John Dockery '67 may very well be the only man on earth with a Harvard class ring and a Super Bowl ring. And there's a reason for that, the former sideline broadcaster says--a Harvard degree is not much of an asset in the National Football League.

Dockery played cornerback for the championship-winning 1969 New York Jets. But during his NFL career, Dockery says his Ivy League background created more problems than opportunities.

"People look at you as if you are somewhat of a misfit," Dockery says. "The places that I went, my Harvard degree was not an asset. It gave me an identity, but it was not necessarily something that was going to help me along with my career."

Dockery played halfback and safety for the Crimson and played football with the Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers until 1974. He said when he first joined the NFL, other players were reluctant to take him seriously.

"My degree was not a detriment, but I would have developed more as an athlete if I had gone to a state school," he says. "The people were very skeptical in the profession about the Ivy League."

Part of this hostility came from the Jets' most famous player, quarterback Joe Namath.

"People joked about Ivy League football that it was 'tough tackle with pads,'" Dockery recalls. "There was graffiti on my locker from people like Joe Namath saying things like 'Ivy League practice today.' "

But Dockery said his education did leave him with an advantage in brainpower. The intricacies of strategy, he said, sometimes proved too much for the other players.

"They wouldn't have any ability with the mental side of the game," he says.