Former Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Roman Gabriel has died at age 83. His son, Roman Gabriel III, announced Gabriel’s passing on social media on Saturday.
“I am sad to announce my father Roman Gabriel passed away peacefully this morning of natural causes at his home. The entire family asked for your prayers, and to please respect our privacy – I love you dad.”
Born in North Carolina, Gabriel went on to play for N.C State, where he became a wolfpack legend. He became a two-time All-American during his time as a Wolfpack and was also the ACC Player of the Year twice. While most of his records have since been broken, Gabriel left N.C. State as the leader in almost every passing category, and was the first player on the football team to have his jersey number retired. He went on to get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989.
Following his college football career, Gabriel was drafted by both the AFL and NFL, as the two leagues were competing at the time to bring in the top talent. While he was selected first overall by the Oakland Raiders, Gabriel opted to play for the Los Angeles Rams, who drafted him second overall in 1962.
Gabriel went on to spend a decade with the Rams, and would fully take over the quarterback job in 1966 when he first started 14 games for Los Angeles under new head coach George Allen. His best season as a pro came in 1969 when he was the NFL MVP after leading the league in passing touchdowns with 24 and making his lone first-team All-Pro. That year Gabriel also made his third straight Pro Bowl and won the Bert Bell Award as the player of the Year. Gabriel’s Rams began the year 11-0 but finished the season 11-3 before losing to the Minnesota Vikings in the playoffs.
After injuries forced Gabriel to miss playing time in his final two seasons with Los Angeles, he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles ahead of the 1973 season. Gabriel would have another career year with the Eagles in 1973, leading the league with 3,219 passing yards and 23 touchdowns en route to winning the Comeback Player of the Year. This was the lone 3,000-yard season of his career and his fourth and final Pro Bowl season.
Gabriel would stay on the Rams until 1977, spending his final two seasons as a backup quarterback. He finished his career with 29,444 passing yards and 201 touchdowns. His career 201-149 touchdown-interception ratio remains one of the most impressive feats of his career as he played during a time when quarterbacks were more susceptible to interceptions and turnovers since he played before the implementation of rules protecting quarterbacks and offenses.
