You remember Brian St. Pierre, don’t you? The former Boston College star was drafted by the Steelers in the 5th round of the 2003 Draft, and then bounced around the league for years without ever starting a game. In 2010, the Carolina Panthers drafted Jimmy Claussen in the second round, but that didn’t stop the quarterback problems that plagued the team.  Carolina bottomed out under John Fox, going 2-14 and setting the team up to draft Cam Newton the following April.  Claussen was terrible as a rookie and a shoulder injury to Matt Moore left the Panthers down to their third string quarterback, rookie Tony Pike.

At the time, St. Pierre was holding down one of the world’s most noble positions: stay at home dad.  But with Moore’s shoulder injury ending his season, and Claussen dealing with a concussion, St. Pierre was signed to compete with Pike.  During practice this week, St. Pierre “won” the job, and that meant the former B.C. star would finally start an NFL game: just one week shy of his 31st birthday!  The results, however, were not straight out of a fairy tale.

Why the history lesson?  Because until tomorrow, Brian St. Pierre remains the last quarterback in the NFL to start his first ever game while in his thirties. In fact, there are only a few more cases in NFL history where this has happened.

• Doug Pederson, before becoming the Eagles head coach, was Philadelphia’s opening day starter in 1999. Pederson was not a highly regarded quarterback prospect, but he managed to stick around for a few years because of the traits that would make him a football coach. In 1996, he went to the Packers and served as the team’s backup for three seasons; the last two of those years his quarterback’s coach was Andy Reid. The highlight of Pederson’s time in Green Bay came against the dominant 1998 Vikings, who blew out Green Bay and terrorized Favre. Late in the game, with the verdict decided, Pederson came in and went 10 for 16 for 103 yards and 2 touchdowns in garbage time. That was enough to convince Reid to bring him to Philadelphia in 1999, when Reid was picked to be the Eagles new head coach. And with Donovan McNabb drafted to be the future of the team with the second overall pick, Reid decided to at least let Pederson start the season. The results were not great: Pederson went 2-7 as the team’s starter and moved on to Cleveland in the offseason.
• Dan Manucci was a 5th round pick for the Bills in 1979, and threw just five attempts in two years in Buffalo. He then went up to Canada and back down to the USFL before being out of football… until the 1987 NFL players strike. The Bills signed a 30-year-old Manucci and he started his first game in 1987. That turned out to be a blowout loss against the Colts, who featured regular NFL starting quarterback Gary Hogeboom.
• The only other quarterback to make his first NFL start in his 30s was Dieter Brock. He was a CFL veteran for over a decade when the Rams signed him in 1985 to turn around the team’s fortunes. At 34, he instantly became the oldest starting quarterback in the league. I wrote about his story a few years ago.

Prior to the merger, there were another quartet of thirtysomething fresh-faced quarterbacks. In the early days of the AFL, the Patriots started Butch Songin and Tom Yewcic, the product of a young league desperate for talent at the most important position. But in the NFL, two other notable names made their first start in their 30s. Rudy Bukich was a star at USC and a second round draft pick in ’53 who served in the Army in ’54 and ’55. He returned to the NFL after that, but as a backup, finally getting his first chance to start in week 5 of the 1960 season with the Steelers. And then there’s Sam Etcheverry, one of the all-time greats in CFL history. At the age of 31, he finally joined the NFL, signing with the Cardinals to be the team’s starting quarterback.

Tomorrow, a 30-year-old Taysom Hill will join the list when he starts for the New Orleans Saints.