Gary Lynn Spann (born February 3, 1963) is a former professional football player.

Education and Football Career

Spann grew up in Dallas and graduated from

South Oak Cliff High School South Oak Cliff High School (colloquially referred to as SOC, pronounced "sock") is a public secondary school located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas, United States. South Oak Cliff High School enrolls students in grades 9- 12 and is a pa ...

in 1981. He was recruited to play football for TCU, located in nearby Ft. Worth. Spann was drafted as a linebacker by 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 major ...

’s

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 tenth round of the

1986 NFL Draft The 1986 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 29–30, 1986, at the Marriott Marq ...

. He played with the Kansas City Chiefs during the

1987 NFL season The 1987 NFL season was the 68th regular season of the National Football League. This season featured games predominantly played by replacement players, as the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) players were on strike from ...

Controversy

In September 1985, his senior year, Spann was one of 7 TCU players who publicly revealed that they had received cash in exchange for signing to play football with

TCU TCU may stand for: Education * Tanzania Commission for Universities, regulatory body for Universities in Tanzania * Texas Christian University, a private university in Fort Worth, Texas ** TCU Horned Frogs, the athletic programs of the school * Tok ...

. Spann and his teammates were suspended as soon as the payments were made public. Ineligible to play (as per NCAA rules), they were removed from the team, though their scholarships were guaranteed through 1987. Allen and two other players (who happened to also be former high school teammates) sued the University in 1985, indicating that they had thought that the payments were sanctioned by the University; their legal view was that one of the involved alumni, Richard Lowe, was a member of the TCU Board of Trustees and, therefore, seen by them as a representative of the school. Later, that trustee underlined how common such payments were by claiming that he knew of 29 blue-chip TCU players who had been paid during the tenure of one TCU coach,

F.A. Dry F. A. Dry (born September 2, 1931) is a former American football coach. He was the head football coach for the University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affilia ...

. After the suspensions (and eventual dismissals) of those 7 players, TCU went winless throughout the 1986 conference season after having gone 8-4 the previous season.

References

Kansas City Chiefs players American football linebackers TCU Horned Frogs football players 1963 births Living people Players of American football from Dallas National Football League replacement players {{linebacker-1960s-stub