Robert Allen Stein is a former

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 with ...

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, p ...

. He played collegiately for the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

as a defensive end and place kicker. He was a two-time All-American, Academic All-American, and 3-time Academic All-Big Ten player. He began his

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

career in 1969 with the

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. ...

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

, with whom he won the fourth and final

AFL-NFL World Championship Game The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

after the 1969 pro football season. Speaking of that game, he said: ''"I will always remember guys like Jerry Mays, Johnny Robinson,

Budde Budde is a surname of Scandinavian origin. Notable people with the surname include: *Brad Budde (b. 1958), American professional football player * Christoph Budde (1963–2009), German professional football player * Ed Budde (b. 1940), American pro ...

, Tyrer, Arbanas,

Buck Buck may refer to: Common meanings * A colloquialism for a dollar or similar currency * An adult male in some animal species - see List of animal names * Derby shoes, nicknamed "bucks" for the common use of buckskin in their making People *Buck ...

Bobby Bell Bobby Lee Bell Sr. (born June 17, 1940) is an American former professional football player who played as an outside linebacker and defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the College Football ...

, etc. nearly crying in our locker room before Super Bowl IV when

Hank Stram Henry Louis Stram (; January 3, 1923 – July 4, 2005) was an American football coach. He is best known for his 15-year tenure with the Dallas Texans / Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (N ...

surprised us with the AFL patch on our jerseys. After 10 years of the AFL being called an inferior league, winning that Super Bowl was particularly meaningful."'' Stein, at 21, was the youngest player to play in the Super Bowl for a decade. He graduated in the top 10% of the University of Missouri – Kansas City Law School, attending full-time while playing for the Chiefs. He was offered scholarships to Harvard, Michigan, and Stanford law schools after college. He was the

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

nominee, and later co-founded the Gopher football booster group, the Goal Line Club, in 1980. Stein was the first president and CEO of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 19 ...

, a position he held until 1995.St. Louis Park Historical Society - Bob Stein
As Senior Executive for the expansion franchise and new Target Center Arena, Stein helped create over 850 new jobs. The Wolves established and still hold the all-time NBA attendance record and sold out all suites during his tenure. Stein directed planning, design, public approvals, and financing for the 900,000 sq ft Target Center and managed the $240 million+ refinance of Target Center Arena, the Timberwolves and the owners' health clubs. Before leading the Timberwolves organization, he had been a 10-year sports attorney-agent in football, basketball, and hockey. Stein was President of the Timberwolves Foundation, which contributed over 100,000 event tickets for schools/non-profits and $1.5 million+ for at-risk youth in 6 NBA seasons. He was appointed to the Minnesota Boxing Commission in December 2007 by Governor

Tim Pawlenty Timothy James Pawlenty (; born November 27, 1960) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 39th governor of Minnesota from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party, Pawlenty served in the Minnesota House o ...

. Stein has been inducted into the University of Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame, The Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, the St. Louis Park (MN) Athletic Hall of Fame, and the University of Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame. He is also in the HOF of

Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, as of 2022 it consists of 144 active chapters in the Unite ...

fraternity. He is a member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame Honor Roll of World Champions for the 1969 Chiefs team. Stein has volunteered on community boards, including Bank of America MN Advisory, Children's Cancer Research Fund, Taste of NFL/Hunger Related Events, Jacob Wetterling Foundation, Minnesota Zoo, Minneapolis Downtown Council, Hennepin County Sheriff's Advisory Board and FBI Citizen's Academy. In 2009, Stein conceived and began the first

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

lawsuit on behalf of retired NFL players against the NFL. His case, ''Dryer v. NFL'', fought for fair payment for the NFL's use of player identities, including in NFL Films. He represents many past NFL players in concussion-related cases. Stein also dabbled in commercial acting in 2009, portraying Johnson in a 30-second television spot for the national printing company DocuCopies. Stein appeared alongside former NBA player John Thomas, who portrayed The Boss.https://www.docucopies.com/tv-commercial/ He was selected by ''Sports Business Journal'' in 2019 as one of the 100 Most Accomplished Former NFL Players in the 100 Years of NFL edition. In 2020, Bob was selected to the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Bob 1948 births Living people American football linebackers Minnesota Golden Gophers football players Kansas City Chiefs players Los Angeles Rams players Minnesota Vikings players San Diego Chargers players Minnesota Timberwolves executives National Basketball Association team presidents Jewish American sportspeople Players of American football from Minneapolis American Football League players 21st-century American Jews

See also

Notes and references