(born
May 24 ,
1960 in
Three Rivers, Michigan ) is an
American Football Tight End who played for the
Seattle Seahawks ,
Buffalo Bills ,
Carolina Panthers , and
Detroit Lions in a sixteen year career from
1982 to
1997 .
He played high school football at
Portage Central High School in
Portage, Michigan ,
1 and played college football at
Wabash College and graduated in 1982. He was coached by
Stan Parrish , who was later a head coach at Marshall and Kansas State, as well as an NFL coach for the Super-Bowl winning
Tampa Bay Buccaneers .
He was taken in the 3rd round with the 75th pick by
Seattle in the
1982 NFL Draft . He played for three seasons in Seattle before being traded to the
Bills in
1985 . When
Jim Kelly joined the Bills in 1986, Metzelaars became a productive part of the offense. He played with the Bills in their 4
Super Bowl losses from 1990-1994, and scored a touchdown in
Super Bowl XXVI . Metzelaars' best season was in 1993, when he caught 68 passes for 609 yards and 4 touchdowns.
He was not re-signed by the Bills after the 1994 season, and played for Carolina for one season, despite signing on for a three year, 2.4 million deal.
2 He then played for the Lions for two seasons before retiring.
Metzelaars finished his 16 NFL seasons with 383 receptions for 3,686 yards and 29 touchdowns in 235 games. At the time of his retirement, his 235 games were the most ever played by a tight end in NFL history.
After retiring, Metzelaars moved into the coaching ranks as the offensive coordinator at Charlotte Christian School from 1998-2002. In 2003, Metzelaars joined Wingate University as an assistant offensive coach but also served in NFL Europe with Barcelona during the off-season. He also was an intern with the Indianapolis Colts during their 2003 training camp, assisting with the tight ends under Offensive Coordinator Tom Moore. In 2004, Metzalaars joined the Colts staff full-time as the Offensive Quality Control Coach and still holds this position currently.
