Place of birth: Mobile, Alabama Role American football player College: Jackson State | Games played: 88 Positions Defensive end Name Don Reese | |
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Date of birth: (1951-09-04)September 4, 1951 Date of death: September 18, 2003(2003-09-18) (aged 52) NFL draft: 1974 / Round: 1 / Pick: 26 Died September 18, 2003, Mobile, Alabama, United States | ||
Education Jackson State University | ||
Don Reese: Football Defensive End
Donald Francis Reese (September 4, 1951 – September 18, 2003) was an American football defensive end who played in the National Football League and the United States Football League. He played professionally for the Miami Dolphins, the New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers and the Birmingham Stallions of the USFL.
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Biography
Reese was born in Mobile, Alabama and graduated from Vigor High School in Prichard, Alabama. He played college football at Jackson State University.
Reese was a 1st round selection (26th overall pick) of the 1974 NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins. He would go on to play for the Dolphins (1974–1976), the New Orleans Saints (1978–1980), and the San Diego Chargers (1981). In 1985 Reese played for the Birmingham Stallions in the United States Football League.
In June 1982, Reese penned an extensive piece for Sports Illustrated in which he detailed his struggles with cocaine abuse. This was one of the first looks into the seedy world of money and drug use in the NFL. Reese claimed cocaine use among players was rampant and that his team in the 1970s, the New Orleans Saints, was a nightmare of addiction including game day travel by plane or bus rife with coke binges. He named several star players in the NFL as serious drug abusers, among them, Saints running back Chuck Muncie.
Reese died in Mobile, Alabama at the age 52 from liver cancer.