Earnest Ray "Bubba" Bean 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

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

with 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 ...

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 was selected ninth overall in the first round of the

1976 NFL draft The 1976 NFL draft was an annual player selection meeting held April 8–9, 1976, at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, New York. The draft lasted 17 rounds, with the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks making the first two ...

. Bubba played three seasons for the Falcons between 1976 and 1979.

Career

Bean played running back in college for

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

. He was a four-year starter there. In his senior year, Bean was featured on the cover of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''. Bean rushed for 2,846 yards at Texas A&M. In the 1976 season, the rookie rushed for 428 yards on 128 rushes for an average of 3.5

yards per carry In gridiron football, a carry or rushing attempt is a statistical term equivalent to a single rushing play. The term is typically used in reference to "yards per carry", meaning yards per attempt rushing the ball. Although running backs are typica ...

. Despite being sidelined for the entire 1977 season with a torn

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

, he came back in 1978 to enjoy his best season, rushing for 707 yards on 193 attempts and catching 31 passes for another 209 yards. His yards per carry increased each year, finishing with 4.5 in his last year on 88 attempts. He was 1-for-2 in his career passing with one touchdown and one interception. In 1979, rookie William Andrews arrived and beat out Bean for the starting position. Andrews rushed for over 1,000 yards that year and was selected to the

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (since 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's All-star, star players. The format has changed ...

each of the following four years. Bean retired from the NFL in 1982 to the Texas A&M career planning and placement office. Twelve years later, he formed Bean Construction, which he operated for a number of years in

College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States, situated in East-Central Texas in the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin, ...

. Bean was inducted in the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in May 2009.

NFL career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bean, Bubba Living people 1954 births American football running backs Atlanta Falcons players Texas A&M Aggies football players People from Jasper County, Texas 20th-century American sportsmen