Andy Spiva

Howard Andrew "Andy" Spiva (February 6, 1955 – April 3, 1979) was an American football player for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He appeared in 13 games for the Falcons in 1977. He was killed in a car accident. Teammate Garth TenNapel was in the same vehicle and was seriously injured.

Andy Spiva
Position:Linebacker
Personal information
Born:March 27, 1954
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Died:April 3, 1979(1979-04-03) (aged 25)
Atlanta, Georgia
Career information
High school:Chamblee (GA)
College:Tennessee
NFL Draft:1977 / Round: 5 / Pick: 135
Career history

Biography

Spiva was born on February 6, 1955, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He attended Chamblee High School in Chamblee, Georgia and the University of Tennessee.[1] At Tennessee, Spiva was a two-time All-Southeastern Conference selection.[2] He was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the fifth round of the 1977 NFL draft.[1]

Spiva was released by St. Louis that year when the team made its final preseason cuts.[3] He was signed by the Atlanta Falcons shortly thereafter.[4] Falcons coach Leeman Bennett said that the team had become impressed with Spiva when they played Spiva and the Cardinals in a preseason game.[5]

He played in 13 games for the Falcons in 1977.[1] Prior to the 1978 season, Spiva was the top middle linebacker on Atlanta's depth chart before suffering a preseason knee injury.[6] He underwent surgery to repair torn ligaments a few days after sustaining the injury.[7]

On April 3, 1979, Spiva was driving in rainy conditions when his sports car slid off of a street in the Atlanta area and it collided with a tree. Spiva died at an Atlanta hospital that day after sustaining head and chest injuries. His teammate Garth TenNapel was seriously injured in the crash.[8] Spiva and TenNapel had been close friends since going through knee rehabilitation together the previous year.[6]

gollark: Another is superdeterminism, which is sort of kind of where the particles "know" what properties of them will be measured in advance.
gollark: One resolution is nonlocal hidden variables, i.e. the particles have some faster-than-light-speed backchannel to communicate things.
gollark: Bell's theorem rules out "local hidden-variables" interpretations of quantum physics, meaning that quantum mechanics cannot, assuming some assumptions, be doing this by storing some extra secret metadata with particles.
gollark: As you will know in time, quantum QM mechanics has "Bell's theorem". This describes some correlations between measurements of entangled particles which QM predicts correctly (based on empirical tests) and classical physics doesn't.
gollark: What? No. That would be stupid.

References
  1. "Andy Spiva". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  2. "Falcons mourn death of linebacker Spiva". Gadsden Times. April 4, 1979. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  3. "Andy Spiva dies after auto crash". Schenectady Gazette. April 4, 1979. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  4. "Wednesday transactions". The Gettysburg Times. September 22, 1977. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  5. "Spiva signed". Rome News-Tribune. September 22, 1977. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  6. "Spiva killed in accident". Observer–Reporter. April 4, 1979. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  7. "Spiva has long, hard time ahead". Rome News-Tribune. August 22, 1978. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  8. "Falcons' Andy Spiva dies". Times-News (Hendersonville, North Carolina). April 4, 1979. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.