Tom DeLeone

Tom DeLeone

No. 50, 54
Position:	Center
Personal information
Born:	(1950-08-13)August 13, 1950 Ravenna, Ohio, U.S.
Died:	May 22, 2016(2016-05-22) (aged 65) Park City, Utah, U.S.
Height:	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight:	248 lb (112 kg)
Career information
High school:	Theodore Roosevelt (OH)
College:	Ohio State
NFL draft:	1972 / round: 5 / pick: 106
Career history
Cincinnati Bengals (1972–1973) Cleveland Browns (1974–1984)
Career highlights and awards
2× Pro Bowl (1979, 1980) George Halas Award (1977) Cleveland Browns Legends National champion (1970) First-team All-American (1971) 2× First-team All-Big Ten (1970, 1971)
Career NFL statistics
Games played: 176 Games started: 104 Stats at Pro Football Reference

Thomas Denning DeLeone (August 13, 1950 – May 22, 2016) was an American professional football center who played 13 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), with the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals. He grew up in Kent, Ohio and graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1968, where he was on the football, basketball, and track teams. He played college football at Ohio State University, where he was a starting center and an All-Big Ten and first-team All-American selection. He later went on to work as a criminal investigator with the U.S. Department of the Treasury rising to a Senior Special Agent position within the U.S. Customs Service. He worked in the US Customs Service, and he was a member of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the 2002 Olympic Games in Park City, Utah. In 2003, The U.S. Customs Service became a part of the newly created Department of Homeland Security and he retired from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2007. He is a 2002 inductee of the Ohio State University Football Hall of Fame and a 2003 inductee of the Kent City Schools Hall of Fame.^[1]

DeLeone, a key member of the 1980 Cleveland Browns Kardiac Kids, died on May 22, 2016, at his home in Park City, Utah following a five-year battle with brain cancer. He was 65. DeLeone was married, with three children. His middle child, Dean DeLeone, played football for Arizona State.

Before his death, he worked as a substitute teacher at Park City High School and Treasure Mountain International School in Park City, where he had also volunteered as an assistant coach on the football team, sharing his love of football with the young students he coached and mentored.^[2]

DeLeone was one of at least 345 NFL players to be diagnosed after death with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is caused by repeated hits to the head.^[3][4]

References

1. "Kent City Schools Hall of Fame Archives". Kent City Schools. Archived from the original on October 16, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2008.
2. "Former Cleveland Browns center Tom DeLeone, a two-time Pro Bowler, dies at age 65". cleveland.com. May 22, 2016. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
3. "The driving force behind Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)". Concussion Legacy Foundation. Archived from the original on July 2, 2023. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
4. Ken Belson and Benjamin Mueller (June 20, 2023). "Collective Force of Head Hits, Not Just the Number of Them, Increases Odds of C.T.E. The largest study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy to date found that the cumulative force of head hits absorbed by players in their careers is the best predictor of future brain disease". The New York Times. Retrieved July 2, 2023.