I won’t go so far as to say I was a fan, exactly—he was responsible for vanquishing my beloved Dallas Cowboys way too many times for that—but there’s no doubt he was one of the all-time greats of the long-gone era of rough and tumble, bare-knuckles NFL quarterbacking, and gave Roman’s Legions one hell of a lot to cheer about.
RIP Roman Gabriel 🙏🏻#Rams #Eagles
A Tribute to a Colossus of a Quarterback
The 1969 NFL MVP, 1973 PFWA Comeback Player of the Year, and the Rams’ all-time career leader in touchdown passes pic.twitter.com/rFUOABC2P3
— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163)
I don’t recollect him being regarded as what used to be called a “scrambler,” but when Gabriel did come out of the pocket he could sure do it well; being a big, rawboned sumbitch, he was pretty tough for the defense to bring down. For sure, he was expertly skilled at lofting the long ball and laying it right into the hands of his intended receiver, as the video attests. Fare thee well Roman Gabriel, we shan’t see your like again.
“I’m tellin ya, Wilmington is the greatest city in the world.”
Gabriel was a Wilmington native and played college ball at NC State. One of the best, he remained true to the his roots.
https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/sports/nfl/2024/04/20/roman-gabriel-wilmington-native-nc-state-and-nfl-qb-dies-at-83/73397499007/
Aw, bummer.
He was also a pretty good adopted son of John Wayne in The Undefeated, one helluva good late-career JW western.
Which also featured fellow Ram teammate Merlin Olsen.
https://i.imgur.com/RG7LlTF.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROoapOp54xo
I’d forgotten all about that. Gabriel’s father was a Filipino immigrant so he has a natural Asian look that can be passed off as American Indian.
Merlin made a nice big fella 🙂
From back when the NFL was worth watching.
This is true, and it was long ago.