New England Patriots fans are well aware of the legend of Tom Brady and, maybe to a somewhat lesser extent, Drew Bledsoe.
However, diehard fans will remember the third quarterback listed for many of the records on the Pats’ all-time lists.
From 1975 through the 1990 season, Steve Grogan was a regular under center.
The Groganator.
Patriots QB Steve Grogan pic.twitter.com/N5HTzMBNLh— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) October 21, 2020
Although he only had double-digit starts in 10 of his 16 seasons, Grogan was still counted on to lead the team through his play, poise, and humility.
The part-time starter helped tutor players whom the organization signed or drafted to replace him and ended up outlasting many of those same players.
In 1985, his 11th season in the NFL, Grogan helped get the organization to its first Super Bowl.
New England got thumped that day against the mighty Chicago Bears, but Grogan was the QB who threw the only touchdown pass for the team.
His name might not be synonymous with championships, but Grogan spent almost two decades giving his all to the Patriots organization and has since been honored by several halls of fame.
This is the story of Steve Grogan.
Growing Up In Kansas
Steven (Steve) James Grogan was born on July 24, 1953, in San Antonio, Texas.
Happy Birthday Steve Grogan#Patriots pic.twitter.com/dyLsHNF1qC
— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) July 25, 2025
Not long after he was born, the Grogan family relocated to Ottawa, Kansas, a small town located on the eastern side of the state.
Initially, sports looked like a long shot for Grogan when he was born with a deformity.
“When I was born, my foot was kind of curled up and withered. My parents refused to accept this as a disability. They spent hours and hours stretching and moving my foot until it finally got back to normal. It never bothered me after that,” recalled Grogan in 2021.
When his foot healed, Grogan turned to athletics and had a good group of friends who played alongside him for years.
“In junior high and high school, there was a group of us that were all in the same class that really enjoyed athletics, and some of us had some talent,” said Grogan in 2013. “By the time we were seniors, we finished second in the state in football and won the basketball and track championships. So, it was a good group of guys.”
Racking Up the Accolades
Grogan led his friends on the gridiron, the hardwood, and the track.
He started at quarterback for two seasons, and he led the Cyclones to a runner-up finish his senior year.
Grogan also helped Ottawa High win the state title in track his junior year and in basketball his senior year.
Additionally, Grogan was involved with the National Honor Society and was named the team MVP during six of his OHS sports seasons.
Along the way, the towering 6’4”, 210-pound Grogan was named “Mr. OHS.”
In 1976, he was inducted into the Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame.
Signing with Kansas State
By the time Grogan was wrapping up his senior year of high school, local colleges such as Kansas State and the University of Kansas were asking for his services.
Grogan was intent on playing for K-State head coach Vince Gibson, but he thought he’d be polite and at least visit the Jayhawks.
While meeting with the coaches, the quarterback experienced a troubling recruiting pitch.
“Two assistant coaches met with me in some small room under the stadium. They locked the door and said, “‘Here’s the deal. You aren’t leaving until you sign with us.’” I was kind of scared and wasn’t sure what to do. I just sat there. I was thinking, “How do I get out of here in time to meet Vince Gibson for dinner later in Ottawa?”’ said Grogan in 2019.
Thankfully, Grogan thought up a way to leave and met with Gibson to become a member of the Kansas State Wildcats.
July 24, 1953
NFL QB Steve Grogan is born
Starred at Ottawa HS and Kansas State
Enjoyed a successful career with the New England Patriots from 1975-90
He is in the Patriots Hall of Fame@kshof @David5137844512 @KStatePlayers pic.twitter.com/Vvh6KbCqX5
— Kansas Sports Chronicles (@ks_chronicles) July 24, 2024
In 1970, Lynn Dickey played his final season in Manhattan before leaving for a 15-year career in the NFL.
Coach Gibson was hoping that Grogan could replicate the play that led the program to six wins (the most since a seven-win season in 1954).
As a freshman in 1971, Grogan sat on the bench while junior Dennis Morrison took K-State to a 5-6 record.
Playing Time
In 1972, Morrison was still the starter, but Grogan played enough to tally 329 yards, two touchdowns, and five interceptions while the Wildcats won only three games.
With Morrison gone to the San Francisco 49ers in 1973, Grogan took over full-time, and the junior passed for 1,050 yards and four touchdowns, but also tossed a ghastly 15 interceptions.
Despite leading the Big 8 Conference in picks, Grogan ran Gibson’s option offense fairly well and rushed for 372 yards and five touchdowns and actually improved K-State’s record to 5-6 that year.
