Sean Salisbury

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Sean Salisbury
Sean Salisbury in 1993
Date of birth	March 9, 1963
Place of birth	Long Beach, California
Position(s)	Quarterback
College	USC
Stats
Statistics	Pro Football Reference DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1987 1988-1990 1992-1994 1996	Indianapolis Colts Winnipeg Blue Bombers (CFL) Minnesota Vikings San Diego Chargers

Richard Sean Salisbury (born March 9, 1963 in Long Beach, California) is an ESPN football analyst and former NFL quarterback.

1 Early life
2 College career
3 Professional career
4 Broadcaster
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early life

Salisbury attended Orange Glen high school in Escondido, California.

During Sean's senior year in High School he was the highest recruited Quarterback in the nation, choosing USC over UCLA, BYU, Stanford, Notre Dame, Cal, University of Arizona, and Arizona State. A top high school basketball player as well, UCLA and USC both offered Salisbury basketball scholarships.

Many high school and college coaches felt Salisbury was a better basketball player than football player. Salisbury averaged 26.5 points per game his senior year and was a high school All-American basketball player.

Salisbury hit over .320 his senior year of high school on the Orange Glen baseball team, playing both in the outfield as well as pitching.

Younger brother Brett Salisbury was a two-time All-American collegiate quarterback, professional european QB, top male model and actor.

[edit] College career

Salisbury played college football at the University of Southern California. Although many attempts were made for Sean to play basketball at the University, Salisbury never agreed as he wanted to "focus on football only."

[edit] Professional career

During his eight-year career, Salisbury played for the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, and San Diego Chargers, as well as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League.

In 1988, Sean Salisbury led the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to a Grey Cup victory over Matt Dunigan and the British Columbia Lions.

[edit] Broadcaster

After getting his start on the Comedy Central show BattleBots, Salisbury went on to become an NFL analyst on ESPN, appearing on SportsCenter and NFL Live. He is well known for the good-natured teasing of fellow analyst John Clayton in the Sportscenter segment Four Downs. Clayton once famously got back at Salisbury. During an argument, Salisbury attempted to prove his point by telling Clayton, "You never played in the NFL." Clayton, noting that Salisbury spent most of his career as a backup quarterback on the sidelines (he received about a year's worth of NFL snaps in an eight year career), fired back, "neither did you!"

In 2004, Sean was offered a job with the Arizona Cardinals by his former coach and fellow co-worker at ESPN, Dennis Green, to become their new quarterbacks coach. Salisbury pondered for weeks, but eventually declined and stayed on with ESPN. Salisbury's salary at ESPN is reportedly over $1 million dollars per year with the sports network.

Salisbury was hired as a consultant for the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard. On the set, Sean taught Adam Sandler proper quarterback mechanics, cadences, and footwork. Sandler later offered Salisbury a role in the 2006 film, The Benchwarmers.

On May 9, 2006 Salisbury began broadcasting on ESPN Radio 1000, Chicago with Steve Rosenbloom. He also did guest spots on the ESPN Classic comedy program Cheap Seats, where he provided his signature breakdowns of the action in a more comedic manner. During March 2006, it appeared Salisbury was getting impatient with the slow pace of discussions in the sports radio format where filling up hours of airtime tends to encourage verbose and incessant discussion by sports radio hosts. In contrast, Salibury's partner Rosenbloom seemed comfortable spending large tracts of time discussing the Chicago Bears-Lance Briggs controversy. A noticeable difference in style was evident when Salisbury appeared to want to move on to newer topics of discussion in a quicker style indicative of [ESPN][SportCenter].

In November 2006, Sean's father Richard Salisbury was diagnosed with Mesothelioma cancer. A median survival time of 6 - 12 months after presentation, is expected, as the cancer is very aggressive. The exposure to the asbestos that caused the cancer occurred many years to several decades before the disease appeared.

On March 10, 2007, Salisbury had his No. 12 football jersey retired at his alma matter, Orange Glen High School. An honor no other person in school history has ever received. "I can't believe I'm having my number retired like John Elway, Marcus Allen, Larry Bird or Magic Johnson, Salisbury said. "In my own little world, I will always cherish being the first at my high school to be honored like this."