Former Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen Still Throws a Pretty Pass

Raise your hand if you knew what the American Flag Football was.  OK you, you go outside and go for a walk.  Yesterday highlights from the AFFL’s inaugural game circulated the internet with clips of recently retired Michael Vick lighting it up.  Shocker, a league where Vick can’t get hit and doesn’t have to see over an offensive line and just throw and he lights it up?  Another quarterback who the same could be said about should be very familiar to Notre Dame fans – Jimmy Clausen.

The former Notre Dame quarterback starred opposite Vick on Team Owens and it looks like he can throw a nice damn pass.  Take a look for yourself, her are the highlights (in case you don’t see them embedded above).

After looking around this morning for an official box score, I was unable to track one down so perhaps the folks at the AFFL will be kind enough to provide a stat line for Clausen.  Their official website does not have one listed although I was able to find out that Vick threw for 547 yards and 8 touchdowns.  Sounds like a lot but then again Vick put up numbers like that once while in the NFL against the Redskins on Monday Night Football. in 2010.

Clausen isn’t the only former Notre Dame player to take part in the game.  Jonas Gray was also listed on the roster for Team Owens along with Clausen.  Again, no luck in tracking down any sort of box score or stats for Gray.

The game this week was the first for the AFFL and all proceeds from the $10 tickets went to charity.  According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution though, the league announced that it will hold their first season in 2018.

It will be interesting to see if this league actually takes off because the highlights did make it look entertaining.  The fact that the official website for the AFFL doesn’t even have up a recap or boxscore shows the league has some work to do.  A guy like Clausen is still young enough to light up a league like this for years given he doesn’t have to face a pass rush.  He just gets to sit back and let it rip.

He’s always been able to do that.

A Second Chance for Jimmy Clausen?

Jimmy Clausen’s NFL career never took off and he was out of the league already by last year, but by the looks of the highlights above, Clausen can still threw a very good looking pass.  That was, of course, never the problem for Clausen at Notre Dame or even in the NFL.  He’s had a private QB coach since he was a kid and threw one of the nicest looking passes – at least short and intermediate – that you’ll ever see.

Clausen had tremendous accuracy during his collegiate career, but once he got to the NFL, his lack of arm strength and mobility doomed him.  He started 10 games as a rookie for Carolina in 2010 but started just four more games the five seasons combined after the Panthers drafted Cam Newton.  Eventually Clausen landed in Chicago for a couple seasons and then started two games at the end of the 2015 season for the Ravens.  He spent the 2016 season without an NFL team.  Clausen finished his career with just 7 touchdowns to 14 interceptions.

If we hear back on Clausen’s official stat line, we’ll update the post.  Regardless good luck to Jimmy Clausen in the AFFL.  The NFL ship has sailed for the former Notre Dame gunslinger but perhaps he can catch on with the AFFL – if it catches on itself.

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5 Comments

  1. As the undisputed greatest flag football player of all time, I am indignant over the fact that my name got no mention in this article. This blog is suspect.

  2. 247Sports just ranked him #2 on the most overrated college players since 2000. Thanks Charlie!

  3. Clausen to the NFL is one of the saddest stories I know of. He never had a chance. Jerry Richardson and John Fox doomed him to failure and the Panthers’ fans blamed him incessently. In 2010, his rookie season, JR went bargain basement in not improving the team and Fox knew he was out from the beginning of the season. Clausen started with 2 rookie receivers and a second year receiver. Smith was hurt. Panthers were so bad at TE that SI ranked the Top 32 and no Panther appeared. And TE was crucial to Clausen’s game. Add that the NFC South put 2 teams in the playoffs and the other was 10-6, easily the best division that year. 2 Clausen wins were negated when Kasay missed a makeable game winner at Cleveland and LaFell dropped a pass at NO that would insured an easy chip shot FG to win. Super Bowl champ NO.
    Enter Cam Newton and it was impossible not to start him with his public hype. Clausen languished for the three years left on his rookie contract and no one interested to take that on. He goes to a bad Chicago team, starts a couple with Cutler hurt, nut never gets an opportunity to flourish. His stats at ND were incredible, especially in light of the weak ND defense which cost the Irish more easy wins during his tenure there.
    The kid was tough. He got the crap beat out of him at ND and with the Panthers. Often he played with painful injuries.
    I have no doubt that he would have been outstanding had he gone to a solid winning franchise with time to learn and a decent supporting cast.

  4. Ashame Clausen never took off in the NFL. I kept an eye initially on him but he never panned out. Funny, Weis supposed to be the QB guru, but his QB’s never seemed to translate ND success into the NFL. And he talked Clausen into leaving a year early for the NFL…yeah, great advice there. Now, I have no idea how he would have fared under BK for his final year (though BK did say if Clausen had remained he would have adapted his offensive coaching accordingly), but leaving a year early in retrospect did not help him.

    I was hugely disappointed in Brady Quinn’s lack of NFL success. I thought he would have had success. To be honest, being drafted by Cleveland was probably the worse thing that could have happened to him. That team could ruin any QB. Tom Brady probably couldn’t even succeed on that team.

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