HEADLINE

Nebraska great Johnny Rodgers hospitalized with COVID

Field Level Media

December 06, 2021 at 7:43 pm.

Nebraska great and 1972 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny “The Jet” Rodgers has been hospitalized with COVID-19.

Rodgers, 70, told Omaha, Neb., TV station KETV on Monday that he should be home “in a week or so.”

Rodgers’ business partner, Denny Drake, said the College Football Hall of Fame wide receiver was hospitalized Thanksgiving morning and is also battling pneumonia.

Drake told the Omaha World-Herald that Rodgers is “feeling much better.”

Rodgers finished with 154 catches for 2,679 yards and 27 touchdowns in his three-year career at Nebraska. He had 1,361 yards from scrimmage with 19 TDs in 1972 to win the Heisman. He was a consensus All-American his last two seasons and key part of Nebraska’s national championship teams in 1970 and ’71.

Rodgers was taken No. 25 overall by the then-San Diego Chargers in the 1973 NFL Draft but he elected to play in the Canadian Football League. He would later play in 17 games for the Chargers (1977-78), recording 17 catches for 234 yards and no TDs.

He was the first wide receiver to win the Heisman.

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