Kenneth Allan Anderson (born February 15, 1949) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. He later returned as a position coach.
After playing college football for the Augustana Vikings and earning National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-American honors, Anderson was selected in the third round of the 1971 NFL draft by the Bengals. Over the course of his 16-season NFL career, Anderson led the league in passer rating four times, completion percentage three times and passing yards twice. In 1981, he was awarded NFL Most Valuable Player and NFL Offensive Player of the Year, a season in which he led the Bengals to their first Super Bowl appearance. In 1982, Anderson set an NFL single-season record for completion percentage of 70.6%—which stood for over 25 years until broken by Drew Brees in 2009.
As of the end of the 2024 NFL season, Anderson holds the Bengals franchise passing records in yards.
After his professional playing career, Anderson served as a radio broadcaster for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1987 to 1993. From 1993 to 2002, he served as the Bengals quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. Anderson later became the quarterbacks coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars (2003–2006) and Pittsburgh Steelers (2007–2009), before retiring in 2010.
Anderson has been a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame three times, and is often regarded as one of the best players not in the Hall of Fame.
Early life Anderson was born in Batavia, Illinois. Growing up in Batavia, Anderson's backyard adjoined his friend, Dan Issel’s back yard. Anderson's father was a janitor at Batavia High School, and the Issel property on Harrison Street backed onto that of the Andersons' on Republic Road. Growing up together, Issel and Anderson rode in Issel's red Ford convertible and frequented the Twin Elms restaurant. Later, Anderson and Issel would co-own a 782-acre farm in Kentucky. Another neighbor and teammate, Byron Von Hoff, played basketball and other sports at Batavia with Anderson and Issel. Issel became a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame basketball player with the Kentucky Colonels and Denver Nuggets. Von Hoff was the second round pick of the New York Mets in the 1966 Amateur Baseball draft and pitched successfully in the minor leagues before an injury ended his career. Another friend and teammate at Batavia was future NBA announcer Craig Sager.
Professional career After playing for and graduating from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, Anderson was selected in the third round with the 67th overall pick in the 1971 NFL draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, where he would soon become noted for his short-range passes and running. Anderson made four starts in the 1971 season while playing in seven other games (Virgil Carter was the primary quarterback) in a year where the Bengals fell off from a productive previous season. He rushed for 125 yards on 22 total carries for one touchdown while being sacked 23 times. However, Anderson was given more rein in 1972, going 7–6 as a starter with 1,918 yards for seven touchdowns and interceptions while having a 56.8 completion percentage. With 22 carries, he also ran for 94 yards and three touchdowns while fumbling it five times and being sacked eighteen times. The Bengals started 5–2, but they only won three of their next seven to miss the playoffs.
The 1973 season proved better, as Anderson went 10–4 as a starter and threw for 2,428 yards while having eighteen touchdowns to twelve interceptions and had a 54.4 completion percentage, with Anderson helping to lead them to the AFC Central Division title with a six-game winning streak. In the playoffs that year, they were tasked to play the defending champion Miami Dolphins in the Orange Bowl. Special teams helped negate a bad start on offense that meant the Bengals only trailed 21–16 at halftime. However, the Dolphins pressed the Bengals for thirteen unanswered points to win 34–16, aided by a running attack that ran for over 200 yards on Cincinnati's defense. Anderson went 14-of-27 for 113 yards and one interception.
In 1974 Anderson threw for a league high in completions, completion percentage (64.9), yards (2,667) and passer rating (95.7) while going for eighteen touchdowns to ten interceptions, but the Bengals went 7–6 in his thirteen starts. In 1975, Anderson threw for a league high 3,169 yards while throwing for 21 touchdowns to eleven interceptions for a 60.5 completion percentage. He had league highs in yards gained per pass attempt, yards per game and passer rating while being named to his first Pro Bowl and leading the Bengals to a 10–3 record (John Reaves started and won a game without Anderson). One of the finest performances of his early career was in a Monday Night Football game against the Buffalo Bills on November 17, 1975, where Anderson passed for a franchise record 447 yards as the Bengals racked up a franchise record 553 offensive yards in a 33–24 win. It was the Bengals' first ever win in a Monday night game. With Bill Walsh as his quarterbacks coach, Anderson was one of the first quarterbacks to run what would become known as the "West Coast Offense". The Bengals won the AFC Central for the second time in three seasons, but they were tasked to play against the Oakland Raiders away from their stadium (as per the NFL's policy of rotating playoff hosts by year). Anderson went 17-of-27 for 201 yards for two touchdowns. However, the Raiders out-dueled the Bengals with better rushing and time, as they only punted once during the entire game (along with committing two turnovers), and they held on despite nearly blowing a ten-point lead in the fourth quarter to win 31–28. It was the last season with Paul Brown as coach, as he tapped Bill "Tiger" Johnson to replace him, but it was also the last with Walsh with the Bengals, as he left for the San Diego Chargers soon after.
