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The 1994-95 Chargers' tragic toll
Five of San Diego's players who reached that Super Bowl are now dead, all in unrelated events. And there were other deaths that haunt the franchise.
By LES CARPENTER, Washington Post
Last update: January 31, 2009 - 2:56 PM
Rodney Culver, RB The Chargers claimed Culver off waivers in 1994 after two years with the Colts. He scored 16 touchdowns (13 rushing and three receiving) in his four-year career. Died: May 11, 1996, along with his wife, in the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades. Age at time of death: 26
Curtis Whitley, C Whitley played for the Panthers and Raiders after the Chargers' Super Bowl season. His six-year career ended after repeated violations of the NFL's substance abuse policy. Died: May 11, 2008, of a drug overdose in his trailer in west Texas. Age at time of death: 39
Doug Miller, LB Miller never started a game in his two-year career, both with San Diego, and had to retire because of injuries. Died: July 21, 1998, after being struck by lightning while camping near Vail, Colo. Age at time of death: 28
Chris Mims, DL San Diego took Mims with the 23rd overall pick in the 1992 draft. He played seven seasons with the Chargers and one (1997) with the Redskins. Died: Oct. 15, 2008, of heart disease in his Los Angeles apartment. Age at time of death: 38
David Griggs, LB-DE Griggs came to the Chargers from Miami before the 1994 season and started all but one game. He recorded 14 1/2 sacks in six seasons. Died: June 20, 1995, in a one-car wreck in Davie, Fla. Age at time of death: 28
WASHINGTON POST
High on a cemetery hillside, far above the growl of a Los Angeles freeway, sits the freshly covered grave of former San Diego Charger Chris Mims. It is set to the side of a small chapel and surrounded by trees. Those who have visited find it a happy place. And maybe this comforts them. In life he was always the one who laughed the loudest.
When word spread on Oct. 15 that Los Angeles police had found Mims dead on the floor of his downtown apartment that morning, a familiar dread rippled through the community of former Chargers players. Not Mims. Not the one with the roaring voice that bounced merrily off locker room walls. The one whose fruitless attempts to shed weight led them to call him "the Fat Doctor."
Natrone Means, the running back, called tight end Deems May and said, "We lost the Fat Doctor."
There have been too many of these calls, too many somber e-mails, too many funerals. Once, as players, they had been a part of a Chargers team that upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game in January 1995 and went to the only Super Bowl in the franchise's history. Now, nearly 14 years later, five of them are dead.
Five men from a 53-player roster, all gone in their 20s and 30s. Marjorie Rosenberg, a professor of actuarial science and biostatistics at the University of Wisconsin, calculated the odds of something like this happening at less than 1 percent.
"I couldn't imagine one team having five guys from one calendar season just die unless it's a team crash or something," May said. "I bet you couldn't find a small business with 53 people and have five people die."
It began only weeks after Super Bowl XXIX, a 49-26 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Miami, starting with the linebacker's car that skidded across a Florida highway. Then came the running back killed in the plane crash, the linebacker who was hit by lightning and the center who was found dead in his trailer home a day after his 39th birthday.
And now Mims.
The 1994-95 Chargers' tragic toll
Five of San Diego's players who reached that Super Bowl are now dead, all in unrelated events. And there were other deaths that haunt the franchise.
By LES CARPENTER, Washington Post
Last update: January 31, 2009 - 2:56 PM
Rodney Culver, RB The Chargers claimed Culver off waivers in 1994 after two years with the Colts. He scored 16 touchdowns (13 rushing and three receiving) in his four-year career. Died: May 11, 1996, along with his wife, in the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades. Age at time of death: 26
Curtis Whitley, C Whitley played for the Panthers and Raiders after the Chargers' Super Bowl season. His six-year career ended after repeated violations of the NFL's substance abuse policy. Died: May 11, 2008, of a drug overdose in his trailer in west Texas. Age at time of death: 39
Doug Miller, LB Miller never started a game in his two-year career, both with San Diego, and had to retire because of injuries. Died: July 21, 1998, after being struck by lightning while camping near Vail, Colo. Age at time of death: 28
Chris Mims, DL San Diego took Mims with the 23rd overall pick in the 1992 draft. He played seven seasons with the Chargers and one (1997) with the Redskins. Died: Oct. 15, 2008, of heart disease in his Los Angeles apartment. Age at time of death: 38
David Griggs, LB-DE Griggs came to the Chargers from Miami before the 1994 season and started all but one game. He recorded 14 1/2 sacks in six seasons. Died: June 20, 1995, in a one-car wreck in Davie, Fla. Age at time of death: 28
WASHINGTON POST
High on a cemetery hillside, far above the growl of a Los Angeles freeway, sits the freshly covered grave of former San Diego Charger Chris Mims. It is set to the side of a small chapel and surrounded by trees. Those who have visited find it a happy place. And maybe this comforts them. In life he was always the one who laughed the loudest.
When word spread on Oct. 15 that Los Angeles police had found Mims dead on the floor of his downtown apartment that morning, a familiar dread rippled through the community of former Chargers players. Not Mims. Not the one with the roaring voice that bounced merrily off locker room walls. The one whose fruitless attempts to shed weight led them to call him "the Fat Doctor."
Natrone Means, the running back, called tight end Deems May and said, "We lost the Fat Doctor."
There have been too many of these calls, too many somber e-mails, too many funerals. Once, as players, they had been a part of a Chargers team that upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game in January 1995 and went to the only Super Bowl in the franchise's history. Now, nearly 14 years later, five of them are dead.
Five men from a 53-player roster, all gone in their 20s and 30s. Marjorie Rosenberg, a professor of actuarial science and biostatistics at the University of Wisconsin, calculated the odds of something like this happening at less than 1 percent.
"I couldn't imagine one team having five guys from one calendar season just die unless it's a team crash or something," May said. "I bet you couldn't find a small business with 53 people and have five people die."
It began only weeks after Super Bowl XXIX, a 49-26 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Miami, starting with the linebacker's car that skidded across a Florida highway. Then came the running back killed in the plane crash, the linebacker who was hit by lightning and the center who was found dead in his trailer home a day after his 39th birthday.
And now Mims.
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