Lawrence Pillers

Lawrence Pillers (born November 4, 1952) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is ...

who played for the New York Jets, the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

and the Atlanta Falcons in a ten-year career that lasted from

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. Pillers played college football at Alcorn State University and was drafted in the eleven round of the 1976 NFL Draft by the Jets. He was a member of the San Francisco 49ers' Super Bowl XVI and Super Bowl XIX winning teams. Pillers made a game-saving play in the 1981 NFC Championship Game against the Dallas Cowboys. After Dwight Clark made "The Catch" to give the 49ers a 28-27 lead in the final minute, Dallas drove into 49ers territory trying to set up a game-winning field goal. Pillers sacked Danny White, forcing White to fumble, and the 49ers recovered to preserve the win. 1952 births Living people People from Hazlehurst, Mississippi American football defensive ends Alcorn State Braves football players New York Jets players San Francisco 49ers players Atlanta Falcons players African-American players of American football Players of American football from Mississippi 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{defensive-lineman-1950s-stub