Fred Dryer took a long and messy path to Los Angeles. A first-round pick of the New York Giants in 1969 out of San Diego State, he played well enough in New York but grew unhappy, and the feeling was mutual. The Giants traded him to New England. Dryer refused to play for the Patriots without a new contract, so they moved him along to the Rams. The deal finally put him back in Southern California, exactly where he wanted to be.

Once he settled in as a defensive end, the production followed. In 1973, he did something no one else has ever done: he recorded two safeties in the same game against Green Bay, both in the fourth quarter of a 24-7 win. The next year he tied Jack Youngblood for the unofficial league lead with 15 sacks and earned First-Team All-Pro honors. He followed that with a Pro Bowl selection in 1975. Dryer was a long, athletic pass rusher who could close on quarterbacks quickly, and for a few seasons he was one of the league’s better ends.

The Rams kept contending, and Dryer stayed a regular part of the defensive line. He helped them reach Super Bowl XIV after the 1979 season. By then the individual awards had dried up, but he was still productive enough to start and contribute. The sack totals were no longer league-leading, yet he remained a reliable presence opposite Youngblood on teams that won the NFC West repeatedly.

Dryer played through the 1981 season before retiring. With the Rams, he was a one-time Pro Bowler and All-Pro who set a still-standing record with those two safeties and helped the franchise reach the Super Bowl. The peak years were strong. The later ones were more ordinary, the kind of solid but unspectacular work that keeps a defense together without drawing headlines. 

After football, he built a second career as an actor. He starred as the title character in the long-running NBC series Hunter, a move that made him better known to many people than anything he did on the field. The defensive end who once chased down two quarterbacks in the same quarter for safeties ended up chasing criminals on television, which felt like a fitting second act for a player who always seemed to have a flair for the dramatic.