“Dirty” Andre Waters was a feared NFL defender who didn’t spare his opponents or himself. His untimely death 18 years ago today and the shocking findings became a bitter reminder for the sport.
They called it “Dirty Waters.”
Andre Waters was one of the most feared defensive players in NFL history. An “aggressive leader” who, in the 1980s and 1990s, hunted opponents with a toughness that often bordered on ruthlessness – even towards his own health.
How dangerous was it really to play the way Waters did in the NFL back then? It was only understood in all painful clarity in retrospect.
18 years ago today, the longtime Philadelphia Eagles safety took his own life at the age of 44. “Football killed him,” said renowned medical professor Bennet Omalu, who investigated the Waters case and many other deaths of former NFL players and other athletes.
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A feared defender in the NFL
Waters was born on March 10, 1962 in the small town of Belle Glade, Florida, the ninth of eleven children born into poor circumstances. Outstanding performances as a college football player at Cheyney University in Pennsylvania paved his way to the NFL.
The Eagles signed Waters as an undrafted free agent in 1984 – as an uncompromising specialist in hits and tackles, even at the limit of the rules at the time.
In 1988, a tackle by Waters on Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jim Everett led to the league banning hits below the waist while the playmaker is “in the pocket” preparing his potential throws – the rule was unofficially known at the time as the ” Andre Waters Rule.”
Waters was the Eagles’ tackles leader in four seasons and was an integral part of a defense that was at times the best in the league.
The fact that he received a lot of penalties for excessively hard work didn’t change the fact that Eagles fans had fond memories of him: in 2007, they voted him into the franchise’s 75th Anniversary Team – alongside idols like quarterback Donovan McNabb and his long-time defensive colleague Reggie White (also tragic died early).
Not as successful as a coach as hoped
In 1994, the Eagles let the aging Waters’ contract expire, and after two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals, Waters ended his active career.
Waters became a coach after his retirement, holding assistant and defensive coordinator positions at various colleges.
In the NFL he had internships with the then St. Louis Rams and the Detroit Lions, but his hopes of a permanent job in the elite league were not fulfilled – a personal disappointment, as he confided to a reporter from his old adopted home of Philadelphia.
On November 20, 2006, Waters’ old companions were shocked by the news of his suicide.
Waters’ tragedy also appeared in Hollywood film
Waters left no suicide note. What is certain, however, is that he suffered from depression for years; the police also found diary entries in which the religious Waters had turned to God and expressed suicidal thoughts six years before his death.
At the initiative of former college football player and WWE wrestler Christopher Nowinski, Waters’ family made his brain available for posthumous examination. Pathologist and researcher Omalu’s shocking finding: “Waters’ brain tissue had degenerated to a state similar to that of an 85-year-old man with the characteristics of early Alzheimer’s disease.”
Waters suffered from the degenerative brain disease CTE, for which tragedies such as Waters and the research of Omalu, Nowinski and others raised awareness.
The Waters case was also the subject of the film “Concussion,” in which Hollywood dramatized the momentous “Concussion Crisis” – with Will Smith in the role of Omalu.
Concussions with fatal consequences
The late Waters estimated he suffered at least 15 concussions during his career.
The previous lack of awareness of the danger of head injuries – especially when they are repetitive and cumulative – and the need for precautionary measures, intensive examinations and long breaks proved fatal in his case.
Omalu described that the damage to Waters’ brain affected the regions that regulate his mood and were therefore essential to his mental health. It is evident that the ultimately fatal depression was at least massively aggravated and possibly caused by Waters’ football career.
Waters was never married but left three children. His daughter Andrea turned eight years old ten days before his death.
