Joseph Charles Fields Jr. (born November 14, 1953) is a former 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 wi ...
center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
and
guard
Guard or guards may refer to:
Professional occupations
* Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault
* Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street
* Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning
* Prison ...
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 ...
Gloucester Catholic High School
Gloucester Catholic High School is a co-educational six-year Roman Catholic high school located in Gloucester City, in Camden County, New Jersey. The school is managed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden. The school serves students in se ...
Widener College
Widener University is a private university in Chester, Pennsylvania. The university has three other campuses: two in Pennsylvania (Harrisburg and Exton) and one in Wilmington, Delaware.
Founded as The Bullock School for Boys in 1821, the school ...
and was drafted in the fourteenth round 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 ...
. Fields was a two-time
Pro Bowl
The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players.
The format has changed thro ...
selection during the 1981 and 1982 seasons. He would play 12 years for the Jets before spending his final year with the Giants in 1988. Following the 1988 season he was not offered a contract by the Giants and retired.
Post retirement
In 1989, he released a book, "Nose to Nose: Survival in the Trenches of the NFL" along with his friend and former roommate
Joe Klecko
Joseph Edward Klecko (born October 15, 1953) is an American former football player, of Polish descent, best remembered for his days as a defensive lineman, a member of the New York Jets' famed " New York Sack Exchange."
Temple Owls
Before goin ...
. Klecko and Fields had lined up across from each other in Jets' practices for eleven years.
After football, he became the Director of Contractor Services for a New Jersey patio and stonework company.Contantino, Rocco (July 6, 2012 New York Jets: Where Are They Now? 1980's Edition ''Bleacher Report''. Retrieved April 23, 2016 He resides in