Then, in 1974, the Wildcats regressed to 4-7 while number 11 threw for 834 yards, six touchdowns, and six picks while also rushing for 214 yards and a touchdown.
Kansas State – Darren Sproles, Jordy Nelson, Tyler Lockett, Cody Whitehair, Dalton Risner, Terrence Newman, Martin Gramatica, Michael Bishop, Darren Howard, Gary Spain, Mark Simoneau, Steve Grogan
— Brian Paulson (@ksu1980) November 29, 2023
During his two-plus years under center for K-State, Grogan passed for 2,213 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 26 interceptions.
He also had 585 yards and six scores on the ground.
Grogan’s time with the Wildcats may have produced only nine total wins, but he was still memorable.
In later years, his number 11 was co-retired (Dickey also wore the digits, and it was the first number retired by the program), and Grogan was inducted into the Wildcats’ Hall of Fame, the K-State Football Ring of Honor, and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Longshot Makes the Patriots
Grogan had always been a hard worker, not just in sports, but in the classroom as well, and in preparing for any type of future.
“And as much as I loved playing professional football, I knew that I had an education I could fall back on if things didn’t work out,” said Grogan.
Although he was an option quarterback in college and threw a rather high amount of interceptions, the New England Patriots selected Grogan with the 116th overall pick in the fifth round of the 1975 NFL Draft.
At the time, the Pats already had former Stanford Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett on the roster.
However, the organization was losing faith in its former top overall pick in the 1971 draft.
OTD 1975#Cardinals #Patriots
Steve Grogan gets his first start.
The real story is Terry Metcalf (17-44-2 5-33 2-50 KR, 3-88-1 PR)
24-17 #Cardinals
pic.twitter.com/MfjhD3pd8e— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) November 3, 2025
New England still hoped Plunkett had some magic in him and drafted Grogan as insurance.
In fact, the coaches cautioned him not to expect much, but the rookie got lucky.
“I was told that they were only going to keep two on the active roster that year. My chances didn’t look too good. One of the veterans retired, and Jim Plunkett, who was the starter, got hurt in the final preseason game. They had to keep me as the backup,” recalled Grogan.
Halfway through the ’75 season, Plunkett suffered a painful shoulder separation and was done for the season.
OTD 1975#Patriots #Jets @riggo44 20-152-2 2-23
Vataha 6-149-2
Grogan 15-30-273-2-4@BurgessOwens and Ebersole both with 2 picks
30-28 #TakeFlight
pic.twitter.com/VJGGUaybWC— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) December 8, 2024
Grogan was the next man up.
He started seven games and only won once, but passed for 1,976 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 18 interceptions, while running for 110 yards and three scores.
The Pats ended the season 3-11.
Playoff Football
During the 1976 NFL Draft, the Pats cut ties with Plunkett and traded him to San Francisco for QB Tom Owen.
Then-head coach Chuck Fairbanks decided to give the starting job to Grogan, and he impressed his teammates and the local community alike.
Before the season began, Fairbanks decided to focus on the running game, knowing that Grogan would be all in and that fullback Sam “Bam” Cunningham would also be thrilled.
As New England powered to an 11-3 record (the most wins in a single season at that point), the Pats’ backfield chewed up yards and opposing defenses.
The team ranked second overall in the NFL, and four players rushed for 397 yards or more during the year.
Steve Grogan #Patriots pic.twitter.com/MwVPr0Lfiw
— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) September 4, 2020
Grogan was responsible for those 397 yards along with 12 touchdowns, an NFL single-season record for quarterbacks.
He also passed for 1,903 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 20 picks.
“When I run some, I get to feel I’m more part of the game,” Grogan said to Time Magazine. “I was raised running the football. I’m just doing what I know how to do best.”
In the playoffs (the franchise’s first appearance since 1963), the Pats met the Oakland Raiders, the same franchise they pummelled, 48-17, in Week 4.
Late in the contest, New England led 21-17.
However, the Raiders drove down the field and, aided by a controversial roughing-the-passer call against the Pats’ Ray “Sugar Bear” Hamilton, scored the winning points, ending the Pats’ dream season.
Running Wild
In the first round of the 1977 NFL Draft, New England selected Tennessee receiver Stanley Morgan.
Morgan and Grogan would make history together over the next decade as one of the best QB-receiver tandems in the league.
Happy Birthday Steve Grogan.
