Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
I know nothing about Mark Rypien's family but he did not grow up in Canada himself. I would not consider him a Canadian QB.
But reading about him did lead me to this funny nugget on his Wikipedia page.
"Born in Calgary, Alberta, Rypien moved to the United States in 1965 and was raised in Spokane, Washington. Despite his later renown as a supreme athlete it is notable that he was unable to defeat Robert Duprie as the Emerson Elementary School skipping champion."
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Haha — that’s great. Rypien was one of my favourite football players growing up (in part because of his birthplace) so I know way more about him than the average person probably should. Yes, he and his family moved to Spokane when he was young; he went on to play the likes of John Stockton and Ryne Sandberg in high school before going to Washington State. He went on to be the MVP of Super Bowl 26 with Redskins; after that there was a rumour that Bruce McNall and the Argos were going to sign him for big money but that obviously never happened.
I think Jesse Palmer was the first Canadian “trained” QB to play meaningful snaps in the NFL; he went to high school in Ottawa before going to play for Steve Spurrier’s offence in Florida (he enrolled in 1997, one year after Danny Wuerffel won the Heisman, and split time with Rex Grossman). Was later drafted by the Giants.