Alabama football: 15 greatest Crimson Tide NFL careers ever

Greatest Alabama football career No. 7: Lee Roy Jordan

Lee Roy Jordan was an All-American linebacker at Alabama way back in 1962 and certainly honed his craft as an excellent football player. He actually played on both sides of the ball in college but certainly emerged as a top linebacker in the NFL.

Jordan was the 6th pick of the 1963 NFL Draft and would spend his entire 14-year career playing for the Dallas Cowboys, a franchise still in relative infancy at the time. He was starting on the Cowboys’ defense right off the bat but really came into his own when he became their middle linebacker in 1966.

Over the next decade-plus, Jordan would start every game for the Cowboys and appear in 5 Pro Bowls. He started 19 playoff games while in Dallas, including a victory in Super Bowl VI over the Miami Dolphins, and was a vital member of the defense during his entire career.

Jordan accumulated 32 interceptions, an impressive part for a linebacker, including a pair of 6-interception seasons late in his career. When he retired in 1976, he was the Cowboys’ all-time leader in tackles and made plenty of important plays over the years for the franchise.

Jordan is perhaps one of the greatest players in NFL history who has yet to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, though his work at Alabama got him into the College Football Hall of Fame. His contributions to Dallas’s defense in their early days cannot be understated, especially for a defense that gave up just 3 points in that Super Bowl victory over fifty years ago.