Jared Lorenzen was a star at Kentucky in the early 2000s. He holds the school’s all-time passing record. He’s a Super Bowl champion. He won a ring backing up Eli Manning for the New York Giants.

But where is he now?

Lorenzen, now 33-years-old, sells office technology equipment. He was just transferred from the suburbs of Cincinnati back to Lexington for the job. He has an apartment in the same complex he lived in as a senior at UK.

“I work for a company called ProSource and they have been great to me,” Lorenzen said in an interview via email on Monday. “I have been with them for almost three years now and we just opened an office here in Lexington so I get to come back home.”

Lorenzen is still beloved in Lexington. He often attends UK games and leads the crowd in cheers. He says his family takes up his life, which he loves.

“Life away from football has been good,” Lorenzen says. “I have two kids that take up my life now and that’s a good thing.”

As prolific of a passer as he was for the Wildcats – he ranks in the top-10 in the SEC in all-time passing yards – he played for three different coaches in four years. But Lorenzen says coaches knew their strengths.

“I was lucky enough to have some great receivers around me that could make some plays down the field,” Lorenzen said. “I would throw it up to Derek Abney or Aaron Boone and they made me look good. I also think the coaches understood our strengths and knew that we were about to throw the ball.”

Late in his career at Kentucky, he began to realize he might have a shot at the NFL, so he hired Leigh Steinberg as his agent. He went undrafted in the 2004 NFL Draft, but multiple teams were interested.

He was invited to training camp by the Giants, but was hesitant. So hesitant, in fact, that he skipped camp.

“I never thought I was going to make an NFL roster and the mind can play crazy tricks on you,” Lorenzen said. “I had convinced myself that I wasn’t going to and almost missed out on the greatest years of my life.”

He was the Giants’ third-string quarterback in 2005, then Manning’s main backup in 2006 and 2007. He was on the sidelines at Super Bowl XLII when the Giants beat the undefeated Patriots in the David Tyree game.

“You can’t explain the feeling of winning a Super Bowl. It’s the top of your profession and for a brief moment you are the best at what you do,” Lorenzen said in an interview via email on Monday. “The best part of winning it is that as soon as the clock hit 0:00 I was on the field celebrating with my family. You miss so many holidays/birthdays/major events and to be able to celebrate with them was the best part.”

He was released by the Giants later that summer, and was picked up by the Indianapolis Colts. He was released during the final roster cuts, however.

In 2009, he returned to Kentucky and signed on with the Kentucky Horsemen of the developmental arm of the Arena Football League. The league lasted just one season, so Lorenzen worked as the manager of a mall and opened a restaurant with friends after that.

But Lorenzen couldn’t stay away for football. Next was a shot at the front office.

He took a job as the general manager of the Northern Kentucky River Monsters, who played just five minutes from his home. He put together the team, but couldn’t find a quarterback so he played. As if that wasn’t enough, the league named him commissioner.

Lorenzen loved his time in the arena leagues, though.

“It was a huge transition,” Lorenzen said. “I love the game though and I knew where I was in my career and to see these guys I was playing with trying to make it, I thought that maybe I could help them advance their career. I loved playing in the arena leagues and wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

He’s done now, though. He says he has no plans to return, except for possibilities of coaching. He says he loves that.

“That might be the only way I get back into it.”