Former NFL star Chuck Muncie has died of an apparent heart attack. ESPN reported it had confirmed Muncie’s death through the New Orleans Saints organization, the team Muncie starred on for the first three years of his NFL career.
The Saints selected Muncie out of Cal with the third-pick in the 1976 draft. His best season in New Orleans came in 1979 when he rushed for 1,198 yards on 238 carries and scored 11 touchdowns. Yet, Muncie, who finished second in Heisman Trophy voting in 1975, was unhappy and demanded to be traded.
The Saints obliged, shipping him to San Diego, where he became a major cog in the Chargers Air Coryll attack and led the league with 19 touchdowns in 1981.
Still, Muncie remained an enigma and three years later he was out of football after being suspended for the season for testing positive for cocaine. He briefly attempted a comeback in 1985, but that too was cut short by his continued drug abuse. In 1989, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for selling cocaine.
After his release, Muncie became a changed man, spending much of his time counseling drug users and gang members. “I’m a very selfish person,” Muncie told the Los Angeles Times in 2008, “and I like to feel good. One way I could make myself feel good was by helping other people. I learned, over a period of time that was something that worked for me.”
His Chuck Muncie Youth Foundation, a nonprofit established in 1997 and based in Oxnard, has helped countless youngsters avoid the bad decisions that nearly destroyed its namesake, providing Southern California youth with alternatives to the street and offering a highly regarded tattoo-removal program
“Everything I did and everything I went through in my life has allowed me to do the things I’m doing now,” Muncie told The Times in his 2008 interview. “I’ve been able to tell these guys, ‘Been there, done that, and if you keep doing these things, this is what’s going to happen.’ “
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