In 1976, Anderson's Bengals won nine of their first eleven games, but the wheels fell off shortly after with them losing two of their next three, which included two losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers, for which the division rival slipped by with a spot due to tiebreakers while the Bengals stayed home. Despite this, Anderson had a Pro Bowl caliber year, throwing for 2,367 yards with nineteen touchdowns and fourteen interceptions for a 10–4 record, although his passer rating and completion percentage all dropped considerably. Anderson and the Bengals regressed in 1977. He went 7–6 as a starter (Reaves played and won his only start), throwing for 2,145 yards with eleven touchdowns and interceptions, but the Bengals still had a chance to make the postseason on the final week. Needing to beat the Houston Oilers, Anderson threw 8-of-23 for 97 yards and one touchdown while being tackled for a safety in an ugly game where the two teams combined for five fumbles and the Oilers won 21–16 to keep the Bengals out of the playoffs.
In 1978, Anderson broke a bone in his right hand, and he did not play in the first four games. The Bengals lost all four with Reaves as quarterback, and Johnson quit as coach after an 0–5 start. Anderson went 4–8 as quarterback, but he passed for 2,219 yards with ten touchdowns and 22 interceptions (a career high). In the 1979 season, Anderson went 4–11 as a starter while throwing for 2,340 yards with sixteen touchdowns and ten interceptions while leading the league with 46 sacks. Anderson went 5–7 as a starter in 1980 with 1,778 yards passing, which was the least he threw as a primary starter. He had just six touchdowns to go with thirteen interceptions.
The 1981 season was the reckoning for Anderson. In the Bengals' opening game against the Seattle Seahawks, Anderson was intercepted twice in the first half and the Seahawks built up a 21–0 first quarter lead. In the second half, with the Bengals trailing 21–10, Cincinnati coach Forrest Gregg benched Anderson and brought in third-string quarterback Turk Schonert (second-string quarterback Jack Thompson was injured at the time). With Schonert in command of the offense, the Bengals stormed back and won the game 27–21. Despite the benching, Anderson would start every game of the whole season. He threw for a career high 3,754 yards while having 29 touchdowns to ten interceptions while leading the league in touchdown/interception percentage along with passer rating (98.4). Anderson also gained another 320 yards and one touchdown on the ground. This performance earned him both the Associated Press and Professional Football Writers of America NFL Most Valuable Player Awards and the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award. The Bengals went 12–4 and won the AFC Central and the #1 seed in the American Football Conference. Anderson first faced the Buffalo Bills in the Divisional round. He went 14-of-21 for 192 yards with one touchdown as the Bengals outdueled the Bills 28–21, with Anderson's touchdown pass to Cris Collinsworth with 10:39 remaining being the winning score. Anderson and the Bengals had their first postseason win and thus were slated to host the AFC Championship Game. Facing off against future Hall of Famer Dan Fouts and the San Diego Chargers, the game was referred to later as the Freezer Bowl, owing to conditions of −9 °F in Cincinnati on gameday. Anderson lived up to the challenge on the frozen tundra, passing 14-of-22 for 161 yards for two touchdowns as the Bengals led for the entire game and won 27–7 to win their first ever conference championship. In Super Bowl XVI, the Bengals played the San Francisco 49ers, now led by former coach Walsh in a matchup of the two best teams in the NFL. Anderson ended the first drive of the game with an interception, and the 49ers responded with a touchdown six minutes later. The Bengals committed two further turnovers that led to ten subsequent points as the 49ers roared to a 20–0 halftime lead. Anderson led them to a touchdown on the first drive of the second half. The Bengals tried to drive into the endzone midway through the third, but they were stuffed one yard short of the end zone that kept the score 20–7. Despite this, the Bengals made it 20–14 on a touchdown drive capped by an Anderson throw with ten minutes remaining. Five minutes later, trailing 23–14, Anderson threw an interception that led to a subsequent field goal for San Francisco. With two minutes left, Anderson did lead the Bengals on a touchdown drive of 74 yards, but by the time Anderson's throw to the end zone had occurred, there were just twenty seconds left as the 49ers hung on to win 26–21. Anderson completed 25-of-34 passes for 300 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions while having fourteen rushing yards and a touchdown on five rushing attempts. At the time, his 25 completions and 73.5% completion percentage were both Super Bowl records.