Brett Salisbury
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brett Jon Salisbury (born October 11, 1968 in Dayton, Ohio) is a former two-time collegiate All-American quarterback, professional European QB and a top male model and actor. After college, Salisbury played pro-football in the EFAF European League, and was the star quarterback, playing three seasons with the Helsinki Giants from 1994-1996 in Helsinki, Finland.
He is considered to be one of the highest paid players to ever play in the league earning more than some NFL practice squad quarterbacks. After a long hiatus, Salisbury recently returned (April, 2006) to the league and tore a hamstring while playing for the Prague Panthers in the Czech Republic in his fourth year. He signed a 3 year contract in April 2006-2009 with the Panthers, however, the injury might have ended his playing career.
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[edit] Early life
He grew up in Escondido, California, located in San Diego County, where he attended Orange Glen High School. Brett's older brother, Sean Salisbury is a football analyst for ESPN and former NFL quarterback.
Brett was the star pitcher and shortstop on the 1981 Escondido National Little League team that finished 5th in the world in Williamsport, PA. He batted over .600 and was considered by many at age 12 to be one of the greatest little league players of his generation, in the world, as he was chosen on the 1980s all-decade little league team.
What most people don't know is that Brett has played with a herniated disc since the age of 13, but has hidden the injury from both coaches and players.
Brett is credited with saving an elderly woman's life in his childhood. He continued to hear the horn of a car in the large canyon where he lived near Lake Wohlford Road in Escondido. "A few hours went by as I continued to play outside and hear the faint noise up above us a few hundred yards away. Eventually my father believed what I was saying, called the Sheriff and the elderly woman was eventually saved. It was a moment I will never forget as a young boy."
Brett was a Street & Smith High School All-American Defensive back after his junior year and was heavily recruited as a DB by many Division I colleges.
Salisbury was also an Adidas All-American High School Quarterback, considered a pro prospect in baseball as a shortstop and played on the varsity basketball team as a sophomore in high school.
[edit] College career
Salisbury signed his letter of intent to Brigham Young University. In his freshman year he played against the United States Air Force Academy J.V team, and threw for 508 yds and 5 TD in the game. Salisbury served a mormon mission in 1988 to Toronto Canada. After his mission, He was later let go from BYU for "not living the church standards", and lost his full scholarship. Forced to leave BYU, he set numberous records the next year at the Junior college level in 1990, at Palomar Junior College in San Marcos, California, and was the most highly recruited and decorated QB in the nation, as well as being chosen, California's Player-of-the-Year and the national passing champion.
After trips to University of Southern California, Arizona State, University of Oregon, University of Alabama, and Tulane University, and cancelling both the University of Miami and the University of Maryland, he decided to attended the University of Oregon where he was injured with a sports hernia and played only 5 games in the Pac-10 where his performance was at best, mediocre. He later transferred before ending his career at Wayne State College in Nebraska, where he finished 3rd in the Harlon Hill Award, Division II's version of the Heisman Trophy, and again became a unanimous All-American selection, breaking many school records, as well as being chosen Nebraska's Offensive Player-of-the-Year.
Following the 93 campaign, and as a joke, Salisbury received a Heisman Trophy vote from previous Heisman winner Gino Torretta, an honor no other division II player has ever received.
Salisbury's astonishing passer rating of 166.3 at Wayne State College is the second highest in division II in 1993.
The Wildcats had a high-powered offense, ranking first in NCAA Division II in total offense (581.5 yards per game), second in passing offense (379.9 ypg) and scoring offense (44.8 ppg).
Tennessee Titans current national coordinator of college scouting, C.O. Brocato called Salisbury "The best Division II Quarterback he had seen in years, a true diamond in the rough, and could be a late round NFL draft pick." Salisbury was never drafted in the NFL, but his rights were taken in the CFL by the Hamilton Tigercats. However, the biggest call would be from EFAF's Helsinki Giants, Harri Kaasinen, where Salisbury opted to play at the last minute in Europe saying "the perks are too good to pass up in Helsinki, and I would be a fool not to go."
Having had such great coaches as Lavell Edwards, Norm Chow, Tom Craft, and Keith Simons, he credits all of them for his football success.
The 1993 WSC football team was inducted into the WSC Athletics Hall of Fame on October 5, 2002.
[edit] Professional career
In 1994, immediately following college, and Salisbury's first season in Helsinki, he dated the countries most famous beauty queen, Miss Finland of 1991, Tanja Vienonen, who is now known as Tanja Saarela. After the 1995 season he left for Milan, Italy to pursue a modeling career. It was there, while working for the exclusive ModelPlan/Ricardo Guy model agency, he played a military officer, with a prominent speaking role in the CD ROM movie, The Blackfire. He is considered to be in the pack of the male model generation of Marcus Schenkenberg, Mark Vanderloo, and Alex Lundqvist.
Salisbury's breakout year would be 1996 starting in Helsinki, where he would become the MVP of league and would be a 1st Team All-Europe selection quarterback, as well as doing daily modeling gigs as a "special bookings model" with the agency Paparazzi Model Management and was named the country of Finland's sexiest male.
Following his third year in Finland, he decided to leave the league because of a rule change that would allow more Americans on the field which would have cut his football salary in half. He opted back to Los Angeles to live. To this day, Salisbury is still ridiculed for leaving Finland too soon, as he was becoming a national celebrity.
In October 1996 in Las Vegas, he married Isa Salisbury (maiden name Isa Meskanen) a model and actress from Finland, who starred in the 2004 film, Hotties. Salisbury's first taste of Hollywood was on the 1997 season of Baywatch where he had two small speaking roles but was mostly used in the background, where he would become friends with world-renowned model Michael Bergin. In that same year he appeared in 7th Heaven as an usher and was used in the Michael Jackson history music video, in the background, as a model.
In early 1998, he landed the Nexus hair print campaign that went worldwide. A few months later and on a roll, everything came to a halt as he would find out his wife was pregnant, he left Hollywood for an office job in San Diego for financial security. Salisbury, with over 500 print and runway jobs under his belt, was given the Elite title, Male Super Model in 2002 by model-max.com senior editor Jed Medina.
In December 2002, Salisbury was asked to do a Playgirl spread, but declined the offer.
In the summer of 2005, Brett took an acting class at the ProActorsStudio in Atlanta for fun, with renown acting instructor Nick Conti, 12 weeks later he played the role of "Dr. Howard" in the 2005 movie, Promise Me This, where he had a small speaking role.
In November 2005, Salisbury graduated from the Atlanta Broadcast Institute with a 3.9 GPA.
In November 2006, Brett's father Richard Salisbury was diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer. The cancer is very aggressive and is caused by exposure to asbestos.
[edit] References
- Brett Salisbury at Wayne State bio
- Brett Salisbury at Palomar Junior College
- http://www.littleleague.org/series/history/players/s.htm
- http://www.radiotvschool.com/
- http://mymovies.imdb.com/name/nm2086154/
- http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/09/sports/professional/1906807579.txt
- http://www.harlonhill.com/Archives/candidates_by_team.htm
