Elvis Grbac
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| Position: | Quarterback | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Date of birth: | August 13, 1970 | ||||||||
| Place of birth: | Cleveland, Ohio | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 240 lb (109 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Cleveland (OH) St. Joseph | ||||||||
| College: | Michigan | ||||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1993 / Round: 8 / Pick: 219 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Elvis M. Grbac (/ˈɡɜːrbæk/; born August 13, 1970) is a retired American football quarterback who played in the NFL. During his career he was a starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Baltimore Ravens. In college he was a three-time passing efficiency champion, a Sammy Baugh Trophy winner and the quarterback for Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard. Drafted by the 49ers in 1993, and serving in his rookie year as the backup to Steve Young, he went on to play seven more seasons, starting 70 of the 106 games he played for San Francisco (1993–96), Kansas City (1997-2000) and Baltimore (2001).
During his career, Grbac was on one Super Bowl-winning team with the 49ers, and won one AFC West title in 1997 while quarterbacking the Chiefs. He still holds six All-Time records with the Chiefs, including: Most touchdowns passes in consecutive games (15), Lowest percentage, passes had intercepted (3.04), and Most yards gained in a single game (504).
Grbac lives in Chagrin Falls and is an assistant quarterbacks coach for Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio.
Early life
Grbac was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Ivan and Cecilija Grbac[1] His father was born in Lanišće, near Buzet, Istra, Croatia, and his mother was also from Istra.[2] His parents left Croatia in 1967 with their two eldest children, Maria and Engelbert (Elvis's eldest sister and brother).
Grbac attended St. Joseph High School. While there he played basketball as well as football; one of his high-school teammates was future Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard.
College career
Although Grbac initially wished to continue his football career at Ohio State, he changed his mind when the Buckeyes fired Head Coach Earl Bruce and opted instead to join Howard at the University of Michigan, where he played college football from 1989 to 1992. He led the Wolverines to a Gator Bowl in 1991, three Rose Bowls in 1989 and 1993 and 1992 and is best remembered for throwing to wide receiver Desmond Howard during the latter's Heisman-winning campaign in 1991. In 1991 his pass to Howard sealed a 24-14 victory over Notre Dame.[3] In that game Grbac completed 20 of 22 passes, a record for a Notre Dame opponent. He finished his career at Michigan as the school's all-time leader in passing attempts (835), completions (522), passing yards (6,460) and passing touchdowns (71). These marks were later broken by John Navarre in 2003 and surpassed by Chad Henne in 2006–07.
He also established the Big Ten Conference career passing efficiency record that would stand for six seasons until it was surpassed by Joe Germaine.[4] Grbac was a two-time NCAA passing efficiency champion during his last two seasons.[5] He was a three-time Big Ten champion in this statistic.
NFL career
NFL Draft
Elvis Grbac was drafted in the eighth round of the 1993 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers, where he served as Steve Young's backup from 1994 to 1996.
San Francisco 49ers
1994 season
Dealing with an injury and being taken in and out of the lineup by then-head coach George Seifert, Grbac played in twelve games in his rookie season, recording two touchdown passes, against the Minnesota Vikings and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while throwing one interception.
During his rookie season, Grbac posted a QB rating of 98.2, with 2 touchdowns, 55 passes attempted and 35 completed.
1995 season
Grbac appeared in a total of sixteen games with the 49ers, five of them as the starting quarterback; he posted a QB rating of 96.6, 183 passes attempted and 127 completed, 8 passing touchdowns and 2 rushing, 1469 yards gained.
1996 season
During the 1996 season, Grbac played a total of 15 regular season games, 4 as a starter, passing for 10 touchdowns and rushing for 2, with a total of 122 passes completed and 1236 yards gained. In 1997 Grbac signed a contract with the Kansas City Chiefs to be their starting quarterback.
