CARD: Upper Deck Legends 1997
ACQUIRED: EBay, 2020

CAREER SNAPSHOT:

• John Mackey played RB and WR at Syracuse from 1960-’62.
• He rushed for 259 yards on 58 carries, scoring 2 TDs while catching 27 passes for 481 yards and 6 TDs over his college career.
• Selected by the Baltimore Colts in the second round of the 1963 NFL Draft.
• Made an immediate impact as a TE, catching 35 passes for 726 yards and 7 TDs.
• Over the next 7 following seasons- he never failed to reach 400 yards or catch at least 22 passes.
• In ’65 he had 30 catches for 814 yards and 7 TDs.
• Then in ’66 he caught 50 passes for a career high 829 yards and 9 TDs.
• Finally in ’67 Mackey caught a career high 55 passes.
• Caught an acrobatic75 yard TD from Johnny Unitas in Super Bowl V over the Dallas Cowboys.
• He’d play with the Colts through the 1971 season.
• After an acrimonious departure from Baltimore, Mackey played a final season in 1972 with the San Diego Chargers.
• A knee injury ended his career- but over that period he played in 139 out of a possible 140 games- a testament to his durability.

ACCOLADES:

• Syracuse Orangemen #88 retired
• NFL 50th Anniversary All-Time Team
• NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
• NFL 1960s All-Decade Team
• Pro Bowl 1963, ’65-68
• All Pro 1966-1968
• Baltimore Ravens Ring of Honor
• Pro Football Hall of Fame
• 100 Greatest Football Players
• Nassau County High School Athletic Hall of Fame

NOTES:

John Mackey is considered one of the greatest tight ends of all time and he was the second pure TE inducted into the HoF in 1992. He revolutionized the position with his combination speed and power.

He was also instrumental in unionizing the players into the NFLPA, serving as the group’s first president after the merger, and held that capacity from 1970-’73. (He was blackballed at the end of his career, but squeezed out a final year in San Diego.) Mackey organized the first labor strike, and helped overturn the ‘Rozelle Rule’ (which was in regards to free agency).

Frontotemporal dementia entered his life and it became harder and harder for him to function, and after a few bizarre social episodes, he entered full-time assisted living. Mackey’s wife reached out to Paul Tagliabue, who then worked with then current NFLPA president Gene Upshaw to create a new plan that would help cover the cost of former NFL players struggling with dementia and Alzheimer’s. It was called the ’88 Plan’ in Mackey’s honor.

In a final note, it’s very important with Mackey to make sure that you are getting a certified autograph of his- as there is a bustling market of fake autographs of his circulating in the wild.

REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LG
331	5236	15.8	38	89t

EPITAPH:

7/6/2011- John Mackey passed away at the age of 69. His brain was posthumously donated to science, where it was discovered he suffered from CTE.