Carl Lee Eller (born January 25, 1942) is an American former professional football player who played as a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) from 1964 through 1979. He was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and played college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
Early life
Eller was born on January 25, 1942, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Eller's family was poor, and his father died when Eller was young. Early in his Professional Football Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Eller acknowledges how great his parents were in his life.
He attended Atkins High School, where he excelled in football, and was inspired and given direction by his high school football coaches. He was also on the track team, in discus and shot put.
He got the nickname "Moose" while playing sandlot football around the same time.
College career
He was recruited to the University of Minnesota by head coach Murray Warmath, on the recommendation of Bobby Bell, a fellow North Carolina high school player, from Shelby. In 1961 and 1962, Eller played tackle alongside Bell, a future NFL Hall of Fame linebacker and the 1962 Outland Trophy winner.
As a sophomore, on January 1, 1962, Eller starred in helping lead the Golden Gophers to a 21–3 Rose Bowl victory over UCLA. Eller played both offensive left tackle and defensive tackle in the game, throwing key blocks as an offensive lineman during the game. The team had been divided on whether to go back to the Rose Bowl, after losing the game one year earlier, but quarterback Sandy Stevens convinced the team they should go for Eller's sake, as he might never have another opportunity to play in the game.
While Eller shared the starting position at offensive tackle as a sophomore, he became a full-time, two-way player as a junior and senior and was voted All-American in 1962 and 1963.
The 1962 Naval Academy team included Eller on its all-opponent team. As a junior in 1962, he was second team All-Big Ten, and the following year Eller was a consensus All-American and first team All-Big Ten.
At the University of Minnesota, Eller joined the Mu chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Professional career
In 1964, Eller was selected in the first round of the NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings (6th overall). He was also selected in the first round of the American Football League draft by the Buffalo Bills (5th overall), who could not sign him. As the left defensive end in the Vikings front four, he was a major factor in the unit known as the "Purple People Eaters" (the other members being Alan Page, Jim Marshall and Gary Larsen).
Starting in 1968, Eller's fifth campaign, Minnesota won 10 Central Division titles in the next 11 seasons. losing to the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV. The Vikings also won the NFC Championships in 1973, 1974, and 1976, but lost in the Super Bowl each year.
He was selected to play in six Pro Bowls (1968–1971, 1973, and 1974). Eller played his final season in 1979 with the Seattle Seahawks, where he ran his career total to 225 games. In his career, "Moose" only missed three games and started 209 out of the 225 he played.
Eller is credited as the Vikings' all-time sack leader with 130½. He also had 3 sacks with the Seahawks in 1979 for a career total of 133½. He set a career high with 15 sacks in 1969 and matched that total in 1977; he also amassed 7 seasons with 10 or more sacks. and 1972 and was named first-team All-NFC by the AP, UPI, and The Sporting News in 1975. Including his Pro Bowls, Eller had a nine-year consecutive streak of post-season honors which began in 1967 with his second-team All-Pro selection and ended in 1975 with his All-NFC honors. He was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame 1970s All-Decade Team.
He was voted the winner of the George Halas Trophy in 1971 as the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year as awarded by the Newspaper Enterprise Association.
Honors and awards
In 2004, Eller was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Life after football
As a licensed drug and alcohol counselor, Eller founded a group of substance-abuse clinics in the Twin Cities called Triumph Life Centers in 1986.
He obtained a college degree in Human Services from Metropolitan State University in 1994 and went on to work for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, addressing issues of health disparities between white people and people of color.
Eller was arrested in 2006 for driving under the influence and pleaded guilty. He was arrested in 2008 for fourth-degree assault of a police officer and second-degree refusal to submit to chemical testing, both gross misdemeanors. He was sentenced and served 60 days in the county workhouse.
Eller later served as president of the NFL Retired Players Association. In 2020, he joined the Halberd Corporation, a research-based publicly traded company that helps discover and develop medical treatments for diseases, as a consultant.