Super Bowl champion, former Steelers linebacker Andy Russell dies at 82

Andy Russell, the seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker who won two Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers, has died.

Russell, a 16th-round draft pick who played 12 seasons with the Steelers, was 82.

A source confirmed Russell’s death to TribLive. A cause of death was not immediately known. News partner WTAE reported Russell passed away Thursday night.

One of the few players whose tenure bridged the-then languishing Steelers of the 1960s with the dynasty the franchise built during the 1970s under Chuck Noll, Russell was honored as a first-team AP NFL All-Pro in 1975 and three other times was second-team All-Pro. He was a member of the Steelers’ all-time team and part of the inaugural class of the organization’s Hall of Honor.

Russell is considered by many to be one of the best — if not the best — Steelers player who is eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame but has not been inducted.

“That’s right, and that’s a shame,” former Steelers running back Rocky Bleier said of his former teammate during a 2023 interview. “Andy Russell should be in the Hall of Fame. And the reason is, what happens is, he was an All-Pro, five or six times, but it was back in the ’60s when he was an All-Pro linebacker — before Chuck came. And he played in two Super Bowls. He just got overshadowed by the other big names that stood out, and all of a sudden from a voting point of view, it’s, ‘How many Hall of Famers have the Steelers got? We can’t let everybody in, blah blah blah’

“But Andy should be in. Andy was a captain of the team, and he helped set a tone. Andy was a great player, he was a consistent player, a leadership kind of guy. He wasn’t a yeller or screamer like (fellow 1970s Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert), but Andy was a smart guy and he played that way.”

Born in Detroit and having played in college at Missouri, Russell became an immediate starter for the Steelers despite his low draft stock. After his rookie season in 1963, Russell fulfilled military obligations as part of his ROTC status at Missouri. He returned to the Steelers in 1966 and played through 1976, participating in Super Bowl victories after the 1974 and ’75 seasons.

Over his career and including the postseason, the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Russell had 19 interceptions, one interception returned for a touchdown, 11 fumble recoveries and (unofficially) 41 sacks, according to pro-football-reference.com. He had a 93-yard fumble return for a touchdown to close the scoring of the Steelers’ opening victory for the 1975 season’s playoffs.

Voted the Steelers team MVP in 1971, Russell appeared in 168 consecutive games with the team. That’s the fourth-longest streak in franchise history.

Hall of Fame Steelers linebacker Jack Ham wrote the following passage to accompany Russell’s page recognizing his place in the Steelers’ Hall of Honor: “Today, most players back into the Pro Bowl by playing mediocre football on good teams. Andy played great football on a worse-than-mediocre team. Why? Because Andy was always the consummate professional. His personal pride and drive for excellence allowed him to stand out on even the worst of football teams. It would have been easy for him to give up or be sucked into the mediocrity that he saw all around him, but he refused to do so. That attitude was clear to me from my first day of training camp to Andy’s last game with the Steelers.”

Russell’s charitable work went through his foundation, which staged a celebrity golf tournament in Pittsburgh for many years. Money was raised for the Children’s Hospital Free Care Fund and other programs at UPMC, such as the Children’s Neurosurgery Project, the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, the Hillman Cancer Center and the Center for Sports Medicine. Russell was named Big Brothers and Sisters Man of the Year in 1989.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.