Christopher J. Greisen (born July 2, 1976) 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 wit ...

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 professionally 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 ma ...

(NFL) 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, an ...

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...

and

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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...

and current coach for West De Pere High School. He was drafted by the Cardinals in the seventh round of the

1999 NFL Draft The 1999 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 17–18, 1999, at the Theater a ...

. He also was a member of the Rhein Fire,

Green Bay Blizzard Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

Dallas Desperados The Dallas Desperados were a professional arena football team based in Dallas, Texas. The Desperados played in the Eastern Division of the Arena Football League from 2002 to 2008. The franchise began play in as an expansion team, and have post ...

Georgia Force The Georgia Force was an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States (part of suburban Atlanta) that played in the South Division of the American Conference. The team was owned by Doug MacGregor and Donn Je ...

Florida Tuskers Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to t ...

Milwaukee Iron Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

, and

Virginia Destroyers The Virginia Destroyers were a professional American football team based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. They began play in the United Football League (UFL) in the 2011 season. They played their home games at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex. The te ...

. He played college football at

Northwest Missouri State University Northwest Missouri State University is a public university in Maryville, Missouri. It has an enrollment of about 8,505 students. Founded in 1905 as a teachers college, its campus is based on the design for Forest Park at the 1904 St. Louis World ...

Early years

Greisen attended

Sturgeon Bay High School Sturgeon Bay High School is a public high school located in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. It is part of the Sturgeon Bay School District. Athletics Sturgeon Bay's athletic teams are known as the Clippers, and compete primarily in the Packerland Conf ...

. As a senior, he suffered a knee injury that impacted his college scholarship offers. He accepted a football scholarship from Division II

. As a freshman in 1995, he posted 13-of-31 completions for 78 yards and 2 touchdowns. As a sophomore in 1996, he made 15-of-28 completions for 284 yards and one touchdown. As a junior in 1997, he became a starter, tallying 155-of-272 completions for 2,456 yards, 23 passing touchdowns, 7 interceptions and one rushing touchdown. As a senior in 1998, he recorded 200-of-332 completions for 2,937 yards, 25 passing touchdowns and 5 rushing touchdowns. He also led the Bearcats to a 15–0 mark and their first ever

NCAA Division II Football Championship The NCAA Division II Football Championship is an American college football tournament played annually to determine a champion at the NCAA Division II level. It was first held in 1973, as a single-elimination tournament with eight teams. The tourn ...

. He compiled a career 27-1 winning record, graduated with 9 school passing records, including being first on the All-time list for single-season touchdowns (25) and passing yards (2,937). He earned Academic All-MIAA honors as a sophomore, while taking MIAA Player of the Year honors in 1998. In 2007, he was inducted into the Northwest Missouri State M-Club Hall of Fame. In 2012, he was inducted into the

Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Its fourteen mem ...

Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Arizona Cardinals

Greisen was selected by the

in the seventh round (239th overall) of the

. As the third-string quarterback behind

Jake Plummer Jason Steven "Jake" Plummer (born December 19, 1974) is a former professional American football player, a quarterback for ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the second round of the 1997 ...

and Dave Brown, he appeared in a total of five games between the 1999 and 2000 seasons, while completing 7 of his 16 pass attempts for one touchdown and no interceptions. In 2001, he was declared inactive in all of the regular-season games. In 2002, he was passed on the depth chart by rookies

Josh McCown Joshua Treadwell McCown (born July 4, 1979) is an American football quarterback who is a free agent. He attended Jacksonville High School in Jacksonville, Texas, where he was named the East Texas Player of the Year and earned All-State honorabl ...

and

Preston Parsons Preston Thomas Parsons (born February 19, 1979) is a former American football quarterback. He was signed by the Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted free agent in 2002. He played college football at Northern Arizona. Parsons has also been a member ...

, leading to his release on September 1.

Washington Redskins

On December 18, 2002, he was signed to the

' practice squad. He wasn't re-signed after the season.

Rhein Fire (NFLE)

In 2003, he signed with the Rhein Fire of

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

. He shared the starting quarterback position with

Nick Rolovich Nicholas Robert Rolovich ( ; born February 16, 1979) is an American football coach and former player, who was most recently the head football coach at Washington State University (WSU). Rolovich majored in economics at the University of Hawaii, ...

