Lionel Aldridge (February 14, 1941 – February 12, 1998) was an American professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Green Bay Packers and San Diego Chargers.[1][2][3] He played college football for the Utah State Aggies.
No. 82 | |||||||
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Position: | Defensive end | ||||||
Personal information | |||||||
Born: | Evergreen, Louisiana, U.S. | February 14, 1941||||||
Died: | February 12, 1998 Shorewood, Wisconsin, U.S. | (aged 56)||||||
Height: | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||
Weight: | 254 lb (115 kg) | ||||||
Career information | |||||||
High school: | Pittsburg (Pittsburg, California) | ||||||
College: | Utah State | ||||||
NFL draft: | 1963 / Round: 4 / Pick: 54 | ||||||
AFL draft: | 1963 / Round: 6 / Pick: 47 (By the Houston Oilers) | ||||||
Career history | |||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||
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Career NFL statistics | |||||||
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Player stats at NFL.com |
Born in Evergreen, Louisiana, Aldridge was raised by his sharecropper grandparents.[4] After his grandfather's death when Aldridge was 15, he was sent to live with a steelworker uncle in Northern California and played high school football at Pittsburg High School.[5] He earned an athletic scholarship and played college football at Utah State University in Logan, Utah[6] and was co-captain of the team and an All-Skyline Conference tackle.
Aldridge was selected in the fourth round of the 1963 NFL draft, 54th overall, by the two-time defending NFL champion Green Bay Packers. One of the few rookies to start for head coach Vince Lombardi, he enjoyed an 11-year NFL career.[7] As a Packer, he played a role in their unprecedented three straight NFL Championships (1965-66-67) and victories in Super Bowls I and II.[8] Traded to the San Diego Chargers, Aldridge played two seasons in San Diego before retiring from professional football in 1973.[1] He was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1988.[9]
After retiring, Aldridge worked as sports analyst at WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee and for Packers radio and NBC until manifesting paranoid schizophrenia in the late 1970s.[10][11][2] Homeless for a time in part due to misdiagnosis,[8][12][13] he eventually reached a form of equilibrium. He became an advocate for the homeless and the mentally ill until his death in 1998.[14][15] His advocacy work included serving as a board member for the Mental Health Association of Milwaukee and working as a speaker for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.[16]