CHICAGO, May 8 (UPI) -- Former football star Mack Herron was in a Chicago jail Sunday after the latest in a series of drug-related arrests dating back to 1969, police said.
Herron, who broke Gale Sayers' NFL all-purpose yardage record, wound up in custody over the weekend after he allegedly was caught with a $10 rock of heroin outside an abandoned building on the Windy City's West Side.
"He's always had problems," a police officer familiar with Herron's past told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Family members told the newspaper they were surprised at Herron's arrest – his 20th pinch since 1969 – and bemoaned his inability to win a pension from the National Football League. They said Herron, 62, is largely on the public dole while doing occasional landscaping work and working on a memoir about his up-and-down life.
"He's got diabetes and a problem with his ankles and legs at times," said his mother. "Sometimes he can hardly walk, and he's in constant pain."
Herron, a product of Chicago's Farragut High School, attended Kansas State and played for the New England Patriots and Canada's Winnipeg Blue Bombers. His playing career ended in 1978 when he was sentenced to five years in prison for dealing cocaine.
