Joseph Berton Germaine (born November 16, 1975) 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 in 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) and 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). 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

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree, ...

and was selected by the

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 ...

in the fourth 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 at M ...

. Germaine earned a

Super Bowl ring The Super Bowl ring is an award in the National Football League given to the team members of the winning team of the league's annual championship game, the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl ring offers a collectible memento for the actual players and t ...

with the Rams in

Super Bowl XXXIV Super Bowl XXXIV was an American football game played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 30, 2000, to determine the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1999 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion ...

. He was also a member of the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

and

Arizona Rattlers The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League ...

Early life

Germaine attended Mountain View High School in

Mesa, Arizona Mesa ( ) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The population was 504,258 at the 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Arizona, third-most populous city in Arizona, after Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, T ...

, and was 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 ...

, and

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 ...

. He became a starter midway through his junior year and set school records with 3,782 passing yards, a 59% completion percentage, and 39 touchdown passes. As a senior, he connected on 123 of 209 passes for 2,081 yards and 23 touchdowns. He was drafted by the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...

as a high school baseball prospect.

College career

Germaine was recruited by

Northern Arizona University Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1899, it was the third and final university established in the Arizona Territory. It is one of the three universities gove ...

(NAU) out of high school, but NAU was wary of his intention to serve a two-year Mormon mission, and thus did not offer him a scholarship. Germaine played one season (1995) at

Scottsdale Community College Scottsdale Community College is a Public college, public community college just outside of Scottsdale, Arizona. It is on the city's eastern boundary, on 160 acres (650,000 m2) of land belonging to the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. ...

in Arizona before transferring to Ohio State. In 1996 and 1997 he was the backup to quarterback Stanley Jackson, but saw significant playing time as the two shared QB duties. Germaine's most memorable moment in his years as a backup came at the 1997 Rose Bowl. He led the Buckeyes on a 65-yard drive in 12 plays in the final 1:40 for the winning

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 ...

against Arizona State, a five-yard pass to David Boston with 19 seconds left. Germaine passed for 131 yards in the game and was named the game's MVP. In his senior year (1998) at Ohio State, Germaine was a full-time starter at quarterback, as well as a team co-captain. That year, he set 11 school records, throwing for 3,330 yards and 25 touchdowns. He was the

Chicago Tribune Silver Football The ''Chicago Tribune'' Silver Football is awarded by the ''Chicago Tribune'' to the college football player determined to be the best player from the Big Ten Conference. The award has been presented annually since 1924, when Red Grange of Ill ...

Award winner as well as the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

that year. He threw for 6,370 yards and 56 touchdowns in three seasons. Germaine was selected to the Ohio State Football All-Century Team in 2000.

Statistics

Professional career

St. Louis Rams

Germaine was selected in the fourth round (101st overall) of the

by the

. He won a

as a backup to

Kurt Warner Kurtis Eugene Warner (born June 22, 1971) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals. His career, whi ...

as a rookie. Germaine appeared in only three games, completing nine passes, and was cut at the end of the 2000 season.

Kansas City Chiefs

Germaine appeared in three games with the

in 2001. He was waived on September 1, 2002.

Cincinnati Bengals

Germaine 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 ...

of the

on October 17, 2002. He was promoted to the active roster on December 12 and served the remainder of the season as the third-string quarterback. He was released on April 23, 2003. Germaine worked out for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...

in August 2003, but was not signed and spent the rest of the season out of football. Germaine was signed by the

on August 6, 2004, but was waived prior to the regular season on August 26.

Arizona Rattlers (first stint)

In 2004 Germaine became a quarterback for the

of the

, where he was a back-up to Sherdrick Bonner.

Utah Blaze

After two seasons and six starts with the Rattlers, Germaine joined the expansion

in 2006. He started the first nine games of Utah's inaugural season, passing for 2,330 yards and 41 touchdowns while completing 67.4 percent of his passes. His season was cut short by an injury, but he returned in 2007 as the full-time starter. He became the first player in league history to pass for over 5,000 yards in a season. He finished with 5,005 yards, surpassing the record of 4,841 yards set by San Jose's

Mark Grieb Mark Richard Grieb (born May 23, 1974) is a former Arena football quarterback who spent the majority of his career with the San Jose SaberCats of the Arena Football League (AFL). Grieb currently serves as the head coach of the Sacred Heart Prep ...

in 2006.

Arizona Rattlers (second stint)

In October 2008 Germaine opted out of his contract with the Blaze in hopes of returning to the Rattlers. Germaine re-joined the Rattlers prior to their first season in the newly founded Arena Football 1. He was, however, quickly placed on "reassignment" on February 5, 2010.

Coaching career

After being placed on reassignment, Germaine accepted the head coaching job at Queen Creek High School in

Queen Creek, Arizona Queen Creek is a town in Maricopa and Pinal counties, Arizona, United States. The population was 59,519 at the 2020 census, and is at a population of 83,700 as of 2024. It is a suburb of Phoenix, located in the far southeast area of the P ...

. Athletic Director Paul Reynolds was familiar with Germaine, having played for ASU against him in the 1997 Rose Bowl. Prior to coaching at Queen Creek, Germaine was the quarterbacks coach at Chandler's Basha High School from 2004 until 2007. In 2012, Germaine's Bulldogs appeared in the Arizona Division III state championship, against Desert Edge High School. With twelve seconds left and the game tied at 7, the snap for a Desert Edge punt was high, sailing over the punter, who picked up the ball and was tackled in the back of the end zone for a safety. Queen Creek won its first state championship 9-7 and finished an undefeated season.

References

External links

Arena Football League bio

Arizona Rattlers bio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Germaine, Joe 1975 births Living people American football quarterbacks Arizona Rattlers players Barcelona Dragons (NFL Europe) players Cincinnati Bengals players Kansas City Chiefs players Ohio State Buckeyes football players San Diego Chargers players Scottsdale Fighting Artichokes football players St. Louis Rams players Utah Blaze players Players of American football from Denver Players of American football from Mesa, Arizona