One of the greatest players in the 50-season history of the Seattle Seahawks has died.
Hall of Fame safety Kenny Easley, who was 66, passed away Friday night.
‘We are deeply saddened by the passing of Seahawks Legend Kenny Easley. Kenny embodied what it meant to be a Seahawk through his leadership, toughness, intensity, and fearlessness,’ the team said in a statement distributed Saturday afternoon. ‘His intimidating nature and athletic grace made him one the best players of all-time.
‘A man of faith, Kenny will forever be remembered as a beloved member of the Seahawks family and his legacy will live on as an inspiration to fans around the world. We extend our sincere condolences to his wife, Gail, and children Kendrick, Gabrielle and Giordanna.’
The fourth overall pick of the 1981 NFL Draft out of UCLA, Easley only played seven years in the league, but he was spectacular throughout his short professional career.
The five-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro was also the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1984, when the Seahawks set a franchise-record (at that time) with 12 regular-season wins.
Known as ‘The Enforcer’ for his rugged and hard-hitting style of play, Easley picked off a league-best 10 passes that season and returned two for touchdowns. The 1984 Seahawks forced 63 turnovers, the most ever by a team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.
Easley was a key member of the 1983, ’84 and ’87 Seahawks, the first three squads in club history to reach the playoffs. The ’83 team advanced all the way to the AFC championship game before losing to the eventual Super Bowl 18 champion Los Angeles Raiders.
Easley finished his career with 32 picks, 11 fumble recoveries, nine forced fumbles and eight sacks in 89 games.
One of the best safeties in league history, he was also a member of the NFL’s All-Decade Team in the 1980s and was enshrined into Canton in 2017 despite a career that was cut short.
Seattle traded Easley to the Phoenix Cardinals prior to the 1988 season, but a severe kidney disease forced him into retirement. He later sued the Seahawks and their medical staff, stating an overdose of Advil caused his kidney failure. Easley and the team settled the case years later, and he eventually received a kidney transplant. He also underwent triple bypass surgery in 2016.
After their bitter divorce, Easley and the organization reconciled in later years, and he was inducted into the Seahawks’ Ring of Honor in 2002 − one of just 11 players so recognized by the franchise. His No. 45 was also retired by Seattle, one of only five jerseys the organization has taken out of circulation.
‘It was good that the reconciliation happened,’ Easley said in 2017 via the Seahawks’ website. ‘To be honest, I never gave it much thought, because I was wallowing in my own anger. I thought I was done unfairly, it didn’t have to happen what happened to me, and it took me a while to get over that. For 15 years, I didn’t watch a football game. I never saw Cortez Kennedy play a single game, because from 1987 to 2002, the night that I went into the Ring of Honor, I had not seen an NFL football game in that entire time. In fact, any kind of football, because I had to divorce myself from it completely.’
“Kenny Easley would have been a dominant safety in any era. When he was enshrined in 2017, he took his rightful place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and embraced his football immortality. Kenny possessed excellent ball skills, but make no mistake: His biggest strengths were his fearlessness and intensity. If you had the ball as an opposing offensive player, he was going to hit you hard – and you were going to feel it for a while,’ Hall of Fame President and CEO Jim Porter said in a statement Saturday.
“The Hall of Fame staff sends its condolences to Kenny’s wife, Gail, and the entire Easley family.”
No cause of death was provided by the Seahawks or Hall.
