All-Time Alabama Crimson Tide Players in the NFL

Here's a strange-but-true fact you can drop on your favorite Alabama Crimson Tide fan, or maybe use as a timely trivia question: The first drafted player to also play in the National Football League was selected out Tuscaloosa. His name was Riley Smith.

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound All-American was primarily a fullback and quarterback for Alabama , but he also handled the kicking duties and won the Jacobs Award as the Southeastern Conference’s best blocker. He switched to quarterback for his final season in 1934, when Frank Thomas’ team went 10-0, handily defeated Stanford in the Rose Bowl, 29-13, and claimed the national championship.

On February 8, 1936, the National Football League held its first draft at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia, where Jay Berwanger, the first Heisman Trophy winner, from the University of Chicago, was the first-overall pick by the Eagles. However, Berwanger reportedly wanted $1,000 a game, an unheard of sum then.

Unable to sign Berwanger, the Eagles traded his rights to the Chicago Bears, were weren't able to sign him either. Consequently, the first Heisman winner never played a down in the NFL. Riley was selected second by the Boston Redskins.

“I signed because I wasn’t ready to quit playing ball. I just wanted to keep playing."Riley Smith

"I signed for $250 a game and a little bonus," Smith told the Professional Football Researchers’ Association in 1983. "We won the Eastern Division championship twice and the NFL championship once in the three years I played, and the most I ever got was $350 a game. I made more money in the offseason.

“I quit in 1938 and took a coaching job at Washington and Lee for a lot more money. But we had it good because some of those fellas down in Philadelphia were playing for $60 and $70 a ball game.”

Incidentally, only 24 of the 81 players selected in that initial draft were on National Football League rosters that season. Four more signed the following year and three opted for the American Football League. Because the substitution rules were different, and players had to play both offense and defense, rosters were limited to a 25-player maximum. But still, almost a third of the players were rookies, the majority of which signed as free agents.

“That’s about right for that time,” Smith said. “There wasn’t any money in [the NFL] so people didn’t go in and if they did they didn’t stay long.”

Smith himself had a short career in the NFL before being sidelined by an injury, and in his first year helped turn the Redskins from the second-to-last team in the league to Eastern Division champions in 1936. Despite the team’s success, lackluster fan support prompted owner George Preston Marshall to host the title game at the Polo Grounds in New York (where it lost to the Green Bay Packers), and then move the franchise to Washington D.C.

In the first home game at Griffith Stadium in Washington D.C., Smith scored on a 60-yard interception return, two field goals, and an extra point to lead a 13-3 victory. The Redskins went on to win their first championship, defeating the Chicago Bears 28-21 in the title game.

Incidentally, Alabama had another high pick in that initial draft, Paul W. “Bear” Bryant by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the fourth round. He opted to go into coaching.

All-Time Crimson Tide Draft Selections

Bonus: Can you name the only other player in Crimson Tide history to be selected second overall in an NFL draft? It was Cornelius Bennett by the Colts in 1987 (three years after the franchise moved from Baltimore).

The First Alabama Crimson Tide Player in the NFL

It is with somewhat certainly that we know who was the first former Alabama Crimson Tide player to participate in what's now commonly called the National Football League. The "definitely maybe" reason why is because a lot of the information from those initial seasons is vague and not very accurate.

We do know that the roots of the league date back to the 1890s, but most recognize that it was founded in 1920. It was called the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and featured ten teams from four states. With that disclaimer in mind, the first Alabama player on record as having participated was tackle Ben Hunt with the Toledo Maroons in 1923. They went 3-3-2.

Obviously there are no statistics that applied to Hunt, who at age 22 was listed on the team roster as being 5-foot-9, 185 pounds.

Yes, tackle. And his weight was not a typo. That's now much the game has changed over the years.

All-Time Alabama Players in the NFL by Team

To count on the all-time roster a player had to have been actually active on the roster (the definition has changed over the years, but usually involves playing a game). For example, practice squads are not part of a team's official roster.

Note: This listing is unique to BamaCentral/Alabama Crimson Tide On SI. If you wish to use the information, we politely ask that you give credit as it required a lot of work to put together and more to maintain. It will be regularly updated.

Defunct NFL Teams