5/13 - Fred Dryer

Fred Dryer talks with Bob Conrad this week!

John Frederick "Fred" Dryer (born July 6, 1946 in Hawthorne, California) is an American actor and former football defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). Dryer played 13 years in the NFL, playing 176 games, starting 166, and recording 104 career sacks with the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams.
Following his retirement from football, Dryer had a successful career as a film and television actor, notably starring in the series Hunter. Dryer is the only NFL player to score two safeties in one game. Prior to the start of his show business career, Dryer flexed his acting muscles when he helped cover Super Bowl IX for SPORT magazine. Fed up with the grandiose and self-important nature of the NFL's championship match, then-editor Dick Schaap hired Dryer and Rams teammate Lance Rentzel for this journalistic assignment. Donning costumes inspired by The Front Page, "Scoops Brannigan" (Dryer)  "CubbyO'Switzer" (Rentzel) peppered players and coaches from both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings with questions that ranged from clichéd to downright absurd. This became the inspiration for the eccentricities that surround Media Day at the Super Bowl.[9][10] Dryer also briefly served as a color analyst on CBS's NFL coverage in 1981. In the early 80's when producers/ creators Glen Charles, Les Charles and James Burrows were developing the soon-to-be hit sitcom, Cheers, Dryer, along with two other actors, was considered for the role of lead character, Sam Malone. Ted Danson ultimately won the role, but Dryer later appeared as sportscaster (and former Red Sox teammate of Sam's) Dave Richards in the episodes "Sam at Eleven", "Old Flames", "Love Thy Neighbor", and "'I' On Sports".  Dryer's best-known acting role came in the 1980s television crime drama Hunter, in which he costarred with Stepfanie Kramer. Dryer also starred in the action-thriller movie Death Before Dishonor as well as Mike Land in the TV series Land's End (21 episodes, 1995–1996). He is also the only actor, so far, to portray legendary DC Comics military hero Sgt. Rock, during his appearance on Justice League. Dryer got married in May 1983 (divorced in 1988) to actress and Playboy centerfold Tracy Vaccaro,[11] who also worked with him on Hunter and Land's End. Together, they have at least one daughter.[11] Dryer stills resides in Los Angeles and has his own production company (Fred Dryer Productions).