National Football League

Report: Mack Herron faces heroin charge

Published May. 7, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Former NFL record-holder Mack Herron appeared in a Chicago court Saturday on a charge of heroin possession, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Herron, who in 1974 set a league record with 2,444 all-purpose yards for the New England Patriots, was arrested Friday afternoon after police said they saw the 62-year-old walk into the back door of an abandoned building in the West Side's North Lawndale neighborhood.

When he was stopped by police, he allegedly dropped a small tin foil pack containing the heroin.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, this was Herron's 20th arrest in Chicago since the late 1960s, with many of the offenses narcotics related.

Herron earned the nickname "Mini Mack" during his playing days in the 1970s because he was an explosive runner for a man standing only 5 feet, 5 inches tall.