Palmer’s claim to fame is as an amateur football player who played as a young man for the Ontario Amateur Football Association and the Myers Riders Football Club. Interestingly enough, Jesse comes from a family of football players. His father, Bill, also played in the CFL with the Ottawa Rough Riders, while his brother, Billy, played college football at Notre Dame.  Jesse’s mother, Susan, was a fashion and print model, and former owner of the original ITM International Top Models. Jesse’s college career began in 1997 when he started playing for coach Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators football team, where he played until 2000.

Jesse’s NFL debut was in 2001, for the New York Giants. He was a quarterback in the NFL for four seasons.  According to most experts of the sport, the years 2002 and 2003 were by far his two best seasons. In 2002 specifically he got a passing rate of 95.8 while in 2003, starting in three of the six games in which he played, Palmer completed 60 passes for 532 yards and three touchdowns.  He was then associated with the San Francisco 49ers in 2005 and spent half of the 2006 season with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.

Palmer now works as a college football analyst in the US for ESPN/ABC and as a football analyst in Canada for TSN.  His broadcast career began with Fox Sports Net, with analysis on Arena Football League games. After 2007, when he announced that he would leave football to pursue his broadcasting career, Jesse gained wide recognition and respect as a veteran and somewhat of an expert on the field. He is currently a studio analyst on College Football Live and ABC telecasts. He is also a game analyst on ESPN Thursday Night College football games and the co-host on The Palmer and Pollack Show. After 7 consecutive years of hard work, in 2014 he was announced as the lead game analyst alongside legendary sportscaster Brent Musburger for the SEC Network.