Norm Snead, quarterback for Washington, Philadelphia
Norm Snead, an NFL quarterback for 16 seasons in the 1960s and ’70s who was a fourtime Pro Bowl selection, died Sunday in Naples, Fla., his brother, Danny, said. He was 84.
A cause of death was not provided.
Mr. 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 was with Philadelphia when the Eagles won the league championship in 1960, became the face of the franchise for Washington and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Mr. 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 5-9 team.
He bounced around near the end of his career, playing one season for Minnesota, 2½ for the New York Giants, and 1½ for San Francisco. He returned to the Giants in 1976 before calling it a career in 1977.
Mr. Snead went 52-100-7 in 159 NFL starts with 196 touchdowns.
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, Mr. 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, Va., who played football, basketball, and baseball at Warwick High School, he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1984.