Frederick Roger Heron (October 6, 1944 – December 28, 2010) was a professional

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 ...

defensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

in the

National Football League 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 ...

(NFL). He played seven seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals. Heron was drafted by 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) NFC North, North division. It ...

in the third round of the 1966 college draft, and Vince Lombardi traded him as a replacement for a lineman in the St. Louis Cardinals who had been forced to retire due to a heart murmur. "Something Better than Big-Time Football"
'' Awake!'' September 22, 1975, pp. 18-21 He suffered a back injury in a game in 1969 that led to an operation in April 1970, but resulted in ongoing pain for some time. By the end of his time with the Cardinals, he had become bothered by the violence of the sport, and in one interview stated "I watched the quarterback on the ground in obvious pain. I suddenly thought to myself, 'Have I turned into some kind of animal? This is a game, but I'm trying to maim somebody."Problems With Sports Today", ''Awake!'' August 22, 1991, p. 6
/ref> The Cardinals released him from his contract after his back injuries led to another surgery in October 1972. After Heron's retirement from football he went on to work as the campus security assistant at Rio Calaveras Elementary School in his hometown of

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

."Board Recognitions September 2010". Retrieved from http://www.stockton.k12.ca.us/susdweb/boe/recognitions/recognitions910.htm . He died on December 28, 2010.

Notes

1944 births Players of American football from Stockton, California American football defensive ends American football defensive tackles San Jose State Spartans football players St. Louis Cardinals (football) players 2010 deaths {{defensive-lineman-1940s-stub