John Eugene Blount (born July 12, 1954) 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 ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

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 was drafted by the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

in the second round of the 1976 NFL Draft. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

, where he completed 320 of 588 passes for 4,372 yards and 35 touchdowns in three seasons as a starter. He was an honorable mention All-American, and American Bowl MVP following his senior season. He claimed to have developed his passing accuracy while herding cattle on his parents' ranch. He would spook the lead bull by hitting him in the head with a football, at which point the entire herd would follow. He lives in

Longview, Texas Longview is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, and county seat of Gregg County, Texas, Gregg County; a small part of Longview extends into the western portion of neighboring Harrison County, Texas, Harrison County. Longview is located in East Tex ...

. Blount spent the 1976 season on injured reserve with an ankle injury. He was waived prior to the

1977 NFL season The 1977 NFL season was the 58th regular season of the National Football League. The two second-year expansion teams switched conferences, with the Seattle Seahawks moving from the NFC West to the AFC West, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers transfe ...

. He was claimed by several teams, but the NFL awarded the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

his rights. The Bucs were short at quarterback, having suffered a string of quarterback injuries during the preseason. This resulted in a starting opportunity for Blount, who beat Parnell Dickinson for the third quarterback spot and rotated at starting quarterback with

Gary Huff Gary Earl Huff (born April 27, 1951 in Natchez, Mississippi) is a former professional football player. He graduated from Leto Senior High School in Tampa, Florida and played college football and baseball at Florida State University before beco ...

and

Randy Hedberg Randy R. Hedberg (born December 27, 1954) is an American football coach and a former player. He is the associate head coach and quarterbacks coach at North Dakota State University. Hedberg played as a quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of th ...

throughout the 1977 season. Blount was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in its 2021 Class. Blount was inducted with basketball coach

Tubby Smith Orlando Henry "Tubby" Smith (born June 30, 1951) is an American college basketball coach. He was the men's basketball coach at High Point University, his alma mater. Smith previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, the Univers ...

, Michelle Sechser (rowing), Chris O’Hare (men’s track and cross country) and Ryan Pore (men’s soccer) – along with the 1971 Tulsa baseball team. Blount is one of four Longview High School graduates to play in a

Super Bowl 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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blount, Jeb 1953 births Living people American football quarterbacks Oakland Raiders players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Tulsa Golden Hurricane football players Longview High School alumni People from Longview, Texas Sportspeople from Tyler, Texas Players of American football from Texas