Kansas City Chiefs
1997 season
He replaced Steve Bono as the Chiefs starter in 1997. He orchestrated a Monday Night Football comeback in Week Two against Oakland in this season. Despite trailing by two touchdowns late in the second half, Grbac rallied the Chiefs by directing a six-play, 80- yard touchdown drive without the benefit of a single time-out, culminating that comeback with a 32-yard game-winner to Andre Rison with 0:03 remaining to seal a 28-27 Chiefs win.[6]
In the 1997 season Grbac led the Chiefs to their fourth AFC West Division championship, as the squad finished the year with six consecutive victories, a first in team history.[7] The 1997 season was also the beginning of a quarterback controversy, when Elvis started the first nine games and suffered an injury, leading to Rich Gannon's substitution for the next six games.[8] Grbac would return in the team's season finale.[8] Gannon won five consecutive starts down the stretch to help the Chiefs earn home-field advantage with a 13–3 record.[9] Grbac was an excellent quarterback, and a talented thrower,[10] while Gannon was an aggressive leader who demanded the most of his players.[10] Grbac was selected by coach Marty Schottenheimer to start the team's playoff game against the Denver Broncos, a game which the Chiefs would lose 14–10.[8][9] Chiefs fans were deeply divided over whether Gannon or Grbac should lead the team. Eventually Grbac was chosen to remain the Chiefs starting quarterback, Gannon was let go and signed with the Raiders in 1999.[8][11]
1998 season
The 1998 Kansas City Chiefs season began with high hopes of the team avenging its loss in the 1998 playoffs to the eventual Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos, but instead the Chiefs struggled in the highly competitive AFC West. Grbac completed only 98 passes out of a total of 188 attempts, five touchdowns, and gained 1142 yards in this season.
1999 season
Grbac managed to lead the Chiefs to 2nd place in the AFC West with a 9–7 record, starting all 16 games, For the season, Grback threw for 22 touchdowns, and 3389 yards.
However, in the final game of the season against the Oakland Raiders, the Chiefs were denied a trip to the playoffs and an AFC West division title when Raiders kicker Joe Nedney kicked a game-winning field-goal in overtime.
2000 season
Grbac's best season statistically came in 2000 when he passed for 4,169 yards and 28 touchdowns with a passer rating of 89.9 en route to the 2001 Pro Bowl.
Baltimore Ravens
2001 season
Grbac signed a free agent contract with the Baltimore Ravens to replace former starter Trent Dilfer. While Dilfer had been the starting quarterback of Baltimore's Super Bowl winning team, he was seen as nothing more than a "game manager", and the Ravens wished to upgrade at the quarterback position.
Although the Ravens obtained a 10-6 regular season record and qualified for the playoffs, Grbac was considered a disappointment. He performed statistically below Dilfer in the previous season and two of the Ravens' wins occurred when Randall Cunningham started at quarterback. In the postseason, Grbac helped the team win the wild card round against the Miami Dolphins, but was defeated by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the divisional round. Grbac threw three interceptions and the Ravens failed to score an offensive touchdown during the game.
At the end of the season, the Ravens cut Grbac in a salary cap move after he refused to renegotiate his contract. At the time of his retirement, Grbac had been in negotiations with the Denver Broncos—Denver was interested in signing him as a backup to starting quarterback Brian Griese, but Grbac opted for retirement.
