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Andy Russell, a star outside linebacker who helped turn the Steelers into champions, dies at 82
AP, MSN ^ | 3/2/24 | Will Graves

Posted on 03/02/2024 11:52:41 AM PST by DallasBiff

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Andy Russell, the standout linebacker who was an integral part of the Pittsburgh Steelers' evolution from perennial losers to champions, has died. He was 82.

The team confirmed Russell's death on Saturday. There was no immediate word on the cause or place of death

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Sports
KEYWORDS: andyrussell; football; nfl; pittsburgh; sports; steelers
RIP, Andy, you played in the golden era of "Stillers"(picksburgh accent)football, before the Steelers went ultra woke.
1 posted on 03/02/2024 11:52:41 AM PST by DallasBiff
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To: DallasBiff

Had his football card in my collection.


2 posted on 03/02/2024 12:00:41 PM PST by GSWarrior
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To: DallasBiff

This is probably not going to come out right but, honestly it’s a little refreshing to hear someone had a nice long life before passing away instead of what’s now become commonplace......athletes dying in their 20s and 30s.

RIP sir......you played when men were men.


3 posted on 03/02/2024 12:06:56 PM PST by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: V_TWIN

V_TWIN wrote: “This is probably not going to come out right but, honestly it’s a little refreshing to hear someone had a nice long life before passing away instead of what’s now become commonplace......athletes dying in their 20s and 30s.”

Some just have to get in the anti-vaxxer spin. The truth about young athletes ‘dying suddenly’ has been posted multiple times, yet some continue to post this myth.

FYI:

“It beggars belief, but I still sometimes hear people claim that waves of young athletes have died suddenly after being vaccinated. It is a pervasive hoax and still repeated by people to express doubts about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines. Fortunately, we don’t have to speculate about whether young athletes are dying or not. We can simply check.”

“More important, the incidence of sudden cardiac death among athletes has gone down over the past 20 years. It has not been increasing and there was no spike in cases after the introduction of the vaccine.”

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical-general-science/athletes-vaccines-and-cardiac-deaths

Multiple other sources.


4 posted on 03/02/2024 12:23:59 PM PST by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: DallasBiff

RIP. One of my dad’s favorites, and one of the few players not drafted by Chuck Noll that played on Noll’s Superbowl teams.


5 posted on 03/02/2024 12:24:20 PM PST by kosciusko51
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To: DugwayDuke

I never said one thing about covid shots and yet YOU interjected it.......I find it interesting that you jumped to that conclusion.

I guess some people just have to get in a little covid shot lovers spin yes? 😁


6 posted on 03/02/2024 12:47:39 PM PST by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: DallasBiff

Really good LB...


7 posted on 03/02/2024 1:06:04 PM PST by Dog (..."I'm just a cook....")
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To: V_TWIN

V_TWIN wrote: “I never said one thing about covid shots and yet YOU interjected it.......I find it interesting that you jumped to that conclusion.”

V_TWIN wrote: “This is probably not going to come out right but, honestly it’s a little refreshing to hear someone had a nice long life before passing away instead of what’s now become commonplace......athletes dying in their 20s and 30s.”

Playing ‘little miss innocent’ won’t work. You most certainly interjected the anti-vaxxer narrative into this thread. When you started your post with “This is probably not going to come out right...” you knew exactly what you were doing. You got called on and with ‘facts’ disproving your little insisuation.


8 posted on 03/02/2024 1:13:04 PM PST by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: DugwayDuke

A slew of his teammates went to early graves even before COVID.

18 Steelers 2000-2006:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/18-ex-steelers-have-died-since-2000/

#34 was a semi-retired jersey for about 12 years, from Russell’s retirement to Russell Abercrombie.


9 posted on 03/02/2024 2:33:27 PM PST by scrabblehack
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To: DallasBiff
I owned a bar/restaurant/hotel back in the 70s and Andy Russell and his pal Jack Ham both were regular/irregulars during the off season and two nicer guys you could not find.

While they were both held up on pedestals in W PA, they were just two guys when they came into our joint.

The two of them did not look overly big {6' 1''-2'" 220 lbs} , and if you didn't know who they were, they just looked like a couple of strong, young buddies out for a sammich and a coupla drinks, but I wouldn't recommend messing with them.

With Ham, Lambert and Russell, they were the best trio of backers...ever, {just a Steeler junky's opinion, but name three others that won back to back Super Bowl's...EVER}.

10 posted on 03/02/2024 2:39:00 PM PST by USS Alaska (NUKE ALL MOOSELIMB TERRORISTS, NOW.)
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To: scrabblehack

scrabblehack wrote: “A slew of his teammates went to early graves even before COVID.”

Not just the Steelers. I watched, IIRC 30 30 or something, about former NFL players. One recounted over 50 surgeries due to various injuries. He said that he loved football so much he would do again even if it meant another 50 surgeries.

As one moves up the ladder from PeeWee to highschool to college to the NFL football demands more and more. You have to be willing to sacrifice your body to play at the highest levels. It isn’t at all surprising that NFL players die young.

The last time I saw Earl Campbell, he could hardly walk.


11 posted on 03/02/2024 3:02:53 PM PST by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: DugwayDuke; V_TWIN

The clotshots being a faktor is a fair concern. These old NFL players tend to air-travel a lot which recently required the shots. We lost Dave Wilcox, HOFer and Dick Butkus, HOFer also in the past half year. These guys are all my comtemporaries and were in good shape. Can’t say for sure about the others but Wilcox had the shots and his legs started failing within months. He died after a three months slide, while getting heart surgery.

Whenever someone dies now with no mention of a cause or even health history the question of the clotshots has to come up? I see it locally every day. The gutless bastids who describe these things just can’t bring themselves to level with us.


12 posted on 03/02/2024 3:39:14 PM PST by OldWarBaby
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To: OldWarBaby

OldWarBaby wrote: “Whenever someone dies now with no mention of a cause or even health history the question of the clotshots has to come up? I see it locally every day. The gutless bastids who describe these things just can’t bring themselves to level with us.”

They are leveling with you. You just choose to believe the conspiracy theories.

Like the link I posted (and there are numerous more) that debunk the narrative that athletes are dying as a result of the vaccines. Atheletic deaths are down, not up, yet there are people who want to push a false narrative. You notice that most of those pushing those false narratives are making a profit off of those narratives?


13 posted on 03/02/2024 3:57:42 PM PST by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: DallasBiff

That was a great team. Great memories. I don’t have a certain team I root for. I loved football back then. Now I leave it on as background noise. Don’t really watch it.


14 posted on 03/03/2024 8:02:32 AM PST by Hyman Roth
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