The World According to Chuck

(UB-Day marks the birthdays of people born between 1955 and 1964. If you want to know more, please read this post.)

Mark Rypien (10/2/1962)

Slim pickings today in ubey world, although nothing personal, Mr. Rypien. We still love you.

A native of Calgary, Rypien played college football at Washington State and was selected in the sixth round of the 1986 NFL draft by the Washington Redskins. He spent the first two years of his career sitting on the bench, and then in the 1988 season he emerged as the starting quarterback, throwing for 3768 yards with 22 touchdowns and making the Pro Bowl.

In 1991 he led the Redskins to a Super Bowl win over the Buffalo Bills, being named the MVP of the game and throwing for two touchdowns.

After sort of a lackluster season in 1992, Rypien was injured early in 1993 and really never came back as a starter. He was released in 1994 and began his second career as a journeyman backup, playing with the Browns, the Rams, the Eagles. After a three-year absence from football, Rypien returned as a third-string quarterback with the Indianapolis Colts, and entered the record books as the only quarterback ever to relieve Peyton Manning during a regular season game (with pretty dismal results; he fumbled the snap and lost the game). In 2002, the Seahawks signed him as an emergency quarterback but he was released before the regular season.

Trivia: He is the only Canadian to have won a Super Bowl MVP.

Age Today: 45.

Shares Birthday With: Kelly Ripa (37), Lorraine Bracco (53), Sting (56), Annie Liebovitz (58), Don McLean (62), Rex Reed (69), and Maury Wills (75).

This Day In History: An man took a group of girls hostage in an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa., killing five and wounding five others before committing suicide (2006).