RIP Bubba Smith =~(

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/sports/football/bubba-smith-nfl-star-and-actor-dies-at-66.html

RIP. Hope you're in a better place, flipping cars.

He was pretty cool. Not many football types do ANYTHING when the career is over. He did, and did pretty well. Old football players generally have so many physical problems that they can't do much of anything, especially the real big guys. Tough life. RIP.

Just saw Police Academy on TV at lunch this week. He seemed a very genuine man and a decent role model unlike many of the professional athletes you hear about in recent years.

I'm posting in this thread because Bubba deserves a thread with more than 5 posts in it!

He was an Oakland Raider back when I first started paying attention to NFL football. I was a rabid Oakland fan for many years in spite of my location on the east coast.

Perhaps not the greatest actor, but he projected a sense of humor and seemed to enjoy what he did. Police Academy is a genuinely classic comedy. And who can forget his work on Married with Children--a show which stands tall today as perhaps the greatest TV sitcom ever produced.

LopRacer wrote: Just saw Police Academy on TV at lunch this week. He seemed a very genuine man and a decent role model unlike many of the professional athletes you hear about in recent years.

^This. He was from an era when atheletes were looked up to for more than just their skill. On field skill didnt excuse the off field crimes like it does today.