Mike Webster

Mike Webster (born March 18, 1952, Tomahawk, Wisconsin, U.S.—died September 24, 2002, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was an American professional football player who won four Super Bowls (1975, 1976, 1979, and 1980) as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) and who is considered one of the greatest centers in league history. He is notable not just for his accomplished gridiron career but for being the first NFL player to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which contributed to the personal downward spiral that preceded his death.

Webster played collegiate football at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned all-conference honours. Picked by the Steelers in the fifth round of the 1974 NFL draft, the undersized Webster played sparingly for two years (during which the Steelers won their first two Super Bowls) before becoming a regular member of Pittsburgh’s starting lineup. He played in 177 consecutive NFL games, an extraordinary streak for an offensive lineman that lasted almost 13 seasons. Anchoring the Steelers’ offensive line, Webster helped the team win two additional Super Bowls in 1979 and 1980. He spent his final two seasons as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs before retiring after the 1990 NFL campaign. He was selected to play in nine Pro Bowls and was named first-team All-Pro five times over the course of his career.

After his retirement, Webster had short stints as an assistant coach and a broadcaster. He then engaged in a number of failed business ventures that, combined with resultant lawsuits, left him destitute. Webster lived without a permanent residence from 1993 to 1997. His problems in many ways stemmed from his developing CTE, a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head trauma that resulted in prolonged periods of depression and dementia until the end of his life. In 1999 Webster was arrested for forging prescriptions for Ritalin, one of the numerous drugs he regularly took to manage his pain and deteriorating psyche. He died from a heart attack at age 50 and was posthumously diagnosed with CTE. Webster’s highly publicized decline raised awareness of the issue of football-initiated brain damage and largely spurred the proliferation of CTE studies in the early 21st century.

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Webster was named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997.