Edward Arthur Cummings (born June 29, 1941 – September 25, 2020) 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 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 ...

in 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. ...

. He played college football at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

Collegiate career

Cummings was a two-way player for the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

as a fullback and as a linebacker. He led the Cardinal in tackles in his junior and senior seasons and was named a third-team All-American at fullback as a senior. Cummings was inducted into Stanford's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.

Professional career

Cummings was tried out for the

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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

and was invited to training camp, but was cut before the start of the 1963 season after injuring his shoulder. After being cut he enrolled in the

Columbia University School of Social Work The Columbia University School of Social Work is the graduate school of social work of Columbia University. It is the nation's oldest social work program, with roots extending back to 1898, when the New York Charity Organization Society's first s ...

and finished his degree in the following offseason. Cummings signed with 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 club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

of the

for the 1964 season after requesting a tryout with the team and became the team's starting linebacker late in the season. Cummings was traded to the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

in the offseason and played in all 14 of the team's games in 1965.

Personal life

Cummings son, Joe Cummings, played linebacker in the NFL. Cummings attended The

University of Montana School of Law The Alexander Blewett III School of Law is a law school at the University of Montana in Missoula. It was established in 1911 and remains Montana's only law school. , the school accepted 83 applicants. The school tied for 103rd in the 2023 '' ...

after retiring from football. Cummings died on September 25, 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cummings, Ed 1941 births 2020 deaths American football linebackers Stanford Cardinal football players New York Jets players Denver Broncos players Players of American football from Montana New York Giants players American football fullbacks People from Anaconda, Montana Columbia University School of Social Work alumni University of Montana alumni