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Brady Quinn has reminded us all that life is bigger than football‏

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KCChiefs.com

Brady Quinn has always looked the part to me. He stands 6’3″ inches tall with the looks you would find often on your mother’s favorite daytime soap. He graduated from Notre Dame; you know the school with all the tradition-rich history and huge TV contract.

Quinn essentially is the All-American boy from the Midwest, born in Ohio, a middle child with the ability to woo all the girls with his handsome looks and make the college scouts drool with a big-time arm.

After completing his career at Notre Dame, Quinn left holding 36 Notre Dame records and tied the record for most wins at quarterback in Irish history. Not only did he achieve greatness on the field, he excelled in the classroom earning two degrees, one for political science and the other for finance. Quinn seemed destined for greatness on the next level; then came the NFL draft.
Quinn was a sure-fire Top 10 selection, a franchise quarterback many pundits were calling him. But on that April day in 2007 as Quinn waited and waited for his name to be called, television cameras were locked in on him as every pick passed by, and yet, no announcement of the quarterback from Notre Dame. Quinn was selected No. 22 overall by the Cleveland Browns.
Three seasons would go by in his home state of Ohio playing for a franchise desperate for a winner. He would see occasional duty as a backup and started a few games when Cleveland’s starting quarterback, Derek Anderson, was benched for his poor performance. Quinn’s Cleveland career would end in the 2009 season, one in which he ended the year on injury reserve with a foot injury. He had led the Browns to two wins just before the injury.
So long Cleveland, hello Denver. Brady Quinn was traded in March of 2010 to the Denver Broncos with the prospect of competing with Kyle Orton to be the starter. Quinn would never beat out Orton and in two seasons in Denver and would never take a snap in a regular season game. Even when it appeared he would get the nod in 2011, Quinn was caught in the whirlwind of  “Tebow Mania” and bypassed on the depth chart in favor of Tim Tebow.
At this point in his career it seemed most NFL fans only knew of Brady Quinn as “that good looking guy in those EAS commercials on TV.”
I believe all of that changed on Sunday, Dec. 2nd, 2012. Not for perhaps what he did on the field which was a great accomplishment, leading the Kansas City Chiefs to only their second victory of the season under the inconceivable circumstances surrounding the game and the city paralyzed by the news that one of their very own players would fatally end his life and that of his girlfriend, who was also mother to his three-month-old daughter.
For many of us who watched the game to see what emotions would be pouring out onto the field from not only those who took the field but were in the stands, it was that ever so brief moment after the game in which Brady Quinn, this golden boy with all this talent, good looks and attributes some of us are jealous of, really reminded us of the bigger picture in addressing the death of his teammate.
If you haven’t heard or read what he had to say, allow me to re-distribute his post game press conference when asked his feelings on the situation regarding Jovan Belcher:
“When you ask someone how they are doing, do you really mean it? When you answer someone back how you are doing, are you really telling the truth? We live in a society of social networks,  with Twitter pages and Facebook, and that’s fine, but we have contact with our work associates, our family, our friends, and it seems like half the time we are more preoccupied with our phone and other things going on instead of the actual relationships that we have right in front of us. Hopefully, people can learn from this and try to actually help if someone is battling something deeper on the inside than what they are revealing on a day-to-day basis.”
You see, it wasn’t just the eloquence Quinn spoke with but the cold, hard facts of reality that each of us deal with every day. We are all guilty of what Quinn mentioned. Life moves so fast sometimes and to merely keep up with the speed in which information, society and life exist we seldom slow down to see what is truly important. I would be foolish to speak of the sadness in which the families directly involved with this horrible tragedy are enduring. However, it is within the words spoken by a “draft bust” that ring true to so many of us that we can relate.
Brady Quinn. You may never reach the stardom that was once expected of you coming from Notre Dame and being the expected franchise savior to those in Cleveland. But to this football fan you have earned my respect and gratitude for your simple but honest perspective.
Here’s to hoping that you get that chance in Kansas City.
Follow us on Twitter: @AndrewASmith25 & @EZNewsNFL. “Like” us on Facebook, too

The post Brady Quinn has reminded us all that life is bigger than football‏ appeared first on Endzone News.


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