Kevin James Thompson (born July 27, 1977) is a former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

. He has played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally ...

, and the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

. He was a two-year starter at

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

. He signed as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

following the

2000 NFL draft The 2000 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur U.S. college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 15– 16, 2000, at the Thea ...

and played there for one season.

High school career

Thompson played

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and football at Damascus High School in

Damascus, Maryland Damascus is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. In the early 20th century, there existed an incorporated municipality lasting a quarter century. It had a population of 17,224 as of t ...

. He recorded more than 4,000 passing yards during his career there and helped lead the football team to two Maryland state football championships in 1993 and 1994.

College career

Thompson was a two-year starter at Penn State, he passed for six

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

s as a junior in 1998 and led the Nittany Lions to a win over

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

in the

Outback Bowl The ReliaQuest Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, usually on New Year's Day. The event has been formerly called the Hall of Fame Bowl from 1986 to 1995 and the Outback Bowl from 1996 to ...

, in which he threw for 187 yards and a touchdown. As a senior, Thompson was a

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

and threw 13 touchdown passes and averaged 159.7 passing yards-per-game. He did not play in the Nittany Lions' 24-0

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

in the 1999 Alamo Bowl due to a

shoulder The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder mak ...

injury sustained earlier in the week.

Professional football

National Football League

Thompson went unselected in the

. Later he signed with the

. Following

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events, ...

, he earned a roster spot as a backup to quarterback

Tim Couch Timothy Scott Couch (born July 31, 1977) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons with the Cleveland Browns. He played college football at Kentucky, where he set the Southeaster ...

. He played in the Browns' Week 14 loss to the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...

, but a December 2000

ankle The ankle, or the talocrural region, or the jumping bone (informal) is the area where the foot and the leg meet. The ankle includes three joints: the ankle joint proper or talocrural joint, the subtalar joint, and the inferior tibiofibular joi ...

injury ended his season, and he was placed on injured reserve. The following spring the Browns allocated Thompson to NFL Europe, where he played for the Frankfurt Galaxy. He returned to the team for the 2001 training camp, but a knee injury sustained during camp required

arthroscopic surgery Arthroscopy (also called arthroscopic or keyhole surgery) is a minimally invasive surgical procedure on a joint in which an examination and sometimes treatment of damage is performed using an arthroscope, an endoscope that is inserted into the ...

forced him to spend the season on injured reserve. On December 18, 2001, he was signed to the Cincinnati Bengals' practice squad for the last three weeks of the

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of ...

. In January 2003, Thompson had rejoined the Browns and was listed as the Browns' third quarterback for the AFC Wild-Card game due to an injury to Couch. When he was not given a tender offer by the Browns the following spring, he a signed one-year contract with the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...

on March 31, only to be released during training camp. Thompson spent the 2004 preseason with the New York Giants, and in February 2005 signed with the Buffalo Bills who then allocated him to the Cologne Centurions of NFL Europe. In his April 2, 2005, debut with the Centurions, he made 16-of-25 passes for 197 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions against the Hamburg Sea Devils. He finished the season with 1,561 yards passing and 10 touchdowns. He then returned to the Bills for their 2005 training camp, but was waived on September 3.

Arena Football League

Thompson signed with the

Los Angeles Avengers The Los Angeles Avengers were an Arena Football League team based in Los Angeles, California, from 2000 through 2008. They folded on April 19, 2009. History The Los Angeles Avengers played their home games at the Staples Center, which is also th ...

of the

on March 2, 2006, and spent two seasons with the team.

Personal

He graduated from Penn State in 1999 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

Kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, biomechanical, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kinesiology to human healt ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Kevin 1977 births Living people People from Gaithersburg, Maryland People from Damascus, Maryland Players of American football from Maryland American football quarterbacks Penn State Nittany Lions football players Cleveland Browns players Frankfurt Galaxy players Cincinnati Bengals players Minnesota Vikings players New York Giants players Buffalo Bills players Cologne Centurions (NFL Europe) players Los Angeles Avengers players