Former Steeler dies while lifting weights

[Louis Cypher]

By The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 22, 2005

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Former Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Bowler David Little, who led one of the NFL's most experienced linebacker corps, died while weightlifting at home in Miami. He was 46.

Little was lifting weights Thursday when he had a heart arrhythmia, causing him to drop a 250-pound barbell on his chest, which rolled onto his neck and suffocated him, according to the coroner.

Little was found by his sons, David Jr. and Darien.

The University of Florida graduate played his entire 12-year career in Pittsburgh after being taken during the seventh round of the 1981 NFL draft.

Little started 125 of the 179 games he played for the Steelers and once played 89 consecutive games. He was voted to the Pro Bowl in 1990, three years before he retired.

His older brother, Larry Little, was an All-Pro guard for the Miami Dolphins.

Little is also survived by his wife, Denise, his mother, daughter and four sisters.

[victorygallop]

lifting weights is not good for you.

[jjgold]

scary

Forget that type of weightlifting unless you have spotter or safety clamps in place

I guess he would of lived if it was not for weights falling on him

sad story

[Bostongambler]

What a way to go

[Louis Cypher]

Obituary: David Little / Former Steelers linebacker
Former player, 46, had enlarged heart
Tuesday, March 22, 2005

By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The shadows that enveloped David Little always appeared to be immense.

He grew up and played football in the same city as his older brother, Larry, an All-Pro guard with the Miami Dolphins and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

When he was drafted by the Steelers in 1981, he backed up perennial Pro Bowl linebacker Jack Lambert, another Hall of Famer, before replacing Lambert in 1984.

But Little never let that bother him. He never tried to ride his brother's fame. Nor did he try to emulate Lambert or any of the other great Steelers linebackers.

"David was his own man," his wife, Denise, said. "He never let anything affect him. He never got caught up in anything."

Little, 46, who played 12 seasons with the Steelers until he was released in 1993, died Thursday while working out alone in his Miami home.

Denise Little said an autopsy revealed her husband had a heart arrhythmia that caused him to drop a 250-pound barbell on his chest. The bar rolled onto Little's throat, suffocating him. Little was found by the oldest of his three children, son, David Jr., 18.

Mrs. Little said the coroner's report determined her husband had an enlarged heart, a condition unbeknownst to her and the former Steelers linebacker. The arrhythmia could have been brought on by "strenuous activity," Mrs. Little said she was told by the coroner.

"Me being his big brother, 14 years apart, and him having to grow up in the city where I was a star on a great football team, he never let it bother him," Larry Little said yesterday from Miami, where he is head coach of the Miami Morays, a team in the National Indoor Football League. "It never deterred him. He did things his own way.

"He was very easy going, very calm, and you never saw him angry. He'd give you the shirt off his back, if he had it."

Little carved his niche in 12 seasons with the Steelers, being elected the team's co-MVP with Rod Woodson in 1988 and being selected to his first and only Pro Bowl after the 1990 season. He was known as a quiet leader, a player whom Coach Chuck Noll once referred to as "the glue who held our defense together."

He appeared in 179 games with the Steelers, starting 125 after replacing an injured Lambert in the 1984 season opener. He was the team's leading tackler in five seasons and missed only five games because of injury in 12 years.

"If you didn't know it, or you didn't do the research, you would never know he was Larry Little's brother," said former wide receiver Louis Lipps, who played eight seasons with Little. "That's the way David carried himself. He always had a positive thing to say and he was the ultimate competitor."

"David was a raspy-voiced guy from Florida, but he was the quiet leader on that defense," said former guard Craig Wolfley, who played eight seasons with Little. "He was always overlooked, but he was always one of our best players. He had this great sense of determination and a great sense of humor that made him priceless."

Little once played 89 consecutive games for the Steelers. After being a seventh-round draft choice from the University of Florida in 1981, he didn't miss a NFL game because of injury until the beginning of the 1988 season.

"He was gentle giant," Mrs. Little said. "He did great things, but he never wanted to be in the limelight. He always gave credit to everybody else."

Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who is in Hawaii attending the NFL owners meetings, was unaware of Little's death. Rooney said he talked to Little several months ago when Little called about getting into coaching.

