Neal Anderson

Charles Neal Anderson (born August 14, 1964) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for eight seasons with the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. Anderson played college football for the Florida Gators. He was a first-round pick in the 1986 NFL draft and was a four-time Pro Bowl selection with the Bears.

Early life

Anderson was born in Graceville, Florida in 1964. He attended Graceville High School, and played for the Graceville Tigers high school football team.

College career

Anderson accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for Charley Pell and Galen Hall's Florida Gators football teams from 1982 to 1985, and shared the Gators' backfield with fullback John L. Williams for four years. Memorably, Anderson ran for 197 yards versus the Kentucky Wildcats as a freshman in 1982, a seventy-six-yard touchdown against the LSU Tigers in 1983, and 178 yards and an eighty-yard touchdown against the Tennessee Volunteers in 1984. Anderson graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in public relations in 1986, and was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1995. The sportswriters of The Gainesville Sun selected him as No. 13 among the top 100 all-time greatest Gators from the first 100 years of Florida football in 2006.

Professional career

The Chicago Bears selected Anderson in the first round (27th pick overall) of the 1986 NFL draft. He played for the Bears for eight seasons from to . He joined the franchise as a rookie immediately following the Bears' championship season. The Bears picked Anderson to back up, and eventually succeed, Walter Payton, who became the Bears and NFL's all-time rushing leader during his lengthy career. After Payton's retirement in , Anderson became the team's starting running back.

Anderson's best years came during the late 1980s, where he rushed for over 1,000 yards in three consecutive seasons.

Anderson says his favorite memory from his NFL career was December 2, 1990, when he scored a 50-yard game-winning touchdown on a pass from Jim Harbaugh against the Detroit Lions, which eliminated them from the playoffs and secured an appearance by the Bears. "I caught a touchdown pass against Detroit at the end of the game. And that put us in the playoffs. One of the few things I remember was being under the pile and everybody jumping on top of me. All of the guys in the locker room called me 'The Cuz.' And I could just hear people saying: 'The Cuz! The Cuz!'"

NFL career statistics

Life after football

Anderson now lives with his wife and their three children in the Gainesville area, where he helped found a bank and owns a peanut farm. He is active in the community. He is a big fan of professional wrestling and attended Wrestlemania XI.

In 1998, Anderson helped found, and is now on the board of directors of, Community Bank and Trust of Florida, a bank with 11 locations in and near Gainesville.