Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Hall of Famer Webster dies at 50
Sad ending for one of the game's greats
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH - Mike Webster, the Hall of Fame center who helped the Pittsburgh Steelers win four Super Bowls and whose life spiraled into drug use and homelessness after he retired, died Tuesday at age 50.
Webster died in the coronary care unit at Allegheny General Hospital.
Webster was widely considered one of the game's greatest centers and was voted in 2000 to the All-Time NFL Team. During his career from 1974-90, he made the Pro Bowl nine times and won the four Super Bowls in his first six seasons.
When he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997, he was separated from his wife and children. There also were reports he was heavily in debt, living in his car at times and was suffering from depression and memory loss.
Webster was living in suburban Pittsburgh with his son, Garrett, a senior lineman in high school.
Webster often went entire seasons without missing an offensive play, anchoring a Steelers line that paved the way for Franco Harris' numerous 1,000-yard seasons and protected Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw.
He left the Steelers after the 1988 season and played his final two years with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Mike's toughness and unswerving dedication to excellence, often hidden by his quiet demeanor, inspired all who knew him,” said John Bankert, executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Webster was diagnosed in 1999 as having brain damage caused by repeated head injuries during his career. His doctors said several concussions damaged his frontal lobe, causing cognitive dysfunction. The progressively worsening injury caused him to behave erratically, and Webster briefly was homeless, sleeping in bus stations several times when he could not find somewhere to stay.
He was placed on five years probation in September 1999 in Beaver County after pleading no contest to forging prescriptions to obtain Ritalin, a drug commonly used to treat children with hyperactivity.
Doctors said Webster's injuries were similar to those suffered by boxers - one said he was essentially “punch drunk” - and affected his attention span, concentration and focus. They said the condition could not be cured and an operation would not improve his brain functions.
Webster was born March18, 1952, in Tomahawk, Wis., and went to the University of Wisconsin. As an undersized 225-pound center, he was taken by the Steelers in the fifth round of the 1974 draft, part of the best draft class in NFL history.
The Steelers drafted four future Hall of Famers in the first five rounds: Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Webster, and they went on to win the Super Bowl that season.
Webster initially split time with veteran Ray Mansfield, but in the final game of the 1975 season he began a string of 150 consecutive starts that lasted until he missed the final four games in 1986 with a dislocated elbow.
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Hall of Famer Webster dies at 50
