From this point on, when you say someone is living the ‘American Dream’, Matt Cassel’s name should come to mind.

Cassel, 32, was just traded to the Buffalo Bills for some draft picks. However, the trade can’t become final until March 10th. Both teams could decide to back out, but that’s unlikely to happen.

While the Buffalo Bills hope E.J. Manuel can develop into a franchise quarterback, they must prepare for the worst.

Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner is happy for Cassel.

“It’s a great opportunity (for Cassel),” Turner said. “He wants that opportunity to be a starter, and obviously we wish him the best.”

The situation in Buffalo will give Cassel just that, an opportunity, but why does he continue to get these opportunities?

Over the past three seasons, Cassel has only thrown 20 touchdowns compared to 25 interceptions. This past season, the 11-year veteran only appeared in three games and in that short period of time, Cassel accumulated a putrid quarterback rating of 65.8.

Despite those amazingly horrible numbers, Cassel has earned over $70 million during his NFL career. Sounds like the ‘American dream’, right?

If it wasn’t for Tom Brady going down in 2008, most likely we wouldn’t even know Cassel existed. With that being said, you couldn’t ask for a better situation as a backup. Cassel had a good offensive line in front of him and some guy named Randy Moss.

New England finished the season 11-5, but missed the playoffs. However, Cassel’s production was enough for Scott Pioli and the Kansas City Chiefs. Cassel agreed to a six-year deal that was worth in excess of $10 million a season.

Cassel’s best season in Kansas City came in 2010, when he threw for 27 touchdowns to only 7 interceptions, with a quarterback rating of 93.0. Unfortunately for Cassel, his stint in Kansas City didn’t end as he would’ve liked. He threw 12 picks to only six touchdowns during his last season in the red and gold.

Things got so bad for Cassel in Kansas City that fans cheered when he suffered a concussion against Baltimore. Former teammate Eric Winston took up for Cassel.

“It’s 100 percent sickening,” Winston said. “I’ve never, ever — and I’ve been in some rough times on some rough teams — I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life to play football than at that moment right there. I get emotional about it because these guys, they work their butts off. Matt Cassel hasn’t done anything to you people.”

“Hey, if he’s not the best quarterback, he’s not the best quarterback, and that’s OK, but he’s a person.

And he got knocked out in a game and we’ve got 70,000 people cheering that he got knocked out.”

Winston wasn’t finished.

“We are not gladiators and this is not the Roman Colosseum. This is a game. This is a game that’s going to cost us a lot down the road. That’s OK. We picked it. We deserve it. I don’t want your pity. But we’ve got a lot of problems as a society if people think that’s OK.”

While it’s definitely not okay to cheer someone’s injury, that gesture from Chiefs fans is a testament to how bad Cassel was and is. Typically, your fan base will go out of their way to defend you, but that just wasn’t the case with the former USC backup.

Considering that Cassel turns 33 in two months, it’s hard to imagine him improving much, if any. At this point of his career, he is what he is, which is an inaccurate passer with limited arm strength and poor pocket presence.

After being hired to become the Buffalo Bills new head coach, Rex Ryan made it public that they would be looking for a veteran quarterback to compete against Manuel.

“I think in an ideal world you’d add a veteran player,” Ryan said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. With that said I’m also excited about EJ Manuel and how he ends up developing and it’s a fresh start for everybody regardless of who you bring in. So I’ll be excited to see EJ.”

Buffalo’s main target was Josh McCown.

“I think the big thing obviously we have an interest in Josh,” Ryan said. “He’s a veteran quarterback. He has been with several teams. We know his history obviously, but this gave us an opportunity to really sit down and visit with Josh and how he thought we would fit him and vice versa. When it’s appropriate we’ll proceed however we’re going to proceed in finding a quarterback, but obviously we feel good about him. We think that we’re not the only team in the league that’s interested in him, maybe in different roles.”

McCown would eventually agree to a 3-year deal with the Cleveland Browns. So, it appears since this was a weak free-agent class for quarterbacks, Cassel just happened to be at the right place at the right time, as he often is.

If you’re a Bills fan, just hope and pray that Manuel improves dramatically this off-season.