Norm Snead, an NFL quarterback for 16 seasons in the 1960s and ’70s who was a four-time Pro Bowl selection, has died. He was 84.
A spokesperson for Wake Forest football, for which Snead played collegiately before turning pro, told The Associated Press on Monday that the school learned from Snead’s family that he died Sunday. A cause of death was not provided.
Snead was the second overall pick in the 1961 NFL draft, selected by Washington, and he also was taken 33rd by the Buffalo Bills in the American Football League draft that year. He chose Washington and played there for three seasons, with two Pro Bowl appearances, before being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles for Sonny Jurgensen and Claude Crabb.
Jurgensen, who led Philadelphia to a league championship in 1960, became the face of the franchise for Washington, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and was a broadcaster for the team for decades.
Snead spent seven seasons with the Eagles during an era in which they never reached the playoffs. Despite that, he was picked for the Pro Bowl in 1965, when he threw for 15 touchdowns and 2,346 yards and led a league-high three game-winning drives for a team that finished 5-9.
He bounced around near the end of his career, playing one season for Minnesota, 2 1/2 for the New York Giants and 1 1/2 for San Francisco. He returned to the Giants in 1976 before calling it a career in 1977.
Snead went 52-100-7 in 159 NFL starts with 196 touchdowns. His 257 interceptions rank sixth on the career list.
At Wake Forest, he earned All-ACC honors twice while setting more than a dozen conference records over three years (1958-60). After leading the ACC with seven interceptions in a season, Snead once quipped, “I couldn’t run and couldn’t get out of my own way but could throw the football.”
A native of Halifax County, Virginia, who played football, basketball and baseball at Warwick High School, he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1984.
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