Jeffrey Bryant Saturday (born June 8, 1975 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American football center for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League. He played college football at North Carolina. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the National Football League Players' Association.^[1]

[edit] Entrance into the NFL

Saturday attended Shamrock High School in Georgia. He played college football at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he started 37 games at center and earned multiple conference awards. He went undrafted in the 1998 NFL Draft, but the Baltimore Ravens signed him as a free agent on April 27, 1998, only to waive him on June 12, 1998. The Colts signed him as a free agent on January 7, 1999, and he has remained with the Colts ever since.

[edit] NFL career

In his rookie season, Saturday backed up starting guard Steve McKinney, and earned his first NFL start at left guard on November 21, 1999, against the Philadelphia Eagles. After only two regular season starts in 1999, Saturday started all 16 regular season games of the 2000 season at center for the Colts. Over the following seasons, Saturday remained the team's starting center, appearing in 85 consecutive games before sitting out two games with an injury in December 2004. He remains a fixture on the Colts' offensive line, which has given up the fewest quarterback sacks among all NFL teams in the 2004, 2005, and 2006 seasons.

He was selected to his second NFL Pro Bowl in 2006, and started for the AFC squad. In his first eight NFL seasons with the Colts, Saturday appeared in 121 regular season games, starting 112 of them. He also appeared in 13 playoff games, starting 12 of them. He passed the ball once during a game in 2004, but his attempt fell incomplete. His career passer rating stands at 39.6.

On February 26, 2009, Saturday signed a three-year $13 million dollar contract with the Colts including a $7.45 million dollar signing bonus.[1]

[edit] 2007 playoffs

Though the Colts won at least 10 regular season games for five consecutive years under Head Coach Tony Dungy, the team could not get to the Super Bowl, losing in the AFC Playoffs from 2002 to 2005. The 2006 Colts went 12-4 in the regular season but expectations were low in the playoffs as the team only earned a three-seed in the AFC. Nonetheless, on January 21, 2007, Saturday helped the Colts win the AFC Championship game against the New England Patriots when he recovered a teammate's fumble in the end zone and scored a touchdown. In that same game, the Patriots' left guard Logan Mankins also scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery, making that game the first in NFL playoff history to have two offensive linemen score touchdowns in the same game. It was also the first playoff game in which an offensive lineman and defensive lineman (Dan Klecko) from the same team scored a touchdown. Saturday also provided the key block on the game-winning touchdown run by Joseph Addai, pancaking Vince Wilfork, with quarterback Peyton Manning naming Saturday's play "The Block."^[2] Two weeks later, he helped the Colts win Super Bowl XLI against the Chicago Bears.

[edit] Honors and awards

Saturday was voted onto three Pro Bowl teams in 2005, 2006, and 2007 and for the 2005 and 2007 seasons he was named to the Associated Press NFL All-Pro First Team.

Saturday also received the "Tuesday Morning Quarterback Non-QB Non-RB NFL MVP Award" from ESPN columnist Gregg Easterbrook in January 2007.

Jeff Saturday has an action figure.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• COLTS.COM - Official Indianapolis Colts Website
• ESPN.COM player profile page