Rodney Peete Biography

Rodney Peete is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 years. He played college football for the USC Trojans football team. He retired from playing in 2004 and is now in broadcasting.

Peete was the first player ever from USC to win the Johnny Unitas Award as the nation's best senior quarterback (since earned by Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart as well). In that senior year, he also finished second to Barry Sanders in the voting for the Heisman Trophy. His USC teams would win both head-to-head matchups in the UCLA–USC rivalry against Troy Aikman's UCLA teams. The 1988 UCLA-USC game was notable in that Peete was stricken with measles the week before the game and had been hospitalized. He led USC to the 1988 and 1989 Rose Bowl games.

Peete was also a star third baseman on USC's baseball team. He was named to the all-Pac-10 team. He was drafted three different times while at USC. In the 1988 MLB draft by the Oakland Athletics in the 14th round (359th overall), the 1989 MLB draft by the Athletics again in the 13th round (348th overall) and the 1990 MLB draft by the Detroit Tigers in the 28th round (742nd overall).

Peete did not achieve stardom in his professional career in the NFL, but played well enough to sustain his place in the league for 16 seasons, primarily as a backup. Selected by the Detroit Lions as the 141st pick in the 6th round of the 1989 NFL Draft, Peete was scheduled to start the season opener but sprained his knee in an exhibition game against the Los Angeles Rams, missing the first few games of the season. He would have been the first rookie quarterback to start for the Lions since 1968, when Greg Landry started.

His career was marked by injury. In his first five NFL seasons with the Lions, he would split time with Bob Gagliano, Erik Kramer, and former Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware. After spending time with the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, and Oakland Raiders, Peete's career appeared to be over until he became the starter for the Carolina Panthers in 2002, where he led the Panthers to start the year 3–0 and ultimately to a 7–9 record, an improvement over 1–15 the year before.

After a weak showing in the first half of 2003 season opening game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, head coach John Fox replaced him in the third quarter with Jake Delhomme, who then led the Panthers to a comeback victory. Delhomme subsequently replaced Peete as the Panthers' starting quarterback, leading the team to an 11–5 record that ultimately led to Super Bowl XXXVIII against the New England Patriots.

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