Grogan throws TD’s to Morgan and Jackson #Patriots
pic.twitter.com/FPIz4IupSF— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) July 24, 2024
The Pats didn’t make the playoffs despite a 9-5 record, but Grogan passed for 2,162 yards, 17 touchdowns and 21 interceptions and rushed for 324 yards and a score.
Then, in 1978, the quarterback and New England became one of the best ground teams in NFL history.
Before the season began, receiver Darryl Stingley was injured by Raiders safety Jack “The Assassin” Tatum in a preseason game and was permanently paralyzed.
While the organization rallied around Stingley by going 11-5 (and losing in the divisional round to the Houston Oilers), Grogan passed for over 2,800 yards and 15 touchdowns.
However, on the ground, he racked up an astounding 539 yards (which led all NFL QBs) and five scores.
OTD 1978 #Bills #Patriots
New England can clinch their first division title with a win
Grogan gets the #Patriots into FG position.
Posey makes no mistake from 21.
26-24 @Patriots
New England wins their first division title. pic.twitter.com/kHi2rLvw44— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) December 11, 2022
“Bam” Cunningham, Andy Johnson, and Horace Ivory all rushed for over 500 yards, becoming the first team in league history to have four players each rush for over 500 yards in the same season.
Remarkably, Don Calhoun, another Pats running back, was close to being the fifth member of the 500-yard club, but only reached 391 yards.
Currently, the 1978 Pats are sixth in the NFL history of teams that have rushed for the most yards in a single season.
Injuries & Competition
In 1979, there was a new head coach in Ron Erhardt, and he guided the franchise to two consecutive winning seasons, although neither Patriots team qualified for the postseason.
Grogan started every game in ’79 and passed for 3,286 yards (career-best), 28 touchdowns (NFL-best), and 20 interceptions (his first season throwing more TDs than INTs).
OTD 1979#Colts #Patriots #GOTW
Grogan 15-36-317-2-1
Jones 17-30-280-1-1
Hardeman 12-35-1
Washington 14-53-2 3-19-1
Morgan 5-151-2
31-26 #ForTheShoe
pic.twitter.com/BK333lHilG— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) October 28, 2025
He also led the NFL with a 6.6% TD percentage and 16.0 yards per completion.
In 1980, Grogan was hobbled by a few injuries and started 12 games, passing for 2,475 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 22 picks.
More injuries kept Grogan to just seven starts in 1981, and backup Matt Cavanaugh took his place.
It was more of the same during the strike-shortened 1982 season when number 14 started six of nine games, but led the team during its First Round playoff loss to Miami.
Then, in one of the most notable drafts in league history, six QBs were taken in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft, including New England taking Illinois signal-caller Tony Eason with the 15th overall selection.
#11 Tony Eason@Patriots career
49 starts (28-21)
60 Touchdowns
48 InterceptionsDrafted in the 1st round (15th overall) in the 1983 NFL Draft.#GoPats#Patriots pic.twitter.com/Ql1fJaqbR1
— RetroPatriots (@RetroPatriots) February 11, 2020
That lit a fire under the veteran, and Grogan started 12 games, passing for 2,411 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.
He also gained 108 yards and two touchdowns rushing (the last season he would gain over 100 yards rushing).
1985
In 1984, Grogan had a difficult time with injuries yet again, especially from a neck injury that had plagued him since college.
The injury led him to wear a neck roll for the rest of his career.
After a 1-2 start to the ’84 season, head coach Ron Meyer benched him for Eason.
Week 11, 1985#Patriots #Seahawks
Grogan 15-27-198-2-1
Krieg 19-43-229-0-3
Largent 8-138
James 15-45 1-23-1
Warner 24-105 4-35
Fryar 5-82-1
20-13 #Patriots pic.twitter.com/3IrrdbSNud— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) June 29, 2020
Eason continued under center after Raymond Berry took over following Meyer’s dismissal halfway through the season.
“It seemed like throughout my career, from high school through college and then professionally, there was always a sense that someone better than me could be playing my position. I just kept working hard and doing the best I could and outlasted all of them,” said Grogan in 2021.
In 1985, Eason began the year with a 2-3 record before getting injured.
Grogan stepped in and promptly won six straight, then went down with a broken leg in Week 12 against the New York Jets.
Eason was back under center for the rest of the regular season, which ended 11-5.
The QB then led the franchise through the wild-card, divisional, and AFC Championship games with victories, setting up a showdown with the mean and nasty Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl XX
There had to be an AFC team that played the 15-1 Bears in the league’s biggest game; it might as well have been the Patriots.
