Ed McCaffrey
Encyclopedia
Edward Thomas McCaffrey (born August 17, 1968 in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania
) is a former American football
wide receiver
who played for the New York Giants
(1991–1993), San Francisco 49ers
(1994) and the Denver Broncos
(1995–2003) of the National Football League
. He also has his own brand of horseradish sauce, which can be found in supermarkets across Colorado.
at Allentown Central Catholic High School
in Allentown, Pennsylvania
, where he competed in the East Penn Conference (now known as the Lehigh Valley Conference
) in Pennsylvania
's Lehigh Valley
.
He then played college football
at Stanford University
in Palo Alto, California
and, in 1991, was named an All-America
n. At Stanford, he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon
fraternity.
by the Giants in the third round (83rd overall) in the 1991 NFL Draft
. During his thirteen year career, he won three Super Bowl
rings (in Super Bowl XXIX
, XXXII
and XXXIII
) and made a Pro Bowl
appearance in 1998
. At Denver, he became a reliable target for quarterback John Elway
. He set a Broncos record for most receptions in a season (with 101 receptions in 2000), and had an exceptional performance in Super Bowl XXXIII, recording five catches for 72 yards. Also in 1999, McCaffrey and teammate Rod Smith became only the second wide receiver duo from the same team to each gain 100 receptions in the same season (see Herman Moore
and Brett Perriman
).
On September 10, 2001, McCaffrey suffered a compound leg fracture while playing a Monday Night Football
game with the Broncos against the Giants. In sustaining the injury, he made a spectacular catch and did not fumble the ball. He rebounded in the 2002 season with 69 receptions and 903 yards. Hampered by injuries, Ed retired on February 29, 2004, after a disappointing 2003 season. McCaffrey finished his career with 565 career receptions for 7,422 yards and 55 touchdowns while wearing the number 87.
McCaffrey is the oldest of five children. He has two brothers and two sisters: Monica of Georgetown University Women's Basketball, Billy McCaffrey
, a former Duke and Vanderbilt college basketball player, Michael and Meghan.
Waynesboro, Pennsylvania
Waynesboro is a borough in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, located northwest of Baltimore, Maryland, 67 miles southwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and north of the Mason-Dixon Line. The population within the borough limits was 9,614 at the 2000 census. When combined with the surrounding...
) is a former American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
wide receiver
Wide receiver
A wide receiver is an offensive position in American and Canadian football, and is the key player in most of the passing plays. Only players in the backfield or the ends on the line are eligible to catch a forward pass. The two players who begin play at the ends of the offensive line are eligible...
who played for the New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
(1991–1993), San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
(1994) and the Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
(1995–2003) of the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
. He also has his own brand of horseradish sauce, which can be found in supermarkets across Colorado.
High school and collegiate football
McCaffrey played high school footballHigh school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
at Allentown Central Catholic High School
Allentown Central Catholic High School
Allentown Central Catholic High School is a private, parochial school located at 301 North Fourth Street in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the United States...
in Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...
, where he competed in the East Penn Conference (now known as the Lehigh Valley Conference
Lehigh Valley Conference
The Lehigh Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference is an athletic conference consisting of 12 large high schools from Lehigh and Northampton counties in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States...
) in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
's Lehigh Valley
Lehigh Valley
The Lehigh Valley, known officially by the United States Census Bureau as the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan area and referred to locally as The Valley and A-B-E, is a metropolitan region consisting of Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, and Carbon counties in eastern Pennsylvania and...
.
He then played college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
and, in 1991, was named an All-America
All-America
An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
n. At Stanford, he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Alpha Epsilon is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only one founded in the Antebellum South...
fraternity.
Professional career
McCaffrey was draftedNFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
by the Giants in the third round (83rd overall) in the 1991 NFL Draft
1991 NFL Draft
The 1991 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 21–22, 1991 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Manhattan, New York...
. During his thirteen year career, he won three Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
rings (in Super Bowl XXIX
Super Bowl XXIX
Super Bowl XXIX was an American football game played on January 29, 1995 at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida to decide the National Football League champion following the 1994 regular season...
, XXXII
Super Bowl XXXII
Super Bowl XXXII was an American football game played on January 25, 1998 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California to decide the National Football League champion following the 1997 regular season...
and XXXIII
Super Bowl XXXIII
Super Bowl XXXIII was an American football game played on January 31, 1999, at Pro Player Stadium in Miami, Florida to decide the National Football League champion, following the 1998 regular season. The American Football Conference champion Denver Broncos defeated the National Football...
) and made a Pro Bowl
Pro Bowl
In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
appearance in 1998
1998 Pro Bowl
The 1998 AFC-NFC Pro Bowl was played on February 1, 1998 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. The final score was AFC 29, NFC 24. Warren Moon of the Seattle Seahawks, invited to participate because of an injury to John Elway, was the game's MVP. The referee was Gary Lane...
. At Denver, he became a reliable target for quarterback John Elway
John Elway
John Albert Elway, Jr. is a former American football quarterback and currently is the executive vice president of football operations for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League . He played college football at Stanford and his entire professional career with the Denver Broncos...
