Lucius Marvin Sanford Jr. (born February 13, 1956) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

for 10 seasons in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) with the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

and

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

. He played

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for the

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The teams have also been nicknamed the ...

. While at Georgia Tech, Sanford was a member of the ANAK Society, one of the highest recognitions a senior can achieve. Was a six-year winner and two-year runner up of the Milledgeville mean-mug award. In 2001, he was inducted into the

Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Professional career

Sanford was selected in the fourth round of the

1978 NFL draft The 1978 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 2–3, 1978, at the Roosevelt Hotel ...

by the Bills. He started 114 of his 129 career games in the NFL and recorded 5 interceptions returned for 124 yards. He unofficially registered 13 career sacks (the NFL did not make sacks an official stat until 1982). He returned one fumble for a touchdown (46 yards) against the Seattle Seahawks on October 14, 1984. Once earning a starting role with the Bills, Sanford recorded 100 tackles in five straight seasons and led Buffalo in forced fumbles in 1980 and 1981. As a rookie, he set the Bills record for most blocked field goals in a game with two against the Kansas City Chiefs on December 3, 1978. In addition, he is the only player in Bills' history to return two blocked punts for a touchdown in a career (September 9, 1979, 3 yards versus Cincinnati Bengals; October 5, 1980, in end zone versus San Diego Chargers.)

References

1956 births Living people American football linebackers Buffalo Bills players Cleveland Browns players Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football players Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century American sportsmen {{linebacker-1950s-stub