As Vermonters sit down with their beers and wings to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, they will not see one of their own on the field. There are no native sons representing the state during Sunday’s big game. In fact, no Vermont-born players are on a single NFL roster at all. Period.
Still, there is a home-state connection: A Vermonter, born and bred in Montpelier, was on the very first Patriots team. Two generations later, his family members are still devoted fans.
The New England Patriots, playing in their 12th Super Bowl on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, were originally the Boston Patriots. In 1960, Bob Yates Jr., easily one of Vermont’s all-time greatest football players, joined the team for its inaugural season.
His pro football days were, and remain, an anomaly for the state. Vermont’s production of football talent successful in reaching the highest level is meager. Fewer than a dozen Vermonters have ever played in some form in the NFL, according to Pro Football Reference.
“You almost have to be perfect, and you have to maximize your opportunities,” said David Ball, a standout wide receiver from Barre who became one of the most accomplished players in University of New Hampshire football history in the early 2000s. He later played in the NFL, mostly in training camps and practice squads, as well as the Canadian Football League.
“You’re going to have to be an outlier to come out of a state like this,” he said.
Clearly Yates was. And he definitely did.
Growing up on an East Montpelier farm, Bob Yates Jr. was a big kid even at an early age. Yates’ football coach at Montpelier High School recognized that the sizable and aggressive offensive lineman had potential to play at a higher level, helping him get recruited by Syracuse University, according to Yates’ son, Steve Yates.
In 1959, the Syracuse Orange fielded one of the best collegiate football teams in the nation. Jim Brown, an all-time great running back, had established Syracuse’s prowess on the national stage earlier in the decade, and set the stage for Bob Yates’ senior-year team, which went undefeated behind standout running back Ernie Davis. With Yates, who was named All-American in 1959, anchoring the line, Syracuse powered its way to an undefeated season and a national championship, defeating Texas 23–14 in the 1960 Cotton Bowl. Davis and Yates were later named to the Syracuse Football All-Century Team.
Yates was drafted by the New York Giants, another popular team in Vermont, following his senior year. However, Yates turned down them down to join the Patriots in the recently formed American Football League.
At the time, the established NFL and upstart AFL had not merged yet, and Yates chose the fledgling league, joining the Boston Patriots. Yates played five seasons there as a lineman and kicker, becoming one of only two Vermonters to have played for the New England team.
Another Vermonter, Steve Wisniewski, an All-Pro guard with the Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders, had a more celebrated career. Born in Rutland, Wisniewski was one of the best offensive linemen of the 1990s, playing 13 seasons in the NFL. But it is hard to count Wisniewski as a true Vermont export, as he played his high school ball at Westfield High School in Houston, Texas.
“Vermont is very small potatoes compared to most of the country, “ said Bruce Wheeler, a former longtime coach at Essex High School. “Other than, say, skiing.”
Vermont high schools rarely produce Division I football recruits, and very few of their players make the pros. But while Vermont itself might not have built a football legacy, the Yates family of Hinesburg has done its best to build its own.
“I think one thing that really hurt Vermont football was when the University of Vermont dropped it,” Wheeler said. “I think that didn’t help it stay healthy in the state.”
UVM discontinued its football program in 1974. The state does not have a D1 football program.
After his playing career ended, Yates stayed involved in the sport. He first coached at Harvard University and at high school programs in the Boston area until he moved back to Vermont to coach the Burlington High School football team in 1979.
“It was always difficult to prepare to play against them,” said Wheeler, who coached against Yates at rival Essex High School. Yates’ teams “were well-prepared, well-coached and well-disciplined.
“And good sportsmanship to boot.”
Yates coached at Burlington for nine seasons, revitalizing the program into a perennial powerhouse and championship contender, and coaching two of his sons while there, according to Wheeler.
Even though they were fierce competitors, Wheeler and Yates became friends, going on fishing trips and golf outings together.
“We remained very close right up until the final days of his life,” Wheeler said. “And I miss him.”
Yates died in 2013 at the age of 74.
Yates family members are still big Patriots fans, and family and friends will gather at their home Sunday to cheer on their dad’s team as it competes for its seventh Super Bowl win.
“I’m still approached by kids that played for my dad at the time, or even occasionally, I get some other coaches that knew my dad back when he played here, and still talk about the impact that he’s had on them,” Steve Yates said.
The Yates’ football legacy is still expanding. Steve Yates’ son, Orion Yates, is currently one of Vermont’s best high school players. Orion, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound quarterback and linebacker, led the Champlain Valley Union High School Redhawks to an 11-0 record and a Division I state title in 2024. He was also named the Gatorade Vermont Football Player of the Year, the same award his father won during his playing days.
After a serious knee injury, Orion Yates reclassified and transferred to a New Hampshire prep school giving him an additional season in front of college scouts. His father said his son is hoping to earn a spot on a D1 team and follow in his grandfather’s footsteps.
“We were so wishing that he got to see Orion play, and he would be so proud,” Steve Yates said of his dad. “There is not a game that I go to or participate in where I don’t think that he is watching.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the timing of Jim Brown’s Syracuse playing career.
