Card: StarPics 1991
Acquired: TTM 1993, Patriots Blitz
Scott Zolak is another in a long line of fine Maryland Terps quarterbacks. The school has an absolute knack for locating and putting the best talent on the field at that position. Neil O’Donnell, Stan Gelbaugh, Boomer Esiason, Frank Reich, Shaun Hill, and Mike Tice, are among some of the names over the last 30 years who have played at the pro level in some capacity after graduating from the school. Zolak was no exception. In the 4th round of the 1991 draft, the New England Patriots rolled the dice on the young quarterback while they injected new blood into the aging position. He didn’t take the field that year at all, sitting at #3 behind Hugh Millen and Tom Hodson, but 1992 would prove to be a different story and thus he’d enter into New England lore forever for his actions. After Millen went down and Hodson was inneffective, Zolak would lead the winless team on a two game winning streak- playing respectably in 3 contests before Millen returned to finish out the season. In 1993, Drew Bledsoe would be drafted and another purge would happen at quarterback. Zolak, would survive the purge and remain on the team’s roster through 1998 playing sparingly and slowly moved up the depth chart to #2 behind Bledsoe. He’d also be on the roster through three coaching regimes (Dick MacPherson, Bill Parcells, and the shortlived Pete Carroll era), seeing life on the Patriots from an interesting perspective.
Zolak after 1998 would bounce around. He’d be cut out of Jets training camp and head over to the Dolphins for two unremarkable seasons and then try out for the Detroit Lions, but later opted instead to go up to the booth to become a color commentator. Scott has embraced his life as a sports personality head on and continues to do radio commentary for games and was recently picked up by the fledgling United Football League to do color commentary on the New England Sports Network for the Hartford Colonials games.
G/Gs 55/7 Att 248 Comp 124 Yds 1314 Pct 50% Td 8 Int 7 Rat 64.8
Kennedy has been a Hall of Fame semifinalist on 3 occasions now, however I speculate that he has a much steeper hill to climb than most. Defensive players do not get their due, and Kennedy overall didn’t have sexy statistics, or play for even a regular playoff team. He largely played in a city that has very few HoF members, with a few spot performers on defense, and no serious competition at defensive tackle over the decade. Although Kennedy was a trend-setter because of his great blend of mobility and size- I doubt that he would have received as many accolades if he played half his career in the 1980s. Regardless, I’m not raining on his parade, as I think eventually once the loggerjam of defensive players are loosened he will get in. In 2011, Cortez was honored by the Seattle Seahawks who selected him to announce their 2nd round pick during the NFL draft.