- published: 25 Sep 2014
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Todd Alan Blackledge (February 25, 1961 in Canton, Ohio) is a former American football quarterback in both the NCAA and National Football League. In college, he led the Penn State Nittany Lions to a national championship; and, as a pro, he played for the Kansas City Chiefs (1983–1987) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (1988–1989). Blackledge is currently a television broadcasting football analyst.
Blackledge attended Princeton High School in Princeton, NJ, from 1975–76, until he returned to the Canton area to finish his high school career at North Canton Hoover High School in North Canton, OH, from which he graduated in 1979.
Blackledge was a three-year starter at Penn State, where he guided the Nittany Lions to 31–5 record including a national championship in 1982. Following the 1982 season, he won the Davey O'Brien Award for best quarterback in the nation.
Blackledge was selected in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs, where he played for five seasons (1983–1987) before ending his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers (1988–1989). Blackledge underperformed in his NFL career compared to high expectations of him, a fact magnified by the impressive quarterbacks also appearing in the 1983 NFL Draft, including John Elway, Dan Marino, and Jim Kelly. Critics of Blackledge attributed his failure at the professional level to his inability to "read" NFL defenses.[citation needed] Blackledge is widely regarded as the Chiefs' biggest draft bust along with Trezelle Jenkins.[citation needed] It was the failure of Blackledge that expedited the demotion of Chiefs President Jack Steadman, to be replaced by Carl Peterson.