Jeffrey Allen Christy (born February 3, 1969) 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

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

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 ...

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

, and

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

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). 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

Pittsburgh Panthers The Pittsburgh Panthers, commonly also referred to as the Pitt Panthers, are the athletic teams representing the University of Pittsburgh, although the term is colloquially used to refer to other aspects of the university such as alumni, facul ...

Early life

Christy was a starter during all four of his years at the Freeport Senior High School, playing as a fullback,

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (magazine), sports magazine in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the wor ...

and punter. During this time, he rushed for 2,842 total yards, made 340 career tackles, and scored 337 points. He also set nine school records, including the most points in a season (208, which was also a state record) and career, most touchdowns in a season (26) and career (45), and most field goals in a season (6). Christy attended the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

, where he received all-

Big East 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 ...

first-team honors as a senior. On September 21, 2007, the Freeport Senior High School retired Jeff Christy's number, 40. It was the first ever number retirement in the school's history. Jeff Christy is now married to Kristen, with two daughters, Nicolette and Kennedy and a son, Mac. He currently resides in

Saxonburg, Pennsylvania Saxonburg is a borough in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Greater Pittsburgh area in Western Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1832 by F. Carl Roebling and his younger brother John A. Roebling, John as a German farmin ...

Professional career

In 1992, Christy was drafted with the 91st overall pick in the fourth round by the

Phoenix 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) West division. The team play ...

. He was cut by the team and would miss the entire 1992 season. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings in 1993 and played there until 1999. During this span he selected to both the Pro Bowl and All-Pro teams in 1998 and 1999. Christy signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2000. Jeff Christy was filling a major need for Tampa Bay, who was trying to improve an offensive line that ranked 28th of 31 teams that previous season. That season, he was selected to a third Pro Bowl and started every game, including

Super Bowl XXXVII Super Bowl XXXVII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

against the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

. Throughout his career, Jeff started 139 out of 148 of his games played. In August 2001, Jeff Christy injured his

medial collateral ligament The medial collateral ligament (MCL), also called the superficial medial collateral ligament (sMCL) or tibial collateral ligament (TCL), is one of the major ligaments of the knee. It is on the medial (inner) side of the knee joint and occurs in ...

(MCL) and kept him sidelined for three to five weeks. Christy played for the Buccaneers until his retirement in 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christy, Jeff 1969 births Living people People from Harrison Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania American football centers Pittsburgh Panthers football players Arizona Cardinals players Minnesota Vikings players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players National Conference Pro Bowl players