playing career outside a hotel kitchen of all places.
By today’s NFL standards, Rosey Grier would probably be considered undersized.
A defensive tackle, Grier’s listed playing size was 6-foot-5, 285 pounds. Grier, who played collegiately at Penn State University, was a third-round pick by the New York Giants in the 1955 NFL Draft. He immediately moved into a starting role for the Giants and was a first-team All-Pro his second year, as well as an NFL Champion.
Following the 1962 season, Grier joined the Los Angeles Rams and helped form the Fearsome Foursome defensive line alongside Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, and Lamar Lundy. Grier, at 94 years old, is the lone surviving original Foursome member.
He’s photographed on the sidelines of a sloppy Yankee Stadium during his final season with the Giants. The photographer, none other than the legendary Neil Leifer. I encourage you to visit Leifer’s website at this link to relive some of his career highlights. And, if you’d like to buy me a print (of any of them!) I’d be a happy recipient.
Grief’s notoriety only grew post-playing days when he began serving as a bodyguard for the Kennedy Family. On the night of June 4, 1968, during the California Primary Election, Grief was protecting Ethel Kennedy (wife of Senator and Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Sr.). The party, which also included Kennedy’s friend and quasi-bodyguard Rafer Johnson, was exiting Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel through the back. As the party made its way through a hallway near the kitchen shortly after midnight, a gunman (Sirhan Sirhan) fired shots at Kennedy. It was Grier who subdued the gunman and wrestled the pistol away from him.
Kennedy’s death was announced about 26 hours later in the early morning hours of June 6.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.