Josh Booty

Joshua Gibson Booty (born April 29, 1975) is an American professional baseball and American football player. He is currently a pitcher in the organization of the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB). Booty has played in MLB as a third baseman, and also in the National Football League as a quarterback. He is the older brother of John David Booty.

High school (1991–1994)
Booty went to Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana. Josh's father Johnny was an all-American highschool football player as well at Shreveports Woodlawn HS and was the Athletic Director at Evangel Christian. He was also one of the founders of the Evangel school that turned into a football factory. Booty was named to the All-Time National High School All-American team by Dick Butkus. Joe Namath, and John Elway were the other two QB's mentioned on the All-Time team.

As quarterback for the football team, he threw for 11,700 yards and 126 touchdowns, becoming the first high school player in history to throw for more than 10,000 yards (despite missing the last four games of his senior year because of a broken hand). Booty was named the USA Today Offensive Player of the Year and was named the National High School Player of the Year by at least six associations, including Parade and the Football News.

As a shortstop for the baseball team, he was a four-time All-State choice at shortstop. As a senior, he batted .429 with 20 intentional walks, 25 stolen bases, and 12 home runs in 70 at bats. He was the starting shortstop for the U.S. Junior Olympic National Team that won the silver medal. He was a USA Today All-American shortstop. Booty won a silver medal in the 1993 U.S. Olympic Festival. He was the 5th pick overall in the 1994 Major League Baseball Draft by the Florida Marlins.

Highly recruited by major college football programs from across the country, Booty decided to sign with the Marlins for a then-record $1.6 million signing bonus.

Baseball career (1994–1998)
Booty was the fifth pick overall in the first round of the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft (1994). Booty spent five years in the Marlins organization, and was a career .269 hitter in the big leagues. The Marlins reportedly paid him 1.6 million, a then draft signing bonus record, if he did not play football in the duration of his contract, but decided to pursue a career in pro football. He hit 20-plus home runs in single and double A minor league stops and was voted the Minor League Defensive Player of the Year in 1997 for the Portland Sea Dogs. He was a part of the 1997 World Series Champion Florida Marlins and has a World Series Championship ring.

College Football career (1999–2000)
In 1999, Booty went to Louisiana State University (LSU) to play football for LSU's football team. During two years there, he completed 49.3% of his passes for 3,951 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Freshman season
Booty beat out two future NFL draft picks Craig Nall and Rohan Davey for the starting job. The Tigers did not have much success, and Head Coach Gerry DiNardo was fired during the season.

Sophomore season
During his sophomore season (2000), under Coach Nick Saban, Booty started the first four games of the season.

In LSU's 58–0 victory over Western Carolina he completed 80.0% of his passes for 291 yards, throwing two touchdowns and no interceptions. In LSU's 28–13 victory over Houston he completed 44.0% of his passes for 175 yards, throwing two touchdowns and two interceptions. In LSU's 17–34 loss to #24 Auburn he completed 44.8% of his passes for 214 yards, throwing two touchdowns and one interception. In LSU's 10–13 loss to UAB he completed 39.5% of his passes for 156 yards.

Booty did not play in next game against #11 Tennessee because of a rib injury. Davey quarterbacked a 38–31 overtime victory over Tennessee in Tiger Stadium. Davey only completed 33.3% of his passes against Florida, throwing no touchdowns and one interception, so Booty took over with 10:32 left in the third quarter while the score was Florida 24, LSU 3. Booty finished the game, completing 62.5% of his passes for 184 yards, throwing one touchdown. The final score was Florida 41, LSU 9.

Booty was starting quarterback for the rest of the season:
 * LSU's 34–0 victory over Kentucky (completing 45.5% of his passes for 225 yards, throwing three touchdowns and no interceptions)
 * LSU's 45–38 OT victory over #13 Mississippi State (completing 63.2% of his passes for 246 yards, throwing two touchdowns, and one interception)
 * LSU's 30–28 victory over Alabama (completing 58.1% of his passes for 275 yards, throwing for four touchdowns and no interceptions). This competition is known as the "It's About Time" game because it was the first time in 31 years that LSU had defeated Alabama at home.
 * LSU's 20–9 victory at Ole Miss (completing 53.3% of his passes for 290 yards, throwing one touchdown and no interceptions)
 * LSU's 3–14 loss to Arkansas (completing 22.2% of his passes for 65 yards, throwing no touchdowns and two interceptions) in pouring rain and windy conditions

During Booty's nine games as a starter, LSU went 6–3, as Booty threw 17 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Booty finished his sophomore season throwing for 2,121 yards, which at the time was the third-best performance by a sophomore in LSU history, behind Jeff Wickersham's 1983 sophomore season (2,542 yards) and Tommy Hodson's 1987 sophomore season (2,125 yards). Booty was voted to the first team All-SEC Team, becoming the first LSU quarterback to be awarded that honor since Tommy Hodson (first team All-SEC Team, 1986–1989).

At the end of the 2000 season, LSU went to the Peach Bowl and posted a 28–14 victory over #15 Georgia Tech. Booty played the first half (only completing 42.1% of his passes for no touchdowns and no interceptions).

Professional football career
Booty was taken as the 177th pick (6th round) of the 2001 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks. He was the 11th quarterback taken, behind Michael Vick of Virginia Tech, Drew Brees of Purdue, Quincy Carter of Georgia, Marques Tuiasosopo of Washington, Chris Weinke of Florida State, Sage Rosenfels of Iowa State, Jesse Palmer of Florida, Mike McMahon of Rutgers, A.J. Feeley of Oregon and Josh Heupel of Oklahoma.

Personal life
One of Booty's younger brothers, Abram, was a wide receiver at LSU (1997–1999), Valdosta State University (2000) and a Cleveland Browns wide receiver in 2001. Another brother, John, was the starting quarterback at USC in 2007, and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 2008. John David quarterbacked USC's victories over Michigan and Illinois in the 2007 and 2008 Rose Bowls, respectively.

Booty was married to Rachel Reynolds in 2003 and later divorced. Both Louisiana natives, Reynolds and Booty met while he played football and Reynolds was on the track team at LSU.

Josh is Co-founder of Oxygenade.com

He was formerly the spokesperson for TrueMRI in Beverly Hills, California, and has been involved with numerous radio and television commentating work in sports, including Sirius, Fox Sports, ESPN Radio

Booty has been involved in numerous charity events and has participated in the Celebrity Players Tour. He has been involved with charities such as Winner's Circle youth organization benefiting inner-city kids, as well as with children's hospitals across America. Booty helped jump start a Little League Baseball program for kids in the Czech Republic.

Booty also is a minority owner in Water Tree Ventures. Water Tree is primarily a Health Care related company that distributes free Pharmacy Discount Cards across the US to the uninsured.

Josh recently joined forces with SignorGroup.com a real estate development company in the oil and gas space.

Josh sits on the advisory board for We Are Community Inc. which founded the site WeAreLasVegas.com.

Josh is involved with the start-up movie production company Kamikaze Dogfight Films. Josh has also played several roles on the daytime TV show Days of Our Lives.

Josh serves as CEO of AmpedUpSales.com

Josh won the MLB Network reality show "The Next Knuckler", hosted by former Boston Red Sox players Tim Wakefield and Kevin Millar. The show also included football players Doug Flutie, John David Booty, David Greene, and Ryan Perrilloux. For winning, he got a chance to go to spring training with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a pitcher, even though his baseball rights technically still belong to the Marlins.