John David Booty
John David Booty (born January 3, 1985) is a former American football quarterback. He played college football at USC and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL Draft. Booty also played for the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans. He is the brother of former NFL quarterback and Florida Marlins third baseman Josh Booty. Early years Booty prepped at the Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana, but reclassified and left a year early after his father (who was the team's quarterback coach) left the staff, having already earned enough credits to graduate. Despite leaving after his junior year, Booty's final passing stats were 8,474 yards on 555 of 864 attempts (64.2%) with 88 touchdowns and 26 interceptions. Booty succeeded his brother, former Louisiana State University quarterback Josh Booty, and former Miami quarterback Brock Berlin. In 2001 and 2002 he led Evangel Christian Academy to state-championship game victories held at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Booty reclassified to the class of 2003, becoming what is believed to be the first player ever to leave high school a whole year early to play college football. He headlined a class that was considered the best that season, and included other NFL-bound recruits such as Reggie Bush, LenDale White, Steve Smith, and Sam Baker. College career 2003–2005 Although he entered USC as a highly regarded quarterback prospect, Booty spent his first three years at USC as the back-up to eventual Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart, who had replaced former Heisman winner Carson Palmer. When he arrived at USC, the competition for the starting quarterback in the 2003 season had not seen any particular player separating himself from the pack, so when Matt Leinart was eventually chosen as the starter there was some question as to whether he would merely hold the starting position until Booty could learn the offense. Booty earned the spot as the number two quarterback as a freshman, but had to redshirt his second season after suffering an elbow injury in August 2004. When Leinart opted to stay for his final year at USC, there were questions as to whether Booty would transfer to a different school. He opted to remain at USC. Booty had back surgery to repair a bulging disc in his spine at the end of March 2006, but fully recovered and earned the starting spot for the 2006 season. 2006 Booty entered the 2006 season as a redshirt junior. At the beginning of the 2006 season, Booty was one of fifteen players on the official watch list for the Maxwell Award for the best player in college football, although the list states that it "may change without notice based on performance ... during the 2006 season and is not designed to represent an all-inclusive listing of eligible candidates for the collegiate football awards presented by the Maxwell Football Club." In the 2006 season, Booty was ranked the tenth best quarterback in college football and the number one quarterback in the