Clark Haggans, Super Bowl Champion Linebacker, Dead at 46

Clark Haggans, a former NFL linebacker who won a Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers, has died, a team spokesperson confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday. He was 46 years old, and the cause of death has not been revealed. 

Haggans was selected in the fifth round of the 2000 NFL Draft by the Steelers. He was with the team for eight seasons, and his best season was in 2005 when he recorded 61 tackles, seven tackles for loss and nine sacks in 13 games. During the playoff that year, Haggans registered 18 tackles, two tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks to help the Steelers win the Super Bowl. In his eight seasons with the Steelers, Haggans notched 332 tackles, 31 tackles for loss and 32.5 sacks. 

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“Clark never stops — ever,” defensive end Brett Keisel said in 2007, per TribLive.com. “It seems like, during the course of a game, when guys are starting to wear out and their energy levels are starting to drop, that’s when Clark really feasts on the opponent.”  

In March 2008, Haggans signed a contract with the Arizona Cardinals and helped the team reach the Super Bowl that season. The Cardinals lost to Haggan’s former team the Steelers in the big game, but they re-signed Haggans to a three-year contract. He would finish his time in Arizona with 186 tackles, 18 tackles for loss and 14 sacks in four seasons. 

Before the 2012 season, Haggans signed a contract with the San Francisco 49ers and helped the team reach the Super Bowl, at the end of the year. The 49ers lost to Baltimore Ravens in the championship game, and the 2012 season would be the last for Haggans. 

In an interview with Steelers Depot in 2019, Haggas talked about his favorite moment of his career. “Well, a cool memory of course is winning the Super Bowl,” he said. “The coolest though was that the first dude I saw when the confetti fell was Joey. We would wig out when we won the Holiday Bowl at Colorado State – that was the greatest thing to us then. Here we were winning a Super Bowl together.”

Haggans also talked about what he’s been doing since his retirement.” I’m just being a dad,” he stated. “Going back and forth between Pittsburgh, Vegas and splitting time with the kids with their mother in Denver. I’m also doing some real estate and just being a dad and chilling out.”