CHICAGO (AP) – Former NFL great Mack Herron is in police custody after being charged with heroin possession in Chicago.

The 62-year-old played for the New England Patriots in the 1970s and Kansas State before that. The team’s web site says he set a 1974 NFL record with 2,444 all-purpose yards.

Chicago police say they spotted Herron on Friday near an abandoned building with a tinfoil packet containing heroin. They say Herron has been arrested some 20 times and served jail time, mainly on drug convictions.

Bail is set at $25,000.

No phone listing for Herron could be found Sunday.

Family members were perplexed by the arrest. His sister tells The Chicago Sun-Times that Herron was a religious man who didn’t smoke or drink.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)