Chad Pennington

Chad Pennington

Pennington at the Tokyo Dome in August 2003
No. 10
Position:	Quarterback
Personal information
Date of birth:	(1976-06-26) June 26, 1976 (age 40)
Place of birth:	Knoxville, Tennessee
Height:	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight:	230 lb (104 kg)
Career information
High school:	Knoxville (TN) Webb
College:	Marshall
NFL Draft:	2000 / Round: 1 / Pick: 18
Career history
New York Jets (2000–2007) Miami Dolphins (2008–2010)
Career highlights and awards
2× NFL Comeback Player of the Year (2006, 2008) NFL passer rating leader (2002) William V. Campbell Trophy (1999) MAC Offensive Player of the Year (1999)
Career NFL statistics
TD–INT: 102–64 Passing yards: 17,823 Completion percentage: 66.0 Passer rating: 90.1 Player stats at NFL.com

James Chadwick "Chad" Pennington (born June 26, 1976) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. He was drafted by the New York Jets in the first round, as the eighteenth overall selection in the 2000 NFL Draft.

He played college football at Marshall University. Pennington won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award twice, in 2006 and 2008. In 2008, he finished second in MVP voting to Peyton Manning. At the time of his retirement, Pennington was the NFL's all-time leader in career completion percentage at 66.0% among quarterbacks with at least 1,500 pass attempts, being surpassed by Drew Brees during the 2014 season.

Pennington's father, Elwood, was a physical education teacher and football coach at Halls High School, and his mother, Denise, a teacher at the Webb School of Knoxville. Pennington's first sport was basketball, which he began playing in the third grade. Both of Pennington's parents are of English descent. He began playing football in his freshman year in high school. His parents decided to have him repeat the eighth grade when he was enrolled at the Webb School of Knoxville due to the school's intense academic program. Pennington played baseball, basketball, and football at Webb but knew he had a better chance at getting into college via football.

He was recruited by only two colleges, Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, both NCAA Division I-AA schools. In 1995, he went to a training camp at Marshall University, his parents' alma mater, where he was noticed by head football coach Jim Donnan and offered a scholarship.