. He set a Broncos record for most receptions in a season (with 101 receptions in 2000), and had an exceptional performance in Super Bowl XXXIII, recording five catches for 72 yards. Also in 1999, McCaffrey and teammate Rod Smith became only the second wide receiver duo from the same team to each gain 100 receptions in the same season (see Herman Moore
Herman Moore
Herman Joseph Moore is a former American National Football League wide receiver. At George Washington High School in Danville he played mostly as a kicker and also as a tight end. He went to the University of Virginia, where he was a 2-sport athlete...
and Brett Perriman
Brett Perriman
Brett Perriman is a former American football wide receiver in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints , the Detroit Lions , the Kansas City Chiefs , and the Miami Dolphins...
).
On September 10, 2001, McCaffrey suffered a compound leg fracture while playing a Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
game with the Broncos against the Giants. In sustaining the injury, he made a spectacular catch and did not fumble the ball. He rebounded in the 2002 season with 69 receptions and 903 yards. Hampered by injuries, Ed retired on February 29, 2004, after a disappointing 2003 season. McCaffrey finished his career with 565 career receptions for 7,422 yards and 55 touchdowns while wearing the number 87.
McCaffrey is the oldest of five children. He has two brothers and two sisters: Monica of Georgetown University Women's Basketball, Billy McCaffrey
Billy McCaffrey
Billy McCaffrey is a retired American professional basketball player and college basketball star. He is also former interim head coach at St. Bonaventure University....
, a former Duke and Vanderbilt college basketball player, Michael and Meghan.
Career receiving statistics
| Year | Team | Games | Rec | Yards | Y/R | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 1991 NFL season The 1991 NFL season was the 72nd regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XXVI when the Washington Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills.... |
NY Giants New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League... |
16 | 16 | 146 | 9.1 | 0 |
| 1992 1992 NFL season The 1992 NFL season was the 73rd regular season of the National Football League.Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Andrew, the New England Patriots–Miami Dolphins game that was scheduled for September 6 at Joe Robbie Stadium was rescheduled to October 18. Both teams originally had that... |
NY Giants | 16 | 49 | 610 | 12.4 | 5 |
| 1993 1993 NFL season The 1993 NFL season was the 74th regular season of the National Football League. For the first time in league history, all NFL teams played their 16-game schedule over a span of 18 weeks. After the success of expanding the regular season to a period of 17 weeks in 1990, the league hoped this new... |
NY Giants | 16 | 27 | 335 | 12.4 | 2 |
| 1994 1994 NFL season The 1994 NFL season was the 75th regular season of the National Football League. To honor the NFL's 75th season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season... |
SF 49ers San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and... |
16 | 11 | 131 | 11.9 | 2 |
| 1995 1995 NFL season The 1995 NFL season was the 76th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 30 teams with the addition of the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars... |
Denver Broncos Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
16 | 39 | 477 | 12.2 | 2 |
| 1996 1996 NFL season The 1996 NFL season was the 77th regular season of the National Football League and the season was marked by notable controversies from beginning to end... |
Denver Broncos | 15 | 48 | 553 | 11.5 | 7 |
| 1997 1997 NFL season The 1997 NFL season was the 78th regular season of the National Football League. The Oilers relocated from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee... |
Denver Broncos | 15 | 45 | 590 | 13.1 | 8 |
| 1998 1998 NFL season The 1998 NFL season was the 79th regular season of the National Football League.The Tennessee Oilers moved their home games from Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis to Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville, still awaiting construction on a new stadium in Nashville.This was the first season that CBS... |
Denver Broncos | 15 | 64 | 1,053 | 16.5 | 10 |
| 1999 1999 NFL season The 1999 NFL season was the 80th regular season of the National Football League. The Cleveland Browns returned to the field for the first time since the 1995 season... |
Denver Broncos | 15 | 71 | 1,018 | 14.3 | 7 |
| 2000 2000 NFL season The 2000 NFL season was the 81st regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XXXV when the Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants.Week 1 of the season reverted to Labor Day weekend in 2000... |
Denver Broncos | 16 | 101 | 1,317 | 13.0 | 9 |
| 2001 2001 NFL season The 2001 NFL season was the 82nd regular season of the National Football League.Following a pattern set in 1999, the first week of the season was permanently moved to the weekend following Labor Day... |
Denver Broncos | 1 | 6 | 94 | 15.7 | 1 |
| 2002 2002 NFL season The 2002 NFL season was the 83rd regular season of the National Football League.The league went back to an even number of teams, expanding to 32 teams with the addition of the Houston Texans. The clubs were then realigned into eight divisions, four teams in each... |
Denver Broncos | 16 | 69 | 903 | 13.1 | 2 |
| 2003 2003 NFL season -Milestones:The following teams and players set all-time NFL records during the season:-Team:-Individual:-Awards:-External Links:**-References:*NFL Record and Fact Book *... |
Denver Broncos | 12 | 19 | 195 | 10.3 | 0 |
| Career | - | 185 | 565 | 7422 | 13.1 | 55 |