Former Broncos linebacker Allen Aldridge Jr. has died at 52.
The news was announced by Aldridge’s alma mater, the University of Houston, on Monday.
A cause of death was not immediately revealed; the outlet Dave Campbell’s Texas Football reported the passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Aldridge played for the Broncos from 1994-97 and the Lions from 1998-2001, retiring during training camp in 2002 while a member of the then-expansion Houston Texans.
He was a starter on the Broncos’ defense when they won Super Bowl XXXII in early 1998, and made a key interception in the AFC championship game against the Steelers to cement the team’s berth in the Super Bowl.
“All your dreams were answered,” Aldridge told the Houston Chronicle in 2019, referring to the Broncos’ 31-24 win over Brett Favre and the Packers.
“You spend the rest of your life trying to get another one.”
The Broncos selected Aldridge in the second round of the 1994 NFL Draft after he starred at Houston.
In his eight-year NFL career, Aldridge appeared in 128 regular-season games, with 104 starts, accumulating 482 combined tackles, five forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and one interception.
After his playing career, Aldridge went into coaching.
He had been the head coach at Fort Bend Bush High School in the Houston area since 2008, after spending five years working his way up on the team’s staff as an assistant.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Alridge’s teams made the playoffs eight times during his tenure, and the school’s 10-2 record in 2012 was its best ever.
