RIP Chuck Muncie

Man, Merlin Olsen & Dick Enberg were great to listen to back then. Seems like we always got an AFC West game in the afternoons where I lived growing up and that meant the two of them or Charlie Jones and his crew doing a game.

 

Damn, I watched him in person play with Joe Roth. Back then, only one team from the Pac-8, usually USC, went to a major bowl. He was a great combo of speed and size.

 

Fun player to watch from my youth days. Sadly, I remember him for being one of the first big names (of my era, anyway) to be linked to drug use, back in the early 80s.

 

SI cover from January 1981:



I don't know what's more retro, Muncie's facemask or a white DB in the NFL (the Bills' Steve Freeman, No. 22).

 

The Air Coryell Chargers and Muncie's on the cover?!

 

Always thought that style of facemask was cool as hell when I was a kid.

 

I have the book written by his agent, Mike Trope, who as a punk collegian, somehow convinced Johnny Rodgers to let him represent him.
The Muncie unattended dog story is classic. Said he was going to be gone for the weekend, left a bunch of dog food with the neighbors. He was gone for months. Neighbors were afraid of the dogs so the just threw the food in through the window. Dogs had reproduced and there was dogshit everywhere in the house.

 

I don't know. Ask him.

 

Muncie was more than a banger. The guy was a remarkible combination of size and speed. He ran like a 200 pound halfback despite being much bigger. He would thrive in any era.

 

He was an incredible talent-- I remember him being kinda cut in the Herschel Walker/Marcus Dupree mold--a 6'3" 230 RB who ran like the wind and with power. When he was on, he looked unstoppable.

But unfortunately his name was rather sullied by all the drug stories about him. Usually one of the first football names mentioned whenever "80s cocaine era" discussions get started.