Patrick Christopher Jeffers (born February 2, 1973) 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 wi ...

wide receiver 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 ...

for the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divi ...

, and

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. ...

. With the Broncos, he won Super Bowl XXXII over

Brett Favre Brett Lorenzo Favre ( ; born October 10, 1969) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons, primarily with the Green Bay Packers. Favre had 321 consecutive starts from 1992 to 201 ...

and the world champion Green Bay Packers. He played college football at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Early years

Jeffers attended

Fort Worth Country Day School Fort Worth Country Day (FWCD) is a JK-12 private, independent, coeducational, nondenominational college-preparatory school located on approximately 100 acres in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It is accredited by the Independent Schools Associa ...

, where he was a two-time All-conference selection, playing as a wide receiver,

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

, free safety, punter, placekicker. He finished his career with 52 receptions for 980 yards and 10

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. He was a two-time All-conference selection in soccer. In track, he won the conference title in the

400 metre dash The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is o ...

twice and set school records in the

200 __NOTOC__ Year 200 ( CC) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Victorinus (or, less frequently, year 953 ''Ab ur ...

and 400 metres.

College career

Jeffers walked-on at the

. As a redshirt freshman, his first reception was a 20-yard

against the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

. He appeared in 11 games, tallying 9 receptions for 128 yards and 3

s. As a sophomore, he played in the first 9 games (2 starts), before suffering a broken

clavicle The clavicle, or collarbone, is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on the left and one on the r ...

against

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

and missing 2 games. He led the team with 32 receptions for 580 yards and 6

s. As a junior in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, he played in 11 games (4 starts), registering 33 receptions for 560 yards (17 yards avg.) and 3

s. His best game came against North Carolina State University, where he had 6 receptions for 153 yards, including a 52-yard

. As a senior, he missed 4 games with a hamstring injury, but still led the team with 34 receptions for 517 yards (15.2 yards avg.) and 3

s. At the time, he finished his college career with 108 receptions (fourth in school history) for 1,785 yards (fourth in school history) and 15

s. He also holds the school record for the longest streak of games with at least one reception (31).

Professional career

Denver Broncos

Jeffers was selected by the

in the fifth round (159th overall) of the 1996 NFL Draft. As a rookie, he was used mostly on

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

, appearing in the first three games, before being declared inactive for the next 12 and playing again in the season finale against the San Diego Chargers. The next year, he was the team's fourth wide receiver, appearing in 10 games and being declared inactive in 6. He played primarily on

, as part of a team that won Super Bowl XXXII. On August 30,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, he was traded to the

in exchange for past considerations.

Dallas Cowboys

, Jeffers spent the first half of the season learning the

offense and playing mainly on the scout team. He appeared in 8 games, finishing with 18 receptions for 330 yards and 2

s. He also led the team with 7 receptions for 92 yards, in the first-round playoff loss against the Arizona Cardinals. He was declared a

restricted free agent A restricted free agent (RFA) is a type of free agent in the National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), or National Basketball Association (NBA). Such players have special restrictions on the terms under which they can retain ...

at the end of the season and although he was seen as a player on the rise, the Cowboys gambled and tendered him a qualifying offer at his original draft round. The

signed him to a one-year offer sheet for a $1.2 million base salary, that the Cowboys did not to match. The team received a fifth round pick as compensation, that was eventually used to trade up to select Ebenezer Ekuban.

Carolina Panthers

Jeffers new contract made him the highest paid wide receiver on the

roster, but he still had to work his way into the starting lineup. He played in 15 games (10 starts) and had a breakout season, registering 63 receptions for 1,082 yards (17.2 yards avg.) and 12

s. He finished strong, recording 5 straight 100-yard receiving games (two short of the NFL record). He also set several franchise records: * 17.2 yards per reception average. * 6 consecutive games with a

reception. * 12

receptions in a season (tied the team record). * 88-yard reception against the Pittsburgh Steelers (second longest in team history) * Teamed with

Muhsin Muhammad Muhsin Muhammad II (; born Melvin Darnell Campbell Jr. May 5, 1973) is a former American football wide receiver who played for the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). Muhammad played college football for ...

(1,253 yards) to become the first tandem in Panthers history to each register 1,000 receiving yards in the same season. On August 10,

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 S ...

, he was lost for the year after tearing his right

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and th ...

, while playing in a preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Besides repairing the ligament, he had additional procedures performed in both knees and although he was able to rehabilitate his right knee, the left one deteriorated until needing

microfracture surgery Fracture mechanics is the field of mechanics concerned with the study of the propagation of cracks in materials. It uses methods of analytical solid mechanics to calculate the driving force on a crack and those of experimental solid mechanics t ...

. Jeffers returned in 2001 to play 9 games in a reserve role, but was not able to regain his previous form. He was released on August 23, 2002.

Personal life

His sister is Allison Jeffers Dooley, who is married to Derek Dooley, former head coach at The University of Tennessee. He also has four children.

References

External links

Patrick Jeffers Is Still In The Fairytale
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffers, Patrick 1973 births Living people Sportspeople from Fort Worth, Texas Players of American football from Texas American football wide receivers Virginia Cavaliers football players Denver Broncos players Dallas Cowboys players Carolina Panthers players Ed Block Courage Award recipients