Richard Earl Shiner (born July 18, 1942) is a former professional

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

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 ...

who played in eleven

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) seasons from 1964 to 1974 for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...

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 ...

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. Founded in 1933 P ...

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. 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

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

College

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 ...

at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. In his first collegiate start, Shiner led Maryland to the school's first victory against

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

in the 37-game series.

Professional football

Shiner was drafted in the seventh round of the

1964 NFL draft The 1964 NFL draft was held in Chicago, Illinois, at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers on Monday, December 2, 1963. The first overall pick was Dave Parks, an end from Texas Tech, selected by the San Francisco 49ers. The AFL draft was two days e ...

by the

. Shiner was also selected in the 20th round of the 1964 AFL Draft by the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

. Shiner played sparingly in his first four seasons in the NFL. From 1964 to 1966 with the Redskins, he backed up future Hall of Fame quarterback Sonny Jurgensen and started only one game, in 1965. Moving to the

for 1967, Shiner was a backup to former All-Pro Frank Ryan, and again saw few chances to play, starting no games and attempting only nine passes all season. Shiner's big break came on May 14, 1968, when the Browns traded Shiner, a draft choice to be named later and defensive tackle Frank Parker to the

for another quarterback, Bill Nelsen, and safety Jim Bradshaw, with both quarterbacks getting more playing chances with their new teams. Shiner took over as the starting quarterback for the Steelers in week 4 from Kent Nix, in a game in Cleveland against the Browns, facing Nelsen. Shiner started the rest of the season. He went on to start nine games for the 1969 Steelers (the first season in which

Chuck Noll Charles Henry Noll (January 5, 1932 – June 13, 2014) was an American professional football player and head coach. Regarded as one of the greatest head coaches of all time, his sole head coaching position was for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the ...

served as Steelers head coach), including their Opening Day win over the Detroit Lions. That first win was the only one of the season, with the Steelers going 1–13 on the year, with a defense that gave up the most points in the NFL—an average of nearly 29 points per game. Fittingly, the final play of the 1969 season saw Shiner sacked by the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...

' Doug Atkins on the final play of Atkins' Hall of Fame career. After Pittsburgh took future Hall of Fame quarterback

Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Since 1994, he has been a television sports an ...

with the first pick of the 1970 draft, Shiner was traded to the

in April, 1970 for running back John "Frenchy" Fuqua and linebacker Henry Davis. and backed up yet another Hall of Fame 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 ...

. After one season with the Giants, he moved on to the

. On September 16, 1973, while playing for the Falcons in a game against the

, Shiner became the first person to post a perfect passer rating, during what was the first season in which the statistic was officially kept. However, multiple other quarterbacks are recognized retroactively to have accomplished this feat prior to the 1973 season. Shiner completed 13 of 15 pass attempts for 227 yards and 3 touchdowns, with no interceptions in a 62-7 destruction of Atlanta's archrival. The next week in being shut out against the

Rams In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)Jim Plunkett. He appeared in one game completing two of four passes as the Patriots blew out Houston 32-0 in week 11. Shiner's career came to a close with one game for the 1974

. He was sent into his only appearance in the 1974 regular season with the Patriots holding a 35–3 lead against the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from 1953 to 1983, when owner Robert Irsay moved the franchise to Indianapolis. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breeding and racing. It w ...

. After leading the Patriots on an 80-yard touchdown drive, Shiner took himself out of the game to give third-string quarterback Neil Graff a chance to play in Graff's first NFL regular-season contest. In an interview four decades later, Shiner said, "I wanted Neil Graff to get experience. Neil was a good kid, and I knew my time in the NFL was coming to an end."

Post NFL

After retiring from the NFL, Shiner worked in the beer distribution and copier businesses. After retiring, he has been the backfield coach for the football team at Bishop McDevitt High School in

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg ( ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,099 as of 2020, Harrisburg is the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is the larger of the two pr ...

and has also been an assistant coach at Hershey High School in

Hershey, Pennsylvania Hershey is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is home to the Hershey Company, which was founded by candy magnate Milton S. Hershey ...

.Klingaman, ibid. In 2007, Shiner was named a member of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

Football Legends Class. He also is a member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Hall of Fame, Maryland M Club Hall of Fame, and Lebanon (PA) High School Hall of Fame.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiner, Dick 1942 births Living people Sportspeople from Lebanon, Pennsylvania American football quarterbacks Players of American football from Pennsylvania Maryland Terrapins football players Washington Redskins players Cleveland Browns players Pittsburgh Steelers players New York Giants players Atlanta Falcons players New England Patriots players