Next Step in the Journey

In professional sports, the term “journeyman” carries a negative meaning, used to describe a player who has spent portions of his career in many different cities, playing for many different teams. Sturgeon Bay High School graduate Chris Greisen fits that description perfectly, but he wears the label not as a knock on his abilities but as a badge of persistence.

The 33-year-old quarterback has played in four professional football leagues for seven teams, and his career has been interrupted at every stop. But throughout his journey, Greisen’s faith and positive attitude remained, as they do in his latest role, as a backup quarterback for the Florida Tuskers of the new United Football League.

Greisen was born and raised in Sturgeon Bay and loved football from an early age. His grandfather, Stan Kramer, played for the Packers, and young Chris idolized him and the game he played.

“I’ve been playing football as long as I can remember,” Greisen says. “When I was two or three I remember having a helmet from my grandpa…I always wanted to be like grandpa, be a football player, big and strong. He was just a great man to be around.” Kramer would take his family to Packer games and alumni dinners, and he was always there for Chris and younger brother Nick (currently a linebacker on injured reserve with the Denver Broncos) as they followed in his footsteps.

In high school Greisen led the Sturgeon Bay Clippers to the state title game, where they lost a heartbreaker to Ashland 25 – 20 after star running back Chad Hoiska was injured on the game’s first play.

Greisen had hopes of playing Division I college football and dreams of going on to the NFL, but when he tore the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in his knee during his senior year, he started to think it would never happen.

“Basically, after I tore my ACL, Northern Michigan, Mankato State, and Northwest Missouri State were the three schools recruiting me,” Greisen says. Forced to abandon his Division I hopes, Greisen chose Division II Northwest Missouri State because he loved the new coaching staff.

“It was a blessing in disguise,” Greisen explains. “God works in mysterious ways; it has been proven to me over and over again.” It certainly was proven to the young quarterback in college. Greisen led the Bearcats to their first-ever Division II national championship in 1998, achieving his college career goal, even if it was with a much smaller school. Things were starting to look up.

The six-foot-three, 220-pound quarterback was drafted 239th overall in the 1999 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals. His father, Ron Greisen, calls it the most memorable experience of his son’s career.

Greisen spent three seasons with the Cardinals as a third-string quarterback before he was released prior to the 2002 season. After brief stints with the Washington Redskins and the Rhein Fire of the now-defunct NFL Europe, Greisen found a new home in the Arena Football League. He spent 2004 with the Green Bay Blizzard of AFL-2, the AFL’s developmental league, before moving up to become a backup for the AFL’s Dallas Desperados in 2005 and 2006.

His big break came in 2007, when Dallas traded Greisen to the Georgia Force, who wanted him to be their starting quarterback.

“My first start with AFL back in ‘07, there was so much pressure for me to perform,” Greisen says. “My faith gave me peace right before the game knowing that I didn’t have to be perfect and just trust my God-given abilities.”

Those abilities served him well. Greisen threw 117 touchdown passes, setting an AFL record and leading the Force to the playoffs. He enjoyed one more season as Georgia’s starter, but the AFL had to cancel its 2009 season because it, like so many other businesses, was struggling to stay out of the red in tough economic times. When the league folded, Greisen was released from his contract with the Force.

“I was very disappointed when the AFL decided not to continue,” Greisen says. “It was a smaller locker room [around 25 players compared to the 53 on an NFL roster], and you became pretty close with the guys.”

Greisen, not for the first time, thought his career might be over.

“I was starting to look at other options pretty hard,” he says. Ron Greisen also started to feel that perhaps the end had finally come.

“We thought it would be over many times,” Ron says. “But he loved the game and he wanted to play it, so he never gave up on the dream.”

This past summer, Greisen heard from a friend about the UFL, an upstart league with four teams that was trying only to be a developmental league for the NFL.

“I initially heard that they were only going to take guys 30 and under,” Greisen says. “I had a tryout, didn’t hear anything, and had to prepare myself for it to be over. Then I got a call kind of at the 11th hour from Jay Gruden [the Florida Tuskers’ offensive coordinator and a former AFL coach].”

Greisen made the Tuskers as a backup, losing out on the starting job to former Wisconsin Badger Brooks Bollinger in part because of the adjustment Greisen had to make back to outdoor football.

“I guess they just felt more comfortable with his experience,” Greisen says. “I knew all the stuff, but Brooks had been in this offense before; it’s been about nine years since I’ve run a similar offense. My primary goal is to help this team. If you play for yourself it’s not going to work out.”

The Tuskers, coached by former New Orleans Saints head coach Jim Haslett, played their first game October 10, beating the New York Sentinels 35 – 13. Greisen is enjoying his time in Orlando, and happy to be playing football in the new league.

“As far as talent level, the UFL is higher than what NFL Europe was,” he says. “For what they’ve had to put together, they’ve done a tremendous job given the time that they’ve had.”

Greisen has as well. For all his bouncing around the country and the pro-football world, he has no regrets about not starting in the NFL.

“I look at where I am now, and it’s the right place,” he says. “I wasn’t ready physically or mentally; and, I think the good Lord knew that, and He has put me on this path where I’ve met some great people.”

Chris Greisen’s Four-league, Seven-team Quarterbacking Odyssey

Arizona Cardinals (1999 – 2002)

Washington Redskins (2002)

Rhein Fire (NFL Europe, 2003)

Green Bay Blizzard (AFL-2, 2004)

Dallas Desparados (AFL, 2005 – 06)

Georgia Force (AFL, 2007 – 08)

Florida Tuskers (UFL, 2009)