John Francis Helwig (December 5, 1927 – December 2, 1994) was an

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 ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

who played four seasons with the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

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 was drafted by the Bears in the eleventh round of the 1950 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 ...

at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

and attended Mount Carmel High School in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Professional career

Helwig was selected by the

with the 140th pick in the 1950 NFL Draft. He played in 42 games, starting 23 games, for the Bears from 1953 to 1956.

Personal life

Helwig's wife had been illegally collecting John's NFL

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

since his death and had twice told officials that he was alive. After his wife's death in 2007, their daughter began collecting the pension before she was charged with fraud in 2011. The pension collected by John's wife and daughter after his death added up to over $200,000.

References

External links

Just Sports Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Helwig, John 1927 births 1994 deaths Players of American football from Los Angeles American football linebackers Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Chicago Bears players