Rosey Grier holds an estimated net worth of $5 million. This former NFL star turned his success on the football field into a decades-long career spanning acting, music, ministry, writing, and even politics. His path from sports to sustained wealth shows how athletes can build lasting financial security through range rather than a single big payday.
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What is Rosey Grier’s Net Worth?
Rosey Grier’s net worth is most commonly cited at $5 million, a figure that has held steady across financial sources for years. As with most celebrity net worth figures, this is an estimate rather than a disclosed number — Grier hasn’t detailed his finances publicly, and the methodology behind the $5 million figure isn’t published anywhere. A few sources place his wealth somewhat higher, but $5 million remains the standard, most consistently cited estimate.
This wealth reflects income built across roughly seven decades and several unrelated careers — professional football, television and film acting, music, book publishing, motivational speaking, ministry, and even a brief run at elected office. Rather than one dominant income source, Grier’s net worth is the product of consistently finding new work whenever one chapter of his career wound down.
Grier’s income has come from:
- NFL salary (peaking at roughly $42,000 a year with the Rams)
- Television and film acting across nearly 70 credits
- Music recordings spanning 25 years
- Royalties from six published books
- Paid motivational speaking
- Ministry and nonprofit-related work
Who Is Rosey Grier?
Born July 14, 1932, in Cuthbert, Georgia, Roosevelt “Rosey” Grier was one of twelve children in a family that worked the land growing sugar cane and peanuts. Because of farm work and the distance to school, he could only attend classes a few days a week as a young child. After World War II, the family relocated to Roselle, New Jersey, where Grier was finally able to attend school full time — he graduated from Abraham Clark High School in 1951, already a standout in both football and track and field.
At Penn State, Grier played both offense and defense on the football line and also competed as a shot put, discus, and javelin thrower, earning Track & Field All-American honors. He earned his degree in 1956, a year after the New York Giants had already drafted him.
Grier went on to a 12-year NFL career and became part of the “Fearsome Foursome,” widely regarded as one of the most dominant defensive lines in NFL history. He is now the last surviving member of that famous unit.
After football, Grier’s life took an unexpected turn into public history. As a bodyguard for his friend, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Grier was assigned to protect Kennedy’s wife, Ethel, on the night of the June 1968 assassination. When gunman Sirhan Sirhan opened fire, Grier joined others in wrestling the gun away and physically restraining Sirhan afterward — an act he later described in detail, saying he pulled back the weapon’s hammer so it couldn’t fire again before disarming the shooter completely.
Grier’s post-football decades were similarly eventful: he toured Vietnam with Bob Hope’s USO show in 1968, became politically active — first as a Democrat, later switching parties and speaking at the 1984 Republican National Convention in support of Ronald Reagan — and even briefly ran for California governor in 2017 before ending the campaign. In 1994, he was among those who visited O.J. Simpson in jail during the murder investigation that became a defining media event of the decade.
Career Highlights
Grier’s NFL career began with the New York Giants, who selected him in the third round of the 1955 draft. He started 85 games for the Giants from 1955 through 1962, reaching the NFL Championship in 1956 and five Eastern Conference titles along the way. In 1963, the Giants traded him to the Los Angeles Rams, where he joined Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, and Lamar Lundy to form the “Fearsome Foursome.” His playing career ended in 1967 after a torn Achilles tendon.
Over his 12 seasons, Grier earned two Pro Bowl selections (1956, 1960) and multiple All-Pro honors across both teams. His entire career predates the Super Bowl era, so despite reaching NFL Championship games, he never played in one.
After retiring, Grier moved into television, hosting his own Los Angeles show, “The Rosey Grier Show,” for three seasons. His acting career eventually spanned close to 70 television and film credits over three decades — including recurring or notable roles on “Daniel Boone,” “Kojak,” “The Jeffersons,” “Sesame Street,” and even a 1999 guest appearance on “The Simpsons,” alongside films like “The Thing with Two Heads” (1972) and “Carter’s Army” (1970).
Music added another income stream: Grier recorded across several labels for 25 years, and his tribute single to Robert Kennedy, “People Make the World,” was his only charting record.
Grier also became known for an unlikely hobby-turned-career: needlepoint and macramé, which he picked up during his playing days. His 1973 book, “Rosey Grier’s Needlepoint for Men,” became a surprise hit and a defining part of his public identity — he went on to write five more books over the following decades, including an autobiography and several works aimed at motivational and Christian audiences.
