Matthew Louis D’Orazio (born October 1, 1976) is a former

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 with ...

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 Ame ...

who played in 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 ...

(AFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Otterbein College Otterbein University is a private university in Westerville, Ohio. It offers 74 majors and 44 minors as well as eight graduate programs. The university was founded in 1847 by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and named for United Bre ...

. D'Orazio was a member of the Roanoke Steam,

Rochester Brigade The Rochester Brigade was a professional arena football team based in Rochester, New York. The team was a member of af2, the minor league of the Arena Football League, and played their home games at the Blue Cross Arena. The Brigade began play in ...

, Buffalo/Columbus Destroyers, Mohegan Wolves,

Chicago Rush The Chicago Rush were a professional arena football team based in Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Located immediately northwest of Chicago, as of the 2010 census it had a population of 4,20 ...

Philadelphia Soul Philadelphia soul, sometimes called Philly soul, the Philadelphia sound, Phillysound, or The Sound of Philadelphia TSOP, is a genre of late 1960s–1970s soul music characterized by funk influences and lush instrumental arrangements, often feat ...

and

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-old ...

. He was named the MVP of

ArenaBowl XX ArenaBowl XX, held on Sunday, June 11, 2006, was played to determine the championship of the 2006 season of the Arena Football League (AFL). For the second consecutive year, the game was played at the neutral site of the Thomas & Mack Center in P ...

. He was also named the 2008 AFL MVP, as well as the

ArenaBowl XXII ArenaBowl XXII was played on July 27, 2008 at New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana (the host of ArenaBowl XXI). It was the 22nd and final championship game in the history of the Arena Football League, original Arena Football League. This was ...

MVP, both in the same season.

Early years

D'Orazio attended St. Francis DeSales High School in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, and

lettered Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. In football, he was an All-State selection, and in basketball, he was an All-Conference selection. His #10 jersey was retired by the school.

College career

D'Orazio originally attended

Youngstown State University Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio. It was founded in 1908 and is the easternmost member of the University System of Ohio. The university is composed of six undergraduate colleges an ...

where he red-shirted in 1995 and played in one game in 1996. He then transferred to

, where he then set school single-season and career records for passing yards,

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 Ameri ...

passes and total offense. While there, he passed for 8,770 yards and 73 touchdowns while rushing for 594 yards and five touchdowns during his career. In 2012, D'Orazio was inducted into the Otterbein Athletic Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Milwaukee Mustangs

D'Orazio entered the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, when he signed with the Milwaukee Mustangs, where he only spent one season. He was placed on recallable waivers by the Mustangs on January 25, 2001.

New Jersey Gladiators

Then on March 8, 2001, he signed with the

New Jersey Gladiators The Cleveland Gladiators were an arena football team based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The Gladiators played their home games at Quicken Loans Arena, which they shared with the Cleveland Ca ...

. He was placed on recallable waivers by the Gladiators on April 9, 2001.

Roanoke Steam

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, D'Orazio played for the Roanoke Steam of the AFL's minor league

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

Rochester Brigade

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, D'Orazio signed with the

of the af2. For the season, he went 324-of-522, for 3,372 passing yards, 51 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. He also rushed for 332 yards and 20 touchdowns, an af2 alltime record.

Buffalo Destroyers

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, D'Orazio returned to the AFL, signing with the

Buffalo Destroyers Buffalo most commonly refers to: * Bubalina, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York Buffalo or buffaloes may also refer to: Animals * Bubalina, a subtribe of the tr ...

' practice squad on February 19, 2003. He was released by the Destroyers on April 9, 2003.

Mohegan Wolves

D'Orazio played for the Mohegan Wolves of the af2 in 2003.

Columbus Destroyers

He signed with the

Columbus Destroyers The Columbus Destroyers were an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Columbus, Ohio, with home games in Nationwide Arena. The team was founded in as the Buffalo Destroyers, based in Buffalo, New York, and relocated to Columbus in . They fold ...

on November 18, 2003, and played for the team until

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

Chicago Rush

On November 3, 2005, he signed a two-year contract with the

. At the end of the 2006 season, he led the league as the top-rated passer (126.2), and the top rusher with 200 yards and 10 touchdowns. In

, he threw for 250 yards and six touchdowns, as well as rushing for two. He was named Offensive Player of the Game and game MVP for his performance. In the off-season following the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

season, D'Orazio was released by the Rush on November 7, 2007. The team did not want to wait until January to make a call on whether to keep him following his 2007 back injury during the playoffs. He was replaced by former

Arizona Rattlers The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are currently members of the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League ...

quarterback

Sherdrick Bonner Sherdrick Deon "Sed" Bonner (born October 19, 1968) is a former American football quarterback who played fifteen seasons in the Arena Football League (AFL). High school years Bonner attended Azusa High School in Azusa, California and was a stude ...

Philadelphia Soul

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, D'Orazio later signed with the

as a backup to

Tony Graziani Anthony Robert Graziani (born December 23, 1973) is a former American football quarterback who played for the Atlanta Falcons in the National Football League (NFL), and the Los Angeles Avengers and Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League ( ...

. He became the starting quarterback when Graziani was injured and was out for the season. D'Orazio was voted the AFL MVP for the season while leading Philadelphia to

, where they defeated the

San Jose SaberCats The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...

59-56, and was named MVP of the game, as well. Along with

George LaFrance George Herbert LaFrance III (born September 24, 1965) is a former Arena Football League offensive specialist. In a playing career lasting twelve years, he played for the Detroit Drive (1988- 1993), the Tampa Bay Storm (1994-1999), and the New Je ...

, he is one of only two players to be named MVP of the ArenaBowl while playing for two different teams.

Calgary Stampeders

On February 13, 2009, the

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

signed D'Orazio. He was released on June 25, 2009.

AFL statistics

''Stats from ArenaFan'':

References

External links

Calgary Stampeders bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Orazio, Matt 1976 births Living people People from Elyria, Ohio Players of American football from Ohio American football quarterbacks Canadian football quarterbacks American players of Canadian football Otterbein Cardinals football players Milwaukee Mustangs (1994–2001) players New Jersey Gladiators players Buffalo Destroyers players Manchester Wolves players Columbus Destroyers players Chicago Rush players Philadelphia Soul players Calgary Stampeders players Roanoke Steam players Rochester Brigade players Sportspeople from Greater Cleveland