Walt Sweeney obit

Walt Sweeney, the former Syracuse football star, is dead at 71

He was not on the list.

Walt Sweeney, one of the greatest players in the history of Syracuse University football, died on Saturday in San Diego of pancreatic cancer. He was 71.

Though he went on to become a marvelous offensive guard in professional football (in both the old AFL and the NFL), Sweeney was a tight end/defensive end for the Orange in the 1960, ’61 and ’62 seasons. Sweeney would ultimately be named a member of SU’s All-Century Team.

As talented as he was on the football field, though, Sweeney -- a native of Cohasset, Mass. -- was equally troubled off of it. A confessed alcoholic and drug addict, he spent a half-century and more dealing with the issues of abuse that would forever haunt him.

For instance, Sweeney, who determined that he'd become a pariah, never felt comfortable enough to attend any of SU’s various football events through the years. And he said that he never did step foot inside the Carrier Dome (although there has been at least one official sighting of Walt in that building). Meanwhile, Sweeney, who would sue the NFL in his retirement for its purported role in his addictions, was routinely passed over during the annual voting for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And it never did seem to much matter how splendid a performer he had been.

“If I had to play against Sweeney every week,” Merlin Olsen, the Hall of Fame defensive tackle, once said, “I’d rather sell used cars.”

Ironically, Sweeney died on the very day that the latest Hall of Fame induction class, including Bill Parcells, was identified in New Orleans, the site of today’s Super Bowl.

“I’ve led an interesting life, sure,” Sweeney said over dinner in a San Diego steak house back in November. “But not a good one. . . . I feel pretty good, and that’s amazing when you consider what I’ve done to this body.”

Between SU (on the college level) and the San Diego Chargers and Washington Redskins (on the pro level), Sweeney played 16 consecutive seasons that produced enough damage to necessitate, by his count back in the fall, 25 surgeries on his knees and hips alone. During his 13-year AFL/NFL career between 1963-'75, he played in every scheduled game for the Chargers and Redskins except for one . . . and the one he missed was during his final campaign.

Sweeney was the second overall choice in the 1963 AFL Draft, selected by San Diego after Kansas City grabbed Buck Buchanan with the No. 1 pick. Al Davis, the SU product who was then an assistant coach with the Chargers, was instrumental in Sweeney’s decision to sign with the upstart AFL rather than enlist with the more established NFL.

His deal? A two-year agreement worth a guaranteed $30,000, plus a $5,000 signing bonus.

"Al pulled a standard contract out of his pocket," Sweeney recalled in his book, Off Guard, "and like the moron I was, I signed it."

That pact, inked the night before the Orangemen’s final game of the 1962 season against UCLA in Los Angeles -- and, thus, “illegal”-- marked the beginning of a glorious on-field career during which Sweeney would be named to nine consecutive All-Star teams and/or Pro Bowls.

“I never have the troubles with other guys that I do with Sweeney,” Joe Greene, another Hall of Fame defensive lineman, once said. “He’ll swing at you, bite you, hold you.”

Ernie Holmes, Greene’s teammate with those old Pittsburgh Steelers, more or less agreed.

“He’s the best guard I’ve ever seen,” Holmes said. “He plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played. He’s just a rough son of a gun. That’s all I can about him. He’ll be all over the field with you.”

Despite his many accomplishments on the professional level, Sweeney will be forever remembered by long-time Orange football fans for the role he played in SU's 17-15 loss to Notre Dame on Nov. 18, 1961. In fact, he recounted that unhappy episode in Off Guard, which was published last summer. And here it is:

We had a strong team in 1961. If we won our last game of the season against Notre Dame at South Bend, we were assured an invitation to the Orange Bowl.

We were ahead by two points with three seconds left on the clock. Notre Dame was attempting a 55-yard field goal, which was nearly impossible for a college kid back in those days. With no time left on the clock, the ball was snapped. I charged in from my right-end position and ran over the holder. I was called for roughing the holder and we were penalized 15 yards. With no time left on the clock, they kicked a 40-yard field goal and won the game.

After the game, I couldn't hold back the tears in the locker room. I felt even worse because (Ben) Schwartzwalder gave the game ball to me. My penalty cost us the Orange Bowl and hundreds of thousands of dollars in gate receipts and revenue. The NCAA announced a week after the game that there was no such penalty as roughing the holder. Notre Dame should not have been given an extra down. They also said that Syracuse actually won the game, but Notre Dame would have to concede. They never did.

I'm still remembered at Syracuse as "the guy that lost the Notre Dame game." 'Sports Illustrated called me "the only fighting Irishman" on the field. There used to be a bar in South Bend that wouldn’t allow anyone in unless they knew who Walt Sweeney was.

His epitaph? Perhaps Sweeney wrote it, himself, during that November dinner in San Diego.

"Look, I did all of that crazy stuff," he said. "I shot that gun six times in training camp. I ran around. I drank. I did drugs. I got in trouble. I did it all. But I was a pretty good football player."