25 best NFL players of all time from the SEC
By John Buhler
Some of the best players in the SEC went on to have outstanding careers in the NFL. Here are the 25 best players in NFL history with SEC football roots.
For decades, SEC football has been a driving force behind the southern sports fabric. You have to remember that until the 1960s, the Southeast didn’t have professional sports franchises. That has allowed major southern institutions to have major college athletics. In short, SEC football fans are some of the most rabid you’ll find across the United States.
It also helps that high school football is insanely popular in the part of the country. Friday night lights have yielded some of the best players in the history of these SEC blue-blood programs. More than a few of those stars on fall Saturdays have gone on to be NFL superstars.
Canton has many members in its Pro Football Hall of Fame with SEC roots and several players that will one day reach enshrinement that are still playing in the NFL. Let’s take a look back at the 25 best players in NFL history that have strong SEC roots.
Ozzie Newsome
Tight End, Alabama Crimson Tide
While he is insanely busy these days running the front office for the Baltimore Ravens, general manager Ozzie Newsome was one of the best tight ends to have ever played the game of football. Though he only made three Pro Bowls and one All-Pro selection, Newsome was widely regarded as the best tight end in the 1980s.
He spent his entire 13-year NFL career with the Cleveland Browns (1978-90). Newsome had 662 career receptions for 7,980 yards and 47 touchdowns before hanging up the spikes. Before starring on the shores of Lake Erie for the Browns, Newsome was an All-American for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The Muscle Shoals native was an All-American in 1977 for the Crimson Tide. Alabama went a combined 42-6 during Newsome’s four years in Tuscaloosa. He was a four-year starter for the Crimson Tide.
Newsome has already been elected to the Pro and College Football Hall of Fames as a player. With him being the architect of two Super Bowl Championship teams in Baltimore, one day he will garner another honor in Canton as a Hall of Fame executive. You can’t tell the history of the NFL without Newsome.