Patrick O'Hara (born September 27, 1968) is an

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

coach and former

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

who most recently served as the pass game analyst for the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. They play the ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He previously served as the

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

of the

New Orleans VooDoo The New Orleans VooDoo were a professional arena football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They were members of the Arena Football League from 2004 to 2015. The VooDoo were the second team to play in the Arena Football League and play in ...

Orlando Predators The Orlando Predators were a professional arena football team based in Orlando, Florida and member of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team was most recently owned by Orlando Predators LLC, a company owned by David A. Siegel, and played it ...

and Tri-Cities Fever. O'Hara also served as an assistant coach for the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

and

Tampa Bay Storm The Tampa Bay Storm were a professional arena football team based in Tampa, Florida, US. It played in the Arena Football League (AFL). Originally the team was located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and operated as the Pittsburgh Gladiators. The ...

. O'Hara played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

as a

for the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans (also Southern California Trojans) are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ...

and was selected by the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

in the 10th round (260th overall) of the

1991 NFL draft The 1991 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 21–22, 1991, at the Marriott Ma ...

. In his 16-year playing career, O'Hara has also played for the Ohio Glory,

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...

, Toronto Phantoms and

, and played backup quarterback Tyler Cherubini in Oliver Stone's 1999 film ''

Any Given Sunday ''Any Given Sunday'' is a 1999 American sports drama film directed by Oliver Stone and produced by Clayton Townsend, Dan Halsted, and Lauren Shuler Donner from a screenplay by Stone and John Logan based on a story written by Logan and Da ...

''. Over the span of his AFL career, he played in five ArenaBowls, winning three. In

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, he was named

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

of the Storm, in the unique position as a

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

. Then, in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, after retiring as a player, he resumed the duties of

. After the 2008 season, on July 25, 2008, he agreed to a three-year deal, with an option for a fourth, with the Los Angeles Avengers to become the fourth head coach in the franchises history. However, the Avengers folded when the AFL went on hiatus.

Early life

O'Hara attended

Santa Monica High School Santa Monica High School, officially abbreviated to Samohi or SMHS, is a public high school in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1891, it changed location several times in its early years before settling into its present campus at 601 Pico Bo ...

, where during junior and

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

seasons he threw at least one

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

pass a game. He was a two-time ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' All-Westside selection and the "Westside Back of the Year" in 1984 and 1985. As a junior, in 1984, O'Hara passed for nearly 2,000

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English units, English unit of length in both the British imperial units, imperial and US United States customary units, customary systems of measurement equalling 3 foot (unit), feet or 36 inches. Sinc ...

s and 23 touchdowns. During his senior season, he passed for nearly 2,000 yards and 21 touchdowns in 10 games which earned him "Bay League Player of the Year" honors and selection to the ''

Long Beach Press-Telegram The ''Press-Telegram'' is a paid daily newspaper published in Long Beach, California. Coverage area for the ''Press-Telegram'' includes Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill, Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Compton, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, L ...

s "Best in the West" team. In 1986 O'Hara was also an All-Bay League centerfielder for the Vikings baseball team.

College career

O'Hara then attended

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

where his playing time was limited to being a

backup In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "wikt:back ...

. As a sophomore in 1988, he served as the backup to Rodney Peete, who finished the season as a

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy ( ; also known simply as the Heisman) is awarded annually since 1935 to the top player in college football. It is considered the most prestigious award in the sport and is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust followin ...

finalist. O'Hara was expected to be the Trojans' starting quarterback in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, but suffered two torn

ligaments A ligament is a type of fibrous connective tissue in the body that connects bones to other bones. It also connects flight feathers to bones, in dinosaurs and birds. All 30,000 species of amniotes (land animals with internal bones) have ligam ...

in his right

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

and a fractured right

tibia The tibia (; : tibiae or tibias), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two Leg bones, bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outsi ...

in practice 10 days before the start of the season. The injuries required multiple surgeries, including one to graft bone from his

hip In vertebrate anatomy, the hip, or coxaLatin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) (: ''coxae'') in medical terminology, refers to either an anatomical region or a joint on t ...

. He was hospitalized for three weeks, a time in which he lost 35 pounds and received a get-well letter from former president

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

. As a senior in

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, O'Hara served as backup to Todd Marinovich. Marinovich, then a freshman, was given the starting job and helped lead the team to a Rose Bowl win against

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

Bo Schembechler Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler Jr. ( ; April 1, 1929 – November 17, 2006) was an American college football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Miami University from 1963 to 1968 and at the Univers ...

