Neil O'Donnell

Neil Kennedy O'Donnell (born July 3, 1966) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons.

Neil Kennedy O’Donnell was born July 3, 1966, in Morristown, New Jersey.

Neil's four older brothers played for local coaching legend Ted Monica and won state championships.

Stephen O’Donnell was an All-State quarterback who went on to play for Duke.

Coach Monica had retired by the time Neil enrolled at Madison High School, but mentored him throughout much of his young football life.

O'Donnell was the star of the Dodgers varsity team as a sophomore and junior, but the team won just three games in those two seasons.

During his senior year, as quarterback, O'Donnell led the team to a respectable 4-2-3 season in 1985.

Coach Bobby Ross recruited him to the University of Maryland despite lacking the stats and honors of other high school stars.

At the University of Maryland, College Park, O'Donnell redshirted the 1986 season, then played for the Terrapins for three seasons and was the starting quarterback in the 1988 and 1989 seasons.

He played under head coach Joe Krivak, who was promoted from quarterback coach after Bobby Ross left the program in 1986.

The Krivak era was marked by mediocre results and the O'Donnell years featured an especially tough out-of-conference schedule.

The Terps finished 5-6 in 1988 and 3-7-1 in 1989, notably tying Penn State, only the second time Maryland had avoided losing to the Nittany Lions in the series up to that point.

The Terps failed to reach a bowl game during O'Donnell's career there.

He was backed up by QB Scott Zolak, who pushed O'Donnell for playing time during both of his seasons as a starter.

O'Donnell wore #14 for the Terps and for most of his Pro Career.

He was awarded the Ray Krouse Award for Maryland team MVP in 1989, and finished his Maryland career with 26 touchdown passes, 3 rushing touchdowns, and 5,069 total yards.

He played college football for the Maryland Terrapins and was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the third round of the 1990 NFL Draft.

During his six seasons with the Steelers, O'Donnell received Pro Bowl honors and helped lead them to a Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl XXX.

After leaving Pittsburgh, he was a member of the New York Jets for two seasons and the Cincinnati Bengals for one.

O'Donnell spent his last five seasons mostly as a backup with the Tennessee Titans.

O'Donnell grew up in Madison, New Jersey, and played high school football there at Madison High School.

O'Donnell was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 70th overall pick in the 1990 NFL draft.

After sitting on the bench for his entire rookie season, he started in eight games during 1991 before becoming the team's primary in 1992.

In the 1992 NFL season, O'Donnell threw for 2,283 passing yards, 13 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions, receiving the only Pro Bowl selection of his career.

In perhaps his best regular season game of the year, O’Donnell scored three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) in a 23–6 victory over the San Diego Chargers.

The Steelers finished 11-5 and took the AFC Central division title, but lost to the Buffalo Bills 24-3 in a divisional playoff game.

In 1993, he had another great season, throwing for a career-high 3,208 passing yards, 14 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions finishing with a 1.4 interception percentage, the second lowest in his career.

O'Donnell led the Steelers to Super Bowl XXX, but threw two interceptions to Dallas Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown to set up short touchdown drives in the second half.

He became a free agent at the end of the season.

The Steelers made an offer to O'Donnell, however on February 29, 1996, he signed a 5-year $25 million contract with the New York Jets that was both more money than Pittsburgh but also close to his home in Madison, New Jersey.

He went 0–6 in his first season as starter before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury, despite throwing for 292 or more yards in three of these starts.

His performance improved the following season under new coach Bill Parcells the following year.

He eventually fell out of favor with Parcells and lost his starting job to Glenn Foley.

O'Donnell refused to re-negotiate his contract, which paid him $6.65M for the upcoming season, Parcells chose to waive O'Donnell.

He stated later that he had no regrets, stating, "It was exciting, but the change was hard, I'll be honest with you. I mean the locker room change, the environment change. We were at Hofstra [University on Long Island], which was horrible. I never thought it would affect me, but every game was an away game. That's how it felt. It was a constant battle even to get to a so-called home game at Giants Stadium."

On July 7, 1998, O'Donnell signed a 4-year $17M contract with the Cincinnati Bengals.

In the 1998 NFL season, with the then-1–3 Bengals, O'Donnell threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Carl Pickens with 20 seconds remaining to score the winning touchdown against 3–1 Pittsburgh.

O'Donnell's 90.2 passer rating was sixth among regular starting quarterbacks in the NFL and third in the AFC.

However, due to a struggling defense, the Bengals went on to finish 3–13.

O'Donnell was released at the end of the season to make room for rookie quarterback Akili Smith.