Former NFL champ Roger Shoals dead at 86

Roger Shoals, a former NFL offensive tackle and 1964 champion with the Browns, died Monday at the age of 86.

Shoals played the first two seasons of his nine-year NFL career with Cleveland before spending the next seven with the Lions and one with the Broncos. 

The Browns selected Shoals in the 16th round of the 1961 NFL Draft, after the 6-foot-4, 260-pound lineman played his college football at Maryland. 

Shoals was also picked by the Dallas Texans in the 1962 AFL Draft, but he opted to sign with Cleveland and began his pro career in 1963, which paid off when he became an NFL champion the following season. 

In 2014, Shoals described the feeling to the Baltimore Sun: “That was heaven. The league sent us our rings. I still wear mine all the time even though people look at this old man and think ‘What the hell is he doing with a diamond?’”

Shoals started 70 of the 104 NFL games he played in, including every game from his last four years in the league. 

In Cleveland, he was a key blocker for Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown.

Shoals’ obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer described him as “affable,” “engaging” and “candid,” and he went on to often speak at banquets and other gatherings after his playing days. 

In his later years, Shoals lived in the Philadelphia suburb of Gladwyne, Pa.

His post-playing endeavors included a position as the vice president of sales at Gould Paper Corp. and a former co-owner of a car dealership in Berks County, Pa.

In online tributes, friends highlighted Shoals’ “big caring heart” and “spirit for hard work and success.” 

“Roger embraced life and any challenges that it presented,” wrote one friend. “He ‘coached’ everyone that he loved. He just had that spirit for hard work and success. For that friendship and coaching I will always be grateful to him and his family.”

Shoals is survived by his wife, Jean, his children, Mike and Hollie, and his four grandchildren, two brothers and sister.