Bob Long, a wide receiver who was on the Packers’ teams that won the first two Super Bowls, has died at the age of 83.
Long went to Wichita State to play basketball, but after finishing his basketball eligibility he decided to give football a try, and in one year of college football he led the NCAA in touchdown catches. That two-sport athletic talent caught Vince Lombardi’s eye, and the Packers took him with the 44th overall pick in the 1964 NFL draft.
Long played four seasons in Green Bay and the Packers won the championship in three of them, winning the NFL Championship Game after the 1965 season and then winning Super Bowls I and II in the 1966 and 1967 seasons.
After Super Bowl II the Packers traded Long to the Falcons, where he was the team’s leading receiver through nine games in 1968 before his season ended because of injuries sustained in a car accident.
The following offseason, Lombardi became the head coach and general manager in Washington, and he called Long to tell him he’d be trading for him to bring him to Washington.
“Vince had Bobby Mitchell and Charley Taylor in Washington, but he called me up and said, ‘Do you still have your basketball hands?’” Long recalled years later in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “I said, ‘yes, but I’m not as fast after I was in a bad car wreck in Atlanta.’ He said, ‘You still don’t make mental mistakes, do you?’ I said, ‘No.’ “He said, ‘Bobby Mitchell is retiring, and I need a veteran.’ You don’t turn down Vince Lombardi, so I went to Washington.”
Long started all 14 games in Washington that season. Lombardi died the following offseason, and Long’s tenure in Washington ended as well. Long concluded his NFL career with a brief stint playing for the Rams. In retirement, Long returned to Wisconsin and lived there the rest of his life, saying he loved being around Packers fans.
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