Robert Melville Lee (born August 7, 1946) 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 ...

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

and punter. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for Arizona State, CCSF and

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. He was selected 441st overall in the 1968 NFL/AFL draft by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

of 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). He also played for the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

and

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...

Early life

Lee was born in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

. He attended and played

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

for Lowell High School in San Francisco.

College career

Lee initially played

for Arizona State in 1963 and 1964—lettering in 1964. He then attended the City College of San Francisco for the 1965 season before finishing his career with

—lettering in both 1966 and 1967.

Professional career

Minnesota Vikings (first stint)

Lee was drafted in the seventeenth round of the 1968 NFL/AFL draft by the

of the

(NFL). As a member of the Vikings, he saw action as a punter in Super Bowl IV. Lee started a 1971 NFC Divisional Playoff on

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against the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

over Gary Cuozzo and

Norm Snead Norman Bailey Snead (July 31, 1939 – January 14, 2024) was an American professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, New ...

. Lee was seven of seventeen for 86 yards—49 of those on a second quarter completion to Bob Grim—with no touchdowns and two interceptions. With the Vikings trailing 3–20 late in the third quarter, coach

Bud Grant Harry Peter "Bud" Grant Jr. (May 20, 1927 – March 11, 2023) was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). Grant was head coach of the NFL's Minnesota Viki ...

replaced Lee with Cuozzo, who led Minnesota to its lone touchdown on a 6-yard pass to Stu Voigt. Despite the late score, the team still lost 12–20.

Atlanta Falcons

On May 14, 1973, the

dealt quarterback Bob Berry and a first round draft pick for Lee and

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 ...

Lonnie Warwick. During his stint with the Falcons, he led Atlanta to a 20–14 victory over the 9–0 Minnesota Vikings on ''

Monday Night Football ''Monday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''MNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1970 NFL season, 1970 t ...

'' on November 19, 1973. 1973 was Lee's most successful season in the NFL. He replaced Dick Shiner as the Falcons quarterback in Week 5 and led the Falcons to seven consecutive wins, including the win over the Vikings, on their way to a 9–5 record, the Falcons' best season in their history at that point. Lee started ten games and passed for 1,786 yards with ten touchdowns and eight interceptions.

Minnesota Vikings (second stint)

In 1976, Lee threw a touchdown pass in

Super Bowl XI Super Bowl XI was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion 1976 Oakland Raiders season, Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion 1976 Minnesota Vikings season, Minnesota Vikings ...

. With starting quarterback

Fran Tarkenton Francis Asbury Tarkenton (born February 3, 1940), nicknamed "the Scrambler", is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Minnesota Vikings. He is wi ...

's late season injury in the 1977 season, Lee started and led the Vikings to a 14–7 win over the

in the divisional round of the playoffs. The game was infamous due to the muddy conditions. Lee started the NFC Championship the next week as well against the

, but the Vikings lost 23–6.

Los Angeles Rams

He was also a backup in

Super Bowl XIV Super Bowl XIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion 1979 Los Angeles Rams season, Los Angeles Rams and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Pittsburgh S ...

as a member of the Los Angeles Rams. He is one of twelve quarterbacks to post both a perfect quarterback rating and a

zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. Adding (or subtracting) 0 to any number leaves that number unchanged; in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and compl ...

passer rating over the course of their careers, and is the first to have done so in the same season.

NFL career statistics

Regular season

Postseason

Personal life

His son, Zac Lee, played football for the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

and was the team's starting quarterback for most of the 2009 season, he briefly signed with the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...

and he played for the

Las Vegas Locomotives The Las Vegas Locomotives (called the Locos for short) were a professional American football team based in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada that played in the United Football League (2009–2012), United Football League. The team played their ...

of the United Football League (UFL). The two Lees are inducted in the San Francisco Prep Hall of Fame for football and they are the first father-son duo to be honored in the Hall of Fame. His daughter, Jenna Lee, worked in various roles for the Fox Business Network starting in 2007, prior to becoming an anchor on the

Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...

in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Bob 1946 births Living people American football quarterbacks American football punters Pacific Tigers football players Arizona State Sun Devils football players Players of American football from Columbus, Ohio Minnesota Vikings players Atlanta Falcons players Los Angeles Rams players United States Football League announcers