, playing most of the times in the second and fourth quarters of the games. He posted 76-of-131 completions for 843 yards, 10 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, while helping the team reach the

World Bowl XI World Bowl XI was NFL Europe's 2003 championship game. It was played at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland on June 14, 2003. The crowd were entertained pre-match by Scottish rock legend Fish performing a rousing rendition of “Caledonia”. Half t ...

Green Bay Blizzard (af2)

In 2004, Greisen joined the

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

. The af2 was 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 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

development league. He threw for 2,718 yards and 61 touchdowns.

Dallas Desperados (AFL)

In 2005, Greisen signed a two-year contract with the AFL's

, to serve as the team's backup behind

Clint Stoerner Clinton Jacob Stoerner (born December 29, 1977) is a former American football quarterback, who played in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins. He also played in the Arena Football League and NFL Europe. ...

and later

Clint Dolezel Clint Dolezel (born March 25, 1970) is an American football coach and former professional arena football player in the Arena Football League (AFL). Dolezel was a quarterback in the AFL before becoming the head coach of the AFL's Philadelphia Sou ...

. In two seasons, he threw 11-of-16 completions for 142 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Greisen became a free agent after the 2006 season.

Georgia Force (AFL)

In 2007, after spending two seasons as the backup quarterback for the Desperados, Greisen signed with the

. The team finished the regular season with a 14–2 record and won the Southern Division championship. Georgia hosted the National Conference Championship, but lost 66–56 to the

Columbus Destroyers The Columbus Destroyers were an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Columbus, Ohio, with home games in Nationwide Arena. The team was founded in as the Buffalo Destroyers, based in Buffalo, New York, and relocated to Columbus in . They fold ...

. On the season, Greisen completed 74 percent of his passes (393-for-531) with 117 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and 4,871 yards. His 117 touchdowns were the AFL single season record until it was broken by

Tommy Grady Thomas Grady (born March 18, 1985) is an American football quarterback who primarily played in the Arena Football League (AFL). After a standout high school career at Edison High School, Grady signed with the University of Oklahoma to continu ...

in 2012 (142 touchdowns). In 2008, although the team started the year with a 3–5 mark, it finished with a 10–6 record and once again won the Southern Division championship. But after a first round bye in the playoffs, the team lost 73–70 to the

Cleveland Gladiators The Cleveland Gladiators were an arena football team based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The Gladiators played their home games at Quicken Loans Arena, which they shared with the Cleveland Cav ...

in the Divisional Round, the team's second straight home playoff loss. On the year, Greisen was 399-for-585 (68.2%), 4,956 yards, 97 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He played with the team until the league folded in 2009.

Florida Tuskers (UFL)

On August 25, 2009, Greisen signed with the

for the inaugural season of the United Football League. As the backup quarterback behind

Brooks Bollinger Brooks Michael Bollinger (born November 15, 1979) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions. He also was a member of the Florida Tu ...

, he registered 13-of-20 completions for 116 yards and one touchdown.

Milwaukee Iron (AFL)

Following the conclusion of the 2009 UFL season, Greisen returned to the AFL who had resumed operations. He signed with his hometown team, the

on January 2, 2010. He led the Iron to an 11–5 record and the Midwest Division championship. On the year, he posted a 128.2 passer rating (led the league), 382-for-563 completions (67.9%) with 107 touchdowns (second in the league) and 11 interceptions. His 5,139 yards passing broke the AFL's record for yards in a season. In the first round of the playoffs, the Iron beat the

Chicago Rush The Chicago Rush were a professional arena football team based in Rosemont, Illinois. The team played at the Allstate Arena from 2001 to 2013. They were a member of the Central Division of the National Conference of the Arena Football League ...

to advance to the

's conference championship, but lost to the eventual ArenaBowl champion

Spokane Shock The Spokane Shock were a professional indoor American football team based in Spokane, Washington, that played their home games at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. The team was initially a member of arenafootball2 (af2), the Shock won div ...

60–57. After the 2010 season, Greisen had completed 69.9 percent of his passes in his Arena Football career with 15,108 yards, 324 touchdowns and 40 interceptions.

Florida Tuskers (UFL)

Following the conclusion of the 2010 AFL season, Greisen re-signed with the

for the

2010 UFL season The 2010 United Football League season was the second season of the United Football League (2009–2012), United Football League. The regular season ran from September 18 to November 20 and featured five teams playing eight games each (twice again ...

