Friday, July 17, 2009

The Complete List of Every Left Handed Quarterback to Ever Play in the NFL

All these guys THROW A FOOTBALL LEFT HANDED.  I don't care what hand they write with, or what hand they throw darts with, or what hand they use when they pee.  They're only on this list if they throw a football left handed and did so as a quarterback in the NFL.

The current list of 47 can be found below. Players are sorted by year they joined the league
(* means they're NFL active as of 9/16/2024, which at this point is just Tua):

1936 - Ed Matesic
1942-1952 - Frankie Albert
1943-1947 - Allie Sherman
1944-1945 - John Karrs
1947 - Ernie Case
1952 - Harry Agganis
1956 - Fred Wyant
1963-1965 - Terry Baker
1968-1984 - Ken Stabler
1969-1978 - Bobby Douglass
1971-1975 - Jim Del Gaizo
1973-1974 - Dennis Morrison
1975-1984 - David Humm
1976-1987 - Jim Zorn
1980-1986 - Paul McDonald
1984-1997 - Boomer Esiason
1985-1999 - Steve Young
1987 - Mike Shula
1989-1997 - Erik Wilhelm
1989-1992 - Jeff Carlson
1990-2001 - Scott Mitchell
1991-1992 - Todd Marinovich
1992-1997 - Will Furrer
1993-2011 - Mark Brunell
1994-1998 - Doug Nussmeier
1994-1998 - Steve Matthews
1997-1999 - Tony Graziani
1998-1999 - Sherdrick Bonner (Never played in a single game, but was an AFL great)
1999-2003 - Brock Huard
1999-2002 - Cade McNown
2000-2001 - Matt Lytle
2001 - Josh Heupel (Only played in training camp due to injury)
2001-2015 - Michael Vick
2003-2010 - Chris Simms
2003-2005 - Dave Ragone
2003-2004 - Greg Zolman
2004 - Scott McBrien
2004-2007 - Jared Lorenzen (Never played in a single game)
2005 - Stefan Lefors (Never played in a single game)
2005-2007 - David Greene (Never played in a single game)
2006-2013 - Matt Leinart
2009-2010 - Pat White (Joined MLB 9/10/10, retired from MLB 3/9/11)
2007-2011 - Tyler Palko
2010-2015 - Tim Tebow
2010-2012 - Sean Canfield
2012-2017 - Kellen Moore
2020-Present - Tua Tagovailoa *

Lefty QB's from Movies:
Shane Falco (The Replacements)
Jack "Cap" Rooney (Any Given Sunday)

Honorable mentions:
Kendal Thompson was a college QB (Mostly a backup) and played as a WR in the NFL
Dez Bryant threw a left handed touchdown in 2016...but he's a WR.
Jake Plummer also threw left handed a few times when "in the grasp."  He's not the only righty QB, (Kyle Orton definitely did), but Plummer is mentioned a lot on the internet for doing it.

Note: Much of the original research done for this post came from Strong Arm Tactics, a book by John Maxyymuk. You can check out his post on lefty quarterbacks (which includes statistics as well) here.

46 comments:

  1. Byron Leftwich?

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  2. Dennis Dixon also is not a lefty. Sorry dude, do a google image search!

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  3. Shane Falco of the Washington Sentinels and Jack 'Cap' Rooney of the Miami Sharks get honorable mention.

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  4. Are you kidding me Spastik??? Don't you know that I'm a lefty... and I used to play permanent quarterback when I was 10 years old. This is inexcusable! I should be on this list!

    Anyways... now that I'm finished with my rant... can I tell you that this list is awesome. I might start putting together a "lefty QB" pc. Do you collect these guys?

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  5. Hahaha glad you like it Fuji! No I don't collect them, but I have considered it before. Good luck collecting if you do though!

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  6. Armanti Edwards.

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  7. Andrew Luck is left handed

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  8. Jake Plummer's throw is a classic. I found out later he was an avid handball player, so that's probably where that came from.

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  9. Any lefty's in this years draft?

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    1. As of the 15/16 college football season of the top I can think of three Morris(who is mentioned), Malik Zaire and Stocksill at MTSU. Why is there a lack of lefty Qbs,especially with so many Lh pitcher's?

