Bobby Leo

Bobby Leo is a former professional American football player who played wide receiver, tailback, kick returner, and punt returner for two seasons for the Boston Patriots.^[1]

He was a prominent figure on the high school gridiron in Everett, Massachusetts. In 1999, the Boston Globe ranked the 10 best Massachusetts High School football players of all time. Leo ranked 3rd on the list, behind only Charlie Brickley (also of Everett) and Harry Agganis of Lynn Classical. Given that both of those two legends died before Leo played his high school ball, he can lay claim to being the best living high school football player in Massachusetts history for the past 50 years, ahead of various other prominent football players from Massachusetts ranked behind him in the Globe analysis, including Heisman winners Doug Flutie and Joe Bellino. Indeed, to this day he remains the only Massachusetts High School player ever to earn All-Scholastic honors for three years. He did so despite missing half his senior year to a separated shoulder early in the season against Arlington High School. After returning from his injury, he scored an amazing 5 touchdowns in his last 7 carriers as a senior. As a junior, he easily led the state in scoring.

His play at Everett caught the attention of scouts from all the big name schools at the time, and Leo was offered scholarships to Notre Dame, Michigan, and others. His Everett squad won one of its many state championships his final year. They went on to lose a one-point game to Miami Senior High in the high school "National Championship" game his senior year.

Leo chose to attend Harvard, where he won many awards and he became the first and only player to score the winning touchdown in the Harvard-Yale game in each of his three varsity seasons (freshman were not eligible to play varsity in the Ivy League at the time). A remarkable three-sport athlete, he also starred in Varsity Baseball as well as Varsity Track and Field at Harvard, as he had at Everett High School.

A Sports Illustrated college football feature in its 10/31/1966 issue praised Leo and included a photo and quotations from an interview with him after an important Harvard victory against Dartmouth. Leo earned All-Ivy honors, was named the top back in New England (the so-called "New England Heismann" trophy), and was an honorable mention All-American. He is a member of the Harvard Hall of Fame.

Leo's 6.4 yards per carry during his senior year were enough to place him second in the history of Ivy League football at the time, a Harvard single-season record until 2014.

Leo drew interest from a number of NFL teams and went on to be drafted by the Boston Patriots in the first combined NFL/AFL draft in 1967. He was remains the earliest a Harvard player has ever been drafted by the Patriots, taken as the Patriots' 5th draft pick that year. He could not join the team for training camp because of required military duty. The official game day program for a preseason Patriots game reviewed that year's picks, and described Leo as "easily the most famous draft pick in franchise history," mentioning that he had "broken many rushing records" during his storied tenure at Harvard. After serving a stint in the military, Leo was finally able to join the team toward the end of the season in 1967.

His first game was a memorable one. On national television against the Buffalo Bills, Leo was the primary kick and punt returner for the Patriots. He electrified the crowd at Fenway Park with one of the top 10 longest punt returns in the American Football League that season, a 50 yard sprint past the entire Bills coverage team, before slipping on the mud in Fenway's baseball infield dirt, inside the ten yard line, while evading the Bills punter. Later in the game, he took his first professional carry for 7 yards. For the last few series of the game, he lined up at wide receiver. His first professional reception was a 25-yard touchdown in the final moments of the game. He also tallied over 100 yards in kick returns on the day.

Amazingly, in his first pro football game, Leo totaled almost 200 all-purpose yards from punt returns, kick returns, as well as his run and touchdown reception, easily the most all-purpose yards of any player in that game. Indeed, his total was the most all-purpose yardage by any Patriot player in the entire 1967 season, to this day the only Patriot ever to accomplish such a feat in his first game. The game placed him in the top 10 all-time performances for a Patriot in history at that time in terms of all-purpose yards, behind only a 200 yard rushing game by all-star Jim Nance and several versatile performances by early Patriot great Larry Garron. He continued to play a primary role on the Patriots' return team for what remained of his rookie season, returning to the Orange Bowl for the first time since high school, fielding punts and kickoffs against the Miami Dolphins.

The following season, during the Patriots training camp at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Leo impressed the coaching staff with his speed as compared to the Patriots latest draft picks. The training camp issue of Pats Patter (the Patriots official newsletter) featured a photo of Leo exhibiting his heroics for the Patriots at Fenway Park in that late season game with the caption "Leo exhibits his breakaway potential against the Buffalo Bills," along with a brief piece describing his amazing speed. He started camp that year back at his college position as a tailback. Indeed, he was listed as second of five players on the depth chart in the team's official 1968 Patriots Media Guide at the halfback position.

During the long preseason (which included games against both AFL and NFL teams), the coaching staff decided to move him to receiver again, with great success. He had a productive game at that position against the Saints in a game played at Tulane University. Against the Jets in a game in Richmond, Virginia, he led the team both in pass receptions and receiving yards, and was moved to the starting lineup the following week against the Dolphins. He concluded his success at flanker by scoring in an AFL v. NFL game against the Philadelphia Eagles at his old stomping grounds, Harvard Stadium, and serving as the team's primary kick returner. The promotional materials for that game featured Leo prominently with a photo and article noting how well he played in when he joined the club the prior year and predicting that we would see "quite a bit of action" at both flankerback and halfback in the 1968 season. However, various injuries held him back as other veteran receivers pushed for more playing time, but he maintained his starting spot on the punt and kick return squads as the regular season began. After returning punts in the first game of the regular season in Buffalo, Leo suffered a serious injury in practice the following week and was hospitalized. As a result of a bye week for the Patriots in week 2 of the regular season, the team had a long layoff before their next game, and was required to make roster moves because their primary punter was hurt as well. The coaching staff asked Leo to accept a temporary assignment to the taxi squad as he recovered from his injury. Leo refused, and retired from the game.

After the 1968 season, Leo decided to return to academics, attending law school in the Boston area and practicing law for many years thereafter.

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