Rich Gannon

Richard Joseph Gannon  (born December 20, 1965) is a former football quarterback, who achieved most of his success late in his career with the Oakland Raiders in the National Football League. He was the quarterback of the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.

Early life
Gannon attended Saint Joseph's Preparatory School and won three varsity letters each in football and crew, and twice in basketball. Gannon exploded in his senior season, winning first team All-City as a punter and quarterback. He threw for 1,567 yards his senior season.

College career
Gannon attended the University of Delaware, was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, and played under Tubby Raymond and ran Raymond's Wing-T offense. When he led the Raiders to Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003, he was the second of three players from the University of Delaware to go to the Super Bowl.

Minnesota Vikings
He was selected in the 4th round (98th overall) of the 1987 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, who envisioned converting him to a defensive back. Gannon balked at the idea, and he was quickly traded to the Minnesota Vikings. After two years of playing sparingly, in 1990 Gannon became the Vikings' starting quarterback, displacing incumbent Wade Wilson. Gannon was passed over for Sean Salisbury at the start of the postseason, after having led the team to an 11-5 record.

Washington Redskins
In 1993 Gannon was released and signed with the Washington Redskins after coming off rotator cuff surgery. Gannon started three games for Washington and was released at season's end.

Kansas City Chiefs
Following a hiatus from football for the 1994 season, he signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1995. For two years he served as a backup to Steve Bono. In 1997 a quarterback controversy was created when the Gannon-led Chiefs excelled in the absence of the injured Elvis Grbac. In the playoffs, coach Marty Schottenheimer elected to play Grbac instead of Gannon and the Chiefs lost 14-10. The two ended up splitting snaps in 1998, after Grbac was injured in Week 1.

Oakland Raiders
In February 1999 Gannon was signed as a free agent by the Oakland Raiders. He excelled in Jon Gruden's West Coast offense and was voted to the Pro Bowl in his first year as a Raider - the first of four straight selections. In 2001 and 2002 he won the Pro Bowl MVP award consecutively, a feat achieved by no other NFL player. Gannon won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award after a record-setting 2002 season, throwing for 4,689 yards and 26 touchdowns, which helped the Raiders advance to Super Bowl XXXVII. He led the league with 418 completions on 618 attempts.

In the Super Bowl, Gannon threw a Super Bowl-record five interceptions - three of which were run back for touchdowns - in a 48-21 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs' defense was aided by the fact that their new head coach was Jon Gruden, who had knowledge of the Raiders' playbook as well as Gannon's mannerisms and even some audibles, which Oakland coach Bill Callahan had left unchanged since Gruden's departure.

Gannon's 2003 season was ended by a shoulder injury in Week 7 after a 2-5 start. A serious neck injury in 2004 effectively ended his career. Gannon was hurt in Week 3 when he scrambled, and slid into a helmet-to-helmet collision with Tampa Bay linebacker Derrick Brooks.

When the Raiders signed Kerry Collins prior to the 2004 season, some thought that Gannon would be cut in favor of the strong-armed Collins, whom skeptics thought was a better fit in new coach Norv Turner's vertical offense. Gannon not only kept his starting QB spot, but thrived. He threw for 305 yards in the season opener against Pittsburgh, including a 40-yard touchdown strike to Doug Gabriel. The Raiders nearly won the game over a Steelers team that finished the 2004 season with 15 victories. The Raiders were a competitive team with Gannon as their QB, going 2-1 when he started and 3-10 after his injury.

Retirement
On August 6, 2005, Gannon officially retired from football and joined CBS television as an NFL analyst. He retired as an Oakland Raider and was inducted into the University of Delaware athletics hall of fame the same year.

Broadcasting
Gannon joined CBS Sports as an NFL game analyst in August 2005. He also works as a game analyst for Green Bay Packers preseason games. As of 2009, Gannon also cohosts NFL Radio's "The SIRIUS Blitz" on SIRIUS Satellite Radio with Adam Schein weekdays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm Eastern time.

Personal
Gannon's father-in-law is former Minnesota Vikings running back Bill Brown. He and his wife Shelley have two daughters, Alexis and Danielle. Danielle has been diagnosed with celiac disease. The Gannons are big supporters of research for the disease by hosting a Celiac Walk at Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria, Minnesota. Rich helped to launch a national awareness campaign about celiac disease by serving as the national spokesperson for the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research (CFCR)http://www.celiaccenter.org in Baltimore, Maryland in 2009 http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/celiac2.htm. The CFCR, an international leader in treatment, research, and awareness of celiac disease, holds an annual walk in May to raise funds for research and awareness. http://www.celiacwalk.org

It has been well documented that Gannon is an outspoken "born-again" Christian.

Awards

 * Pro Bowl selections - 1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002
 * Pro Bowl MVP - 2000 & 2001
 * NFL MVP - 2002
 * Voted into University of Delaware Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005

NFL Records

 * Most completions, season - 418 (2002 — record broken by Drew Brees during the 2007 season, then again by Brees in 2011 (468))
 * Most 300+ yard passing games, season - 10 (2002 — record broken by Drew Brees during the 2011 season (13))
 * Most consecutive 300+ yard passing games - 6 (2002; tied with Steve Young, 1998 and Kurt Warner, 2000 — record broken by Drew Brees during the 2011 season (7))
 * Single-game record for most consecutive completions - 21 (at Denver, 2002 — record broken by Mark Brunell during the 2006-2007 season)
 * Most completions in a non-overtime game - 43 (vs. Pittsburgh, 2002)

Raiders Franchise Records

 * Most completions, career - 1533
 * Most completions, season - 418 (2002)
 * Most attempts, season - 618 (2002)
 * Most passing yards, season - 4689 (2002)
 * Highest completion percentage, career (min. 500 attempts) - 62.6%
 * Highest completion percentage, season (min. 200 attempts) - 67.6% (2002)
 * Highest passer rating, career (min. 500 attempts) - 91.2
 * Most 300-yard passing games - 20