Shaun Hill Shaun Hill ( born on January 9 , 1980 ) is an American football quarterback for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League . He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002 . He played college football at Maryland . Hill has also played for the Amsterdam Admirals and San Francisco 49ers . Early years . Hill was a three - year starter at quarterback and 2 - year starter at free safety at Parsons Senior High School . He was a two - time All - Southeast Kansas League 1st - team selection and an honorable mention All - State as a senior . He lettered in basketball , baseball and track and was a three - time All - SEK 1st - team choice in basketball . As a team captain in hoops , he earned All - State honors 3 years and guided the team to the state tournament as a sophomore and senior . College career . Shaun Hill was not highly recruited out of high school . The local college Pittsburg State University did not offer him a scholarship at QB and wanted him for punter , he went to Hutchinson Community College and beat out five players to start at QB for two years and gain Division I attention . He spent his first two years at Hutchinson Community College , where he earned honorable mention All - American honors as a freshman and sophomore . His junior college success garnered him notice , and he eventually decided to attend college at University of Maryland . While serving primarily as a backup as a junior , he led the Maryland Terrapins to their first Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1985 as a senior in 2001 . They earned a trip to the 2002 Orange Bowl and finished the year ranked # 10 in the country . He finished his Maryland career with 3 , 158 yards and 19 touchdowns . Professional career . Minnesota Vikings . Hill was not considered an NFL prospect and so went undrafted in the 2002 NFL Draft . He ended up signing as a free agent with the Minnesota Vikings , where he spent the season as a 3rd - string backup . He took his first career snaps for the Vikings on the final two plays of the 2005 NFL season , taking a knee both times . Amsterdam Admirals . In order to get more experience , Hill spent the Spring of 2003 with the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe , where he led the league in passing yards and tied for second in touchdowns . San Francisco 49ers . Hill entered the 2006 NFL preseason third on the San Francisco 49ers depth chart , behind Trent Dilfer and Alex Smith . He went 15 / 23 ( 65 . 2 % ) for 162 Yds , no touchdowns and one interception . He spent the 2006 regular season on the sidelines , taking no snaps . Hill completed 13 of 20 passes for 148 yards with one interception in the San Francisco 49ers ' 17 - 13 preseason opening loss to the Denver Broncos on August 16 , 2007 . He demonstrated great pocket mobility but had difficulty in the red zone , throwing one interception in his first drive and then nearly throwing an interception at almost exactly the same place the second time down the field . In the last game of the 2007 preseason against the San Diego Chargers , Hill attempted to put the 49ers in field goal range to tie the game . With 16 seconds left on the clock , he threw two deep balls to his wide receivers but both missed their targets , and the second was intercepted , ending the game with the Chargers ahead , 16 – 13 . Hill made his 49ers regular - season debut on December 9 , 2007 , after Trent Dilfer suffered a severe concussion . He completed 22 of 27 pass attempts for 181 yards and one touchdown in a loss to his former team , the Minnesota Vikings . Despite his excellent statistics , Hill was critical of his performance , adding , " There [ are ] a lot of things I need to get better at . Some of that is about getting comfortable playing again . Some things made me want to throw up . Some things , the execution was poor but the results were good on my part . Some things I got away with . The results were better than my execution . " Since Dilfer ' s injury was serious enough to sideline him for the rest of the season , Hill made his first NFL start on December 15 , 2007 in a victory against the Cincinnati Bengals . Hill completed 21 of 28 pass attempts for 197 yards , ran for a touchdown and threw a touchdown . Hill was set to be the starter for the remainder of the 2007 season . On December 18 , 2007 , the 49ers announced that they had an interest in re - signing Hill , to provide competition against Alex Smith . However , the contract extension , along with its negotiations , were dependent on Hill ' s performance for the rest of the season . On December 23 , 2007 , Hill made his second career start , against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers . He completed 11 of 24 pass attempts for 123 yards and three touchdown passes , to Darrell Jackson , fellow former Terrapin Vernon Davis , and Frank Gore . The 49ers won 21 - 19 . Hill suffered a back injury during the week 16 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers , when rookie Gaines Adams hit him after a throw , drawing a 15 - yard personal foul . As a result , Hill was unable to play in week 17 against the Cleveland Browns . Chris Weinke played in his place . In February 2008 , Hill signed a new 3 - year contract with the 49ers , with contractual terms not released to the media . The undrafted Hill competed for the starting job against Alex Smith and J . T . O ' Sullivan in training camp and the 2008 preseason . O ' Sullivan ended up getting the job and Hill became the primary backup after Smith was put on injured reserve early in the season . Hill did not play until 49ers interim head coach Mike Singletary took over on October 27 . After J . T . O ' Sullivan committed his second turnover against the Seattle Seahawks that was returned for a touchdown , he was pulled from the lineup and Hill replaced him with solid output : 15 of 23 for 173 yards with one touchdown to Jason Hill and no turnovers , but he could not rescue the 49ers , who lost 34 – 13 . Despite the loss , Hill was named as Singletary ' s no . 