Former San Diego Chargers’ Shawn Lee dies at the age of 44 due to cardiac arrest
Former San Diego Chargers defensive tackle, Shawn Lee, died on Saturday, 26 February, 2011, in Raleigh, North Carolina, due to double pneumonia, which led to cardiac arrest. He was 44 years old.
Lee played with teammate, Reuben Davis, to create the 1994 American Football Conference (AFC) Championship team’s “Two Tons of Fun”. They both played very well on defence when the Chargers were trying to get their first Super Bowl win. Lee is not the first
player who has died before their time and was part of that team, causing many to believe that the team is cursed.
David Griggs, linebacker, died in a car crash in June of 1995. He was 28. Rodney Culver, running back, died in a plane crash in 1996. He was 26.
Two years later, linebacker, Doug Miller, was struck by two bolts of lightning and died. He was 28. Curtis Whitley died in 2008 at the age of 39 due to a drug overdose, while, lineman, Chris Mims, died at the age of 38 due to heart failure in 2008.
"Not again", said former Chargers running back, Natrone Means, referring to the news of Lee's death. "It's crazy, just crazy, that we've had so many guys who have fallen. I can't make any sense of it. I've given up trying. You just hope you quit getting
these random messages out of nowhere that another teammate has passed away. Look at Shawn. He was a big man, a man's man, no doubt about it. I can't believe he's gone, too”.
Lee was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the sixth round of the 1988 NFL Draft out of the University of North Alabama. He spent two years in Tampa, then two years with the Miami Dolphins and finally the Chargers in 1992.
He played at his best in San Diego and recorded 39 tackles and 6.5 sacks in the year that they went to the Super Bowl. He then went to the Chicago Bears for a year before he retired at the end of 1998.
Means, Davis, and Lee all remained close friends after they retired and remember Lee as a “gentle giant”.
"The average fan would take a look at him and be scared to go up and talk to him, but he was great to people", said Means. "He'd do anything in the world for you".
Davis lived only an hour away from Lee and also said, "Heart of gold. The man never had an enemy, and that's hard to say about a lot of people. He just had such a different sort of wisdom about him".
There is still no word about any memorial service for Lee. He will be remembered as a ferocious player but gentle human. He will be missed.
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