Todd Jay Christensen

Professional Football Player. For ten seasons (1979 to 1988), he played at the tight end position in the National Football League with the New York Giants and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. Born Todd Jay Christensen, he was raised in Eugene, Oregon where he attended Henry D. Sheldon High School. He played collegiate football at Brigham Young University and while with the Cougars under Hall of Fame coach LaVell Edwards, Christensen was a contributor to four Western Athletic Conference Championship squads. Individually, he earned first-team All-WAC status and received MVP honors at the Blue-Gray Football Classic in 1977. Selected by the Dallas Cowboys during the 1978 NFL Draft, he ended up on the Giants' roster one year later. He played only one game for New York in 1979, prior to being signed by the Raiders. Primarily a special teams player, he experienced a Super Bowl championship season in 1980, for which culminated with a victory in Super Bowl XV, as the Raiders defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 27 to 10 in January 1981. His greatness as an offensive weapon came to fruition in 1983, as he led the NFL with 92 receptions and yielded career-highs with 1,247 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns. He factored greatly in the Raiders' Super Bowl year of 1983, for which resulted with a 38 to 9 defeat over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII in January 1984. In 1986, he topped the NFL once again in receptions with 95. In 137 regular season games, he compiled 461 receptions with 5,872 yards and 41 touchdowns. He earned Pro-Bowl honors five-times (1983 to 1987) and received First-Team All-Pro recognition twice (1983 and 1985). After retiring as a player, he served as a TV analyst for college and professional football games. He is a member of the Brigham Young Athletic Hall of Fame and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. Christensen had suffered from a variety of health issues including liver disease.