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  10. Nope, I actually gave it a look today (good timing) and researched every single QB who has been mentioned as a draft or undrafted free agent candidate...all lefties. With Mark Brunell practically retired, that leaves lefties with a tenuous NFL grasp - six total, but Tyler Palko hasn't seen an active roster since 2011, Sean Canfield was off teams all last season, Matt Leinart is currently a free agent, and rumors say Tebow soon could be one. That leaves Mike Vick and Kellen Moore as the two "best" lefties in the league.

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  11. what about adding to your page a list of all lefties to ever play in nfl & categorize them by position?

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  12. Could be cool, only thing is outside of QB there are actually a lot of lefty NFLers. QB is just a really unique position.

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  13. It would be appreciated! =)

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  14. is jake Plummer s lefty?

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  15. Haha sadly he is not, Anonymous. He once was in the middle of a sack and threw the ball left handed so he's an honorary member. There was a video behind the link but it's gone now, someone took it down.

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  16. Spastik, I just want to know if you will be working on putting together a lefties list by position in the nfl or if you know another site that has one?

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  17. Not sure yet, kinda busy with non blog stuff at the moment. But possibly someday!

    As for position by position I do not have one, but googling like famous NFL left handed or all time best left handed NFL could give you a great start! You already have all the good QBs here!

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  18. Don't forget Ronnie Sunshine Bass, from Remember the Titans.
    Great list, by the way.

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  19. Vick is actually right handed but throws with his left. Fun fact

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    1. Good point. I should have clarified that the list is just lefty throwers...I know someone said Andrew Luck is left handed but throws right handed, I'm sure he's not alone!

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  20. a list about left handed owners. Now that would be even more interesting. great triva page! Keep it up.

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  21. Eli Manning...He threw an INT against the Titans left handed.

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  22. Whenever he comes out, Shane Morris from the Michigan Wolverines. He's promising.

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  23. Replies
    1. He does throw lefty sometimes in pregame - maybe I'll add a note!

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  24. Shouldn't Vince Young be on this list?

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  25. St0cksill and Zaire I know there's an FCS an jacksonville maybe,that's throws left-handed.

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  26. I used to know at least 5 left-footed kickers. Just as interesting, in my opinion. John Smith, New England, Mick Luckhurst, Atlanta, Garo Yupremian, Miami, Effren Herrera, Seattle... Sebastian Janikowski, Oakland, David Akers, Philadelphia, Morten Andersen?, John Kasay,

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  27. Forgot one of if not the best lefties ever. Drew Bledsoe.

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  28. Ya'll just hold tight for about 8_9 years and you will see the return of the southpaw. There is a 11 year old young man that can fire a 40-50 yard perfect spiral. Havent seen a lefty like this since our Tebow!!!! His name is Rocky Rocwell, he lives in San Jose CA and you can see for yourself on TicToc. Search for his dads site, SammyRocwell.

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  29. One striking obsevation about left-handed quarterbacks who have played in the NFL is that the colleges where the played cover nothing approaching a random sample the United States – or, no doubt, of NFL players.

    Of 22 drafted left-handed quarterbacks between 1963 and 2010 (no left-handed quarterback was drafted between 2011 and 2019):

    — nine played college football in the Pacific States (three at USC, two each at Washington and Oregon State, one each at Oregon and UCLA)
    — four played college football in the Mountain States (Young, Mitchell and Carlson in Utah; Nussmeier in Idaho)
    — three [Douglass, Morrison, Humm] played college football in the Plains States of Kansas and Nebraska
    — eight (plus Tua Tagovailoa) played college football in the fifteen southern States [the Confederacy, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky and West Virginia]
    — one [Esiason] played college football in the Mid-Atlantic state of Maryland
    none played college football in the seven core Midwestern states of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio
    none played college football in the six New England states

    If we consider undrafted left-handed quarterbacks, and drafted left-handed quarterbacks who never played in the league, the geographic distribution is not radically different. Only Del Gaizo – and him only for part of his college career – played college football within any state comprising part of the Northeastern Census division.

    The complete absence (at least based on NFL players and draftees) of left-handed quarterbacks from some eras (1954 to 1967, since 2010) and some entire regions (Great Lakes, Northeast) of the United States is equally revealing a question as their general rarity.

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    1. That is some really fascinating insight! Feels like a possible thesis here.

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