Steve Wright, a three-time NFL champion with the Packers whose likeness was used on the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year trophy, died on Sunday in Alabama, the team announced Tuesday.
He was 82.
Born in Kentucky in 1942, Wright was a tackle at the University of Alabama under legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant from 1961-63, winning a national title during his sophomore year.
Even though he did not start a game with the Crimson Tide, Wright was drafted by the Packers in the fifth round of the 1964 NFL Draft and eighth round of the AFL draft by the Jets, ultimately signing with Green Bay.
He played 56 games over the next four seasons, starting in 13, as the Packers won the NFL title in 1965 and Super Bowls I and II the following two seasons.
He then played two seasons in New York with the Giants before single-season stints with Washington, the Bears and the Cardinals.
But it was in 1969 as a member of Big Blue that Wright truly became part of NFL lore forever.
That’s when he was used by artist Daniel Bennett Schwartz as the model for a statue called “The Gladiator,” which became the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year trophy.
award before the Chiefs’ win over the 49er in Super Bowl LVIII
on Feb. 11, 2024 in Las Vegas. Getty Images
Wright’s likeness, with the cape around his shoulders, is still used as the trophy for the yearly award.
In 1974, two years after his NFL career was over, the lineman came out with a memoir entitled “I’d rather be Wright: Memoirs of an Itinerant Tackle,” which gave a “fly-on-the-wall look” at life in the NFL in the 1960s and early ’70s.
The Packers’ social media team succinctly summed up Wright’s NFL legacy.
“A quiet legacy, cast in bronze,” the team wrote on X.