's last game as a

. O'Hara's arm was impressive enough for some NFL

scouts Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

to offer him a workout with them. He graduated with a degree in

Public Administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

in 1991.

Professional playing career

National Football League

O'Hara was selected in the 10th round (260th overall) of the

by the

. He spent the first 11 weeks on the teams

practice squad In gridiron football, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scou ...

before being activated and serving as the team third-string quarterback the remainder of the season. O’Hara holds the unique distinction as the only quarterback selected in modern draft history without ever being a starter in a collegiate game. Following the 1991 season O'Hara was allocated to the

World League of American Football NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of the Nati ...

's Ohio Glory and subsequently signed by the

as a Plan B

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager 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 a contract at present ...

serving as their third-string quarterback for the 1992 season. He then attended

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 ...

with the Chargers in

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

and the

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Arena Football League

O'Hara transitioned to 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 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

in 1995 season when he signed with the

. He played there for six seasons helping to lead the Predators to wins in ArenaBowls XII and XIV. He then joined the Toronto Phantoms in

2001 The year's most prominent event was 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. The United States led a Participan ...

and then the

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

. He helped lead the Storm to a win in ArenaBowl XVII after starting Quarterback John Kaleo was injured late in the second quarter. In his playing career, O'Hara played in a total of five ArenaBowls and won three.

Coaching career

O’Hara began his coaching career at Point Loma High School in 1996, working with the Quarterbacks as a volunteer assistant. He later spent three seasons (1998–2000) as an assistant coach at New Smyrna Beach High School and three seasons (2001–03) as the

at Olympia High School where he coached NFL

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

Chris Johnson. In

, O'Hara was named

of the Storm, in the unique position of a

. Then after the 2006 season, he retired as a player, he resumed the duties of offensive coordinator. His success on the field as a player and as a coordinator had a number of teams interested in him in the 2008 offseason. He interviewed for head coaching positions with the Grand Rapids Rampage and the

Arizona Rattlers The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League ...

and was a finalist for both jobs. However, On July 25, 2008, he agreed to a three-year deal, with an option for a fourth, with the Los Angeles Avengers to become the fourth head coach in the franchise's history. However, the AFL cancelled its 2009 season, and on April 27, 2009, he was hired as the replacement of Richard Davis as head coach of the Tri-Cities Fever of

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 r ...

. The Fever went 3–8 after hiring O'Hara, finishing 3–13. Although the team invited him to remain on as head coach in 2010, he decided to take an offer to become head coach of the

in the

on December 21, 2009. On August 8, 2011, he was named the head coach of the

. Following the 2015 AFL season the VooDoo ceased operations. On February 3, 2015, O'Hara was named an offensive assistant coach for the

. On January 26, 2018, O'Hara was hired as the quarterbacks coach for the

Broadcasting career

(2010–2014) O'Hara worked as a television football analyst for Bright House (Spectrum) Sports Network covering Florida high school football. O'Hara also served as color analyst for UCF Img Radio Network covering UCF football (2013–2014). More recently, O'Hara has worked as a color analyst for

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

covering the Arena Football League (AFL).

Movie career

O’Hara's previous off-seasons have included consulting work, coordinating and choreographing football action scenes in movies. He also has coached actors such as

Adam Sandler Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. Primarily a comedic leading actor in films, List of awards and nominations received by Adam Sandler, his accolades include an Independent Sp ...

Mark Wahlberg Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971), formerly known by his stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor, producer, and former rapper. Mark Wahlberg filmography, His work as a leading actor, leading man spans the Comedy film, come ...

Dwayne Johnson Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor and professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on a part-time basis. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional w ...

and

Glen Powell Glen Thomas Powell Jr. (born October 21, 1988) is an American actor and screenwriter. He began his career with small roles on television and in films such as '' Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over'' (2003) and '' Fast Food Nation'' (2006). Powell acted in t ...

to better help them portray their characters. In addition, O'Hara has appeared in several movies including '' The Waterboy'', ''

'', and ''The Game Plan''.

References

External links

Pat O'Hara at ArenaFan
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ohara, Pat 1968 births Living people American football quarterbacks Arena Football League executives Houston Texans coaches Los Angeles Avengers coaches New Orleans VooDoo coaches Ohio Glory players Orlando Predators coaches Orlando Predators players San Diego Chargers players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Tampa Bay Storm coaches Tampa Bay Storm players Tri-Cities Fever coaches Toronto Phantoms players USC Trojans football players High school football coaches in California High school football coaches in Florida Players of American football from Santa Monica, California Tennessee Titans coaches