He played college football for the Illinois Fighting Illini, receiving third-team All-American and two first-team All-Big Ten selections.
However, he was denied admission due to poor grades,[1] and he opted to attend American River Junior College in Sacramento, California.
[5] Eason earned the nickname "Champaign Tony" while playing at Illinois, based upon the city in which the university is located.
[8] Eason finished second in the voting behind Michigan's Anthony Carter for the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the Most Valuable Player in the Big Ten.
[9] Eason's final game for Illinois was the 1982 Liberty Bowl, which also marked the last head coaching appearance of Bear Bryant for Alabama.
From that point, Eason started the rest of the season, going 7-6 along the way while completing 259 out of 431 passes (60.1%) for 3,228 yards and a passer rating of 93.4—third best in the NFL.
Grogan would be tapped to start the following six games, where New England went on a six-game winning streak until he suffered a broken leg against the Jets in Week 12.
It would be a historic one as they became the first team in NFL history since the 1978 wildcard playoff expansion to win three road postseason games to reach the Super Bowl.
He went just 7-of-14 for 117 yards with a touchdown against the Los Angeles Raiders in the Divisional Round, but the Patriots won 27–20 on the strength of forcing six turnovers (including the winning score being a fumble recovery) and offensive play from Craig James to advance to their first AFC Championship Game appearance against the Miami Dolphins, who had not lost to New England in the Miami Orange Bowl since 1966.
[16] The Patriots made their first appearance in a Super Bowl in franchise history that year, meeting the Chicago Bears with Jim McMahon, Richard Dent, and Walter Payton.
He became the first and so far only starting quarterback in Super Bowl history to not have a pass completion, finishing 0-for-6 with no interceptions for a passer rating of 39.6, and was sacked three times.
[20] In 2008, ESPN ranked Eason's performance as the worst (82nd out of 82) in the history of the Super Bowl, noting, "In addition to his awful passing stats, he lost a fumble and not surprisingly was yanked in the second quarter.
Eason opened the scoring for New England on a touchdown pass to Stanley Morgan to make it 7–3 in the second quarter, and the teams were tied at 10 at halftime.
He was the starter in the Week 7 game versus the Raiders, throwing just three passes before a tackle by Stacey Toran saw Eason suffer a separated shoulder that ended up knocking him out for the remainder of the season.
He started versus Tampa Bay and went 16-of-27 for 155 yards with two interceptions but managed to win 10–7 in overtime when a pair of his passes hit Irving Fryar to set up a game-winning field goal after Tampa elected to kick after winning the coin toss due to the wind.
Eason then visited Denver for the Week 16 matchup as the starter and was 12-of-16 for 94 yards before being taken out late for Grogan in a 21–10 loss that saw New England miss out on a playoff spot.
He was later let go by the team and claimed off waivers by the New York Jets during the 1989 NFL season, after Eason refused to take a cut in pay after he was demoted to fourth-string on New England's roster with team owner Victor Kiam stating that he thought Eason would be the starter with the $2.3-million & two-year contract that he signed.
Eason reluctantly joined the team in November after considering not reporting due to not wanting to be in competition with his "good friend" Ken O'Brien.