Shane Matthews
Shane Matthews is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League. He most recently played for the Miami Dolphins, and collegiately at Florida. On March 2, 2007, Matthews officially retired from the NFL.
On September 7, 2007, Matthews was named head coach of the Florida franchise in the All American Football League.
Matthews attended Cleveland High School in Cleveland, Mississippi through his sophomore year before attending Pascagoula High School in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He was named the Mississippi Player of the Year as a senior.
Matthews played college football at the University of Florida under head coach Steve Spurrier.
Upon finishing his college career, Matthews was signed by the Chicago Bears in 1993. Despite achieving amazing success in college he finished 5th in Heisman voting in 1991 and set a school record for career passing yards.
He remained the Bears' back-up and third-string quarterback for four seasons. Matthews did not appear in a regular season game with the Bears until 1996.
Matthews spent a couple years with the Carolina Panthers, but remained a back-up. The Bears brought Matthews back for the 1999 season and in his second stint with the team he played a much bigger role. Matthews had his best season in the NFL in 1999, starting seven games, throwing for 1645 yards and 10 touchdowns. Matthews played the next two season with the Bears, starting a total of 8 games in that span. He also relieved starter Jim Miller in the 2002 (2001 NFL season) playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles after Miller separated his shoulder and could not continue. ESPN's Chris Berman gave Matthews the nickname "The Shane Matthews Band" when the quarterback appeared on the network's NFL highlight show, NFL Primetime. The nickname was a reference to the Dave Matthews Band.
In 2002, Matthews signed with the Washington Redskins and started 7 games, throwing for 1251 yards and 11 touchdowns. Since that season, Matthews has returned to his back-up and third-string role with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2003 (0 games) and the Buffalo Bills in 2004 (3 games, 0 starts). In 2005, Shane Matthews was on the roster of the Bills, but was the third-string quarterback behind J.P. Losman and Kelly Holcomb. Matthews did not appear in a regular season game during the 2005 NFL season. He retired following the 2005 NFL season.
In December of 2006, Matthews was signed as the 3rd string quarterback for the Dolphins. He was brought in to replace the former starter Daunte Culpepper, who was placed on injured reserve for knee rehab.