The Ray Seals path to the NFL was improbable. But the former SemiPro football player has reached the highest level of professional football.
Seals’ trip to life ended this week. Social media Nini Marie And Syracuse.com confirmed the death of Seals. He was 59 years old.
His cause of death was not immediately released.
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Pittsburgh’s Steelers Defensive Line player in Pittsburgh Steelers in a match against the Philadelphia Eagles at Three Rivers Stadium on December 11, 1994 in Pittsburgh. (George Gojkovich / Getty Images)
Seals’ football story began to Henninger High School in Syracuse, New York. Instead of jumping into the ranks of university football, Seals’ journey took him to the semic.
The coach of the Lycée de Seals, Bob Campese, remembered the former defensive line player as a “happy” person.
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“(He was) a happy, tall and good heart guy who was a great athlete, probably as good or better as any athlete who came out of here,” said Campese, via Syracuse.com. “We had good people. But Ray could have been at the top.”
Ray Seals, former defensive line player of the Pittsburgh Steelers, during a presentation at half-time honoring the former players in a match between the Steelers and the Bears of Chicago in Heinz Field on September 22, 2013 in Pittsburgh. (George Gojkovich / Getty Images)
Although he had never played a cliché in university football, Seals signed with the Buccaneers of Tampa Bay in 1988. In 1991, he was still in the Bucs departure training. He also had relays with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Caroline Panthers.
The seals were inducted into the Greater Syracuse Hall of Fame In 2016, according to the biography provided by the hall.
Pittsburgh’s Steelers Defensive Line player in Pittsburgh Steelers in a match against the Philadelphia Eagles at Three Rivers Stadium on December 11, 1994 in Pittsburgh. (George Gojkovich / Getty Images)
Seals began playing for the semi -professional Syracuse Express in 1987.
Ray Perkins, who trained in Alabama before leaving to accept the job of head coach with the Buccaneers, is widely credited with having given Seals a chance to play in the NFL.
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“We were all behind him. We were rooted for him as if you could not believe, to have this opportunity to do so,” said former Seals express teammate Garry Acchione. “I have never had any doubts in my mind that it was good enough to play in the NFL. I mean, we all knew it. It’s just” ok, how do you take it there? How does he have the opportunity? “”
“Because at the time, I mean, he did not get out of the university. You are not going to walk in a professional team and do it.”
Seals, who played for the Steelers from 1994 to 1995, recorded a bag in the Super Bowl at the end of the 1995 season.
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