Christian Ponder is a formal American football quarterback. He is a very versatile player with a lot of energy and good skills. He played many matches and was drafted by the Minnesota Kings in the 2011 NFL Draft. He is one of the popular football players.

Christian Ponder got married to Samantha Steele in 2012. They dated for 2 months and decided to get married. The couple had a daughter Bowden Saint-Claire Ponder and Robinson True.

Christian Ponder Early life & Education

Christian Ponder was born on 25th February 1988 in Dallas, Texas but he spent his childhood in Grapevine, Texas. His father David Ponder was also a football player. He used to play as a defensive lineman for Florida State from 1980-1983. Christian joined Colleyville Heritage High School.

Ponder started to play football from that school. He started quarterback in 2004 and threw for 1500 yards and 7 touchdowns. In his senior year, he passed for 1214 yards and 20 touchdowns and rushed for 911 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Christian completed his graduation from Florida State with a degree in finance and a 3.73 GPA and also MBA. Currently, he is studying for a second degree in sports management.

Christian Ponder Football Career

Christian football skills and stamina was outstanding. He was named to the all-district first team by The Dallas Morning News. He was ranked 20th in quarterback prospect and was ranked 14th in the pro-style quarterback by Rivals.com.

Texas had ranked him 50th in a college prospect. At that time he received scholarships from many places like Georgia Tech, Baylor, Iowa State, Florida State, North Carolina, and Texas Christian.

[ CAPTION: Christian Ponder ][ SOURCE: Pinterest ]

Christian joined Florida State in 2006 and played as the back-up behind starting quarterback Drew Weatherford. Later at the beginning of the 2008 season, he was named starting the starting quarterback ahead of his senior Weatherford. During that season he started in all 13 games. He also completed 177 passes and 318 attempts.

He completed the attempt of 119 rushing for 423 yards and 4 touchdowns. He was awarded the team’s most valuable offensive player. In 2009, Christian suffered a shoulder injury and missed the game for a year. After the rest in 2010, he came back as a quarterback. In that year also he got injured numerous times.

[ CAPTION: Christian Ponder ][ SOURCE: Pinterest ]

Despite being injured, it was his most successful year. He got an opportunity to lead his team to victories against Miami and Florida. He was awarded by the 2010 James Tatum award. That award is only given to the nation’s top student-athlete. He also got a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award.

In the first rounds of the 2011 NFL Draft, he was selected 12th overall by the Minnesota Vikings. He was the fourth quarterback selected in the draft. Christian signed the contract with Vikings in $10 million.

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From Vikings, he made a debut against Chicago on 16th October 2011. They lost the game with 10-39. It was a disaster to start for them. On 30th October 2011, he was able to get his first win as an NFL starting quarterback against the Carolina Panthers. During that season, he had many ups and downs.

On the opening of the 2012 season, they had a tie against the Jackville Jaguars. In that year he played many matches against many opponents. In 2013, his team had to bear many losses in the game. That year was one of the worst for them. It caused the danger in future of Christian with the Vikings. His ability to play well was in doubt. In 2014 also he remained as a backup only since his game was not that well as before.

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Christian Ponder signed a one-year contract with the Oakland Raiders on 13th March 2015. The contract included a $1.5 million signing bonus. Then he started training camp playing with Oakland’s second-team offense. He was booed by the Vikings fan when he returned to Minnesota for a game.

Later he was released from raiders too. After that, he played for the Dallas Cowboys in September and for the Tennessee Titans on 3rd November.

Christian Ponder Married Samantha

Christian Ponder got married on 17th December 2012, to ESPN reporter Samantha Steele. They started seeing each other after Christian messaged her on Twitter. They dated for 2 months and decided to get married. The couple had a daughter and named her after Christian’s college football coach Bobby Bowden. She was named Bowden Saint-Claire Ponder.

[ CAPTION: Christian Ponder with his wife ][ SOURCE: Pinterest ]

The couple welcomed their another child, a son, named as Robinson True in 2017. Samantha shared the news through Twitter. The couple moved from Arizona and is currently living happily together in the New York City. The duo named their son after Jackie and David (Robinson). They are the men with courage and words who won’t be afraid to take the endless road and traveled.

[ CAPTION: Christian Ponder with his wife ][ SOURCE: Pinterest ]

Net Worth and Salary

Christian Ponder earns a good sum of money in his career. He played and won several matches through which he earned wide recognition and fame. Being one of the popular football players he receives a huge amount of money as salary. 

Moreover, Christian also receives a decent amount of money from several fashion lines and brands as an endorsement. Allocating information from several sources as of 2018 it is found out that Christian Ponder current estimated net worth is around $10 million. Whereas Christian’s salary per year is around $4.9 million. 

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