Sinnett: From not quite making it in NFL to ending his career with record-breaking season in Europe

By Canadian Press on November 14, 2025.

MADRID (AP) — Former NFL quarterback Reid Sinnett has been going around Madrid in recent days helping to promote American football.

Often wearing a Miami Dolphins jersey, he has been going to events, speaking at fan zones and even showing Spaniards how to play and understand the game.

It’s all been part of the events ahead of the first regular-season NFL game in Spain on Sunday, when the Dolphins will face the Washington Commanders at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Sinnett won’t be playing, but he will be among the football stars in the Spanish capital — at least in the eyes of local fans.

Sinnett never got to play a regular-season game with any of the NFL teams he was a part of, but the 28-year-old American did thrive with the Madrid Bravos in the European League of Football last season, breaking records and being named the MVP.

Sinnett threw for nearly 4,000 yards in 12 games. He had 50 touchdowns and four interceptions.

It made him a local football star, and may have given him a perfect ending to his career.

“As of now, I’m not planning on coming back. I don’t know that the season could have gone any better in terms of, you know, personally what I wanted to get out of football,” he said. “The experience with the coaches and my teammates and everything. … So I think I’m ready to be done playing football and move on to what’s next for me in the next part of my life.”

Sinnett spent time in the NFL with the Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Philadelphia Eagles and Cincinnati Bengals — he was signed in Cincinnati as one of the backups after Joe Burrow got injured in 2023. Sinnett’s first NFL stint was with the Buccaneers.

Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Friday he felt Sinnett “did a great job in my brief time with him.”

“One of the things with the quarterback position, it’s pretty difficult to have a chair on the team. There are a lot of good throwers out there, and a lot of times you only keep two quarterbacks on your roster,” McDaniel said. “He was one of the guys that you unfortunately have to let go when your rosters get closer to the regular season, but he did a great job for us and is fully capable of playing the quarterback position in the right situation.”

Sinnett went undrafted in the 2020 NFL draft after being mostly a backup at the University of San Diego, where he only started in his final year. He later spent time with the San Antonio Brahmas in the XFL and the Houston Roughnecks in the UFL.

“I had always kind of known that I wanted to play in Europe, just because I hadn’t gotten a ton of opportunities to play,” he said. “Although I was on NFL teams, I wasn’t the starter. I was around and stuff like that, but it wasn’t me getting to contribute. So being able to play for a team like that was going to be that opportunity to contribute. It felt like that before I was ready to be done playing, I was going to go do that, and it worked out.”

Sinnett didn’t have many expectations when he decided to join the Bravos in the ELF. He said it was never about trying to get back to the NFL.

“For me it was an experience to get to travel and experience new cultures and make new friends and have a unique experience on that front, and that’s definitely what it provided,” Sinnett said. “I don’t think that it’s a stepping stone to play football at a high level for me. If it was, I’ve got plenty of good relationships in the NFL, and guys that are hurt and struggling, and I’m not getting a lot of calls. So I think that’s a pretty good signal that the NFL has moved on from me, which I’m totally comfortable with.”

Sinnett — who went to Johnston High School in Iowa — said American football in Europe remains on a “totally different level” compared to the NFL.

“Like, I was a third-string quarterback with few opportunities (in the NFL), and statistically I had the best season that a quarterback has had in Europe,” he said. “So it’s a totally different level, and I don’t mean that with any disrespect to the European guys, but it’s not the stepping stones.”

The opportunity to play for the Bravos came through former Buccaneers teammate Ryan Griffin, who initially wanted Sinnett to join the Skorpions Varese in the Italian Football League.

“It wasn’t the right time of the year, it wasn’t the right amount of money, and I was kind of like, ‘I don’t think I want to do this,’” Sinnett said. “And then he called me after I said ‘no’ and he said, ‘Look, I have one more opportunity for you. If you say no, I’m going to come to your house and I’m going to punch you in the face.’ And I was like, ‘All right, sounds good, it’s a pretty good selling point.’”

Going forward, Sinnett plans to focus on his business — the Rising Tide Quarterback Academy — where he works with young players to teach them the game. He said he also sees “a huge opportunity for growth and teaching football internationally.”

“I would love to be a part of that,” he said. “And it’s part of why I’m coming back to Madrid this week, to share those experiences and hopefully grow the game through this Dolphins-Commanders game.”

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Tales Azzoni, The Associated Press