Johnny Lee Brewer (March 8, 1937 – May 27, 2011) was an

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 wit ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense (sports), offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide ...

and

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

in the

NFL 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 maj ...

for the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

and

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 league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

. He played college football at the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

. Brewer was a fourth round selection by the Cleveland Browns in the 1960 NFL Draft, and was also selected by the Minneapolis AFL teamof the newly-formed

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

. The Browns also selected Ole Miss teammates Bobby Franklin in the eleventh round and Robert Khayat in the sixth round. He was a member of the Browns teams that won the NFL championship in 1964 over the heavily favored

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

and the 1965 Eastern Conference championship team that lost the title game to the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the th ...

. Brewer played slot end/tight end for the Browns until 1966 when he was converted to linebacker with the impending retirement of linebacker Galen Fiss and the presence of first round draft pick Milt Morin. Brewer announced his retirement from professional football in January 1968 to go into the insurance business. Later in the year, Brewer decided he would play football again if the Browns would trade him to a team closer to his home and insurance business. The Browns traded him the

in mid-August. The Browns acquired a 1970 second round draft pick in exchange for Brewer; they used that pick to draft defensive end Joe “Turkey” Jones. Brewer announced his retirement from the Saints in November 1970.

References

1937 births 2011 deaths Sportspeople from Vicksburg, Mississippi Players of American football from Mississippi American football tight ends American football linebackers Ole Miss Rebels football players Cleveland Browns players New Orleans Saints players Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players {{linebacker-1930s-stub