Commentary
Sullivan: Fitzpatrick not smarting today's start
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — This might come as a blow to Buffalo fans who are desperately hoping for Ryan Fitzpatrick to spark an offensive revival today. But the Bills' quarterback isn't even the best athlete in his own household.
"My wife, Liza, was an All-American soccer player at Harvard," Fitzpatrick said Thursday. "We have two kids [Brady, 2, and Tate, 9 months]. I hope they get their athleticism from their mom, to be honest with you. She's the better athlete."
Fitzpatrick is used to being modest about his athletic talent. He was a fine high school quarterback at Highland High in Gilbert, Ariz. He dreamed of playing for Arizona State. His parents, Mike and Lori, met at ASU. The family made regular trips to the home games.
"If they had offered me, I would have been there in a heartbeat," Fitzpatrick said.
But Arizona State wasn't interested. Neither was Arizona, or Northern Arizona. Everyone thought he was too small. One day, Harvard coach Tim Murphy went to see Fitzpatrick work out, and he was stunned that no major college had offered him a scholarship.
Murphy didn't have one, either. Ivy League schools don't give athletic scholarships. What he could offer was an education at one of the world's top academic institutions. Oh, and a job as his starting quarterback.
"I didn't even know Harvard had a football team growing up," Fitzpatrick said. "It's not like you see them on TV every Saturday. But looking back, there couldn't have been a better place for me than Harvard."
The admiration is mutual. In Fitzpatrick's four years on campus, Harvard lost a total of three games. The Crimson went undefeated in his senior year, when Fitzpatrick was Ivy League Player of the Year. He got an elite education, too, and he assumed he'd take his economics degree and head to Wall Street upon graduation.
"That's what you do when you go to Harvard," he said. "The path from there is you go to Wall Street until you figure out what you're actually doing."
But by his senior year, Fitzpatrick was on the NFL radar. St. Louis drafted him in the seventh round in 2005 — the xleg sixth-to-last player taken. He played two years with the Rams and two in Cincinnati before the Bills signed him in March to be the backup to Trent Edwards.
Today, Fitzpatrick will take over for Edwards, who is still nursing a concussion suffered at the Jets. Fitzpatrick, the only Harvard man to throw a pass in the NFL, will be the ninth quarterback to start for the Bills since Jim Kelly retired after the 1996 season. Only one, Doug Flutie, compiled a winning record.
Expectations are modest for Bills QBs these days. For many frustrated fans, it's enough that Fitzpatrick isn't Edwards. But after watching Fitzpatrick rally the Bills over the Jets, some are hoping a career backup might conjure up some rare magic.
"I know I can start in this league," Fitzpatrick said. "I'm not the blue-chip prospect, the 6-5, 230-pound rocket-armed quarterback that everybody loves. But I like to think I'm a competitor. I have the ability to get it done. If there's one thing I've learned since being in the NFL, it's leadership, and how important it is to be on the same page with all the guys."
Fitzpatrick caused a national stir in '05, when he threw for 310 yards and three TDs off the bench for St. Louis in his first NFL game. He started the next three weeks and lost them all. He didn't throw another pass in a regular-season NFL game until last year in Cincinnati, when he started 12 games for an injured Carson Palmer.
The Bengals lost his first four starts, averaging 11 points a game. Fitzpatrick didn't complete a pass longer than 22 yards. But the Bengals went 4-3-1 in his final eight starts, and the Bills were sufficiently impressed to sign Fitzpatrick as their backup.
"After last year, did I think someone was going to pick me up to be their franchise starting quarterback? No," Fitzpatrick said. "But I was hoping I'd have an opportunity to start games again. It's going to be a great opportunity to go out there and build on what I learned last year."
If nothing else, the center exchange might be the smartest in the NFL. Fitzpatrick scored a 48 out of 50 on the Wonderlic intelligence test administered to the league's draft prospects. Center Geoff Hangartner scored a 47, believed to be the highest ever by an offensive lineman.
"He's obviously an intelligent guy," said Gibran Hamdan, who steps up to the backup QB role today. "We play trivia from time to time and he wins a lot. I might get him in the arts and music. He wins the world history, the geography, that kind of stuff. He would feel right at home with the Jeopardy crowd."
Fitzpatrick might be in jeopardy behind the Bills' offensive line. But he's a good athlete, despite his deprecating self-analysis. He ran for 304 yards last year. At times, he was the Bengals' best running back. He could do some damage with his legs today when the protection breaks down.
He'll try to get the ball to his wideouts, too. But there's a reason Fitzpatrick is a backup. He is not very accurate when he throws the ball downfield. He's averaged an abysmal 5.3 yards per pass attempt in his career.
Bills fans don't expect him to be the next Jim Kelly. Right now, they'd settle for Frank Reich. At this point, any show of competence at quarterback would be a welcome sign. It doesn't take an Ivy Leaguer to see that.
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