"David was a fine guy and was a really good player, someone who really contributed to the Steelers," Rooney said. "He played his position well. He was a good addition to us. I'm sorry to hear it, I really am."

Little played at Miami's Jackson High School before attending Florida, where he graduated with a degree in sociology. He was working as a counselor at Village South, a drug rehabilitation center in Miami, and often gave antidrug speeches at local schools.

Mr. Little was the youngest of seven children -- four girls and three boys. His oldest brother, George, died in 1971.

Mrs. Little said one of her husband's last thrills was seeing his son, David, help Miami's Killian High School win the Florida Class AAAAAA championship last fall.

"We were so proud of him," Denise Little said. "He got to see his son play and win the state championship."

In addition to his wife and son, Little is survived by two other children -- Darien, 16, and DeAira, 10. A funeral service will be 2 p.m. Thursday at New Birth Cathedral Church in Miami.

Mrs. Little said memorial donations can be made to a Children For College Fund at Wachovia Bank in Miami.

My oh My.... How sad.

[Louis Cypher]

Posted on Sun, Mar. 20, 2005

DAVID LITTLE'S DEATH


Brother's death leaves Larry Little in shock

A strange accident claimed the life of David Little, who was a star football player at Miami Jackson High, the University of Florida and with the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers.

BY DAVID J. NEAL

dneal@herald.com


Dolphins legend Larry Little wanted to make sure to say one thing about younger brother David.

''I'm proud of the career he had,'' the NFL Hall of Famer said. ``A lot of times when you have an older brother who had a career like I had, people always would try to compare the younger to the older. He went on and did everything on his own. He had a great high school career, a great college career and a great NFL career.

``He didn't let that deter him. And, he had to live with it all his life.''

That life ended Thursday. David Little, a 46-year-old former NFL linebacker out of Miami Jackson High and the University of Florida, died while working out alone in his Miami home.

According to his older brother, the autopsy revealed David Little to be healthy. But a heart arrhythmia while lifting allowed a barbell to fall across his neck, suffocating him. David was found by the oldest of his three children, 17-year-old Killian High football player David Little Jr.

Saturday, Larry Little's deep voice rumbled in the keys of shock and mourning. He wasn't sure when he would return to being head coach of the Miami Morays of the National Indoor Football League.

''I don't know. Because there's nothing I can do for him,'' Little said. ``I'm grieving. But I've got to do something. I can't just sit around here and grieve. Like [Friday], all I did was walk around the house all day doing nothing because it was still hitting me.''

TAKING CARE OF MOM

Before Thursday, Little was scheduled to be in the Meadowlands on Saturday, where the franchise had its inaugural game.

''I just felt with my mom, being her age, I needed to be here,'' Larry said. ``And I probably would've been like a zombie there anyway, thinking about her back here and I'm up there.''

The hardest thing for a parent to do is bury a child. Ida Little, in her mid-80s (she doesn't want Larry telling her age), has now seen two of her three sons and four daughters die.

Larry Little's oldest brother, George, died the day before a Dolphins scrimmage at the Orange Bowl in 1971. His father died the day after Little retired in 1980.

David's 12-season career with the Pittsburgh Steelers began the following year.

''Being his size and playing point guard in high school tells people what kind of athlete he was,'' Larry said. ``I would tell people he was better than me because he played more than one sport. I didn't do nothing but play football. I tried to throw the shot put and couldn't do that.''

Their age gap -- Larry is 59 -- defined their relationship early in David's life.

''It was more like a father and son thing because our ages were so far apart,'' Larry said. ``The older he got, the more we became like brothers.''

KEEPING HIS IDENTITY

David never let the pressures of having a star athlete older brother crush him as it has others. Sort of remarkable when you consider Larry Little's presence was considerable -- he was a hometown guy starring for a pro sports team that the locals canonized en masse.

''I don't know how he dealt with it because David was not a very talkative person,'' Larry said. ``He did not open up to a lot of people. He didn't open up to me a lot of times.''

That was just David Little's way, his brother said. They were opposites -- David was quiet, low key, and Larry was more outgoing. Larry says he never saw David angry.

''The last I talked to him was three weeks ago,'' Larry said.

``But there was deep love there. Me for him and him for me.''

[alysheba88]

Have no doubt steroids played some part