Shane Dronett

News Obituary Article

'Shane was a great dude'

By JEFF SCHULTZ

Ten years later, some of the names come to mind easily. Chris Chandler and Jamal Anderson, Chuck Smith and Travis Hall, Jessie Tuggle and Ray Buchanan.

We remember Morten Andersen's kick. We remember Terance Mathis' resolve. We remember Dan Reeves overcoming heart bypass surgery to coach an NFL punchline to a 14-2 record and a Super Bowl berth.

How long would it take before we remember Shane Dronett?

"He was the foundation of our line," Smith said. "Falcons fans will never know how important he was. People should understand the significance of Shane Dronett."

Today, he is a topic, but for all the wrong reasons. Shane Dronett's life ended Wednesday morning, suddenly and tragically.

Two months after reuniting with former teammates on the 10th anniversary of the Falcons' Super Bowl team, Dronett was found dead at his home in Duluth. Gwinnett County police responded to a 911 call, during which a female caller said she believed her husband had committed suicide. That was confirmed Thursday, but all other details have been withheld out of consideration for the family.

Shane Dronett is dead at 38. He recently had surgery for a brain tumor. We may never know all that followed.

Death can be a difficult thing to make sense of. Endings like this make it worse. Former teammates are still struggling to get their arms and minds around this.

Tuggle knew about the brain tumor. But he saw Dronett in November at the reunion and, "He was in a great mood. He acted normal. I had no earthly idea anything was wrong. But sometimes people are hurting on the inside and you never know."

Smith said he is "sad and shocked. Tears came to my eyes when I heard."

Lester Archambeau said, "I couldn't make it to the reunion. But I saw him a few months ago at the gym. He was upbeat."

Hall might have been the closest to Dronett of his former teammates. He returned a phone call Thursday out of courtesy but cut it short.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It's really kind of hard to talk about this right now."

Football is not for soft men. Dronett defined toughness. He grew up in small-town Texas: born in Orange and raised in Bridge City (population 8,600). He played football and grew into an All-American at Texas. He boxed and grew into a Golden Gloves champ.

"A Texas backyard brawler," Smith said. "Shane was a great dude. But he was not a guy to be messed with."

As Alex Bernstein discovered. A free agent offensive lineman, Bernstein got into a scuffle with Dronett during a training camp drill in 2000.

"Wasn't much of a fight," Reeves said. "It was one of those one-punch deals."

Bernstein left the field with a dented jaw and a chipped tooth. Dronett went on to the next play.

The 1998 season was a special one for the Falcons. The defensive line was a big reason why. While the team went 14-2, the defense ranked fourth in points allowed, eighth in total yardage and second against the run.

The front four --- Dronett, Smith, Hall and Archambeau --- shared in 30 of the team's 38 sacks and forced 12 fumbles (four by Dronett). They formed a nickname: "The Bomb Squad."

"The other guys were kind of conservative," Smith said. "But when we came up with the 'Bomb Squad,' Shane said, 'I'm Nitro!' "

It didn't necessarily fit his personality (training camp notwithstanding). Smith remembers Dronett always giving hugs. Archambeau remembers him as a prankster who would crank-call teammates in hotels.

"He was the perfect teammate, not just as a player but as a person," Archambeau said. "You don't get to pick the guys you play with. But he was a flat-out keeper."

Reeves drafted Dronett with Denver. He later signed him in Atlanta. A year later, they went to the Super Bowl. Despite the loss to the Broncos, 1998 remains the high-water mark for the franchise. It started up front.

"The defensive line were real leaders for us that year," Reeves said. "We had a bunch of veterans who had been around a while and suffered and came together. It was a close group."

A special team in a special season. But today we remember only Dronett.

jschultz@ajc.com

© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution