Jeff Komlo

William Jeffrey "Jeff" Komlo (July 30, 1956 – March 14, 2009) was an American professional football quarterback who played for the Detroit Lions, the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL. He was born in Cheverly, Maryland.

Jeff Komlo
No. 19
Position:Quarterback
Personal information
Born:(1956-07-30)July 30, 1956
Cheverly, Maryland
Died:March 14, 2009(2009-03-14) (aged 52)
Athens, Greece
Height:6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight:200 lb (91 kg)
Career information
College:Delaware
NFL Draft:1979 / Round: 9 / Pick: 231
Career history
Career NFL statistics
TD-INT:12-28
Yards:2,603
QB Rating:50.9
Player stats at NFL.com

Football career

Coming out of DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, Komlo wasn't heavily recruited. He'd been a star for both the football and baseball team, but opted to focus on football. On the baseball team, Komlo played shortstop and was the team's clean up hitter. However, he aspired to be like his father William, who played college football for Maryland in the 1950s. He first attended Fork Hill Military Academy to sharpen his skills, and then transferred to Delaware, where he was told by Head Coach Raymond he'd need to earn a scholarship, but he could try and make the team as a walk-on, which Komlo did.[1] Komlo played at the University of Delaware under head coach Tubby Raymond and led the Blue Hens to a second-place finish in the 1978 NCAA Division II playoffs. During his Delaware career, Komlo set 11 school records and passed for 5,256 yards.

Komlo was selected by the Lions in the ninth round of the 1979 NFL Draft, and played three seasons with the Michigan club. At the beginning of the 1979 season, due to injuries to starting quarterback Gary Danielson and back-up Joe Reed, then head coach Monte Clark chose to open the season with Komlo as the starter. He was one of a few rookie quarterbacks, not drafted #1 by his team, to start the first game. In his NFL career, he played in 25 games and threw for 12 touchdowns but also tossed 28 interceptions. Inserted into the line-up after the second game, Komlo went 2-12 as a starter. He was the starter for both of the Lions wins that year. One was a 24-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons and the next was a 20-0 win over division rival Chicago Bears. In 1980, he saw mainly spot duty, but he was the unquestioned back-up to Danielson. 1981 was pretty much a repeat of the previous season, with Komlo getting in spot duty, but he was mainly the third string quarterback, with Danielson being supplanted as starter by Eric Hipple. His last appearance for the Lions came in a 27-21 loss to the Denver Broncos.[2]

In his final NFL season, Komlo played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was stuck behind Jack Thompson, better known as the 'throwin Samoan', who had been a flop in Cincinnati, and Giants cast off Jerry Golsteyn.

One of several ex-Blue Hens quarterbacks to have played in the NFL, Komlo's career ended in 1983, after one-season spells with the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Later life and death

In August 2005, Komlo was featured on America's Most Wanted, after going on the lam while facing sentencing on a pair of DUI convictions in Chester County, Pennsylvania.[3] He was also facing charges of cocaine possession and assault, and police wanted to question him about possible arson at his homes in West Palm Beach and Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.

In May of 2004, Komlo was involved in a domestic incident with his girlfriend, Jennifer Winters. After they got into an argument, Komlo shoved her out of the car, which, in a drunken state, he later crashed. He returned home, got his SUV, and later crashed that vehicle as well. He was later convicted on two drunk driving charges, but didn't show up to be sentenced, which resulted in a bench warrant for his arrest.[4]

While on the run, Komlo ended up working for a hair implant clinic in Athens called NHI. The clinic caters mostly to Britons, who fly to the Greek capital for something called the Choi Method, which, according to the NHI website, is "a procedure far too labour intensive to operate in the UK."

Komlo was killed in an automobile crash in southern Athens on March 14, 2009.[5] Pennsylvania law enforcement initially questioned whether he might have faked his own death to avoid the charges.[6] On Thursday, March 19, the Acting Chief Chester County sheriff's detective, Jim Vito, stated that the authorities were satisfied that Komlo was dead.[7]

gollark: Nope, none are safe.
gollark: Nothing in the code actually uses it apart from the ECC library, but it's there.
gollark: Interesting fact: PotatOS actually ships its own secure RNG for cryptographic purposes.
gollark: It takes me something like 10 seconds to publish code I write in random-stuff and no effort to not do that.
gollark: It doesn't take much effort to do this.

References
  1. https://www.si.com/vault/2009/06/15/105825955/the-wrong-turn
  2. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198110110den.htm
  3. Fugitive quarterback still on the lam; WashingtonCityPaper, March 30, 2007
  4. https://www.si.com/vault/2009/06/15/105825955/the-wrong-turn
  5. Former NFL quarterback turned fugitive dies Archived 2012-03-08 at the Wayback Machine; America's Most Wanted, 14 March 2009
  6. Ex-NFL quarterback accused of faking own death; Sporting News, 18 March 2009
  7. Ex-Lions quarterback killed in Greek crash; Detroit Free Press, 20 March 2009
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