1 QB for the remainder of the 2008 season . His 2008 starting debut was in week 10 , on Monday Night Football against the Arizona Cardinals . Shortly after the Seahawks game , reports surfaced ] that Nolan and offensive coordinator Mike Martz allegedly made up stories about Hill having a tired arm in the preseason so that O ' Sullivan , who played for Martz when he was offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions , would win the starting job without a real challenge . On " Monday Night Football " against the heavily - favored Arizona Cardinals , Hill delivered a solid performance in the first half . Hill completed a 31 yard touchdown to Josh Morgan to put the 49ers up 14 - 3 , and then struck later with a 20 yard touchdown to Vernon Davis shortly before half - time . However , in the second half , Hill threw an interception at a critically bad time to give the Cardinals the 24 - 29 lead . Hill also threw a second interception on an attempted shovel pass at the Arizona 20 yard line . Despite this , Shaun Hill drove the 49ers down the field twice , the first with 3 : 39 , and the second with only 1 : 04 left on the game clock . Hill ' s last pass of the game was a completion to Jason Hill to bring the 49ers to the Arizona goal line . Unfortunately , the 49ers were unable to score the game - winning touchdown . Coincidentally , on Monday Night Football of the 2007 season against the Cardinals , the 49ers drove to the goal line in a similar fashion , and " were " able to get the game - winning touchdown . During week 11 of the 2008 NFL season , Hill broke his career single - game passing record in yards , in a 35 - 16 victory over the St . Louis Rams by throwing for 213 yards and 2 touchdowns and running for a third . He was awarded NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance . In week 12 , Hill got his first 300 - yard passing game in a loss to the Dallas Cowboys . Hill delivered an impressive come - back performance in Week 16 against the St . Louis Rams . After throwing three interceptions in the first three quarters , 49ers coaches Mike Singletary and Mike Martz were preparing to bench Hill for J . T . O ' Sullivan . Hill convinced his coach to leave him the 4th quarter and then drove 80 yards , finishing with a touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce for his 1000th career reception . Now down 16 - 10 and under three minutes left on the clock , Hill got the ball back and completed a 48 - yard touchdown pass to Josh Morgan . The 49ers defense intercepted Marc Bulger ending any chance of a Rams comeback and capping Hill ' s first big come from behind win . In a week 17 thriller against the Washington Redskins , Hill was showing difficulty , throwing an interception in the first half and no touchdowns . However , in the fourth quarter , Hill took the lead by completing a 9 - yard touchdown pass to Jason Hill . Later , with the game tied at 24 - 24 , Hill drove down the field with one minute left on the game clock to set up a game - winning Joe Nedney field goal . With the victory , Hill improved to a 5 - 3 record on the season , and a 7 - 3 record as a starter all time . He finished the season with 13 passing touchdowns , 2 rushing touchdowns , 8 interceptions , 2 , 046 passing yards , and a 87 . 5 quarterback rating in 9 games ( 8 as a starter ) . 49ers head coach Mike Singletary had stated that Hill would be the starting quarterback going into training camp in 2009 but would compete with former number - one overall draft pick Alex Smith for the regular season starting job . Hill was named the starter for the 49ers preseason opener versus the Denver Broncos , where he would throw only two passes , completing both . On August 25 , Hill was named the 49ers ' starting quarterback for the regular season , defending his starting title over Smith . Hill made his season - opening debut on September 13 against the Arizona Cardinals . Hill made a fourth quarter touchdown pass to Frank Gore to win the game 20 - 16 . With the win , Hill improved to 8 - 3 as a starter . The following week against the Seattle Seahawks , Hill completed 19 of 26 passes for 144 yards and also ran once for 17 yards . The 49ers won 23 - 10 , and Hill would continue his undefeated streak of six home victories . After a 35 - 0 drubbing of St . Louis , he extended it to 7 - 0 . Arguably , one of Hill ' s best games came in week 3 on the road against the undefeated Minnesota Vikings . Hill was 15 / 25 , for 195 yards , with two touchdowns , and one interception in the game . Hill led the 49ers to a lead near the end of the game , but Brett Favre ultimately threw a 30 yard touchdown pass with two seconds left to win for the Vikings . After a scoreless first half in the game against the Houston Texans in week 7 , Singletary benched Hill and put Alex Smith into the game . Smith rallied the 49ers with three touchdowns to bring the score from 0 - 21 to 21 - 24 . Although the 49ers lost the game , the comeback earned Smith the starting quarterback position in the next game against the Indianapolis Colts on November 1 . Hill served as Smith ' s backup for the rest of the season . Detroit Lions . Hill was traded to the Detroit Lions in exchange for a seventh round draft pick in 2011 on March 14 , 2010 . The Lions signed him to a one year contract on July 12 , 2010 . He entered the Lions first game of the 2010 season when starter Matthew Stafford was injured . Hill threw 9 receptions on 19 attempts with 88 yards and one interception leading Detroit to within the 30 yard line with under 30 seconds to go . Hill threw what seemed to be the game winning touchdown but was later ruled incomplete by a technicality in the NFL rule book , which is now being referred to as the " Calvin Johnson Rule " He was injured while filling in for the injured Matthew Stafford October 17 , 2010 , against the New York Giants . The Lions announced that he had suffered a fracture of his left ( non - throwing ) forearm . Hill capped the season with victories against the Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings , and the Lions finished 6 – 10 . Personal . Hill was a kinesiology major at Maryland . He participated in several Viking Children ' s Fund events and has supported the Muscular Dystrophy Association . He joined former Vikings Head Coach Mike Tice as a former Terrapin quarterback and was team mates at Maryland with current Vikings linebacker E . J . Henderson . Hill kept a weekly journal chronicling his adventures in Europe for fans on former team ' s website , Vikings . com . Shaun enjoys fishing . The quarterback started reeling in fish that were inhabitants of farm ponds in his home state of Kansas during high school . When he lived in Minnesota as a member of the Vikings , Shaun caught a 30 - inch , nine - pound walleye on his first try . He was able to lure the fish using a leech for bait 40 feet deep . Also in his fishing repertoire is a 48 - inch Muskellunge . On January 31 , 2011 , his father , Ted Hill , died after falling while helping his son work on a barn .