Brock Sterling Berlin (born July 4, 1981) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

in the

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(NFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni an ...

and

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes, known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes, are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Coll ...

. Berlin was signed by the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team ...

of the NFL as an

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in 2005, and was also a member of the Hamburg Sea Devils,

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1995 through the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, California, where the team had played ...

, and

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

Early life

Berlin was born in

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

, and attended Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport, where he played quarterback for the football team. He helped lead Evangel Christian to three consecutive Louisiana state

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

championships. He was recognized as a ''

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'' All-American. He won numerous personal honors, including being named Gatorade National Player of the Year and ''

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'' National Offensive Player of the Year.

College career

University of Florida

After a long recruiting battle for his services, Berlin chose to accept an athletic scholarship to attend the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

, where he played for coach

Steve Spurrier Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former football player and coach. He played ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL) before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often referred to by his nicknam ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American football, American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the ...

team during the

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and 2001 seasons. His career as a Florida Gator never panned out, though, as he found himself stuck behind

Rex Grossman Rex Daniel Grossman III (born August 23, 1980) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, most notably with the Chicago Bears. Grossman played college football for ...

on the team's depth chart. Given the chance to start the

2002 Orange Bowl The 2002 FedEx Orange Bowl game was a post-season college football bowl game between the Florida Gators and the ACC champion Maryland Terrapins on January 2, 2002. Florida defeated Maryland 56–23. The game was part of the 2001–2002 Bowl Cham ...

against

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

because Grossman was benched for violating curfew, Berlin performed adequately. He engineered two scoring drives out of six opportunities in the first 24 minutes, including one touchdown pass and two interceptions. Grossman came in late in the first half and played a brilliant game, solidifying his status as the Gators' starting quarterback for the following season. Berlin played in twelve games for the Gators over two seasons, throwing for 849 yards, 12

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s, and four interceptions while completing 64-of-106 passes (60.4%).

University of Miami

After the 2001 season, Berlin transferred to the University of Miami, where he would have the opportunity to play for the defending national champion

. As required by

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

transfer regulations, Berlin sat out the 2002 season, which he spent running Miami's scout team.

2003 season

After incumbent quarterback

Ken Dorsey Kenneth Simon Dorsey (born April 22, 1981) is an American professional American football, football Coach (sport), coach and former quarterback who is the passing game specialist for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). Dorse ...

's graduation, Berlin took over the starting job for the 2003 season. Berlin's first season was marked by inconsistency. In his first home game as a Miami Hurricane, Berlin squared off against his old team, the

. The Hurricanes fell behind 33–10 in the third quarter and Berlin began to hear boos from the crowd as it appeared Miami's then-33 game regular season winning streak was about to end. Berlin, though, caught fire as the team switched to a shotgun offense and rallied Miami to 28 unanswered points. The 38–33 victory was the greatest comeback in Miami history. He also stoked the fires of the Florida–Miami rivalry by mocking his former team and fans during and after the game. Several weeks later, Berlin again showed his mettle in leading Miami to a 22–14 rain soaked victory at rival

Florida State Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

. However, Berlin struggled in a 31–7 November 1 loss to the Virginia Tech Hokies, as Miami's regular season winning streak was snapped at 39 games. Berlin and the Miami offense again struggled the next week as a hungover Hurricane squad lost 10–6 to

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

at home. Berlin, under intense criticism by the media and fans, was benched by head coach Larry Coker for Miami's next game against

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

. After Miami's offense, now quarterbacked by Derrick Crudup, again struggled in the 17–10 homecoming win against Syracuse, Coker switched back to Berlin. Miami would win the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

, defeat Florida State (for the second time that season) in the FedEx

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. Played annually since 1935 Orange Bowl, January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in ...

, and finish the season at 11–2 and ranked #5 in both polls. Despite showing poise and strong leadership skills, Berlin's numbers for the 2003 season (2,419 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions) were unimpressive, and Coker opened up competition for the quarterback job in the spring.

2004 season

Despite some fans clamoring for highly touted

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Kyle Wright to be given the job, Berlin, now a senior, showed considerable progress during spring practice and won the starting job decisively. Berlin played much better during the 2004 season and added yet another historic comeback to his résumé when he led Miami to a 41–38 win over

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

in which Miami rallied from a 17-point deficit in the final 20 minutes of the game. The Hurricanes rose as high as #4 in the rankings before late season losses to ACC foes

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, Clemson, and

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

knocked Miami out of national and conference championship contention. After an 8–3 regular season, Miami was invited to play in the

Peach Bowl The Peach Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played annually in Atlanta, Georgia, since December 30, 1968. The first three Peach Bowls were played at Bobby Dodd Stadium, Grant Field on the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech c ...

, where Berlin once again faced his former team, the

. Again, Berlin enjoyed success against his former school as Miami won 27–10, finishing the season 9–3 and ranked #11 in both polls. Berlin finished the season with impressive numbers, throwing for 2,961 yards and 25 touchdowns with six interceptions.

Professional career

Miami Dolphins

Berlin went undrafted in the

2005 NFL draft The 2005 NFL draft, the 70th in league history, took place on April 23 and 24, 2005 NFL season, 2005. The draft was held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City and was televised for the 26th consecutive year, with coverage on E ...

, but was soon signed to a free agent contract by the

. He served as a backup quarterback for the Dolphins during training camp, although he was not a member of the team's active regular season roster. During the offseason, Berlin was allocated by the Dolphins to

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of the Nati ...

to the Hamburg Sea Devils. He was cut by the team on August 30, 2006.

Dallas Cowboys

On April 25, 2007, he signed with the

to compete to be their third-string quarterback. He was later released by the team.

St. Louis Rams

On May 17, 2007, the

signed Berlin to a contract. Berlin started his first NFL regular-season game on December 9, 2007. He was 17-for-27 for 153 yards and an interception in the 19–10 loss to the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

. In 2008, Berlin served as the Rams' inactive third quarterback for 15 games; he only saw action in the game against the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

. He was released by the Rams on September 5, 2009.

Detroit Lions

Berlin was signed to the

practice squad In gridiron football, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scou ...

on September 7, 2009. He was released by the team on September 23. After his release from the Lions, Berlin did not sign with another NFL team.

Family

Berlin is married and has three children.

References

External links

Miami Hurricanes bio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berlin, Brock 1981 births Living people American football quarterbacks Dallas Cowboys players Detroit Lions players Florida Gators football players Hamburg Sea Devils players Miami Dolphins players Miami Hurricanes football players St. Louis Rams players Evangel Christian Academy alumni Players of American football from Shreveport, Louisiana