Former Detroit Lions Star Has Died

Jon Morris, the durable center who anchored the Detroit Lions’ offensive line for three seasons in the mid-1970s and earned the team’s Most Valuable Player honor in 1977, died Oct. 15 at age 84.

He passed away in Meredith, New Hampshire, after a battle with dementia.

Morris arrived in Detroit via trade from the New England Patriots in July 1975. Though already 33 and coming off knee issues that had limited him late in his Patriots tenure, he immediately became a reliable presence.

He started all 14 games in each of his three Lions seasons (1975-77), logging every snap the club asked of him at the pivot.

Teammates named him Offensive Player of the Year in 1975, and two years later he was voted the team’s overall MVP while leading the roster in minutes played.

For a Lions franchise that cycled through offensive linemen during that era, Morris provided stability and veteran toughness.

He protected the quarterback and opened lanes in an offense that needed an experienced hand at the center of the line.

His 42 consecutive starts in Honolulu blue underscored the dependability that had already defined a long career.

Before Detroit, Morris spent 11 seasons (1964-74) with the Boston/New England Patriots, where he became a six-time AFL All-Star, earned first-team All-AFL honors in 1966, and was the franchise’s first NFL Pro Bowl selection in 1970.

He later finished his 15-year career with the Chicago Bears in 1978 before moving into broadcasting, including color commentary for Patriots radio. The Patriots inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 2011.

Lions fans of that generation remember Morris as a quiet professional who showed up every Sunday, took on the physical demands of the interior line, and earned the respect of the locker room.

In an era before the modern emphasis on interior line play, he was the kind of center who kept the offense functional week after week.

His death comes just days after the Lions organization and its extended family have been touched by other losses, including former punter Kasey Redfern’s passing after a cancer battle.

Morris’ three seasons in Detroit remain a small but solid chapter in the club’s long history of interior linemen who did the unglamorous work that made the rest of the offense possible.