George Sauer dies: Former New York Jets Receiver Passes Away in Ohio at 69 After Suffering Alzheimer's Disease
George Sauer Jr., a former wide receiver for the New York Jets, died May 7 in Westerville, Ohio, at the age of 69.
He died of Alzheimer's disease, said his sister, Dana Keifer.
Sauer was a wide receiver for the Jets when they beat the Baltimore Colts in 1969. He caught eight passes from quarterback Joe Namath during the Super Bowl after Don Maynard was injured. The underdog Jets beat the Colts 16-7.
Sauer was a four-time All-Star in the American Football League. He played in the AFL and National Football League for the Jets from 1965 through 1970.
He appeared in 84 games and caught 309 passes for 4,965 yards and 28 touchdowns.
Sauer was 27 when he retired from the NFL in 1970, at the peak of his career. (He did, however, return to the game to play with short-lived rival leagues.) Sauer became disenchanted with the life of a pro football player.
"When you get to the college and professional levels, the coaches still treat you as an adolescent," he said in an interview in 1971 with the Institute for the Study of Sport and Society, according to the Times. "They know damn well that you were never given a chance to become responsible or self-disciplined. Even in the pros, you were told when to go to bed, when to turn your lights off, when to wake up, when to eat and what to eat. You even have to live and eat together like you were in a boys' camp."
George Henry Sauer Jr. was born to George and Lillian Sauer on Nov. 10, 1943, in Sheboygan, Wis., and raised in Waco, Texas. He was a respected receiver at the University of Texas, where he gave up premedical studies because he did not have time for both that and football. He was a member of Texas teams that went undefeated in 1963-64, winning the Cotton Bowl, and that defeated Alabama in the 1965 Orange Bowl.
He skipped his last year of college eligibility and signed with the Jets, where his father, George Sauer Sr., was the player personnel director.
Sauer was married and divorced several times. His sister, Ms. Keifer, is his only immediate survivor.