Grier was ordained a Protestant minister in 1983 and founded American Neighborhood Enterprises the following year, a nonprofit that helps low-income city residents buy homes and access job training.
Four Main Income Sources
1. NFL Earnings
Grier’s 12-year NFL career gave him his financial foundation, though NFL pay in his era was a fraction of today’s contracts. His salary climbed from a modest rookie rate with the Giants in 1955 to roughly $42,000 annually by his final years with the Rams. His football fame — not the salary itself — is what opened the doors that followed.
2. Entertainment Income
Grier built one of the more substantial post-football media careers of any athlete of his generation, combining nearly 70 acting credits with a self-hosted television show and a quarter-century recording career. No single entertainment role made him rich; the combined, sustained volume of work across three decades is what mattered financially.
3. Books and Speaking
Grier’s six published books — starting with his unexpected needlepoint bestseller and continuing through an autobiography and several inspirational titles — generated ongoing royalties and helped establish him as a distinctive, in-demand motivational speaker. That speaking career, built on a genuinely unusual public persona for a former NFL lineman, became a durable income source well into his later decades.
4. Ministry, Nonprofit Work, and Public Service
Grier’s ordination in 1983 and his nonprofit work through American Neighborhood Enterprises reflected a shift toward mission-driven work over maximizing income, though speaking fees and related opportunities kept this phase financially active. His long involvement with the Milken Family Foundation, where he has served on the board and as a program administrator, adds a philanthropic dimension to this period that isn’t primarily about his own earnings but reflects his continued public standing.
Lifestyle and Assets
By most accounts, Grier has lived modestly relative to his level of fame, without the trappings — luxury cars, high-profile real estate, extensive public spending — often associated with athletes and entertainers of his stature. Detailed public information about his specific current assets is limited.
What’s better documented is the composition of his wealth: decades of book and music royalties, memorabilia value tied to his NFL and entertainment careers, and NFL pension benefits from his playing days. That financial discipline, sustained across a career with no single enormous payday, likely explains how he’s maintained millionaire status well into his 90s.
Personal Life and Family
Grier has a daughter, Sherryl Brown-Tubbs, from an early relationship. He married Beatrice Lewis in 1962; she had a daughter, Denise, whom Grier adopted, and the couple divorced in 1970. In 1973, he married Margie Grier, with whom he had a son, Roosevelt Kennedy Grier, in 1972. That marriage ended in divorce in 1978, but the couple remarried in 1981 and stayed together until Margie’s death in 2011. Grier later married Cydnee Seyler, a Wichita schoolteacher, in 2013.
His nephew, Mike Grier, followed him into professional sports — though in hockey rather than football — going on to a 14-year NHL playing career and later becoming the league’s first Black general manager, with the San Jose Sharks.
Grier experienced a profound personal loss in 2019, when his grandson, Rosey Grier III, was shot and killed in Atlanta at age 25. The tragedy affected him deeply but did not change his long-standing commitment to community service. Now in his 90s, Grier’s family ties remain strong, with his daughter Sherryl continuing his tradition of community involvement.
FAQs
What is Rosey Grier’s net worth?
Most sources place it at an estimated $5 million, though this figure isn’t publicly verified and some estimates run somewhat higher.
How did Rosey Grier make his money?
Through a 12-year NFL career, nearly three decades of acting and television work, a 25-year recording career, royalties from six books, and paid motivational speaking tied to his ministry and public profile.
Is Rosey Grier still alive?
Yes. Grier, born in July 1932, is in his 90s and is one of the oldest living former NFL players, as well as the last surviving member of the original Fearsome Foursome.
Did Rosey Grier play in a Super Bowl?
No. His entire NFL career, from 1955 to 1967, predates the Super Bowl era, though he did reach the NFL Championship game and won the title with the Giants in 1956.
Why is Rosey Grier famous outside of football?
Beyond his playing career, Grier is widely known for helping subdue Sirhan Sirhan after the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, for his acting and music careers, for his needlepoint books, and for his decades of ministry and community work.
Conclusion
Rosey Grier’s estimated $5 million net worth reflects a lifetime of range rather than one defining payday. From the football field to Hollywood sets to political conventions to church pulpits, he kept finding new arenas to work in — often in areas few would have predicted for a former NFL lineman. His story is less about the size of any single career than about the staying power of someone willing to keep reinventing himself, decade after decade.
