David Little (linebacker)


David Lamar Little, Sr. was an American college and professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League for twelve seasons during the 1980s and early 1990s. Little played college football for the University of Florida, and was recognized as an All-American. Selected late in the seventh round of the 1981 NFL Draft, he played professionally for the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers and became a nine-season starter.

Early life

Little was born in Miami, Florida in 1959. He attended Andrew Jackson High School in Miami, and was a standout high school football player for the Jackson Generals.

College career

Little accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played linebacker for coach Doug Dickey and coach Charley Pell's Florida Gators football teams from 1977 to 1980. As a senior team captain in 1980, he helped lead the Gators in the biggest one-year turnaround in the history of NCAA Division I football—from 0–10–1 in 1979 to an 8–4 bowl team in 1980. After the 1980 season, he was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection, a consensus first-team All-American, and the recipient of the Gators' Fergie Ferguson Award recognizing the "senior football player who displays outstanding leadership, character and courage." He finished his four-year college career with 475 tackles—still the Gators' all-time career record.
Little was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1991. In one of a series of articles published by The Gainesville Sun in 2006, the Sun sportswriters picked him as No. 18 among the 100 all-time greatest Gator players from the first century of Florida football.

Professional career

Little was chosen in the seventh round of the 1981 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he played for the Steelers from to. He was a middle linebacker for the team, at one point starting eighty-nine games in a row. He was selected to the Pro Bowl after the season. In his twelve-season NFL career, Little appeared in 179 games, started 125 of them, and totaled ten interceptions and eleven recovered fumbles.

Accidental death

Little died on March 17, 2005 as the result of a weight-lifting accident; he was 46 years old. Little suffered from heart disease and experienced a cardiac flutter while lifting weights at his Miami home; he dropped 250 pounds of weights on his chest, which rolled onto his neck and suffocated him.
Little was survived by his wife Denise, their two sons and daughter, his mother, and his older brother, Pro Football Hall of Fame member Larry Little, an All-Pro guard for the Miami Dolphins.