Playing Career
Biletnikoff was the first consensus All-American to play for Florida State University. After graduating from Florida State he was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the second round of the American Football League draft and Detroit Lions in the third round. Biletnikoff signed with the Raiders where he played until retiring at the end of the 1978 season. He also played one season (1980) with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.
In high school he excelled in football, basketball, baseball and track and field earning 1st team recognition his senior year on Pennsylvania's all-state football and basketball teams. He was later honored along with other HS football greats Tony Dorsett, Joe Montana and Mike Ditka to the all-time 1st team Pennsylvania football team.
At Florida State, Biletnikoff missed several games his first varsity season (as a sophomore—freshmen were not eligible) with a broken foot. He played on both sides of the ball his junior season leading the team in receptions and interceptions taking an interception the length of the field for a touchdown (99 yards off a pass thrown by George Mira of the Miami Hurricanes), a record that held until another NFL Hall of Famer, Deion Sanders, broke the record by one yard.
Biletnikoff's NFL career total of 589 receptions and record 10 straight seasons of 40 or more receptions is even more impressive when it is taken in account that he played most of his career when teams' emphasized running the ball over passing it down field and 13 of his seasons where played in 14 game regular seasons. He played in the second AFL-NFL World Championship game and in Super Bowl XI, in which he was named MVP. In 1969, he was selected to the Sporting News AFL All-League Team. He also played in three American Football League title games, two American Football League All-Star games, five AFC Championships, and four AFC–NFC Pro Bowls.
Read more about this topic: Fred Biletnikoff
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