Goodbye to Roman Gabriel at the age of 83.
Gabriel was the star quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams under George Allen in the sixties and won the league MVP in 1969 after the Rams selected him as the second overall pick in the 1962 draft from N.C. State.
Gabriel led the league in passing touchdowns in 1969 and was named first-team All-Pro for the only time in his career for the Rams.
Gabriel was traded to the Eagles in 1973, where he would win Comeback Player of the Year after throwing twenty-three touchdowns in his final top season. Gabriel would finish his career in 1977 as the Eagles' backup.
Goodbye to Jimmy Johnson at the age of 86.
The brother of 1960 Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete Rafer Johnson, the Hall of Fame cornerback spent his sixteen-year career with the San Francisco 49ers after the Niners took him in the first round in the 1961 draft and was either a first or second-team All-Pro eight times during his career.
Johnson's number 37 is retired by the team and finished with forty-seven interceptions as arguably the best cover corner of his era.
Goodbye to Steve Sloan at the age of 79.
Sloan led Alabama to the 1964 and 65 National titles as their quarterback and spent two seasons with the expansion Atlanta Falcons before entering coaching.
Sloan took over the constantly-inept Vanderbilt Commodores in 1973 in his first head coaching position, and in his second year led Vandy to a 7-3-1 record and a rare bowl bid in the Peach Bowl (this is the famous only to me game that made me a Texas Tech fan), where they tied 6-6 with Texas Tech in maybe the most boring bowl game ever.
Sloan then took over at Texas Tech for the 1975 season, where he finished 23-12 in three seasons with a top-five ranking during the 1976 season, with two bowl bids, and looked like a rising star in the coaching business at only thirty-three years of age.
Sloan would never coach a winning team again as he left Tech for five years at Ole Miss and four seasons at Duke, all losing records before moving into athletic administration for several schools including his alma mater, Alabama.
Goodbye to Joe Collier at the age of 91.
The defensive wizard of the Denver Broncos Orange Crush defense from 1972-88, Collier could have been a hot property as a potential head coach after his Denver work.
Collier had been a head coach before for three seasons with the AFL's Buffalo Bills and coached the Bills to the AFL title game in his first season in 1966, losing to Kansas City.
The Bills slumped to 4-10 in 1967 but Collier's decision to scrimmage immediately following a bad preseason game in 1968 backfired when starting quarterback Jack Kemp broke his leg during the scrimmage.
After losses in their first two games, Buffalo fired Collier and he would never receive another chance as a head coach.
Goodbye to Bob Avellini at the age of 70,
Avellini led Maryland to bowl games in 1973 and 74 to break an eighteen-year bowl drought and was the Terrapins leader for their 1974 ACC championship team.
Avellini was drafted in the sixth round by the Chicago Bears in 1975 and led the Bears to the playoffs as their starter in 1977.
Avellini threw over twice as many interceptions as touchdowns in his career (69 to 33) and was replaced in 1978 as the starter by Mike Phipps although he would remain as the Bears backup through 1984.
Goodbye to Eric Sievers at the age of 66.
Known for his blocking as a tight end at Maryland, Sievers caught over two hundred passes over a ten-year career spent mostly with the then-San Diego Chargers as one of the many tight ends that Air Coryell used to spell Kellen Winslow when Winslow was moved to different positions on the field to take advantage of matchups.
Sievers had his best season in his final full season, catching fifty-four passes for the Patriots in 1989 to lead AFC tight ends before a career-ending knee injury in 1990.
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