The Best Job in Football
Jim Sorgi and Matt Cassel Collect an NFL Salary Yet Rarely Play
The backups to Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Brett Favre are seldom used, but they still get to call themselves NFL quarterbacks.
When pondering the existence of pro football's backup quarterback, mere mortals have to be jealous.
While second-stringers have varying levels of participation on game day, the backups to Iron Man starters like Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees were clearly listening to the Dire Straits when they weighed their professional options:
"Money for nothing, chicks for free."
Take a guy like Jim Sorgi. Sorgi, a former Wisconsin Badger, has played second fiddle to Manning for the Indianapolis Colts for several years. With the exception of occasional spot duty Sorgi receives in the dying weeks of a season where the Colts have locked up a playoff spot, Sorgi's job is to look focused holding a clipboard and to look trendy in a royal blue Colts ballcap.
Sure, Sorgi has to practice hard and be dedicated in the film room. The quarterback has so much responsibility that its position requires more study than most, if not all, in the NFL. But virtually every other position has to sweat and vomit in the heat of training camp two-a-days (with more strenuous drills than the quarterback); the task of studying is made easier by hanging around a pigskin savant like Manning.
When working under such a top-flight pro pivot like Manning, Favre or Brady, you essentially get the best spectator seat in the house. You get to wear a pristine NFL uniform and sip lots of Gatorade. You earn at least hundreds of thousands per year and when you find yourself flirting it up in a swanky downtown club, you still get to say you're an NFL quarterback.
So what if they aren't getting the glory? The most these players have to worry about is hucking a tight spiral in practice, not falling asleep in the film room and buttressing their investments with a fat paycheck.
The beautiful part is, even if these players are called on to take the field, they aren't vilified if their performance is sub-par. No one expects these players to thrive; they are backup quarterbacks. Of course, there are young backup pivots with lots of talent who are being groomed for a starting role, but the backups who have held the position for years will be permanent caretakers, permanent "game managers."
It's not crazy to see the appeal in taking less money and playing time to retire healthy, (still) rich and to have spent a good portion of your working life as a pro athlete. So the franchise tailback can take his millions and his high likelihood of arthritis or (at worst) paralysis.
The guys who really have it made are the Sorgis and Matt Cassels of the world.
