Kerry Collins life and biography

PRO:
Kerry Collins, the NFL’s third-leading active passer, enters his fifth season with the Titans and his 16th season in the NFL. He is an experienced signal caller that provides veteran leadership as he enters the 2010 season as the team’s primary backup quarterback. Collins has been named to two Pro Bowls (1996, 2008) and has passed for more than 2,500 yards in eight NFL seasons. He has led his teams to the playoffs four times as a starter, including an appearance in the NFC Championship Game following the 1996 season with the Panthers and a Super Bowl appearance following the 2000 season with the Giants.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
• Ranks third among active quarterbacks (Brett Favre and Peyton Manning) with 38,618 career passing yards.
• Has engineered 29 career game-winning performances, leading his team to victory after a fourth-quarter deficit or tie.
• Moved past Dave Krieg (38,147 career yards) for 12th place on the NFL’s all-time passing yards list at Jacksonville (10/4/09).
• In 2008, the veteran signal caller earned his second career Pro Bowl selection after starting the final 15 games and leading the Titans to the NFL’s best record. Collins finished the season with an 80.2 passer rating, the third-best mark of his career, and he became just the 15th player in NFL history to surpass 35,000 career passing yards.
• In 2005, Collins started 15 games and attempted 565 passes, the second-most in Raiders history (618 by Rich Gannon in 2002). He passed for 3,759 yards and 20 touchdowns on 302 completions. It was the sixth consecutive season in which he passed for more than 3,000 yards.
• In 2002 with the Giants, Collins enjoyed the most prolific season by a quarterback in Giants history. He set a team record, was first in the NFC and was fourth in the NFL with 4,073 passing yards, surpassing Phil Simms’ 1984 record of 4,044 yards. His 545 passes were the second-highest total in team history behind his own 2001 mark of 568 attempts. Collins recorded career highs in 2002 for completions (335), completion percentage (61.5 percent), passing yards (4,073) and passer rating (85.4).
• In 2000, Collins passed the 3,000-yard marker for the first time in his career and posted a career-high 22 touchdowns as he led the Giants to Super Bowl XXXV.
• He earned a Pro Bowl appearance in 1996 after he led the Panthers to the NFC Championship Game in his second season as a signal caller in the NFL.

TITANS TIDBITS:
• In his spare time, Collins, an avid country music fan, enjoys writing country music. He has been working with top writers in Nashville like Ed Hill (Faith Hill’s, “It Matters To Me”), Billy Lawson (Trace Adkins’, “I Left Something Turned On at Home”), Lee Thomas Miller (Trace Adkins’, “You’re Gonna Miss This”), the Warren Brothers (Tim McGraw’s, “If You’re Reading This”), Paul Overstreet and Grammy-award winner Jamey Johnson.
• Collins finds peace and comfort with his wife, Brooke, and daughter, Riley, on his 1,580-acre farm in Troy, N.C. “Blue Q Ranch” was named as such by Collins because every team for whom he ever played quarterback (Q) besides the Oakland Raiders used blue as one of their primary colors. There are over 700 head of registered angus cattle on the property. He often says some of his happiest days are on a horse at the ranch.
• The K.C. for Kids Foundation has recently starting working with Y-CAP, a YMCA center dedicated to serving at-risk youth in East Nashville - one heart, one mind and one spirit at a time. The youth-based program aims to redirect behavior by teaching values and rebuilding families.
• In addition to tending to matters on his farm, Collins spends much of his free time fishing and hunting deer, wild turkey and wild boar.
• The K.C. for Kids Foundation worked extensively with New York University Medical Center’s Rusk Institute. Collins donated his time and resources to help the facility’s children’s rehabilitation program.

CAREER TRANSACTIONS:
• The Lebanon, Pa., native was originally selected by the Carolina Panthers in the first round (fifth overall) of the 1995 NFL Draft, becoming the first draft pick in the expansion team’s history.
• Released by the Panthers and claimed off waivers by the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 14, 1998.
• Signed by the N.Y. Giants as an unrestricted free agent on Feb. 19, 1999.
• Released by the Giants on April 28, 2004 and signed as a free agent by the Oakland Raiders on May 24, 2004.
• Signed by the Titans as an unrestricted free agent on Aug. 26, 2006.

COLLEGE:

• Directed Penn State to victories in his last 17 games as starter.
• As senior, named first team All-America selection by the Associated Press, The Football News and The NFL Draft Report. Posted 172.9 pass efficiency rating, fifth all-time in NCAA history and completed 176 of 264 passes (66.7%) for 2,679 yards and 21 touchdowns. Averaged 10.15 yards per attempt en route to winning Davey O’Brien Award as nation’s top college quarterback, Maxwell Award as nation’s outstanding player and being named finalist for Heisman Trophy. Threw for at least 200 yards in nine of 11 games and eclipsed or tied school single-season records for pass efficiency, completions, passing yards, total offense, yards per attempt and 200-yard games.
• Majored in labor and industrial education.

|PERSONAL:

• Married to Brooke, couple splits time between Nashville and Asheboro, N.C., with daughter, Riley (5).
• All-state AP selection at quarterback at Wilson High in West Lawn, Pa., earning athlete of the year honors from the Reading Eagle-Times and All-America honorable mention from USA Today. As senior, led Wilson to 14-1 record and Pennsylvania State 4-A title game on strength of 2,043 yards passing and 17 touchdowns.
• Also earned all-county honors as center in basketball and was an all-state choice as pitcher in baseball.
• Selected in the 26th round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Detroit Tigers in 1990 and in the 58th round by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1994.
• Donated $250,000 to his alma mater’s football program to fund the Kerry Collins quarterback scholarship, which will endow a Penn State quarterback’s books and tuition in perpetuity.
• Works with Rusk Institute in New York through his foundation (K.C. for Kids Foundation).
• Donated to Katrina Fund and American Red Cross for disaster relief.
• List of favorites: (movie) “Tombstone”; (TV show) “House”; (actor) Clint Eastwood; (music artist) George Strait; (vacation destination) North Myrtle Beach; (sports team other than Titans) New York Yankees; (food) steak; and (school subject) history.
• Born Kerry Michael Collins on Dec. 30, 1972, in Lebanon, Pa.

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