The Los Angeles Rams family lost a quiet piece of its Super Bowl XIV chapter this month. Bob Lee, the veteran quarterback who closed his NFL career in a Rams helmet, has died in San Francisco at 81.
For two seasons at the end of a long and wandering professional life, he was the experienced arm on the sideline while the franchise chased its first Super Bowl title.
Lee arrived in Los Angeles in 1979 after years as a backup and occasional starter with the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons.
The Rams already had Pat Haden and Vince Ferragamo at the top of the depth chart. Lee’s job was the one that rarely makes highlight reels: stay ready, know the offense, and give the room a veteran who had already seen Super Sundays. He appeared in a handful of games over those two years.
His most memorable throw in Rams colors came against his old Minnesota club, a 41-yard scoring pass that helped Los Angeles win in overtime. It was the last touchdown of a career that finished with 5,034 passing yards, 30 scores, and a 19-11 record as a starter.
That 1979 roster carried the franchise to Super Bowl XIV. Lee did not take a snap in the loss to Pittsburgh, but he was part of the traveling party that reached the game. For a player drafted in the 17th round in 1968, making it that far as a 34-year-old reserve was its own kind of persistence.
He had already won an NFL championship as a rookie with the Vikings in 1969 and later started playoff games in Minnesota, including the muddy 1977 divisional win over the Rams themselves. Los Angeles became the last stop rather than the main chapter, the place where a 12-season career finally ended after the 1980 season.
Lee’s path to the NFL began in California. After time at Arizona State he transferred to the University of the Pacific, where he played quarterback and kicker and was named team MVP as a senior.
After football he returned to Pacific as athletic director from 1991 to 1996 and helped expand the school’s facilities. He is survived by his wife, Janice, their children Matt, Jenna and Zac, and six grandchildren.
Rams fans who remember the late-1970s teams will recall Lee less as a star than as a professional who finished the job.
He was the kind of backup who kept the offense on schedule when injuries hit and who understood what a Super Bowl week felt like because he had already lived it.
That is a small but real part of franchise history.
