Ex-Michigan football QB Shea Patterson won't give up dream: 'I believe I am an NFL quarterback'

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Shea Patterson didn’t know it at the time, but his final week as a member of the Michigan Panthers had just begun. As practice neared its end under a steel canopy on the University of Alabama-Birmingham campus earlier this month, one of his teammates playfully ran up behind him and swiped the ball away. The quarterback flashed a look of surprise before his expression dissolved into a big smile.

In that moment, it seemed there was no place he’d rather be.  

“I love the game of football,” the former Michigan Wolverines starter  told the Free Press. “It’s something I am going to continue to do as long as God lets me. I don’t know what I would do without football. I think I am here on this Earth to play the game that I love.”

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Patterson believes that to be the truth even as the sport he considers a higher calling continues to smite him. Last Wednesday, the 1-5 Panthers released the former U-M QB following a series of dodgy performances in the fledgling reboot of the USFL. Five interceptions and only four touchdown passes made Patterson expendable. Not even his recognizable name or his status as the first overall pick in this startup league could save him from this latest slight, after beginning this season with 1,144 yards of total offense. Few on social media seemed to care that Patterson was immediately signed by the New Orleans Breakers and given another chance to resuscitate his football life. His career obituary had started to be written one nasty tweet at a time.

“Oh Lord,” Hugh Freeze, Patterson’s first college coach at Ole Miss, said. “I hate to see it hasn’t panned out to everything that he hoped and dreamed. I was extremely excited about what he could be.”

He was not alone. Since Patterson was in seventh grade, he has invited intrigue. A local newspaper in Texas first identified him as a potential hotshot prospect after he was invited to play in a national showcase event. The hype only grew as he meandered through three different states during his high school years before landing at IMG Academy, the sports-centric boarding school in Bradenton, Florida. By the end of his time there, he had earned a five-star rating from the top recruiting services and was ranked the No. 1 pro-style quarterback in the nation. Alabama, LSU, Texas, Notre Dame, Clemson and Oklahoma all dangled scholarship offers in front of him. But he chose Freeze and Ole Miss, where he was expected to become the successor to standout quarterback Chad Kelly.

“For me, running tempo RPO stuff with a guy that can move and extend plays is always advantageous,” Freeze said. “I felt he could do that very well. And I loved the way he threw in rhythm. I was really excited about working with him on that type of stuff. But obviously that didn’t pan out for me.”

Embroiled in scandal after university officials found “a pattern of personal misconduct,” Freeze resigned in July 2017, the summer following Patterson’s freshman season. Their partnership lasted three games, a slice of time when Patterson tickled the imagination in his debut by leading the Rebels to an upset of Texas A&M in November 2016. It was first and the last time in college he steered his team to victory as an underdog.  

He certainly didn’t fit that bill when he transferred to Michigan in January 2018. Instead, his arrival in Ann Arbor was met with great fanfare by a frothing fan base who believed he could unlock the door standing between the Wolverines and an elusive Big Ten title. Before the NCAA even granted him a waiver and immediate eligibility, he had been anointed as the savior. On a team still scarred by the shaky quarterback play it endured the previous season, the starting job was practically handed to him.

“People may have that outlook,” Patterson bristled. “But I don’t think anything has been given to me. I think I have earned everything that’s come to me.”

First it was praise from Michigan supporters. Then it was scorn. Eventually, it was a mix of ambivalence and resignation. Patterson was far from bad. But he also wasn’t great. The lofty expectations set forth for him were never met, casting a pall over a program that had hit a wall. After leading U-M to 10 victories in 2018, he and the Wolverines regressed. Their win total decreased the following season as Patterson’s completion rate and quarterback rating declined. His faulty footwork, subpar mechanics and shaky ball-handling spawned inconsistent performances. Of the 166 throws he made that covered 10 or more yards through the air, Patterson connected on only 46% of them as a senior.

Longtime NFL executive Gil Brandt, who once projected Patterson would play on Sundays, told the Free Press two years ago he had no longer believed the quarterback could hack it at the next level.

“Patterson does just enough to tease evaluators, especially with his arm strength and athletic traits,” Brandt said, reading from his notes. “But his questionable poise, decision-making and accuracy will be a roadblock on a pro career.”

The appraisal proved prophetic. Patterson went undrafted in April 2020 and soon latched on with the Kansas City Chiefs for a grand total of 68 days. Before he even made it to training camp, Patterson was released and dumped in the football wilderness, where he has been ever since while barnstorming from one town to the next looking for salvation. There was a stint in The Spring League, which has since folded. Then came an eight-month run in Canadian Football League, where Patterson found himself buried on the depth charts of the BC Lions and Montreal Alouettes. The 2021 season ended before he attempted a pass and all that was left from his tenure north of the border was a barren stat line and an online bio page that featured a picture of another player. A career once filled with promise appeared destined to end in obscurity.

But the relaunch of the USFL offered one more lifeline. Better yet, the new league viewed Patterson as a potential star attraction. He was accorded that status when he was picked No. 1 overall this past February by the Panthers, who believed Patterson had something left to give.

“He can make the throws,” head coach Jeff Fisher told the Free Press on May 18. “He’s got the ability. He’s got the athleticism. … He just needs that opportunity. That’s what this is about. There may be a small percentage of guys that have accepted the fact that they’re not gonna make it to the National Football League and just love football. But most of the guys have aspirations.”

Count Patterson among them.

After everything he has endured during a career pockmarked with his own failures and shortcomings, he has no intention of tapping out now. The thought has never crossed his mind even though others in his inner circle have buzzed his ear, asking him if he ever considered getting into coaching or doing something else. Patterson, who says he is eight credits shy of attaining his undergraduate degree at Michigan, remained steadfast about continuing his crusade through the sport's badlands and achieving his mission.

"Since I was 4 or 5 years old," Patterson said, "I've always been a part of something, always been part of a team."

One of his close associates told the Free Press he admires the persistence Patterson has shown despite the odds stacked against him and the adversity he has faced.

But in truth the 25-year-old quarterback doesn’t know how he could exist without being a football player. It’s his identity, helping him navigate a world of constant change that has sent him all over the United States and parts beyond in pursuit of a dream that may never be realized.

It’s that abiding faith in himself that has kept Patterson going even when he has run into nothing but dead ends.

“I believe I am an NFL quarterback,” Patterson said. “And I want to get there one day.”

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Big Ten newsletter.