Former Seattle Seahawks safety Kenny Easley died on Saturday, November 15, at the age of 66 years old. Easley was known on the football field as a punishing tackler, elite in coverage, and excellent in run support. He was arguably the best strong safety in the history of the game, though his career was cut short by injuries.
No cause of death was immediately known for Easley. He did deal with kidney issues at the end of his career, but there might not be any relation to that and his death.
Easley was not only potentially the best Seahawks safety to ever play for the franchise, but he might also have been among the top three in NFL history. While he suffered a number of injuries, he still had 32 interceptions in seven seasons and was named First-Team All-Pro in three seasons.
Seattle Seahawks great Kenny Easley dies at age 66
He had three of his last six seasons cut short by various injuries. This was maybe to be expected for a player known as the Enforcer. While obviously amazing in coverage, his ability to crunch receivers made wideouts often pause when coming over the middle. They knew Easley was waiting.
In 1984, a season in which Easley had 10 interceptions and returned two of them for touchdowns, he was named the Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year. The Pro Football Hall of Fame also named him to the All-1980s team.
The criminality of it all was that it took until 2017 to have Easley inducted into the actual Hall of Fame. Was he one of the best players of his generation? Of course. The Hall just seemed to hold the fact that he didn't play a lot of seasons against him.
For many years, the Seattle Seahawks and the safety did not communicate. This was likely due to Easley being traded by Seattle to the Arizona Cardinals in 1988, but the trade did not go through due to a failed physical by Kenny Easley.
Not until Paul Allen became the owner of the Seahawks and called Easley in 2002 and informed him that no other Seahawks players would be inducted into the team's Ring of Honor until Easley agreed to do so did the tension between the great player and the team ease.
Easley was married to his wife, Gail, and the couple had three children, one son and two daughters. He had moved back to his native Virginia after his NFL career was done after the 1987 season.