Roger Shoals, an offensive lineman who spent a total of nine seasons in the NFL with the Browns, Lions and Broncos, has died at the age of 86.
Shoals played his college football at Maryland and was a 16th round pick of the Browns in the 1961 NFL draft as well as a 34th round pick of the Dallas Texans in the 1962 AFL draft. It wasn’t until 1963 that he chose to turn pro and picked the Browns and the NFL, and with that choice he became a member of one of the best teams in the league. In his second season, the Browns won the 1964 NFL Championship Game, and half a century later he still considered that his career highlight.
“That was heaven. The league sent us our rings. I still wear mine all the time even though people look at this old man and think ‘What the hell is he doing with a diamond?’” Shoals told the Baltimore Sun in 2014.
After two years in Cleveland, Shoals was traded to Detroit, where he became a starter on the Lions’ offensive line. He spent six years with the Lions before he was traded again to the Broncos, retiring after one year in Denver in 1971.
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