I’ve been watching the NFL for years, and I’ve always been fascinated by the sheer size of some of these players. It’s crazy to think about how much bigger they are than the average person. So, I got curious and started wondering, who’s the tallest player ever to play in the NFL?
I started by doing a simple search. I typed in “tallest NFL player ever” and started reading through the results.
The first thing I found was that the tallest current NFL player is Dan Skipper, an offensive tackle for the Denver Broncos. He’s listed at 6’9″, which is pretty darn tall.
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Did some more digging, though, and I came across a name: Richard Sligh.
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This guy was a defensive tackle who played for the Oakland Raiders back in the 1960s.
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And get this – he was 7 feet tall! That’s insane!
I found some info about him – he was born on August 18, 1944, and passed away on December 23. It doesn’t specify the year, but it looks like he was only in the NFL for one season, in 1967. He was a tenth-round draft pick, so he must have been pretty impressive in college.
I kept looking, and I found another name, Morris Stroud. He played in the early 1970s. He is recorded to be 6’10”, also a giant.
Reading about this, I discovered that the average NFL player is about 6’2″ and weighs around 245 lbs. That’s still way bigger than most people, but it’s nothing compared to a 7-footer like Sligh!
It made me think about how different positions have different size requirements. Like, wide receivers and running backs tend to be a bit smaller and quicker, while linemen are obviously much bigger and stronger.
Conclusion
So, after all my searching, it seems like Richard Sligh is the tallest NFL player ever, at a whopping 7 feet tall. It’s hard to imagine someone that big playing football, but he did it! It just goes to show how diverse the NFL can be, with players of all shapes and sizes.
