Charles "Bubba" Smith, an outstanding defensive tackle who played his college football at Michigan State before embarking on a great NFL career with the Baltimore Colts, Oakland Raiders, and Houston Oilers, before becoming a commercial spokesman for Miller Lite Beer, then playing the role of officer Moses Hightower in six Police Academy movies, was found on Wednesday having assumed room temperature at his Baldwin Hills, California home at age 66.
Bubba played five years with the Baltimore Colts, playing in two Super Bowls (the upset loss to the New York Jets in SB III and their victory over the Dallas Cowboys two years later). He played two years each with the Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers before a knee injury ended his career in 1976.
His brother Toby, who played at Southern California and in the NFL, later became Bubba's agent. He passed away at age 50 in 1999.
Here's Bubba, appearing in a 1977 commercial for Miller Lite, extolling the virtues of the product, as well as the easy-opening can.
Ironically, he did not drink, and a number of years later, walked away from his lucrative contract, out of concern that the commercials may have encouraged alcohol overconsumption.
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