Chicago came to New Orleans with the best defense in the league, one that used its “46 defense” to terrorize opponents into terror and submission.
Before the contest began, Las Vegas oddsmakers installed the Bears as 10-point favorites.
Crazy enough, New England scored first on a Tony Franklin 36-yard field goal.
That’s when all heck broke loose.
The Bears defense began to maul the Pats’ offense, and Eason couldn’t muster a completion in his first six attempts.
Coach Berry turned to Grogan and asked for help.
Old Reliable couldn’t do much better, but he did find receiver Irving Fryar for an eight-yard score early in the fourth quarter.
#Bears defensive end Richard Dent — the fifth defensive player to be named Super Bowl MVP
Henry Waechter sacks #Patriots QB Steve Grogan — the third safety in Super Bowl history
Super Bowl XX
OTD in 1986 pic.twitter.com/1exUk4gCEj— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) January 27, 2023
With 5:36 left in the contest, Bears defensive tackle Henry Waechter tackled the QB in the end zone for a safety and the final points in a 46-10 drubbing.
Grogan finished the game with 177 passing yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions.
Years later, Hall of Fame guard John Hannah, who played his final game in the Super Bowl, said that Grogan was the toughest player he ever suited up with.
Grogan Retires
For the next four seasons, Grogan continued to hang on with the club as a reliable backup and part-time starter.
In 1986, he started two games while Eason took the majority of the snaps.
OTD 1986#Patriots #Jets
“The Backup Bowl”
Grogan (23-42-401-3) sets a #Patriots record for a passing yards in a game
Pat Ryan 14-25-147-1
Johnny Hector (40-143-3 2-8) sets a #Jets record for rushing attempts.
Morgan 7-162-1
Fryar 3-126-1
31-24 #JetUp
pic.twitter.com/VHE9opfoXj— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) October 12, 2025
The following year, Eason and Doug Flutie kept Grogan to four starts.
In 1989, it was Flutie and Marc Wilson who limited Grogan to six starts.
Then, in 1990, Grogan started four games for new coach Rod Rust and passed for 615 yards, four touchdowns, and three interceptions.
When the season ended, Rust was fired, and new head coach Dick MacPherson no longer wanted the veteran.
“They had a coaching change here after the 1990 season,” Grogan said in 2013. “The new staff came in and asked me to retire. They were going to go in another direction. I didn’t feel like I was ready to retire. I thought that I could play another couple of years for somebody. So I had them release me. I talked to a team or two, but nothing ever materialized. So, that was the end of it.”
Career Stats
During his career, Grogan passed for 26,886 yards, 182 touchdowns, 208 interceptions, and rushed for 2,176 yards and 35 touchdowns.
He led the NFL in passing touchdowns in 1979, yet was never selected as an All-Pro or to the Pro Bowl.
After retiring, Grogan was chosen for the Patriots’ All-1970s and All-1980s Teams, the franchise’s 35th Anniversary Team, and was inducted into the Patriots’ Hall of Fame in 1995.
Steve Grogan turns 72 today
Tough as nails, and the undisputed all-time king of quarterback neckrolls#NEPats #Patriots pic.twitter.com/Lbn1e8x1jB
— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) July 25, 2025
Although Tom Brady and Drew Bledsoe have dwarfed Grogan in accomplishments and accolades, number 14 is still third in team history in career passing yards and completion percentage and is second all-time in touchdowns (182 to Bledsoe’s 166) and games won as a starter (75 to Bledsoe’s 63).
“Old people remember me; the kids don’t remember me. I’m very popular with 70- and 80-year-old women,” Grogan said in 2008.
Since he had accumulated so many injuries to so many parts of his body yet continued playing, a Boston Globe writer, Nick Carfado, started the Grogan Toughness Meter (GTM) in 2003 to measure the toughness of a pro athlete, using Grogan’s career as a guide.
Life After Football
While still in the league, Grogan bought Marciano Sporting Goods, a store in Mansfield, Massachusetts, that had been founded by former boxer Rocky Marciano’s brother, Peter.
Grogan bought the store and added his name to officially call the business: Grogan Marciano Sporting Goods Store.
He continues to run the business while also getting involved in numerous charities, including March of Dimes, Arthritis Foundation, and Easter Seals.
Grogan and his wife, Robbi, have three sons, including Tyler, who was a quarterback and receiver in college and in the Continental Indoor Football League.
References
https://www.nationalfootballpost.com
https://www.theinsightfulplayer.com
https://www.sports-reference.com
https://www.patriotshalloffame.com
https://www.pro-football-reference.com
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