Kelly Wayne Stouffer (born July 6, 1964) 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

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 ...

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). 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 Colorado State Rams. Stouffer was selected in the first round of the

1987 NFL draft The 1987 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 28–29, 1987, at the Marriot Ma ...

with the sixth overall pick. He spent most of his NFL career with the Seattle Seahawks from 1988 to 1992.

Early life

Born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Stouffer graduated from Rushville High School in northwestern Nebraska and played

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

in Fort Collins.

College career statistics

NFL career

At the conclusion of Stouffer's collegiate career, he gained notoriety when, after being selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round (sixth overall) of the

, he sat out what would have been his rookie year due to a contract dispute. The following April, the Cardinals traded Stouffer's rights to the Seattle Seahawks for three draft picks, who listed Stouffer as third-string behind starter Dave Krieg and veteran backup Jeff Kemp in 1988. Krieg was sidelined in the third game with a separated shoulder, and the following week Kemp was ineffective and was benched in favor of Stouffer by halftime. Stouffer endeared himself to Seattle fans in one play where, after stumbling and having his nose broken when it collided with a teammate's elbow, he threw for a long gain resulting in a

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 the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the 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 ...

. Stouffer filled in for nearly two months, until Krieg returned to the lineup in mid-November; Seattle won the division ( AFC West) with a 9–7 record, but lost in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs to top-seeded

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. Stouffer seemed to regress in the eyes of Seahawk coaches over the next couple of years, and fell back to third string, behind Kemp. Following the

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

season,

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Chuck Knox was replaced by Tom Flores and Krieg was released. Stouffer won the starting job in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, ahead of Dan McGwire and Stan Gelbaugh. Stouffer was injured in week 5, as the Seahawks started the season 1–4. After McGwire was quickly injured, journeyman Gelbaugh became the starter, yielding the job to Stouffer once Stouffer recovered. Stouffer, who seemed to have been showing a return to his rookie form just before his injury, was never the same, however, and Gelbaugh quickly became the established starter. The following season, Stouffer was released; he was signed by the Miami Dolphins to a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

contract in April 1994 but was released prior to the regular season. Two years later, Stouffer was signed by the Carolina Panthers to a

contract in March 1996 but was released prior to the regular season.

After football

In 2000, Stouffer finished his B.S. degree in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

from the Colorado State University College of Agricultural Sciences and became the first undergraduate to earn that degree via the college's

distance learning Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

program. Stouffer is a television color analyst for

games on

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 ...

/ ABC, and was formerly with the

NFL on FOX The ''NFL on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox NFL'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports and televised on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox broadcast network. ...

, Versus, MountainWest Sports Network and

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 ...

pre-season games.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stouffer, Kelly 1964 births Living people American football quarterbacks Carolina Panthers players College football announcers Colorado State Rams football players NFL announcers Seattle Seahawks players Sportspeople from Scottsbluff, Nebraska People from Sheridan County, Nebraska Players of American football from Nebraska