Jay Riemersma

Allen Jay Riemersma (born May 17, 1973) is a former American football tight end.

In 1991, he graduated from Zeeland High School, where he was a star athlete in three sports.

He became Zeeland's all-time leading scorer in basketball, played baseball for two seasons, and was the quarterback for the football team.

Riemersma enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1991.

Originally recruited by Michigan as a quarterback, Riemersma appeared in three games at that position in the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

On September 26, 1992, he made his debut as a redshirt freshman against the University of Houston.

He came into the game as a substitute for Todd Collins in the third quarter and completed all three passes he attempted for 43 yards, including a 14-yard touchdown pass to Amani Toomer in the fourth quarter.

He completed a total of six of eleven passes for 79 yards the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

He played for the University of Michigan from 1994 to 1995.

In 1994, Riemersma suffered a rotator cuff injury, which ended his career as a quarterback.

Michigan head coach Gary Moeller switched Riemersma to the tight end position, where he played in the 1994 and 1995 seasons.

During the 1994 season, Riemersma became one of quarterback Todd Collins' favorite targets, finishing as the team's third leading receiver behind Amani Toomer and Mercury Hayes.

He caught 33 passes for 336 yards and two touchdowns in 1994.

His most productive games were against Notre Dame (5 catches for 69 yards and a touchdown) and Wisconsin (8 catches for 79 yards and a touchdown).

In 1995, Riemersma added another 41 catches for 370 yards and a touchdown.

His best games of the 1995 season came against Virginia and Michigan State.

He connected with Scott Dreisbach for seven catches and 71 yards in the Wolverines' come-from-behind 18-17 win over Virginia in the season opener, and he caught a career-high nine passes, good for 70 yards, in a 28-25 loss to the Spartans.

The longest reception of his college career was a 35-yard catch in Michigan's 31-23 win over Ohio State in 1995.

In two seasons as Michigan's tight end, Reimersma caught 74 passes for 706 yards.

While completing his degree at Michigan, Riemersma twice earned Academic All-Big Ten Conference awards.

He also won both the Meyer Morton Award and the Arthur Robinson Scholarship Award while attending Michigan.

He next played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the Buffalo Bills (1996–2002) and Pittsburgh Steelers (2003–2004).

Riemersma was drafted by the Buffalo Bills as the 35th pick of the seventh round (244th pick overall) of the 1996 NFL Draft.

He spent seven seasons in Buffalo from 1996 to 2002, appearing in 90 games, 65 as a starter.

As a tight end for the Bills, he had 221 receptions for 2,304 yards and 20 touchdowns.

As a rookie in 1996, Riemersma did not see any action.

In his second season he appeared in all 16 games for the Bills, including eight as a starter.

He caught 26 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns.

In 1998, Riemersma had a career-high six touchdowns in 16 games for the Bills.

From 1999 to 2001, he missed only six games in four years, and accumulated 1,808 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns.

He had his first career two-touchdown game in a November 2000 win over the Miami Dolphins.

In a September 2000 game against the Green Bay Packers, Riemersma had his second career two-touchdown game and 70 receiving yards.

After the game, teammate Eric Moulds said, "A couple of times they tried to double me and left Jay wide open down the field. We'll take that matchup all day. If you're going to leave Jay Riemersma one-on-one with a linebacker, you're going to lose most of the time."

He had his best season in 2001.

He started 15 games for the 2001 Bills and caught 53 passes for 590 yards.

Riemersma was plagued by injuries during his six years with the Bills.

In 2007, he accepted a position as the regional director of the Family Research Council.

He announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives in September 2009.

Riemersma was born in Evansville, Indiana and grew up in Zeeland, Michigan.

Interviewed in 2009, Riemersma pointed to the rotator cuff injury as "divine intervention," saying, "Some called the injury luck. I called it divine intervention. I never would have played in the NFL as a quarterback. It was an injury that parlayed into an NFL career."