Steve Zabel, throwback two-way player, dies at 78

Steve Zabel, the Oklahoma tight end and pass rusher who became the Eagles’ last two-way player and later played both roles in the NFL, has died at 78. From his 1970 selection as the Eagles’ sixth overall pick to his mid-career trade sparked by contract standof

Steve Zabel didn’t fit neatly into the modern football blueprint. In college at Oklahoma, he lined up at tight end, linebacker and punter. In the NFL. he kept that two-way mentality going as long as teams would allow it—until his career took another kind of turn. one shaped by conflict. union fight and the choice to put family first.

Zabel, who died at 78, was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles with the sixth overall pick in the 1970 NFL draft. He later described in a 2021 interview with the Eagles’ website how his two-way role began with necessity during Oklahoma’s difficult start to the 1968 season.

“Chuck Fairbanks called me in his office and said, ‘Steve, we’ve proven we can’t outscore people. We want you to play defensive end as well as tight end and see if we can’t win some games.’ For me. it was a great transition. I played both ways and punted. and we won our last six games in a row and won the Big Eight Championship. ” Zabel said.

When he reached Philadelphia, Zabel again started as a tight end. His coaches soon decided his physical, hard-hitting style made him better suited to hit people on defense. But that shift didn’t arrive as a smooth pivot—at least not at first.

As a rookie tight end, Zabel recalled being kicked out of three games for fighting. By the end of the season, the Eagles told him they didn’t think he had the proper temperament to be successful on offense and wanted to move him to outside linebacker.

“I jumped at the opportunity. My rookie year, I came into camp weighing almost 270 pounds. They told me they wanted me to get big to be a blocking tight end. and it really hampered my speed and agility. My second year, I came to Training Camp as an outside linebacker weighing 230 pounds. I gained all my quickness and speed back. It was a wonderful thing. I was all for playing linebacker, believe me,” Zabel said.

His playing career later ran into another kind of friction. In 1975, during a contract negotiation with Eagles head coach Mike McCormack, Zabel’s stance became personal—so personal that it ended with him walking out and demanding a number that wasn’t being offered.

“I was asking for a contract for $75,000, and I got up and said, ‘You know what, Coach? I wouldn’t play for you for $100,000.’ I walked out the door and stuck my head back in and said, ‘Well, maybe for $100,000, I would.’ And I got traded two hours later to the New England Patriots,” Zabel recalled.

Less than a full decade after he was winning championships as a one-man swiss army knife, Zabel found himself on the other side of the power structure—pressuring the league and his own union to do more for players.

After the trade. Zabel became a labor organizer and often said the NFL players’ union wasn’t fighting hard enough for its members. In 1975, a Patriots preseason game was canceled when Zabel and his teammates refused to play. The reason they gave was a lack of progress on changes involving players’ pension, insurance, medical benefits and working conditions.

“We were sick of the owners and we were sick of our own [union] management that had allowed us to go forward,” Zabel recalled in an interview with The Oklahoman.

A deal between the league and the union followed soon after the cancellation, but Zabel called it a bad deal for the players. He said they were “duped” by the owners.

Zabel spent four seasons with the Patriots before finishing his NFL career with one season on the Baltimore Colts in 1979.

Retirement didn’t pull him toward a high-profile path. Zabel went into coaching, but he turned down job opportunities with major college programs. He preferred coaching at the high school and small college level, saying he wanted more time with his family and to focus on charitable work.

With a college teammate, he also founded a nonprofit organization that provides food for homeless people and mentoring for children in Oklahoma City.

From a two-way role shaped by a 1968 season turning point at Oklahoma. to a trade that arrived two hours after a contract standoff in 1975. to a labor fight that pushed a preseason game off the schedule. Zabel’s story carried a consistent theme: he didn’t just play the game—he challenged the terms around it. For a player who built his career on doing more than one job. it was fitting that his life after football kept reaching beyond the lines.

Steve Zabel Oklahoma Sooners Philadelphia Eagles New England Patriots Baltimore Colts NFL two-way player Mike McCormack 1975 contract negotiation NFL players union Patriots preseason game cancellation labor organizer