Biography

Call 1.800.966.1380 to contact Jim McMahon booking agent, publicist, manager, pr firm, representative and management company for booking Jim McMahon speaker appearances, autograph signing, endorsement deals or hiring Jim McMahon as a keynote speaker for your next event. Find Jim McMahon official website information, speaker fees, booking fees, costs and schedule. Retired football player, Jim McMahon, was born on August 21, 1959 in Jersey City, New Jersey. McMahon played quarteback for the NFL Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles.

Jim McMahon won the Bears' starting quarterback job as a rookie and was named to several All-Rookie teams when he nearly led the team to the playoffs, despite the NFL only playing two games before a players' strike that cancelled nearly half the season. McMahon quickly displayed a natural ability to read defenses and an athletic versatility that surprised many. He established himself as the best play-action passer in the game with his nonchalant fake handoffs and coolness in the pocket. Despite having only average arm strength, his situational awareness and superior acting skills made him a fearsome play-action passer.

Jim McMahon also made a case for being the best rollout passer at that time. He explained that coaching in his youth had taught him to square his shoulders to the direction he wanted to throw the football, and he was thus able to execute passes with tight spirals and a high degree of accuracy when running to either his left or his right. The Bears finished the strike-shortened season at 3-6, but due to an expanded playoff format and conference-wide seeding the Bears missed a playoff berth by only one victory. McMahon was named NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year, losing the league-wide honor to Marcus Allen, who was playing for the Los Angeles Raiders at that time.

After a falling out with Head Coach Mike Ditka, McMahon was traded. He started 12 games for a dreadful 6-10 Chargers team in 1989. He went 4-8 in the games he started, though the team lost 4 of those games by a combined 11 points in spite of his spotty play at times. He only had 4 games over 200 yds, but had 389 yds against the Houston Oilers in a Week 2 loss. He also had a falling out with team players, management and Coach Dan Henning in his year with San Diego with his lackluster play and ego. He was benched for the final four games and finshed the year with 2,132 yds, 10 TDs and 10 INTs. He was released and moved on to backup Randall Cunningham on the Philadelphia Eagles in 1990.

He managed two more full seasons as a starter, in 1991 (with the Philadelphia Eagles) and 1993 (with the Minnesota Vikings), then spent three more years as a backup. He retired following the 1996 season, in which he won a second Super Bowl ring with the Green Bay Packers This would be the second time McMahon won a Super Bowl at the New England Patriots expense, incidentally at the same location of the Louisiana Superdome. When it was time for the Super Bowl Champs to visit the White House, McMahon wore his Chicago Bears #9 jersey, which did not go over too well with Green Bay Packer fans. McMahon would later explain that the reason behind this was that the Bears never got to go to the White House after they won Super Bowl XX, due to the event being canceled after the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion that happened two days later.

Throughout his career McMahon was known for both on and off field antics. Most famously his wearing of headbands while on the sidelines, one such led to his being fined by then NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle as it had an un-authorized corporate logo on it. The next week his headband simply said "Rozelle". Reportedly before Super Bowl XX hundreds of fans mailed McMahon headbands in hopes he would wear them during the game and Pete Rozelle gave him a stern warning not to wear anything "unacceptable", in response McMahon decided to help bring attention to Juvenile Diabetes by wearing a headband simply stating "JDF Cure" before switching to one stating "POW-MIA" and finally one with the word "Pluto", the nickname of a friend of his stricken with a brain tumor.

He is also known for his trademark sunglasses, which he wears for medical reasons. At the age of six, while trying to untie a knot in a toy gun holster with a fork, he accidentally severed the retina in his right eye when the fork slipped. While his vision was saved, the accident left that eye extremely sensitive to light. On the field, he was among the first to wear a helmet fitted with a tinted plastic visor covering the eyes, leading to nicknames like "Darth Vader" and "Black Sunshine."

McMahon would occasionally play with gloves, and urged former Carolina Panthers QB David Carr to wear gloves.

Since retiring from football in 1997, he has worked as a restaurant owner and motivational speaker.

In December 2006, McMahon went to Iraq with the USO to visit American forces in the field.

McMahon has been married to Nancy Daines since 1982. They have four children and reside in Northfield, Illinois. His children's names are Ashley, Sean, Alexis, and Zach. All of his kids but one have graduated from Glenbrook North High School. Zach, his youngest son, plays football and baseball for Glenbrook North

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