Steve Conley

Stephen Craig Conley is an American former professional football player who was both a running back and linebacker. He played college football for the Kansas Jayhawks football. He played professionally for the Cincinnati Bengals and St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL), and also played in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the World Football League (WFL).

College career Conley played high school football at Arlington High School and initially played college football at Arizona Western College. Until his junior year at Kansas he shared a backfield with future Hall of Famer John Riggins. Conley finished his college career in 1971 with 1064 yards on 253 carries for an average of 4.2 yards per rush. He also scored 10 touchdowns – 8 rushing and 2 receiving. The Bengals initially wanted to convert Conley to a linebacker because they had lost several linebackers to injury the prior year, and felt that Conley agility would be well suited to the linebacker position. Conley was on the Bengals' taxi squad for the first 6 games of the 1972 season but got a break in late October when the Bengals traded away two running backs, Fred Willis and Paul Robinson, to the Houston Oilers in exchange for wide receiver Charlie Joiner and linebacker Ron Pritchard. The Bengals activated Conley as a backup running back for their October 29 game against the Oilers. This would prove to be the only game Conley would play for the Bengals and the only rushes he would have in his NFL career.

The Cardinals signed Conley a few days later, primarily to play on special teams, but also a little bit at linebacker. Conley played in all seven of the Cardinals' remaining games in 1972. Conley then joined the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL, where he played as a linebacker and as a slotback. He played 5 games for the Tiger-Cats and caught 5 passes for 47 yards. He also gained 5 yards rushing on 3 attempts for the Tiger-Cats. Conley briefly joined the Chicago Fire of the WFL but before the season started in July 1974 he was waived and signed by the Birmingham Americans as a tight end and linebacker. He was traded to the Hawaiians during the season, in August. After playing 4 games for the Hawaiians he was cut, but ended up in a dispute with the team over not being paid. He had 1 interception for the Americans and 1 for the Hawaiians that year. He played both running back and linebacker for the Wings. Conley rushed 9 times for 33 yards and caught 2 passes for 33 yards for the Wings. After being cut by the Wings late in the season he was signed by the Philadelphia Bell as a linebacker.