Michael Bishop (football player)

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Michael Bishop
Date of birth:	May 15, 1976 (1976-05-15) (age 32)
Place of birth:	Galveston, Texas
Career information
Status:	Active
Position(s):	QB
Height:	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight:	215 lb (98 kg)
Jersey №:	17
College:	Kansas State
NFL Draft:	1999 / Round: 7 / Pick: 277
Organizations
As player:
1999-2000 2001 2004-2005 2006 2007 2007 2002-present	New England Patriots (NFL) Frankfurt Galaxy (NFLE) Grand Rapids Rampage (AFL) Chicago Rush (AFL) Kansas City Brigade (AFL) Grand Rapids Rampage (AFL) Toronto Argonauts (CFL)
Career highlights and Awards
Awards:	1998 Davey O'Brien Award
Stats at CFL.ca

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

[edit] High school and college football career

[edit] High school football career

Bishop was an outstanding football and baseball player at Willis High School in Willis, Texas. A two-year starter who averaged 221.2 yards per game passing as a senior, he was an All-Montgomery County, all-city and all-state selection in football. In baseball, he was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 28th round of the 1995 Major League Baseball Draft.

[edit] College football career

[edit] Blinn Junior College

Bishop initially attended Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas, where as a freshman, he led the Buccaneers to a 12-0 record and the NJCAA National Championship. He rushed for 387 yards including three scores and passed for 1,712 yards and 18 touchdowns. His sophomore year, he once again led Blinn to a 12-0 record and an NJCAA National Championship to become the first team to ever to win back-to-back titles. He was voted honorable mention All-Conference and controlled an offense which accumulated 3,086 yards rushing, including 47 touchdowns and scored a total of 438 points (36.5 avg. per game). He passed for 972 yards, including nine touchdowns, and rushed for 265 yards and four scores. After his two years at Blinn, he played baseball for one season at Independence Community College in Independence, Kansas in the spring of 1997.

[edit] Kansas State University

He was heavily recruited by a number of Division I programs as a defensive back, but decided upon Kansas State University, as head coach Bill Snyder was the only coach to offer Bishop the opportunity to play the quarterback position.

In 1997, his first year at Kansas State, Bishop started all 11 regular season games and completed 80 of 185 passes for 1,557 yards and 13 touchdowns. He also rushed for 556 yards and added nine rushing touchdowns. Bishop was voted second-team All-Big 12 Conference by the league’s coaches and Big 12 Newcomer of the year by Associated Press. During the 1997 season, Kansas State won 11 games including a Fiesta Bowl victory over Syracuse University and Donovan McNabb by a score of 35-21. Kansas State's only loss in the 1997 season came to the eventual national champion Nebraska Cornhuskers. The loss was the first in Bishop's collegiate career.

In Bishop's senior year, the Wildcats were considered a contender for the 1998 national championship. That year, he broke school season records with 2,844 yards passing and 23 touchdowns with only 4 interceptions, He led the team with 14 rushing touchdowns and finished second with 748 yards on 177 attempts. He passed for 440 yards and four touchdowns on 23 of 40 passes vs. Northeast Louisiana, his four touchdown passes tying a school record and his 440 passing yards ranking him second in school history. He passed for 306 yards and a pair of touchdowns and rushed 25 times for 140 yards (5.6 avg.) with two scores and was voted Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week as the Wildcats defeated Nebraska for the first time in 30 years. Bishop led the Wildcats to an undefeated regular season winning the Big 12 North title, putting Kansas State in 1st place in the AP Poll and 2nd in the Coaches Poll. Only a week later, the Wildcats' national championship dreams were put to an end. In the Big 12 Championship on December 5, 1998, Kansas State lost in double overtime to an underdog Texas A&M Aggies team by the score of 36-33. Bishop did run for a touchdown in the game, which occasionally airs on ESPN Classic.

