J. T. O'Sullivan

John Thomas O'Sullivan (born August 25, 1979) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL), two seasons in NFL Europe and one season in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for the UC Davis Aggies of the University of California, Davis, where he was a three-year starter and threw for career totals of 10,745 yards and 96 touchdowns. He was named a first-team All-American in 2000 and a second-team All-American in 2001. He was inducted into the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

O'Sullivan was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the sixth round of the 2002 NFL draft. He also spent time with 10 other NFL teams: the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Cincinnati Bengals, San Diego Chargers, and Oakland Raiders. He was a backup for the majority of his NFL career but began the 2008 season as the starter for the 49ers. He also played for the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe in 2004 and 2007, leading the Galaxy to the World Bowl each year. He earned All-NFL Europa and NFL Europa Co-Offensive MVP honors in 2007. O'Sullivan spent the final season of his professional career as a backup for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL.

In 2018, he started the YouTube channel "The QB School", where he analyzes quarterbacks. He was the head football coach of Patrick Henry High School in San Diego from 2019 to 2021.

Early life John Thomas O'Sullivan was born on August 25, 1979, in Burbank, California. He was also team captain his senior year. O'Sullivan also set school records for single-season passing yards with 1,794 during his senior year and career passing yards with 3,500.

College career O'Sullivan was a four-year letterman for the UC Davis Aggies, who competed in NCAA Division II at the time, of the University of California, Davis from 1998 to 2001. He was redshirted in 1997 and was a backup his redshirt freshman year in 1998.

As a sophomore in 1999, O'Sullivan completed 208 of 341 passes for 3,217 yards and 26 touchdowns with 16 interceptions.

As a junior in 2000, he threw for 3,679 yards and a school single-season record 38 touchdown passes as the Aggies advanced to the Division II semifinals, where they lost to Bloomsburg by a score of 58–48. O'Sullivan had a 193.85 passer rating and was the only Division II player to receive a Heisman Trophy vote that season. He was also named first-team All-West Region by Daktronics. He was the first UC Davis player to twice be on the final ballot for the Harlon Hill Trophy. He also won the school's Colby E. "Babe" Slater Award for Male Athlete of Year in 2001.

He completed 669 of 1,070 passes for 10,745 yards and 96 touchdowns with 41 interceptions during his college career. He also set a Division II record for most consecutive games with a touchdown pass. He was Chapter President of the Phi Delta Theta chapter at UC Davis as well. O'Sullivan graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English. He was inducted into the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2009, he was the recipient of the school's Young Alumnus Award.

New Orleans Saints and Frankfurt Galaxy O'Sullivan was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the sixth round of the 2002 NFL draft with the 186th overall pick. He was inactive as the third quarterback for all 16 regular season games in 2002. O'Sullivan was released by the Saints on September 16, 2003. He re-signed with the Saints on September 21. He was again inactive as the third quarterback for all 16 regular season games in 2003. In World Bowl XII, against the Berlin Thunder, he completed 19 of 33 passes for 210 yards and 3 touchdowns with 2 interceptions in the 30–24 loss.

He was inactive as the Saints' third quarterback for the first four games of the 2004 season. After the trade, O'Sullivan was inactive for 11 games as the third quarterback. He then played the first regular season game of his career on January 2, 2005, in the season finale, when he took a knee twice to end the game. He was also inactive for the team's Wild Card Round playoff game. He was released by the team on September 3, 2005.

Chicago Bears (first stint) O'Sullivan was signed to the Chicago Bears' practice squad on September 5, 2005. He was then inactive as the Vikings third quarterback for the final eight games of the season.

New England Patriots He was signed to the New England Patriots' practice squad on September 5, 2006. He was released by the team on October 2, 2006.

Carolina Panthers O'Sullivan was signed to the Carolina Panthers' practice squad in December 2006.

Second stint with Bears and Galaxy In February 2007, he signed with the Bears. O'Sullivan recorded the league's only two 300 passing yards games of the 2007 season and threw for 374 yards in Week 9 against the Hamburg Sea Devils. He completed 23 of 39 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns with one interception in World Bowl XV.

O'Sullivan was released by the Bears in July 2007.

Detroit Lions O'Sullivan signed a one-year contract with the Detroit Lions in July 2007. Due to injuries to Detroit's other two quarterbacks, Dan Orlovsky and starter Jon Kitna, O'Sullivan played the Lions' final two 2007 preseason games in their entirety. O'Sullivan was the primary backup to Kitna in 2007. On September 16, Kitna suffered a concussion early in the second quarter against the Vikings and was relieved by O'Sullivan, who was making his second career regular season appearance. He then completed 13 of 24 passes for 148 yards, two interceptions and his first career touchdown, which was a seven-yarder to Calvin Johnson, before Kitna returned to the game midway through the fourth quarter. The Lions won 20–17 in overtime. On August 12, head coach Mike Nolan appeared on a local radio show and announced that O'Sullivan had moved into the lead for the 49ers starting quarterback job.

On August 22, Nolan officially declared O'Sullivan as the starting quarterback for the 2008 season. He became the first 49ers quarterback to throw for over 300 yards in a game since 2004 when he completed 20 of 32 passes for 321 yards and a touchdown in a 33–30 win over the Seattle Seahawks on September 14. On October 26, O'Sullivan, after throwing an interception that was returned for a touchdown, was benched in favor of Shaun Hill by new head coach Mike Singletary during the second quarter of a game against the Seahawks. He also led the league in total turnovers with 11 interceptions and six fumbles lost. O'Sullivan, by himself, had committed more turnovers than any other NFL team at the time of his demotion. The Denver Broncos, New York Jets and Cincinnati Bengals were tied for the second most turnovers with 16. On October 27, Singletary named Hill the starting quarterback. Hill then started the final eight games of the season. O'Sullivan completed 128 of 220 passes for 1,678 yards and eight touchdowns with 11 interceptions during the 2008 season. The 49ers won two out of the eight games that he started.

Cincinnati Bengals An unrestricted free agent in the 2009 offseason, O'Sullivan signed a two-year contract with the Cincinnati Bengals in March 2009. He was active as the Bengals second quarterback for every regular season game during the 2009 season. He played in three games, completing four of eleven passes for 40 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.

San Diego Chargers After O'Sullivan was cut by the Bengals, the San Diego Chargers claimed him off waivers on September 6, 2010. He was inactive as the Chargers third quarterback for six games. He was released by the team on October 20, 2010. In November 2010, he had workouts with the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions. He was inactive as the Raiders third quarterback for five games. The Raiders were the last NFL team he played for. He became a free agent in July 2011.

Saskatchewan Roughriders O'Sullivan was signed by the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League on April 19, 2012. He was the team's third-string quarterback for most of the season, behind starter Darian Durant and rookie Drew Willy. He was released by the Roughriders on March 8, 2013.

NFL career statistics Regular season Year Team Games Passing Rushing Sacks FumblesFumbles lost data taken from Pro Football Reference career game log 17 8 2–6 145 257 56.4 1,866 7.3 9 13 69.9 39 145 3.7 0 38 246 16 9

Playoffs Year Team Games Passing Rushing Sacks Fumbles Record 2004 GB 0 0 2009 CIN 0 0

Post-playing career O'Sullivan spent time as a member of the compliance staff of San Diego State University's athletic department He completed his Ph.D. in Leadership studies at the University of San Diego in 2017.

In 2018, O'Sullivan started the YouTube channel "The QB School", where he analyzes game tape of college and professional quarterbacks. He was the head football coach of Patrick Henry High School in San Diego from 2019 to 2021, accruing a 20–10 record.