Where are they now: Gus Frerotte

July 20, 2026

by Steve Thomas

Welcome to another edition of “Where are they now”!  So far, we’ve done defensive ends Dexter Manley (click here to read) and Charles Mann (click here to read), as well as running backs Timmy Smith (click here to read) and Stephen Davis (click here to read).  For this series, I’ve tried to find subjects that played important roles with the Redskins during their respective times with the team, but who also have interesting stories after they left Washington.  And most importantly about my subjects, I’m able to find readily available and accurate information on them.  This week, we’re going to dive into a guy who meets all of those criteria: quarterback Gus Frerotte.

Frerotte is originally from Ford Cliff, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Ford City High School in 1989.  He then attended the University of Tulsa for 4 years from 1990 through 1993, where he played in a total of 42 games, with 432 completions in 860 attempts, for a 50.2% completion percentage, 5480 yards, 32 touchdowns, and 38 interceptions.[1]  The Redskins drafted him in the seventh round of the 1994 NFL draft, with the 197th overall pick.  Frerotte is forever linked to the other quarterback Washington drafted that season, Heath Shuler, who the team drafted in round 1 that year, with the third overall pick.

The Redskins fanbase at the time expected Shuler to be the next great Washington franchise quarterback; however, that went horribly wrong from the start, beginning with Shuler’s contract holdout in training camp.  Shuler ended up starting just 13 games in his first two seasons with Washington and was benched permanently in favor of Frerotte, the seventh round afterthought, in 1996.  Frerotte ended up spending 5 seasons with the Redskins, during the bulk of Norv Turner’s tenure with the team from 1994 to 1998, in which time he played in 52 games, including 46 starts, and completed 744 passes in 1422 attempts, for a 52.3% completion percentage, 9769 yards, 48 touchdowns, and 44 interceptions, for a 72.7 quarterback rating.[2]  Washington never made the playoffs in his time with the team, going 3 – 13 in 1994, 6 – 10 in 1995, 9 – 7 in 1996, 8 – 7- 1 in 1997, and 6 – 10 in 1998.

Frerotte’s best season with Washington was 1996, in which he started all 16 games and completed 270 of 470 pass attempts, for a 57.4% completion percentage, 3453 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions, for a 79.3 quarterback rating.

His season ended the following week against St. Louis when he broke his hip.  Frerotte started the first game of the 1998 season before being benched in favor of Trent Green.  He started only one more game that season, in week 7 against the Vikings, which his final game appearance for the Redskins.

The biggest highlight of Frerotte’s career with the Redskins was likely an absurd moment in week 12 of the 1997 season against the New York Giants in which he headbutted the wall of the stadium after rushing for a touchdown and ended up spraining his neck as a result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmqG0k3hGPM

While his statistics in Washington weren’t great, they need to be put into context of the time.  For example, his 79.3 quarterback rating in 1996 would be bad in the modern NFL, back in that year, it was ranked 15th among the 31 quarterbacks who started at least 8 games that season.  Similarly, his 57.4% completion percentage in 1996 was ranked 18th among the 31 quarterbacks who started at least 8 games.  In other words, not good, but not terrible, given the era.  Over the course of his entire career with Washington from 1994 to 1998, though, his 72.7 quarterback rating was ranked 21st of the 25 quarterbacks who started at least 40 games over the same era, and his 52.3% completion percentage was ranked 24th of 25.  In other words, his stats show why Washington ultimately moved on even despite him displacing Shuler for good in 1996.

What some people don’t realize is that after his time in Washington ended, Frerotte went on to stay in the NFL for 10 more seasons, playing in Detroit in 1999, Denver 2000 – 2001, Cincinnati in 2002, Minnesota in 2003 – 2004, Miami in 2005, and for the St. Louis Rams in 2006 – 2007, before concluding his NFL career with the Vikings in 2008.  In total, Frerotte played in 147 games, including 93 starts, and completed 1699 passes in 3106 attempts, for a 54.7% completion percentage, 114 touchdowns, and 106 interceptions, for a 74.2 career quarterback rating.  After leaving Washington, the only time he started again with any regularity was for the Dolphins in 2005.  That season, he started 15 of 16 games and posted a 71.9 quarterback rating.

After retirement, Frerotte transitioned into high school football coaching for awhile, first in the St. Louis area, where he became the quarterbacks coach, and later the head coach, at John Burroughs (Mo.) School.[3]  He moved back to the Pittsburgh area in 2013, where he coached at Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School until 2016.[4]

Frerotte then transitioned from coaching into the corporate world, getting involved with multiple companies in the sports and brain health space, including 4View[5], and RC21X, where he still serves today, as the Senior Vice President of Business Development[6].  RC21X is the developer of a web-based “cognitive and neuromotor performance measurement tool”[7].  His role in business development seems to be a good fit given his public profile as a retired NFL player.

He has also been involved with the NFL Alumni Association as a Player Ambassador, including as a leader of the Pittsburgh chapter[8].

Frerotte was also the host of the Huddle Up with Gus Podcast, which is available on the major streaming platforms[9] but doesn’t appear to have been active since 2022.

Frerotte is married and has three children, including his son Gus, who played football at William & Mary University.[10]

In total, Frerotte is remembered fondly for his time with the Redskins as the ultimate underdog – a guy drafted at the very end of the draft in the same year as a player expected to be the team’s next franchise player, only to overtake that player himself.  History later repeated itself on the team in 2012, but that’s another story for another day.  In the end, Frerotte was unable to lead Washington to much on-field winning, but he’s clearly been a success in his life post-football and off the field.

 

[1] All collegiate stats courtesy of https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/.

[2] All NFL stats courtesy of https://www.pro-football-reference.com/.

[3] https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/gus-frerotte-stadium-headbutter-prep-head-coach.html

[4] https://imaginear.com/press-release/imaginear-announces-appointment-gus-frerotte-former-nfl-pro-bowler-qb-advisor

[5] https://www.compassionatecertificationcenters.com/2018-world-medical-cannabis-conference-expo/speakers/gus-frerotte/

[6] https://rc21x.com/index.php/about-us-1

[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32789464/

[8] https://www.pghgateways.org/nfl-alumni-associations-pittsburgh-chapter-offices-to-open-at-the-energy-innovation-center/

[9] https://open.spotify.com/show/6CC6XrTxKtsr49lN9K7LFc

[10] https://tribeathletics.com/sports/football/roster/gunnar-frerotte/7233