Sean Salisbury

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Sean Salisbury
Sean Salisbury in 1993
Position(s):
Quarterback
Jersey #(s):
8, 12
Born: March 9, 1963 (1963-03-09) (age 45)
Long Beach, California
Career Information
Year(s): 19871996
Undrafted in 1987
College: Southern California
Professional Teams
Career Stats
TD-INT     19-19
Yards     3,824
QB Rating     72.9
Stats at NFL.com
Career Highlights and Awards
  • No notable achievements

Richard Sean Salisbury (born March 9, 1963) is a former ESPN football analyst and former NFL and CFL quarterback.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Salisbury attended Orange Glen High School in Escondido, California. During Sean's senior year at Orange Glen High School, he was a highly recruited quarterback in the nation,[1] choosing USC over UCLA, BYU, Stanford, Notre Dame, Cal, Arizona, and Arizona State.

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. UCLA and USC both offered Salisbury basketball scholarships. In addition, Salisbury hit over .320 his senior year of high school on the Orange Glen baseball team, playing in the outfield as well as pitching.

Sean's younger brother, Brett Salisbury was a two time All-American Collegiate Quarterback, professional European quarterback, and author of The Transform Diet, due out August 2008.


Sean has three children, Dylan, Dodge, and Shea.[2]

[edit] Professional career

During his ten-year career, Salisbury played for the Seattle Seahawks, Indianapolis Colts, Minnesota Vikings, and San Diego Chargers, as well as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League. In 1988, 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, Salisbury 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 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. He has recently covered for Mike Golic on Mike and Mike in the Morning.

In 2007, Salisbury had his No. 12 football jersey retired at his alma mater, Orange Glen High School, an honor no other person in school history has ever received. [3] "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."

On February 26, 2008 Salisbury's contract was not renewed by ESPN. Salisbury suggested, according to Profootballtalk.com, that he was unhappy with his salary and status compared to those analysts who were more prominent players in their NFL careers. Salisbury explained, saying that “I’d grown tired of being punished for not being an NFL superstar,” He also complained that “analysts who don’t work as hard as me, don’t prepare as hard as me, and don’t have my resume were making more than me just because of their ability to throw or catch a football.”[4]


[edit] References

[edit] External links

Preceded by
John Mazur
USC Trojans Starting Quarterbacks
1982-1985
Succeeded by
Rodney Peete