Godfrey Zaunbrecher was by no means a household name for the Minnesota Vikings–in fact, I admittedly hadn’t even heard of him until I was randomly looking at LSU players who were drafted over the years, and noticed that he was a Vikings pick in 1970–and it looked like a really fun name to say. Unfortunately, like any Viking center from 1962 to 1978, he had the misfortune of playing behind Hall of Famer Mick Tingelhoff, who started 240 of 240 possible games in that period.

Early Life and College Career

Zaunbrecher played at Louisiana State University from 1967 to 1969, starting his final two seasons and earning Second-team All-SEC honors in 1968, and First-team in 1969. He played in the East-West Shrine Bowl after his junior season, and the Senior Bowl after his senior season.

NFL Career

Minnesota Vikings (1971-1973)

Selected as a 25-year old in the 1970 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings in the 11th round (286th overall), Zaunbrecher didn’t play in the 1970 season, but backed up Mick Tingelhoff for three seasons from 1971 to 1973–which is to say, he didn’t play much. So little, in fact that Zaunbrecher was quoted as saying, “I am the third-team center on a football team that only has two centers on the roster. I play behind Mick Tingelhoff and Mick Tingelhoff hurt.”

He got into 16 regular season games and one playoff game (in 1971) before hanging up the cleats after the 1973 season.