RIP Chuck Muncie

[Steak Snabler]

Great running back for the Saints in the late 70s & Chargers in the early 80s. Probably should have won the Heisman over Archie Griffin in 1975.

Had a heart attack, per Adam Schefter on Twitter.

 

[Ace]

RIP. That sucks. Loved watching him run.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I have a couple of his football cards.
I remember the beard and glasses.

 

[HejiraHenry]

One of my first fantasy football studs. RIP.

 

[BenPoquette]

I have a Chuck Muncie autographed football because he was a banger. I have Muncie, Sam Cunningham, Earl Campbell and Larry Kinnebrew. Sad part is, with the new rules the NFL put in place about the crown of the helmet for this season, all of these guys would have had marginal careers (except, maybe, Campbell). And Kinnebrew, of course, who had a marginal career anyway.

Muncie was one of my heroes when I was a kid. Shame he passed so young.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Might have smoked the most marijuana of any person in Berkeley in the 1970s.

 

[Bob Cook]

He had turned himself around since the days when teammate Don Reese called him out in SI for having to be Superman for performing so well while snorting so much coke.

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/01/sports/sp-crowe1

 

[Boom_70]

What I first thought of is the bizarre story of Muncie testifying before a
San Diego grand jury that Dan Fouts was shot in the arm by an irate
husband.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1136588/1/index.htm


Also thought of the story of Muncie leaving his dogs unattended in his San Diego
mansion for months.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Here's video of Muncie running in a wild game vs. the Giants at the Meadowlands in 1983:



Archie Manning has always blamed cocaine use by Muncie — and many others — for the Saints going 1-15 in 1980. They traded Muncie to San Diego at mid-season ... and then drafted George Rogers, who was even more of a snow-blower.

Of course everyone with money in those days was on cocaine ...

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I'm at the point where I'm almost relieved when one of these deaths is from natural causes and not another suicide...

RIP... I watched him run over some pretty good Raiders teams in the early 80s. I remember him being really tall for a back...

 

[Drip]

RIP. Muncie was pretty damn good.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Was he a better person too?

 

[Armchair_QB]

Here's video of Muncie running in a wild game vs. the Giants at the Meadowlands in 1983:



Archie Manning has always blamed cocaine use by Muncie — and many others — for the Saints going 1-15 in 1980. They traded Muncie to San Diego at mid-season ... and then drafted George Rogers, who was even more of a snow-blower.

Of course everyone with money in those days was on cocaine ...

Man, Merlin Olsen & **** 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.

 

[qtlaw]

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.

 

[Mark2010]

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.

 

[Steak Snabler]

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).

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

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

 

[Armchair_QB]

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).

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

 

[SoCalDude]

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 dog**** everywhere in the house.

 

[Drip]

Was he a better person too?

I don't know. Ask him.