Cleaning out the inbox-Passings

We start with another passing as former Jets and Chiefs running back Joe McKnight was shot and killed in his hometown of New Orleans.
The 28 year old McKnight was killed in a road rage incident that saw him unarmed against a gun-toting assailant.
McKnight was a premiere running back at USC and I really thought he was underrated in being selected in the fourth round by the Jets in 2010.
McKnight spent three years as a Jet before being released and picked up by Kansas City,where he scored two touchdowns in two games before tearing his Achilles tendon.
McKnight played this season in Canada in an attempt for a comeback and split the year between Saskatchewan and Edmonton.

Two more athletic passings-both in Colorado and far too young.
Former Colorado Avalanche winger Marek Svatos died of a drug overdose at the age of 34.
Svatos  scored 32 goals as a rookie with the Avalanche and 87 over his first four years before a steep decline that saw him score just ten goals over the remainder of his career.
Svatos dealt with several injuries in the NHL and in Europe and perhaps that the entryway to drug abuse started with these injuries?

1994 Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam was found in a park in Boulder,having committed suicide at the age of 42.
Salaam won the trophy in Boulder as a member of the Colorado Buffaloes with a season that saw him rush for over two thousand yards and 24 touchdowns before being the first round pick in 1995 by the Chicago Bears.
Salaam became the youngest player to rush for over 1,000 yards in the NFL in his rookie season in Chicago,but various issues (Injury,Marijuana and Fumbling) kept Salaam from rushing for even half of his previous total over the next two seasons.
Salaam would play two games for the expansion Browns and spent time attempting to come back in the XFL with the Memphis Maniax and the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts before ending his career in 2004 in the Argonaut training camp.

We wrap up with the passing of Margaret Whitton from cancer at the age of 67.
Whitton was best remembered for her classic portrayal of "Rachel Phelps" in the Major League films.
I don't how many times with various people that fans of the movie have done "This guy's dead" followed by the Whitton deadpan reply "Cross him off then!".
Whitton also had roles in "Secret of my Success" a Michael J.Fox vehicle and the underrated Robin Williams/Kurt Russell film "Best of Times"...