. Although he was the backup quarterback behind

, he took over the starting position after Bollinger was injured, helping the team win the last three games. In the regular season, he posted a 97.5 passer rating, 58-for-84 completions for 664 yards, 5 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. In the 2010 UFL Championship Game 20–23 loss against the

Las Vegas Locomotives The Las Vegas Locomotives (called the Locos for short) were a professional American football team based in Las Vegas, Nevada that played in the United Football League. The team played their home games at Sam Boyd Stadium, home field for the Unive ...

, he was 24-for-42 for 346 passing yards and two rushing touchdowns.

Dallas Cowboys

On December 27, 2010, he was signed by the

' practice squad, to provide depth in case starting quarterback John Kitna could not play because of an oblique muscle injury. On December 31, he was promoted to the active roster for the season finale against the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

, in which he did not play as a backup to

Stephen McGee Stephen Richard McGee (born September 27, 1985) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. He also was a member of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was ...

Virginia Destroyers (UFL)

In 2011, Greisen returned to the United Football League to play for the

, who assumed rights over the Tuskers' players when the team folded. He officially signed with the Destroyers on June 16. In the shortened-season, Greisen led the Destroyers to a 3–1 record, with the one loss coming in the season finale against the

Sacramento Mountain Lions The Sacramento Mountain Lions was a professional American football team based in Sacramento, California that played in the United Football League (2009–2012), United Football League. The franchise originated as the California Redwoods, and playe ...

in a game he sat out most of due to injury. He helped lead the Destroyers to the

2011 UFL Championship Game The 2011 UFL Championship Game was the third championship game of the United Football League and took place on October 21, 2011, the concluding weekend of the league's truncated third season. The game was won by the Virginia Destroyers, who, in ...

, his third consecutive appearance in the UFL Championship game. Greisen completed 21 of 31 passes for 154 yards, as Virginia won the game 17–3.

Dallas Cowboys (second stint)

On December 14, 2011, he was signed to the Cowboys practice squad after backup quarterback

Jon Kitna Jon Kelly Kitna (born September 21, 1972) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League for the Seattle Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, and Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Central Washing ...

was placed on the

injured reserve list The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

with a back injury. Despite first appearing in the NFL in the 1999 season, Greisen maintained practice squad eligibility because he had been active for only eight NFL games, which was less than the nine games limit. On December 31, he was promoted to the active roster. He was declared inactive for the season finale against the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

as the team's third-string quarterback. He wasn't re-signed after the season.

Virginia Destroyers (UFL)

On March 15, 2012, Greisen was declared a free agent. He returned to the Destroyers for the 2012 season, which was cut short due to financial shortfalls; it was his last stint in professional football.

Coaching career

After retiring from professional football, Greisen became active in the local prep football coaching scene in the

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea l ...

area, serving as an assistant coach for Notre Dame Academy,

Green Bay Southwest High School Green Bay Southwest High School is one of four public high schools located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Southwest High School is located at 1331 Packerland Drive. Its school colors are royal blue and silver, and their mascot is the Trojan. Academics ...

and Freedom High School before accepting his first head coaching position, at West De Pere High School, in April 2020.

Personal life

Greisen earned a degree in physical education with a minor in mathematics from Northwest Missouri State. He taught at Notre Dame Academy and is a convert to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

from

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

. He also runs the Chris Greisen Quarterback Academy during the season at Texas Stadium and through the offseason in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Greisen is the older brother of former NFL

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

Nick Greisen Nick A. Greisen ( ; born August 10, 1979) is a former American football linebacker. He was drafted by the New York Giants in the fifth round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He played college football at Wisconsin. Greisen also played for the Jacksonvill ...

References

External links

Just Sports Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greisen, Chris 1976 births Living people American football quarterbacks Arizona Cardinals players Dallas Cowboys players Dallas Desperados players Georgia Force players Green Bay Blizzard players Florida Tuskers players Milwaukee Iron players Northwest Missouri State Bearcats football players Rhein Fire players Virginia Destroyers players Washington Redskins players High school football coaches in Wisconsin People from Berlin, Wisconsin People from Door County, Wisconsin Coaches of American football from Wisconsin Players of American football from Wisconsin Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism Catholics from Wisconsin