Joe Ferguson

For other people named Joseph Ferguson, see Joe Ferguson (disambiguation).

Joseph Carlton Ferguson Jr. (born April 23, 1950) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for 17 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Buffalo Bills. He played college football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and was selected by the Bills in the third round of the 1973 NFL draft.

Joe Ferguson

No. 12
Position:	Quarterback
Personal information
Born:	(1950-04-23) April 23, 1950 (age 75) Alvin, Texas, U.S.
Height:	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight:	195 lb (88 kg)
Career information
High school:	Shreveport (LA) Woodlawn
College:	Arkansas
NFL draft:	1973: 3rd round, 57th pick
Career history
Buffalo Bills (1973–1984) Detroit Lions (1985–1987) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1988–1989) Indianapolis Colts (1990)
Career highlights and awards
NFL passing yards leader (1977) NFL passing touchdowns leader (1975) Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame First-team All-SWC (1971) 1971 Liberty Bowl MVP
Career NFL statistics
Passing attempts: 4,519 Passing completions: 2,369 Completion percentage: 52.4% TD–INT: 196–209 Passing yards: 29,817 Passer rating: 68.4 Stats at Pro Football Reference

Early life

Ferguson played high school football in Shreveport, Louisiana, for Woodlawn High School. He guided the Knights to the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Class AAA (the top classification at the time) state championship in 1968. Ferguson succeeded Terry Bradshaw as Woodlawn's starting quarterback.

Ferguson played college football at the University of Arkansas, where he held the school's single game record for most completions until broken in 2012 (31 against Texas A&M in 1971).

Professional career

The Buffalo Bills selected Ferguson in the third round of the 1973 NFL draft.^[1] Although he is most famous for playing with the Bills from 1973 to 1984, Ferguson also played three seasons for the Detroit Lions, two seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and one final season with the Indianapolis Colts. Ferguson's number 12 with the Bills is now retired for his successor with the team, Hall of Famer Jim Kelly.

Ferguson placed in the top 10 in pass attempts five times, completions and passing yards four times, passing touchdowns six times, and yards per pass three times. At one time he shared, with Ron Jaworski, the NFL record for consecutive starts by a quarterback with 107, until he was replaced by Joe Dufek on September 30, 1984. He has a 1–3 record in the NFL postseason, winning against the New York Jets in 1981. His three losses came from the Cincinnati Bengals in those same 1981 playoffs, the San Diego Chargers the year before in 1980 (a game in which he played the entire contest with a sprained ankle), and in 1974 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He retired after the 1990 season after playing only one game with the Colts.

In 1995, Ferguson briefly came out of retirement to serve as a backup quarterback for the San Antonio Texans of the Canadian Football League's South Division. Kay Stephenson, who had coached Ferguson in his last year in Buffalo, was coach of San Antonio at the time and needed an inexpensive backup who knew Stephenson's system after starter David Archer was injured midseason.^[2]

In 1975 Ferguson tied Fran Tarkenton for the NFL lead with 25 touchdown passes and compiled a passer rating of 81.3. Ferguson also surpassed 20 touchdown passes in three other seasons: 1980, 1981, 1983. He finished his career with 196 touchdowns thrown and 209 interceptions.

NFL career statistics

Legend
	Led the league
Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	Games			Passing												Sacks			Drives
		GP	GS	Record	Cmp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	TD%	Int	Int%	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	Rtg	Sck	SckY	Sck%	4QC	GWD
1973	BUF	14	14	9−5	73	164	44.5	939	4	2.4	10	6.1	42	5.7	67.1	45.8	20	164	10.9	2	1
1974	BUF	14	14	9−5	119	232	51.3	1,588	12	5.2	12	5.2	55	6.8	113.4	69.0	32	235	12.1	3	3
1975	BUF	14	14	8−6	169	321	52.6	2,426	25	7.8	17	7.6	77	7.6	173.3	81.3	20	153	5.9	1	3
1976	BUF	7	7	2−5	74	151	49.0	1,086	9	6.0	1	0.7	58	7.2	155.1	90.0	11	80	6.8	1	1
1977	BUF	14	14	3−11	221	457	48.4	2,803	12	2.6	24	5.3	42	6.1	200.2	54.2	36	273	7.3	1	1
1978	BUF	16	16	5−11	175	330	53.0	2,136	16	4.8	15	4.5	92	6.5	133.5	70.5	29	243	8.1	1	1
1979	BUF	16	16	7−9	238	458	52.0	3,572	14	3.1	15	3.3	84	7.8	223.3	74.4	43	387	8.6	2	3
1980	BUF	16	16	11−5	251	439	57.2	2,805	20	4.6	18	4.1	69	6.4	175.3	74.5	13	129	2.9	2	4
1981	BUF	16	16	10−6	252	498	50.6	3,652	24	4.8	20	4.0	67	7.3	228.3	74.1	15	137	2.9	2	2
1982	BUF	9	9	4−5	144	264	54.5	1,597	7	2.7	16	6.1	47	6.0	177.4	56.3	11	105	4.0	1	1
1983	BUF	16	16	8−8	281	508	55.3	2,995	26	5.1	25	4.9	43	5.9	187.2	69.3	27	266	5.0	3	3
1984	BUF	12	11	1−10	191	344	55.5	1,991	12	3.5	17	4.9	68	5.8	165.9	63.5	35	357	9.2	—	—
1985	DET	8	1	0−1	31	54	57.4	364	2	3.7	3	5.6	38	6.7	45.5	67.2	4	35	6.9	—	—
1986	DET	6	4	2−2	73	155	47.1	941	7	4.5	7	4.5	73	6.1	156.8	62.9	10	101	6.1	1	1
1988	TB	2	1	0−1	31	46	67.4	368	3	6.5	1	2.2	34	8.0	184.0	104.3	1	8	2.1	—	—
1989	TB	5	2	0−2	44	90	48.9	533	3	3.3	6	6.7	69	5.9	106.6	50.8	5	37	5.3	—	—
1990	IND	1	0	0−0	2	8	25.0	21	0	0.0	2	25.0	13	2.6	21.0	0.0	0	0	0.0	—	—
Career[3]		186	171	79−92	2,369	4,519	52.4	29,817	196	4.3	209	4.6	92	6.6	160.3	68.4	312	2,710	6.5	20	24

Buffalo Bills franchise records

• Highest touchdown percentage in a single season – 7.8 (1975)
• Lowest interception percentage in a single season – 0.7 (1976)
• Most sack yards lost in a single season – 387 (1979)
• Most interceptions thrown in a career – 190
• Most sack yards lost in a career – 2,529

Source:^[4][5]

Personal life

In May 2005, Ferguson was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma cancer and underwent treatment at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. In January 2008, Ferguson was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. In February 2008, he was treated at M.D. Anderson in the intensive care unit for pneumonia. In July 2009, it was reported that Ferguson had recovered from his battles with cancer.^[6]