Cannon was a Blast for the Raiders at TE

The Las Vegas Raiders have added multiple tight ends this offseason, but can any of them blast off for the Silver and Black like Billy Cannon?

Running back/tight end Billy Cannon is another player from the days of the American Football League in the 1960s who probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his performance with the Oakland Raiders for six seasons.

Cannon was a two-time consensus All-American running back at LSU who captured the 1959 Heisman Trophy and was the first pick of the 1960 AFL Draft by the Houston Oilers and the top pick of the National Football League Draft by the Los Angeles Rams.

The 6-1, 210-pound Cannon rushed for 2,111 yards and 14 touchdowns in four seasons with the Oilers, topped the AFL in rushing with 948 yards in 1961, and led Houston to AFL championships in the first two seasons of the league in 1960 and 1961.

However, after Cannon was injured in 1963, the Oilers traded him to the Raiders the following year.

“Cannon, the AFL’s first superstar, former Heisman trophy winner and twice an All-American back at Louisiana State University, came to Oakland yesterday in exchange for three football players, flanker Dobie Craig, guard Sonny Bishop, and fullback Bob Jackson,” Sports Editor George Ross wrote in the Oakland Tribune.

The new Coach and General Manager, Al Davis of the Raiders, had a different idea for Cannon.

Davis moved Cannon to tight end in 1964 and helped revolutionize the position's future, making tight ends deep threats. Not only that, being an exceptional athlete, he also was a strong blocker for running backs, Clem Daniels and Hewritt Dixon.

“Cannon had the speed to get down the field, past linebackers and even most defensive backs,” Davis said of the move. “I knew he could get open deep and make some big plays and touchdowns for us.”

That was part of what Davis called “The Vertical Passing Game.”

Cannon caught 37 passes for 545 yards and five touchdowns in 1964 and made 32 receptions for 629 yards and ten scores in 1967 when he helped the Silver and Black reach Super Bowl II, where he made two catches for 25 yards in a 33-14 defeat to the Green Bay Packers.

“I hated the tight end position at first, but after I hurt my back my third year in Houston, it was a position I should have been playing,” Cannon said a year later. “There were things I could do previously that I couldn’t do anymore. Now I wasn't going to tell anybody that I couldn't do it because I wanted the money; I wanted to play.

“Al told me, ‘Billy I’m going to extend your career and I’m going to move you to tight end. He said all my tight ends are hurt. He said, just play three or four games for me.’”

Cannon wound up playing the rest of his career at tight end and caught 134 passes for the Raiders for 2,268 yards, a 16.9 average, and 25 touchdowns—including scores of 75, 64, and 53 yards. He made All-AFL in 1967 and 1968 and was selected to the 1969 Pro Bowl before leaving the Silver and Black for his final pro season with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1970.

In his career, Cannon amassed 3,656 yards receiving, 2,455 yards rushing, and 1,882 return yards—for a combined total of 8,003 yards and 63 touchdowns.

Cannon graduated from LSU in 1959 and completed post-graduate studies at the University of Tennessee. There, he also earned a D.D.S. and an additional degree in orthodontia at Loyola University in Chicago. After retiring from football, he returned to Baton Rouge and started his dental practice.

Despite a successful practice, by 1983, he was in financial difficulties from bad real estate investments and gambling debts. Cannon became involved in a counterfeiting scheme and was convicted along with five others. He served two-and-a-half years of a five-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas, where he was released in 1996.

Cannon suffered a stroke in 2013 and was hospitalized but fully recovered. However, he died in his sleep on May 20, 2018, at his home in St. Francisville, La., at the age of 80.

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