Charlie Sanders

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Charlie Sanders
Date of birth	August 25, 1946
Place of birth	Greensboro, North Carolina
Position(s)	Tight end
College	Minnesota
NFL Draft	1968 / Round 3
Pro Bowls	7
Honors	NFL 1970s All-Decade Team
Statistics	Pro Football Reference DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1968-1977	Detroit Lions

Charles Alvin Sanders (born August 25, 1946, Greensboro, North Carolina) is a former American football player who played tight end for the Detroit Lions from 1968-77.

Sanders attended James B. Dudley High School in Greensboro and the University of Minnesota. The Lions chose him in the third round of the 1968 NFL Draft, and he became their starting tight end for the next ten seasons. He had 336 career receptions and was known as a superior blocker as well as a receiver. He was chosen for the NFC Pro Bowl seven times (1968-71 and 1974-76), and was named to the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team as selected by voters of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is one of seventeen 2006 finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame to be voted on by the Hall's Seniors Committee. Sanders is also a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

After his retirement as a player, Sanders worked with the Lions as an assistant in charge of wide receivers (1989-96) and is currently their assistant director of pro personnel. In 2005, he co-authored "Charlie Sanders' Tales from the Detroit Lions," a book of anecdotes about the team and its players. Sanders and his wife, Georgianna, have nine children and live in Rochester Hills, Michigan. One of his daughters is a pro boxer, and one of his sons played football at Ohio State University, and had a brief NFL career with the Detroit Lions.