Michael Paul Perez (born March 7, 1963) 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 ...

. He was drafted by the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

in the seventh round of the

1988 NFL Draft The 1988 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 24–25, 1988, at the Marriot Marq ...

. Perez played college football at San Jose State and has also been a member of the Houston Oilers,

Frankfurt Galaxy Two American football franchises have been referred to as the Frankfurt Galaxy: * Frankfurt Galaxy (NFL Europe), active in NFL Europe between 1991 and 2007 * Frankfurt Galaxy (ELF) The Frankfurt Galaxy is an American football team in Frankfurt, ...

, Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos,

Albany Firebirds The Indiana Firebirds were a team in the Arena Football League. The team was based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Home games were played at the Conseco Fieldhouse, also the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and Indiana ...

New York CityHawks The Toronto Phantoms were a professional arena football team based in Toronto, Ontario. The team was a member of the Eastern Division of the National Conference of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team also previously operated in New York Ci ...

and New England Sea Wolves.

Early life and college

Born and raised in Denver, Perez graduated from

Denver South High School South High School is a historical public high school in the Washington Park, Denver, Washington Park neighborhood on the south side of Denver, Colorado, United States. It is part of Denver Public Schools, and is one of four original high school ...

in 1983 and attended

Taft Junior College Taft College is a public community college in Taft, California Taft (formerly Moron, Moro, and Siding Number Two) is a city in the foothills at the extreme southwestern edge of the San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, California. Taft is locate ...

in California. In 1985, Perez transferred to San Jose State University. He became starting quarterback in 1986 after redshirting the 1985 season. Perez led the Spartans to the Pacific Coast Athletic Association conference championship and briefly garnered national media attention.

Professional career

New York Giants

Perez was selected by the

in the seventh round (175th overall) of the

. On

injured reserve The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

with pulled stomach muscle (September 19, 1988-remainder of season). He was released by the team on August 23, 1989.

Houston Oilers

Perez was signed by the Houston Oilers on May 14, 1990. He was released on August 6.

Frankfurt Galaxy

Perez signed with the World League of American Football on January 31, 1991. He was selected by the

in the first round (third quarterback) of the 1991 WLAF positional draft. Perez was the starting quarterback in all ten regular season games, completing 171 of 357 passes for 2,272 yards and 13 touchdowns. He also rushed 44 times for 189 yards, resulting in a team-leading 4.3 average. Perez suffered only 19 sacks (2nd lowest in the World League) for 115 negative yards and was intercepted 17 times. His best games were at New York/New Jersey where he threw for three touchdowns with a 61 percent completion rate, and at Orlando, where he passed for 346 yards including a 59-yard hurl to Jason Johnson. Perez was also the leading passer for Frankfurt in 1992.

Denver Broncos

Perez was signed by the Denver Broncos on April 28, 1993. He was released on August 30.

Arena Football

From 1994-1996 Perez played for the Albany Firebirds, leading the league in touchdowns each year, and earning 2nd team All-Arena honors all three seasons. In 1997 and 1998 he played for the New York CityHawks, as well as in 1999 when the team moved and became the New England Sea Wolves.

Life after football

Perez currently works in Finance as a Loan Officer at Megastar Financial Corp. Perez is active in the Denver community and serves as Chair of the Board of Environmental Learning for Kids.

References

External links

"Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda"
by Eric Dexheimer. January 6, 2000
"Passing Marks..."
by Richard Hoffer. ''Los Angeles Times'', November 12, 1987 {{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Mike 1963 births Living people Players of American football from Denver American football quarterbacks San Jose State Spartans football players New York Giants players Houston Oilers players Frankfurt Galaxy players Kansas City Chiefs players Denver Broncos players Albany Firebirds players New York CityHawks players New England Sea Wolves players Taft Cougars football players American sportspeople of Mexican descent