Former Steeler Dwight White Passes
 

Former Pittsburgh Steeler Dwight White passed away yesterday at the age of 58. He was part of the Steel Curtain Defense which brought four Super Bowl wins in the 1970's.

The one part of the article intrigued me: "White's death follows a trend in which former Steelers players have died at an uncommon rate. At least 38 former Steelers players have died since 2000, with 17 of them 59 or younger, as was White.

"According to a Los Angeles Times survey in 2006, one-fifth of the former NFL players from the 1970s and 1980s who died through that year were former Steelers." (ALAN ROBINSON, AP Sports Writer)

I wonder if other teams have had a similar phenomenon?

I happened to meet Dwight's wife (Karen) on a plane to Chicago once, and it turned out that we had mutual friends. When I told her that my daddy had had a heart attack during a game but wouldn't go to the hospital until halftime, she took his address, and had her husband send my daddy an autographed photo & letter. Truly a classy family - Rest In Peace, Dwight.

RIP Dwight White. :( At least he was able to go to the 75th Season "Homecoming" (as Brian Billick put it) with Steeler alumni.

It's interesting - I was looking at the list, and they link steroids to at least a couple of those (Courson, Mike Webster). The list also notes that a number have died due to heart and kidney failure. You don't want to immediately blame it on steroids, as there could have been other issues (like over-medication or alcoholism to deal with post-football injuries).

However, you hear stories about the Raiders teams of those days, and steroid use being rampant around the NFL, and you have to at least consider it as a factor.

I was thinking about the amount of head injuries/concussions each may have suffered as a possibility. At least Terry Bradshaw comes right out and says that he had nothing to lose!

That's true as well; I did my law journal note on the insurance issues surrounding the fight between retired players and the NFL, and it's incredible the number of claims that have been brought by retired players for neurological damage following their careers.