Conrad Dobler

Conrad Francis Dobler (Pronounced: DOH-blur) (October 1, 1950 – February 13, 2023) was an American professional football guard who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons, primarily with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was selected in the fifth round of the 1972 NFL draft by the Cardinals, where he spent his first six seasons, and was later a member of the New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills for two seasons each.

A three-time Pro Bowl selection during his Cardinals tenure, Dobler achieved notoriety for frequently utilizing unsportsmanlike tactics against opponents, which he openly acknowledged. He was proclaimed "Pro Football's Dirtiest Player" with a 1977 cover story in Sports Illustrated magazine and was the author of a 1988 memoir, They Call Me Dirty.

College career

Dobler received collegiate offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Cal-Berkeley, and Utah, and selected the University of Wyoming on an athletic scholarship, playing offensive guard and defensive tackle for the Cowboys. His primary strength and usage was as a defensive tackle and he was named the team's Most Valuable Player on defense and an All-Western Athletic Conference selection as a senior in 1971.

Professional career St. Louis Cardinals

Dobler was selected in the fifth round of the 1972 NFL draft by the St. Louis Cardinals, who made him the 110th overall pick. Although predominantly a defensive lineman in college, Dobler arrived at Cardinals training camp to discover the team had drafted him as a prospective offensive guard at the pro level. He attempted to win a place on the team demonstrating technique but instead found himself being cut from the squad and heading home for Wyoming just ahead of the 1972 season. He added: "Football is fighting, but with pads on. It's a controlled type of violence. You can't kill anyone and that's about the limit they put on it."

Despite Dobler's embrace of thuggish tactics, the Cardinals had solid offensive lines throughout his tenure, especially for pass blocking. The team allowed just eight sacks during the entire 1975 campaign, an unofficial record. Dobler was an important cog of this success, making three consecutive Pro Bowl appearances from 1975 to 1977.

New Orleans Saints

On January 31, 1978, the Cardinals traded Dobler along with wideout Ike Harris to the New Orleans Saints for defensive end Bob Pollard and guard Terry Stieve. the Saints were happy to paint in shades of black, describing Dobler as "Attilla the Hun in football gear" in their 1979 team media guide. He was placed on the injured reserve list on September 20 and remained there for the duration of the 1978 campaign.

In a roster-juggling move related to league injured reserve rules and the 45-man roster limit with respect to another player, the Bills waived Dobler on September 1, only to resign him to a new contract as a free agent the following day.

Dobler saw humor in the chance to perform his last act playing for head coach Chuck Knox in Buffalo, telling a reporter from Newsday, "I'm from Wyoming and who was the last great cowboy from Wyoming? Buffalo Bill, that's who. So it's only fitting that I finish my career in Buffalo." Dobler indicated that although slowed by injury and rehabilitation in New Orleans, he had returned refreshed and rejuvenated playing on a new line with a new team. parodied his image in a Miller Lite beer commercial by getting a section of fans to argue about why they drank the beer. Olsen gained a measure of symbolic revenge by placing Dobler's name on a headstone in a scene from Olsen's TV series Father Murphy. NFL Films placed Dobler's conflicts with Bergey as #9 on the NFL Top 10 list of feuds.

Dobler paid a high price for his NFL career, suffering through numerous operations to repair his battered body, including multiple knee surgeries. Still in need of further surgical procedures, Dobler, like many other disabled pro football veterans, was unable to gain disability assistance from the NFL.

On April 5, 2007, The Buffalo News reported that as a result of falling out of a hammock in 2001, Dobler's wife Joy became a paraplegic. Substantial medical bills for Joy's care put the Dobler family in such financial hardship that they could no longer pay for their daughter Holli or their son Stephen to attend college. Champion golfer and philanthropist Phil Mickelson heard of the situation on ESPN and volunteered to pay for Holli's education at Miami University and Stephen's at the University of Kansas.

On June 21, 2018, Dobler was enshrined into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in Troy, Michigan.

In addition to the physical toll on his body, Dobler suffered cognitive difficulties believed to be the result of football-induced brain trauma during his later years.

Dobler died on February 13, 2023, at the age of 72. He was eulogized in a statement by Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill as "the kind of tough, physical, and fierce player that you love to line up with as a teammate and hate to line up against as an opponent.

In February 2025, ESPN reported that Dobler was posthumously diagnosed with Stage 3 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy by researchers at Boston University.

Praise Dobler

Since 2018, a street artist in Philadelphia has stickered and graffitied the city's signs and walls with the phrase, "Praise Dobler", often with an illustration of Conrad Dobler. It is one of the most widely seen of contemporary Philadelphia graffiti street art. The artist is anonymous and in interviews has shared that the initiative began in 2009 with his incarceration in Georgia for a DUI and court-ordered recovery. Encouraged to identify a higher power, not finding one in familiar religions, and told he could choose his own higher power, the artist found Dobler's likeness on a box of “Snack Legend” brand cookies. He picked Dobler and began doing graffiti and stickers in 2018 in service of his recovery. The artist met Dobler in 2018 at the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in Troy, Michigan, and shared his story with Dobler. The artist has shared sticker packs with friends who have stickered Praise Dobler in other U.S. cities and abroad.