Sherdrick Deon "Sed" Bonner (born October 19, 1968) 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 ...

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 ...

who played fifteen seasons in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

(AFL).

Early life

Bonner attended Azusa High School in

Azusa AZUSA refers to a ground-based radar tracking system installed at Cape Canaveral, Florida and the NASA Kennedy Space Center. AZUSA was named after the southern California town Azusa, California where the system was devised in the early 1950s. ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and was a student and a

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

and

track & field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and ...

College career

Bonner graduated from Cal State Northridge in 1991 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, Biomechanics, biomechanical, Pathology, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kines ...

and was a member of

Sigma Pi Sigma Pi () is a collegiate fraternity in North America. As of 2021, it had more than 5,000 undergraduate members and over 118,000 alumni. The fraternity is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded on February 26, 1897, at Vincennes Uni ...

fraternity. While there, he started at quarterback and led the Matadors to the 1990 Western Football Conference co-championship and the program's only playoff appearance. He completed 319 of 637 passes for 3,533 yards and 18 touchdowns in 37 career games. He earned honorable mention All- Western Football Conference honors his senior year in 1991. Bonner also lettered in

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, and

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

. He played 23 games for the basketball team in the 1987–88 season, outside hitter for the men's volleyball team in the 1991 season, and took first place in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

three times. He was inducted into CSUN's Matador Hall of Fame on October 2, 1998. Bonner was inducted into the Cal State Northridge Matadors Hall of Fame in 1998.

Professional career

Arizona Rattlers (first stint)

Bonner first played for the Arizona Rattlers of the

(AFL) from 1993 to 1998. He won ArenaBowl VIII in 1994 and ArenaBowl XI in 1997.

Miami Dolphins

Bonner signed with 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

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) in March 1995. He was later released on June 13, 1995.

Atlanta Falcons

Bonner was signed to the practice squad of the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

of the NFL on November 25, 1998. He remained on the Falcons' practice squad as they lost

Super Bowl XXXIII Super Bowl XXXIII was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion and defending Super Bowl XXXII champion 1998 Denver Broncos season, Denver Broncos and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion ...

to the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...

on January 31, 1999. He re-signed with Atlanta in February 1999. Bonner was waived on August 10, 1999.

Arizona Cardinals

On October 19, 1999, after

Jake Plummer Jason Steven "Jake" Plummer (born December 19, 1974) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Arizona State Sun Devils. Pl ...

, the starting quarterback for the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The ...

suffered an injury, Bonner was signed to the team's active roster to serve as the third-string quarterback behind new starter Dave Brown and rookie Chris Greisen. Bonner was waived by the Cardinals on December 19, 1999.

San Diego Chargers

Bonner was claimed off waivers by the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

on December 20, 1999. He became a free agent after the 1999 season.

Arizona Rattlers (second stint)

ON August 10, 1999, Bonner re-signed with the Rattlers the same day he was waived by the Falcons. He played for the Rattlers again from 2000 to 2001. On March 25, 2002, he re-signed with the Rattlers. On Friday, April 7, 2006, he got his 100th career win as his Rattlers won over the newly formed

Utah Blaze The Utah Blaze was a professional arena football team based in Salt Lake City, Utah and competed in the West Division of the Arena Football League. Home games were played at the EnergySolutions Arena. In 2013, the team did not submit proper ...

64–52 on the road. On Saturday, April 28, 2007, in a 67–45 road loss to the

New York Dragons The New York Dragons were a professional arena football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Dragons participated in the Arena Football League's (AFL) National Conference as a member of the Eastern Division (AFL), Eastern Division. ...

, Bonner joined Clint Dolezel and Andy Kelly as the only quarterbacks to throw 800 career touchdown passes. On Saturday, October 27, 2007, the Rattlers released Bonner after 14 seasons.

Chicago Rush

Bonner signed a two-year contract with the Chicago Rush on October 30, 2007. However, he was released in September 2008, after just one season with the Rush. Throughout his AFL career, Bonner completed 3,350 passes for 42,246 yards, and 855 touchdowns. He is also the winningest quarterback in league history, with 134 regular season victories and 21 playoff wins (as of April 2, 2007). He is widely considered one of the greatest players in AFL history. Bonner was a 2012 inductee into the Arena Football Hall of Fame.

Coaching career

Bonner began the 2011 AFL season as the offensive coordinator of the Chicago Rush after playing for Chicago in 2008. He called the plays and worked with quarterback Russ Michna. He returned to coaching in the AFL as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator of the second incarnation of the Billings Outlaws, where he was a part of the ArenaBowl XXXIII championship-winning coaching staff under head coach Cedric Walker. He left the Outlaws in 2025 upon joining the Vice Sports broadcast team.

Broadcasting career

Bonner began his broadcasting career when he was approached by KAZT-TV in Phoenix to be an analyst for Thursday night high school football games. After the Rush folded, he turned his attention to broadcasting serving as both color analyst and sideline reporter for AFL games on

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

in 2013 and later

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

starting in 2014. Bonner also calls college football games for the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, where he received a regional

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in 2015.

Personal life

Bonner is currently married with two children. He also runs a business where he coaches quarterbacks.

Career statistics

''Stats from ArenaFan'':

Notes

External links

*
Chicago Rush bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonner, Sherdrick 1968 births Living people Players of American football from Los Angeles County, California People from Azusa, California American football quarterbacks Cal State Northridge Matadors football players Arizona Rattlers players Atlanta Falcons players Arizona Cardinals players San Diego Chargers players Chicago Rush players College football announcers Arena football announcers College basketball announcers in the United States Chicago Rush coaches Arena Football League (2024) coaches Arena Football One (2025) coaches Coaches of American football from California Sigma Pi members