Career statistics
| Season | Passing | Rushing | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comp | Att | Yards | Pct. | TD | Int | QB Rating | Att | Yards | Avg | TD | |||
| 1989 | 73 | 116 | 824 | 62.9 | 8 | 3 | 140.2 | 20 | -103 | -5.2 | 0 | ||
| 1990 | 155 | 266 | 1,911 | 58.3 | 21 | 10 | 137.2 | 22 | 17 | 0.8 | 0 | ||
| 1991 | 165 | 254 | 2,085 | 65.0 | 25 | 6 | 161.7 | 23 | -103 | -4.5 | 0 | ||
| 1992 | 129 | 199 | 1,640 | 64.8 | 17 | 12 | 150.2 | 15 | -50 | -3.3 | 1 | ||
| NCAA Career Totals | 522 | 835 | 6,460 | 62.5 | 71 | 31 | 148.1 | 80 | -239 | -3.0 | 1 | ||
| Year | GP | Att | Com | Pct | Yds | TD | Int | Long | QB Rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 12 | 50 | 35 | 70.0 | 393 | 2 | 1 | 42 | 98.2 | ||
| 1995 | 16 | 183 | 127 | 69.4 | 1,469 | 8 | 5 | 81T | 96.6 | ||
| 1996 | 15 | 197 | 122 | 61.9 | 1,236 | 8 | 10 | 40 | 72.2 | ||
| 1997 | 10 | 314 | 179 | 57.0 | 1,943 | 11 | 6 | 55T | 79.1 | ||
| 1998 | 8 | 188 | 98 | 52.1 | 1,142 | 5 | 12 | 65 | 53.1 | ||
| 1999 | 16 | 499 | 294 | 58.9 | 3,389 | 22 | 15 | 86T | 81.7 | ||
| 2000 | 15 | 547 | 326 | 59.6 | 4,169 | 28 | 14 | 81T | 89.9 | ||
| 2001 | 14 | 467 | 265 | 56.7 | 3,033 | 15 | 18 | 77T | 71.1 | ||
| NFL Career Totals | 106 | 2,445 | 1,446 | 59.1 | 16,774 | 99 | 81 | 86T | 79.6 | ||
| Super Bowls | Att | Comp | Pct | Yards | TDs | INTs | Rate | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XXIX | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | W 49-26 | |
| Totals | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | W/L Record 1-0 | |
Key to Abbreviations
GP = Games Played
Att = Passes attempted
Com = Passes Completed
Pct = Completion percentage
Yds = Yards
TD =Touchdowns
Int = Interceptions
Long = Longest Pass Play of season
QB Rating = Passer rating
W/L Record = Super Bowl/Postseason Won/Loss Record
People's Sexiest Athlete
Grbac was featured as People's Sexiest Athlete in 1998. Sportswriter Jeff Pearlman claims this was because of a mistake by a photographer, told to photograph "the Chiefs quarterback", who accidentally photographed Grbac instead of the intended Rich Gannon.[12]
Personal life
Grbac has a brother, Engelbert, and two sisters, Maria and Barbara. He lives in Chagrin Falls, just outside Cleveland, with his wife Lori (née Immarino) and his three children.[2]
See also
- List of NCAA major college football yearly passing leaders
- Lists of Michigan Wolverines football passing leaders
References
- ↑ "Elvis' Injury Shocks Grbac Family". Associated Press. 1997-11-04. Retrieved 2013-12-29.
- 1 2 Steve Kornacki (2013). Elvis Grbac: The American Dream. Triumph Books LLC. Retrieved 2013-12-29.
- ↑ http://clevelandsportshall.com/grbac-elvis/
- ↑ "Big Ten Conference Football Full Media Guide". CBS Interactive/Big Ten Conference. 2010-01-05. p. 39. Retrieved 2010-07-08.
- ↑ "2009 Division I Football Records Book: Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Records" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. p. 43. Retrieved 2010-07-09.
- ↑ http://www2.kcchiefs.com/news/1998/10/13/elvis_grbac_under_croatian_control/
- ↑ "History - 1990s". Kansas City Chiefs. Retrieved 2013-12-30.
- 1 2 3 4 Cite error: The named reference was invoked but never defined
- 1 2 Bell, Jarrett (2003-01-23). "Gannon, Johnson take long climbs to Super Bowl summitt". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
- 1 2 "Huard lifts Chiefs into playoff hunt". ESPN. 2006-11-06. Retrieved 2013-12-30.
- ↑ Rand, Jonathan (2008-07-24). "Relearning a rivalry". Kansas City Chiefs official website. Archived from the original on August 2, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
- ↑ "The Sad, Hilarious Tale Of Elvis Grbac, 1998's "Sexiest Athlete Alive"". Deadspin. Retrieved 2010-03-22.