Neil O'Donnell

Neil Kennedy O'Donnell (born July 3, 1966 in Morristown, New Jersey) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League for 14 seasons (1990-2003) with the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, and Tennessee Titans. He played college football at the University of Maryland. O'Donnell wore number 14 during most of his career except during his one-year stint with the Bengals, where he wore number 12.

O'Donnell grew up in Madison, New Jersey, and played high school football there at Madison High School.

Career highlights

O'Donnell played in Super Bowl XXX but threw two interceptions to Dallas Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown to set up short touchdown drives in The Steelers trailed the Cowboys 13-7 midway through the third quarter when Dallas' Larry Brown intercepted an O'Donnell pass that wasn't within 10 yards of the nearest Steelers receiver. Brown's pick helped set up a TD and Dallas went on to a 27-17 victory. He also threw an interception on the game's final play. However, all of this was major miscommunication between O'Donnell and the receiver.

Following the Super Bowl letdown, O'Donnell signed as a free agent with the Jets, where he was 0-6 in his first season as starter. He would play much better under new coach Bill Parcells the following year, 1997.

In 1998, with the then-1-3 Bengals, O'Donnell threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Carl Pickens with 20 seconds remaining to score the winning touchdown against 3-1 Pittsburgh. It was one of two highlights for the Bengals that year, the other being Brad Costello's 73 yard punt (a franchise record). O'Donnell's 90.2 passer rating was sixth among regular starting quarterbacks. The Bengals would go on to finish 3-13 under O'Donnell and coach Bruce Coslet. O'Donnell was released at the end of the season to make room for an extremely promising rooking in Akili Smith.

From 1999 onwards, O'Donnell was Steve McNair's backup with the Titans. He performed well, even leading the team to a Week 17 47-36 victory in Pittsburgh. He would be frequently released and re-signed during this period, as the Titans tried to control their salary cap.

O'Donnell was lured out of retirement in December 2003, when McNair and Billy Volek were injured. O'Donnell started the regular-season finale and was highly effective. He completed 18 of 27 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Titans to a 33-13 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

O'Donnell ended his career with the lowest interception percentage in NFL history, averaging just 2.11 interceptions for every 100 pass attempts.

Post football career

O'Donnell permanently retired after the 2003 season. In 2004 he declined head coach Bill Cowher's offer to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers after Tommy Maddox fell to injury. O'Donnell found work as a sports analyst, primarily covering the Titans at WTVF, Nashville's CBS affiliate, from 2005-2007.

O'Donnell is currently a sales representative for FieldTurf in Kentucky and Tennessee.

References

External links

• Career Stats