touchdown passes to Arland Bruce III and Michael Palmer and was able to guide the Argonauts to within a touchdown of the comeback, however the Argonauts fell short losing 33-24. However, Bishop's play in the playoffs has led some to believe that he may have finally turned the corner in his CFL career.

In 2003, Michael Bishop was put in with just seconds left in a playoff game against the Montreal Alouettes. Since the Argos were not within field goal range, he was to throw a Hail Mary pass in hope of a miracle. He did not receive his miracle but, he was seen throwing the ball approximately 90 yards down the field, thus showing he has one of the strongest arms in pro football.

[edit] The AFL

In his first AFL season in 2004, Bishop seldom saw any game action with the Grand Rapids Rampage playing in only five games. In 2005, Bishop started in 15 games for the Rampage and led the league in rushing yards, rushing attempts, yards per rush, and rushing touchdowns. He also set a record for most rushing yards in a single game on February 5, 2005 against the Colorado Crush by becoming the first player to ever rush for 100 yards in an AFL game. Because of his rushing statistics as a quarterback combined with his strong arm, comparisons between him and NFL quarterback Michael Vick were made. Some fans and sports writers have labeled him the "Michael Vick of the AFL". [2][3] [4][5]

In 2006, Bishop signed with the Chicago Rush. Despite the buzz he created in 2005, Bishop was relegated to sharing the backup quarterback duty behind Matt D'Orazio with Asad Abdul-Khaliq. Bishop received very little playing time since joining the Rush in 2006, though some of that was a result of a leave of absence he took from the team due to the passing of his mother. The Rush went on to win ArenaBowl XX that season.

On October 31, 2006, Bishop signed with the Kansas City Brigade. However, on March 13, 2007, Bishop was traded to the Grand Rapids Rampage, marking his second stint with the team since 2005.

[edit] Trivia


[edit] External links

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