Alan Page

Purple People Eaters tackle, the first defensive player named NFL MVP, and later a Minnesota Supreme Court justice.

Alan Page (born August 7, 1945) is a former defensive tackle who played 15 NFL seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears, and later served on the Minnesota Supreme Court. In 1971 he became the first defensive player to be named the AP NFL Most Valuable Player, and he was also the first winner of the AP Defensive Player of the Year award.

Quick Facts

Office: Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court
Took office: January 4, 1993
Left office: August 31, 2015
Predecessor: Lawrence R. Yetka
Successor: Natalie Hudson
Birth name: Alan Cedric Page
Born: 7 August 1945
Birthplace: Canton, Ohio, U.S.

Facts from the source article.

Background

Page played college football at Notre Dame, where he earned a degree in political science in 1967, and he was part of the Vikings' Purple People Eaters line. Only Lawrence Taylor has since won the MVP award as a defensive player. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988, and in 2019 he was named to the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. He earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1978 and was an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1993 until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2015.