Background and career
Jeffrey Jason Garcia (born February 24, 1970) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). After attending high school and junior college in Gilroy, California, Garcia played college football for the San Jose State Spartans. A four-time CFL All-Star and four-time NFL Pro Bowl selection, Garcia began his professional football career with the CFL's Calgary Stampeders as an undrafted free agent in 1994. In 1999, Garcia debuted in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers. With the 49ers, Garcia made three Pro Bowl appearances (for the 2000, 2001, and 2002 seasons) and led the team to the playoffs in the 2001 and 2002 seasons. Afterwards, Garcia encountered a low point in his career, starting with a lackluster 2003 season with San Francisco then two losing seasons with the Cleveland Browns in 2004 and the Detroit Lions in 2005. With the Philadelphia Eagles, Garcia returned to form late in the 2006 season, starting for an injured Donovan McNabb and leading Philadelphia to the playoffs. Garcia joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2007 and was the starting quarterback for most games of the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Again, Garcia led Tampa Bay to the playoffs in 2007 and made his fourth career Pro Bowl appearance. After his stint with Tampa, Garcia returned to the Eagles in 2009 and played only one game. In 2010, Garcia played for the Omaha Nighthawks of the United Football League. In 2011, Garcia signed with the Houston Texans but did not play a game with the team. The following year, Garcia joined the advisory board for the now defunct United States Football League.
Garcia attended Gilroy High School in Gilroy, California, and was a letterman in football and basketball. As a senior at Gilroy High, Garcia was a South Santa Clara County selection for the Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game and played defensive back in the game.
After graduating from Gilroy in 1988, Garcia attended Gavilan College, a local junior college. He was the starting quarterback on the football team for the 1989 season, in which he passed 2,038 yards for 18 touchdowns and rushed 584 yards for four touchdowns. After the season, Garcia earned junior college honorable mention All-America honors. In 1990, Garcia transferred to San Jose State University and redshirted his first year there. From 1991 to 1993, Garcia was starting quarterback on the San Jose State Spartans football team. Under Garcia, San Jose State went 6–4–1 in 1991, 7–4 in 1992, and 2–9 in 1993. In 1991, Garcia had a career-high 61.9% completion rate at San Jose State with 99-for-160 passing for 1,519 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. He passed for 2,418 yards in 1992 on 209-for-371 passing with 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions and a career-high 2,608 yards in 1993 on 196-for-356 passing, 21 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions. For his junior season in 1992, Garcia earned UPI All-America honors. As of 2007, Garcia had the most career offensive yards (7,274) in San Jose State history.
Garcia is one of only eighteen quarterbacks in NFL history who have achieved two consecutive thirty-touchdown passing seasons (2000 and 2001) at least one time in his career. The others are Philip Rivers, Steve Bartkowski, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Dan Fouts, Dan Marino, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Y. A. Tittle, Eli Manning, Tony Romo, Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, and Joe Burrow. He is also one of only fourteen quarterbacks to throw a 99-yard touchdown pass.
At 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, Garcia was considered too small for the National Football League and was not selected in the 1994 NFL draft. In 1994, Garcia started his professional career in Calgary with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. He won a place on Calgary's roster as their third-string quarterback behind Doug Flutie and Steve Taylor when he threw two fourth-quarter touchdowns in his exhibition game appearance in 1994; soon after, he was named backup quarterback to Flutie. Garcia took over as starter in 1995 when Flutie was sidelined midway through the season with an elbow injury. In his second start filling in for Flutie, Garcia set a team record with 546 passing yards and six touchdown passes in the Labour Day game against Edmonton touching off an eventual quarterback controversy among some fans when Flutie later returned. Flutie ended up starting over Garcia in the Grey Cup that year which the Stampeders lost. After Flutie signed as a free-agent with the Toronto Argonauts in 1996, Garcia took over as the Stampeders' starting quarterback. During Garcia's three years as starter, the Stampeders finished with records of 13–5, 10–8, and 12–6. In 1997, Garcia won the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy, an award given to the Most Outstanding Player in the CFL Western Division. Garcia led the Stampeders to the Western Final in 1996 and to the Western Semi-Final in 1997. In 1998, he led the team to the 86th Grey Cup and a victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was named Grey Cup MVP. Garcia's performance included an 80-yard, game-ending drive to set up the game-winning field goal on the last play of the game. Garcia was also named as the 1998 CFL All-Star at quarterback. Garcia was inducted to the Stampeders Wall of Fame on September 14, 2012, along with 5 others (Rudy Linterman, Gerry Shaw, Kelvin Anderson, Sig Gutsche, Norman Kwong).
Following the Grey Cup victory, Garcia was signed as a backup to Steve Young with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. Over the summer, he had been fighting for a spot on the roster, but early in the 1999 season, Young was hit by Arizona Cardinals cornerback Aeneas Williams and suffered his final professional concussion, knocking him out for the year. Garcia stepped in and shared time with former Stanford quarterback Steve Stenstrom finishing the season. Garcia won his first NFL start against the Tennessee Titans 24–22. After being benched for poor performances, Garcia was reinstated as the starting quarterback and in the final five games of the regular season, finished by tossing 8 touchdown passes to only 2 interceptions. Garcia finished his rookie season with 11 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
