John Mackey, the Baltimore Colts' Hall of Fame Tight End who helped define the modern version of the position as an offensive weapon, and who was also president of the NFL's Players Association following the NFL-AFL merger, passed away on Wednesday at age 69 from frontotemporal dementia.
Mr. Mackey was the second pure tight end elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.
A five-time Pro Bowl and three-time All-Pro selection, Big John caught 331 passes for 5, 236 yards and 38 touchdowns in a ten-year career, nine of them with the Colts (he finished his career with the San Diego Chargers in 1972).
In his later years, John suffered from frontotemporal demenia and be believed that it may have been caused by all that contact associated with playing football. His wife Sylvia, last year, pledged to donate John's brain to a Boston University School of Medicine study of brain damage in athletes upon his passing.
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