Gary Steven Burley (born December 8, 1952) 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 wi ...

player who played as a

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is ...

for the Cincinnati Bengals and Atlanta Falcons of 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 for the Bengals from 1976 to 1983, and the Atlanta Falcons in 1984.

Early life

Gary Burley graduated from

Grove City High School Grove City High School is a high school in Grove City, Ohio, United States. It is one of the five high schools in the South-Western City Schools, Franklin County, Ohio, South-Western City Schools district. It houses about 1,900 students in gra ...

in Grove City, Ohio, near Columbus, in 1971.

College career

After high school, Burley played football in 1971 and 1972 at

Wharton County Junior College Wharton County Junior College (WCJC) is a public community college with its main campus in Wharton, Texas. The college also has campuses in Richmond, Sugar Land, and Bay City. WCJC is accredited by the Southern Association of Colle ...

Wharton, Texas Wharton is a city in and the county seat of Wharton County, Texas, United States. This city is southwest of Houston. The population was 8,832 at the 2010 census and 8,627 at the 2020 census. Wharton is located on the Colorado River of Texas. ...

. Burley was offered a scholarship to the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

, where he was named a first-team All-American in 1974.

Pro career

Burley was drafted by the Bengals in the third round (55th overall) of the

1975 NFL Draft The 1975 National Football League draft was held January 28–29, 1975, at the New York Hilton at Rockefeller Center in New York City, New York. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Atlanta Falcons selected quarterback Steve Bartkows ...

. He was named to the 1976 NFL All-Rookie Team. He played in Super Bowl XVI in 1982, with the Bengals losing 26–21 to the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

. In 8 seasons with Cincinnati, he played in 117 games, started 67, including all but 3 games his first 4 seasons. His 9th and final NFL season was with the Atlanta Falcons, playing 12 games, starting 8.

After football

In 2006, Burley founded the Pro Start Academy, a

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

-based organization that "mentors young athletes and provides tips on how they can achieve success on and off the football field".

Personal life

Between 2011 and 2015, Burley survived life-threatening ailments including cancer, a bone marrow transplant, the loss of a kidney—after 3 years of dialysis he received a kidney transplant and became an advocate for organ donations—and a bout of

salmonella poisoning Salmonellosis, more commonly known as food poisoning is a symptomatic infection caused by bacteria of the ''Salmonella'' type. It is also a food-borne disease and are defined as diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by ag ...

in his knee that put him in a wheelchair for six months. His wife is Bobbie Knight, a longtime Alabama Power executive and the president of

Miles College Miles College is a private historically black college in Fairfield, Alabama. Founded in 1898, it is associated with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME Church) and a member of the United Negro College Fund. History Miles College bega ...

. They reside in

. He hosts the Gary Burley Charity Golf Tournament at Greystone Country Club to benefit cancer research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burley, Gary 1952 births American football defensive linemen Living people Cincinnati Bengals players Atlanta Falcons players Pittsburgh Panthers football players Players of American football from Columbus, Ohio