Legendary Alabama and Packers Lineman Passes Away at 82

Steve Wright, an NFL offensive lineman who played under two of the greatest coaches in football, Paul Bear Bryant and Vince Lombardi, has passed away at 82.

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Green Bay reported on Tuesday that the former offensive lineman had passed away at a care facility in August, Georgia, this past Sunday.

Wright played at Alabama from 1961 to 1963 under the legendary coach Bear Bryant, where he was part of the Crimson Tide’s 1961 national championship team. Green Bay drafted him in the fifth round of the 1964 NFL Draft. He played with the Packers from 1964-1967, where he was part of the team’s 1965 pre-Super Bowl and the first two Super Bowls in 1966 and 1967.

The former NFL offensive lineman had a massive frame, standing 6-foot-6 and weighing 250 pounds. Unfortunately, Wright’s desire for the game and the physicality it entails were not there. In an interview, Wright admitted this: "As Jerry Kramer put it, 'Steve is just happy to be here. He doesn't have that burning desire.' ”

The lineman couldn’t thrive under his former coaches' coaching styles. Lombardi and Bryant's tough-love approach didn’t blend well with Wright’s cool-headed and nonchalant personality.

Wright published a book in 1974 in which he spoke out about his former coaches. The book was titled “I’d Rather Be Wright: Memoirs of an Itinerant Tackle.” The former 1966 and 1967 Super Bowl champion didn’t seem to mesh with Coach Bear Bryant at Alabama, resulting in Wright never starting a game throughout his entire career.

“He just couldn’t take Coach Bryant’s brand of discipline,” teammate Darwin Holt told Barra. “Coach Bryant thought he was challenging Wright; Steve just didn’t see it that way. It was like they talked in different languages.”

This didn’t stop in college, with Wright not seeing eye-to-eye with legendary NFL head coach Vince Lombardi.

“Coach Lombardi was tough and wanted perfection, but unfortunately, I wasn’t perfect,” Wright told Martin Hendricks of Packers Plus in 2015. “He’d chew me up and down one minute and 15 minutes later tell me to ‘do what I tell you to do and you’ll be OK.’”

In 1968, Wright was traded from the Green Bay Packers. He subsequently played for two seasons with the New York Giants. He had stints with the Washington Football Team, the Chicago Bears, and the St. Louis Cardinals before concluding his professional career in 1974.

In 1969, while playing for the Giants, artist Daniel Bennett Schwartz was commissioned by the NFL to create a sculpture titled "The Gladiator." Schwartz requested that the Giants send over a model, and they provided him with Wright. In 1999, the trophy was renamed the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, although it remains modeled after Wright.

“All these great players have a trophy with me on their mantle,” Wright joked in 2015. “Remember, I was a tackle, and they are tall and good-looking. Guards are short and ugly. One day, Aaron Rodgers may have me on his mantle.”

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