No. 10: Jeff Saturday
Every offseason, we run historical ranking series focusing on North Carolina basketball and football.
The purpose each spring isn’t to make declarative statements, but to have fun offering a subjective look at the best teams and players ever at Carolina. This effort is to generate discourse, debate, and take UNC fans down memory lane.
This season, we are doing something a little different, combining football and basketball, as we offer our take on the Top 40 UNC football and basketball players of all time. The criteria is quite simple: The process includes playing careers with the Tar Heels and professionally, other relevant impacts they’ve had on their sports, coaching, and championships. We also gave a lean toward all UNC accomplishments.
So, this isn’t a UNC-only list, a pro-only list, or a straight up purely best ever list. Some Tar Heels on this list didn’t have great pro careers but were so good and historic at UNC, they simply had to make the cut. Some on this list weren’t stars at UNC, but had outstanding and/or highly distinguished pro careers, that it warranted their place among these 40 athletes.
We hope you enjoy the list and feel free to disagree, as we know many will.
We continue our countdown with:
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No. 10: Jeff Saturday (1994-97)
Saturday may be known as one of the hardest working players ever in the history of Carolina football, certainly among the ones that turned themselves into outstanding ACC and eventual NFL players. He was a two-time first-team All-ACC in 1996 and 1997 anchoring the offensive line for UNC teams that finished back-to-back seasons ranked in the top 10.
Saturday helped lead an offense that included three 1,000-yard rushers, a first-team All-ACC quarterback, and an offense that scored 40 or more points 13 times, 50 or more 4 times and in the 60s once. The Tar Heels went 36-12 during Saturday’s career finishing in the top 10 during his junior and senior seasons.
As good as Saturday was when with the Tar Heels, he was even better in the NFL, even though he was not drafted.
Saturday played 13 seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Indianapolis Colts, where he snapped the ball to Peyton Manning for most of those years, setting an NFL record as a center with the most starts with the same QB. Saturday played in six Pro Bowls, was twice named first-team All-Pro, in 2007, he was named the NFL Alumni Offensive Lineman of the Year, he was a key part of a Super Bowl champion, and in 2015 he earned a spot in the Colts’ Ring of Honor.
Saturday started 202 of the 211 games he played and recovered 11 fumbles in his career. He’s been awarded numerous awards for his service in the community as well as being nominated for the Walter Payton Award. He has been nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and expectations are he will eventually be enshrined there.
For the last nine years, Saturday has been an analyst for ESPN.