Bishop started in all 25 games (including bowl games) during his two seasons at Kansas State and posted a 22-3 (.880) record. He received 792 votes, including 41 first place votes, but finished second in the 1998 Heisman Trophy voting to Ricky Williams. He finished his Wildcat career fourth on the all-time passing list with 4,401 yards and broke Chad May’s career record with 36 TD passes despite playing only two seasons. He ranks second only behind Lynn Dickey in Kansas State history with 5,715 yards of total offense. Also established a Kansas State record with 59 total touchdowns (rushing and passing). After his senior season, he was voted a consensus All-American and All-Big Twelve Conference selection and was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.

[edit] Professional football career

[edit] NFL career

Bishop signed with the New England Patriots in 1999, but was inactive for all but one game. 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, though this never happened. [1]

In 2001, Bishop played for the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe. He started six games for the Galaxy, and completed 76 of 153 passes for 1,090 yards, including 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also gained 244 yards on 35 carries (7.0 avg.) and scored one rushing touchdown. In spite of having played well in Europe, Bishop was released by the Patriots in August, 2001. Bishop was then signed by the Green Bay Packers but was cut before the regular season.

[edit] Arena Football League career

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. In addition to this record, he also holds the AFL record for most rushing yards in a season with 459. 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. On May 15, 2007, Bishop was placed on the Rampage's reserve list under the "left squad" category. This move was done to clear the way for Bishop's return to the Canadian Football League and essentially put an end to his AFL career.

[edit] Canadian Football League career

In 2002, 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 CFL draft pick, and a conditional 2003 CFL 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.

In 2003, 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 professional football.

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 helped the Boatmen win the 92nd Grey Cup championship that season.

On April 21, 2006, the Argonauts released Bishop only to re-acquire him four months later on August 11, more than halfway into the season]. During that 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 threw 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. Bishop's play in the playoffs has led some to believe that he may have finally turned the corner in his CFL career.

During the offseason, it was learned that the Arena Football League's schedule had been shifted later into the year, thereby creating an overlap of the AFL's post-season with the CFL's training camp period. With Bishop signed to an AFL team, there were concerns throughout the CFL's offseason about whether or not he would report to the Argonauts' 2007 training camp. However on May 14, 2007, Bishop returned to Toronto and participated in an informal workout with some of his Argonauts teammates at the University of Toronto at Mississauga after being placed on the exempt list by his AFL team, the Grand Rapids Rampage for the purpose of quitting the team. [6]

Bishop backed up Damon Allen in the Argonaut's week one loss to the B.C. Lions and came into the game in the fourth quarter throwing a touchdown to Michael Palmer and having another touchdown to Andre Talbot called back due to a penalty. Bishop's performance and Allen's struggles led to Bishop being named the week two starter for the Argonauts against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on July 7, 2007 marking his first start since November, 2005. Bishop threw three touchdown passes to power the Argos to a lopsided 30-5 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. In a July 12, 2007 game against the Calgary Stampeders, while enjoying a second straight solid start, Bishop fractured his distal radius while being tackled on a run to the Stampeders' one-yard line and was scheduled to miss 6-8 weeks of action.[7]

The Argonauts went 0-6 with Bishop out of the lineup, however since his return the Argos went 9-1 and finished in first place in the CFL's Eastern Division. Bishop finished the 2007 regular season with 2,920 passing yards, 22 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Bishop led the Toronto Argonauts into the 2007 CFL Eastern Division final where they were defeated 19-9 by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Bishop completed under 50% of his passes and while he did throw for over 300 passing yards, he also failed to connect on multiple passes in crunch time. He went 9-1 as a starter in the regular season.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Bishop is the first cousin of comedian, R&B singer, and Oscar winning actor Jamie Foxx (whose birth name is Eric Bishop).
• Bishop currently resides in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
• Bishop can throw a football over 50 yards while kneeling.

[edit] External links

• ArenaFootball.com Profile
• Bishop's bio on the New England Patriots' alumi bios page
• Toronto Argonauts page
• ArenaFan.com Profile
• The Football Database's NFL Europe Profile