Todd Collins is Living the Dream

The dream run of Todd Collins. You have to feel good for a guy who puts in the work for so long and finally gets rewarded with a shot at fulfilling his dream. Collins is in his 13th NFL season. Drafted by the Bills in ’95, as the Bills "dynasty" (cheap shot Candyman - i know) was winding down, he played in 7 games in each of his first two years, starting a total of 4 games. In ’97, he started 13 games. Candyman could perhaps expand on the Bills team that year but I vaguely remember a porous offensive line and Collins took a beating that year. The Bills gave up on him after that one season as a starter and he went to KC to back up fellow Wolverine Elvis Grbac. In 8 seasons with the Chiefs, he got in a total of 12 games, going 18-27 in that time. He learned under longtime NFL assistant Al Saunders and followed Saunders to Washington in ’06 - where he never saw the field. Look at this guy's career profile:

http://www.nfl.com/players/toddcollins/careerstats?id=COL694708

Fastforward to December 6th where he comes in for an injured Jason Campbell and leads the Skins to victory over da Bears. (That was in a "nationally" televised game on the NFL network that about 25 people outside of Chicago and Washington saw). He starts and wins 3 more games and leads the ‘skins to the playoffs after the emotional rollercoaster involving the Sean Taylor murder. Leaving out the Giants game, played in severe weather and 50 MPH winds, Collins has completed 59 of 80 passes (73.8 percent) for 722 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. His passer ratings in those three games have been 144.6, 124.8 and 104.8. He hasn’t thrown a pick in 10 years!

Feelgood story in the Washington Post today - otherwise, I haven't heard or seen much about this story and i'm surprised.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/02/AR2008010203273_2.html

Collins has had a great job and a great professional life - 13 years of collecting NFL checks and not taking a physical beating like so many of these guys do. So there's no reason to feel too bad for his professional career - I would love to have had that job coming out of school. But he’s a competitor and he has to be relishing every minute of this. You have to feel great for him - he’s enjoying the ride and I for one am on the bandwagon. Let’s hope we see him battling Tom Brady on Super Sunday.