But it was not all smooth for Kitna; he had a rough phase in four games in 2008. He had started as a doomed member of the Detroit Lions that finished the season 0-16. But the world knows him as a fighter as he always, in his 14-year-long career, bounced back from a backup to a starting position.
Kitna finally announced his retirement in 2011, but that never marked an end to his football career. He came back to Tacoma and took up the job of a coach at Lincoln High School. He continued with this for three years and then became a coach at Waxahachie High School in Texas.
A World Record
A rough start spelled as a telling sign of his career. During his rookie season, he was sacked an NFL record seventy-nine times! Then he went on to have two more seasons, which had led the league in the sack department.
The most prominent highlight of his NFL career came on the sideline as the New York Giants' backup quarterback when the G-Men took down the Patriots to win Super Bowl XLVI.
Jon Kitna
Kitna had quite a long NFL career, though it was not always pretty! The first time he made it to the news was when he came out of Central Washington like a bright star but went undrafted in 1996!
Starting his career as a backup, he had to slowly work his way up to the top for a starting role by 1999. During the initial phase, he made a place for himself in the Seattle Seahawks practice squad and even earned MVP honor in NFL Europe. It was a great achievement for him when he slowly but steadily climbed up from an undrafted position to a starter and then went on to finish the season with a winning record!
Chad Pennington
How important it is to stay healthy can be understood in the best way if you look at Pennington's career graph! An all-around athlete and an outstanding quarterback, this man’s career was cut short only due to the fact that he did not care to look after his health. His time in the field, from 2000-2008, promised the world a great bout of talent, but the people never got to see much of him outside the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.
Back in 2002, Pennington showed himself to the world as the Jets starting quarterback. He had so much potential that he could turn around a 1-4 team to 9-7, eventually turning them into playoffs. But in the very next season, he had a fatal accident that gave him a rotator cuff injury. He had to go through surgery twice since he again got badly injured in the cuffs in the following season. The man made a phenomenal comeback in 2006, which gave him the title of the Comeback Player of the Year. Though he had a not-so-good 2007 outing, the Dolphins signed him, and he passed for a sensational 67.4 completion percentage. All of this earned him a place in the MVP discussion, and Pennington is the only man who has received the Comeback Player of the Year twice.
In And Out of Hospital
The only drawback of this outstanding player was that he neglected his health to a great extent, which took a toll on him. Not only a number of injuries. He had several surgeries, including a shoulder one, but he also had a torn ACL.
However, he finally decided to give his body a well-deserved rest. He lives at Kentucky as a coach of a middle school football team and then had restarted a football program at Sayre School in Lexington.