 Kunz in 1972 | |||||||
| No. 75 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position: | Offensive tackle | ||||||
| Personal information | |||||||
| Born: | (1947-07-05)July 5, 1947 (age 77) Fort Sheridan, Illinois, U.S. | ||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) | ||||||
| Weight: | 257 lb (117 kg) | ||||||
| Career information | |||||||
| High school: | Loyola(Los Angeles, California) | ||||||
| College: | Notre Dame | ||||||
| NFL draft: | 1969: 1st round,2nd pick | ||||||
| Career history | |||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||
| |||||||
George James Kunz (born July 5, 1947) is an American former professionalfootball player who was anoffensive lineman in theNational Football League (NFL) from 1969 to 1980. He playedcollege football with theNotre Dame Fighting Irish, earning consensusAll-American honors in 1968.
Kunz was selected in the first round of the1969 NFL/AFL draft with the second overall pick. He was a seven-timePro Bowl selection in the NFL, playing with theAtlanta Falcons (1969–1974) andBaltimore Colts (1975–1980).
In his later years Kunz worked as an attorney practicing inLas Vegas, Nevada.
Tackle at theUniversity of Notre Dame, he was 1968 consensus First-teamAll-American and a member of 1966 Notre Dame national championship team.[1] He was a two-year starter at right offensive tackle and co-captain of Irish team in 1968. In addition he was National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete honoree in 1968, being voted Academic All-American in 1968 and winner of NCAA post-graduate scholarship.
Kunz was regarded as the best offensive lineman of his draft class in 1969.[1]
Kunz was selected in the 1st Round of the1969 NFL/AFL draft by the Falcons with the 2nd overall selection.[1] He was a bulwark of the Atlanta offense, playing right tackle, a key part of a line that limited Falcons opponents to just 31 sacks in 1971.[1]
In January 1975, Kunz was traded to theBaltimore Colts as part of a pick-flip with the Falcons in the1975 NFL draft. The Colts, who held the top overall pick in the draft swapped it to the Falcons for Kunz plus Atlanta's first pick, number 3 overall. In addition, the Colts gave Atlanta a sixth-round pick in the deal. The Falcons used the number 1 overall pick to select quarterbackSteve Bartkowski.
Kunz suffered a back injury in the first game of the1978 season that knocked him out not just for the rest of that year, but for the entire1979 Colts campaign.[2] Kunz managed to return in 1980, seeing action in 9 games with 6 starts,[2] before calling it a career.
Kunz established himself as one of the premier offensive linemen of his generation, being named to thePro Bowl team 7 times (1969, 1971–73. 1975–77) in a 9-year span. In addition, Kunz was named All-Pro in1972,1973 and1975, 2nd Team All-Pro in1976 &1977. Kunz was also All-Conference in 1973, 1975, 1976, and 1977 and 2nd team All-Conference in 1972 and 1974.
He was named as theSeagram's Seven Crowns of Sports Offensive Lineman of the Year in both 1976 and 1977 and was selected as the AFC choice for the NFLPA/Coca-Cola Offensive Lineman of the Year Award in 1976.
TheProfessional Football Researchers Association named Kunz to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2014.[3]
In 2007, at the urging of his wife Mary Sue, the 59-year old Kunz went back to school, enrolling in theWilliam S. Boyd School of Law at theUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas.[4] Kunz, a formerAcademic All-American at Notre Dame, found the transition difficult but achievable, later telling a journalist: "My fist day in class I had to ask another student how to turn on my computer — I was the oldest one there. Once I got back into the flow of it, it got a little easier but football killed a lot of brain cells. The bottom line is, I wasn't at the top of my class, but I wasn't at the bottom, either."[4]
Kunz graduated in 2010 and subsequently passed the Nevada state bar exam.[4] He opened a legal practice inLas Vegas dealing with matters offamily law,adoption, andpersonal injury.[4]