Eugene "Mercury" Morris (born January 5, 1947) is a former American football player who played running back in the American Football League in the 1960s and the NFL in the 1970s. He played in three Super Bowls.
Morris was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Avonworth High School in Pittsburgh. Morris attended West Texas A&M University from 1965 to 1969, where he was an All-American at tailback in 1967 and 1968. After college, he was picked in the third round of the 1969 AFL-NFL Common Draft by the AFL's Miami Dolphins.
Morris was selected for three Pro Bowls over his nine-year professional career. The majority of his playing days were spent with the Miami Dolphins which he helped lead to Super Bowl VI which they lost to a strong Dallas team, he earned Super Bowl rings in Super Bowl VII and Super Bowl VIII. Morris, sharing halfback duties with Jim Kiick, was instrumental as part of the historic Dolphins undefeated team of 1972. That year, he ran for exactly 1,000 yds, becoming, with teammate Larry Csonka, the first 1,000-yard tandem in NFL history. Morris was first thought to have finished with 991 yards, but the Dolphins asked the league to examine a play in which Morris fumbled a lateral. Morris was awarded the nine yards previously scored as lost on the play, giving him 1,000 yards for the season. Morris rushed for 954 yards the next season. Morris spent the last season of his career playing for the San Diego Chargers. He finished in the top five of the NFL in rushing touchdowns twice and total touchdowns once during his nine-year career.
In 1974, Morris co-starred as Bookie Garrett in the blaxploitation film The Black Six alongside other football stars of the day.
In 1982, Morris was convicted of cocaine trafficking. He was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment with a mandatory fifteen-year term. On March 6, 1986, his conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court because evidence Morris had offered to prove his entrapment defense had been excluded under a mistaken characterization as hearsay. Morris was granted a new trial. He was able to reach a plea bargain with the prosecutor, resulting in his release from prison May 23, 1986, after having served three years. He later went on to a career as a motivational speaker. Towards the end of 2006, his name has come up in a commercial spot for a hair-treatment clinic, along with Wade Boggs.
