Merl Code is a lawyer and former Grey Cup champion Canadian Football League player. The son of Allen Louis Code and Sedalia Blassingame Code, he played his college football at North Carolina A&T University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics (Cum Laude.) After his football days were over, Code returned to school at the University of South Carolina's School of Law, earning his Juris Doctorate degree in 1979. He was an Earl Warren Legal Scholar, and became the first African American to serve as president of the Student Bar Association at USC.