Giovanni Carmazzi (born April 14, 1977) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

who played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for two seasons with the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

. He played college football at Hofstra University, where he threw for over 9,000 yards, and was selected by the 49ers in the third round of the

2000 NFL Draft The 2000 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur U.S. college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 15– 16, 2000, at the Thea ...

. Carmazzi spent the entirety of his NFL career as a backup, never appearing in a regular season game. After being released by the 49ers, he spent one season in NFL Europe and two seasons in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL).

Professional career

Carmazzi was selected by the

65th overall in the third round of the

and was the second quarterback taken. He was also one of six drafted before

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

quarterback

Tom Brady Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots organization, with which ...

, who would become one of the league's most decorated players. Against the Brady-led New England Patriots in the 2000

Pro Football Hall of Fame Game The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game is an annual National Football League (NFL) exhibition game in Canton, Ohio, held the weekend of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's induction ceremonies. The game is played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, part ...

, Carmazzi struggled, completing only 3 of 7 passes for 19 yards in a 20–0 loss. Carmazzi also spent time with the

Rhein Fire Rhein may refer to: Places * Rhine, a major river in Europe (german: Rhein, link=no) * Rhein, a village in the municipality of Morsbach in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany * Rhein (Ostpreussen), a former name of the town Ryn in Poland Ships * SM ...

of NFL Europe in 2001 and appeared briefly on the

(CFL) rosters of the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first seas ...

and

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-o ...

in 2004 and 2005, respectively. In a 2011 ESPN documentary about the six quarterbacks taken before Brady, it was revealed that Carmazzi was then living in northern California as a farmer, yoga practitioner, and an owner of five goats. It was also reported that he did not own a television.

Recognition

Carmazzi was a 1999 National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete while playing at Hofstra University, a 1996 high school scholar-athlete honoree awarded by the Sacramento Chapter and a 1996 West Region High School Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He is one of only four all-time NFF awardees in all three of these categories.

References

External links

Just Sports Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carmazzi, Giovanni 1977 births Living people Players of American football from Sacramento, California Players of Canadian football from Sacramento, California American football quarterbacks Hofstra Pride football players San Francisco 49ers players Rhein Fire players American players of Canadian football Canadian football quarterbacks BC Lions players Calgary Stampeders players American expatriate sportspeople in Germany