STEELERS SHOCKED BY DEATH OF WR COACH DARRYL DRAKE
WR coach Drake dies at 62, two days after preseason game
Steelers wide receivers coach Darryl Drake, who was beloved by his players and viewed as a father figure to many of them during his college and NFL coaching career, died Sunday morning in his dormitory room at Saint Vincent College. He was 62.
Cause of death is unknown. The Steelers canceled practice Sunday and Monday and closed Saint Vincent College to fans. They are scheduled to resume practice Tuesday, which originally was an off day.
“We are at a loss for words following Darryl Drake’s passing,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said in a statement. “Darryl had such an impact on the players he coached and everyone he worked with throughout his entire career. He was a passionate coach and had a tremendous spirit toward life, his family and the game of football. Our prayers are with his wife, Sheila, his three daughters, his grandchildren and entire family during this difficult time.”
Drake was entering his second season with the Steelers. He was hired by coach Mike Tomlin after Richard Mann stepped down following the 2017 season.
Drake was a longtime college and NFL coach. He coached with the Bears from 2004 until 2012 and then with the Cardinals from 2013 to 2017 before getting hired by the Steelers. He also had coaching stops in college at Western Kentucky, his alma mater; Georgia, Baylor and Texas.
“Darryl was a close friend and had a tremendous impact on my coaching career,” Tomlin said. “He was an amazing husband, father and grandfather, and it’s difficult to put into words the grief our entire team is going through right now. Darryl loved the game of football and every player he coached. We will use our faith to guide us and help his family through this difficult time.”
Drake coached in the Steelers preseason opener Friday night against Tampa Bay. Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians spoke with Drake before the game. They coached together in Arizona when Arians was the head coach there.
“He’s one of the best of all time,” Arians said. “He’s one of the best teachers. He was a father figure to everyone in the room. He took care of them personally and professionally. He was one of the best human beings I know.
“I talked to him before the game. He looked so good. It’s shocking, just
having sat there and talked to him for so long.”
Drake not only coached former Steelers receiver Hines Ward when he was at Georgia, but he also was responsible for recruiting him to the school. Ward has remained very close with Drake and his wife, Sheila.
“Today hurts,” Ward said over the phone. “He was basically a father- figure to me. He was the whole reason I went to Georgia. Over the years, even when I was playing, he’d shoot me a text after every game, always encouraging, always had a positive attitude. It was just a relationship we had over the years, basically half my life.”
Ward said he talked to his former position coach just two days ago. He said Arians called him Sunday morning to tell him the sad news.
“To hear he’s no longer here, we were devastated,” Ward said.
Former Pitt receiver Larry Fitzgerald, whom Drake coached for five seasons with the Arizona Cardinals, was very upset about his former coach and declined interview requests. But he posted this message on social media:
“I’m heartbroken for anyone who had the privilege to know Darryl. As a man, a coach, a husband, and a father, he was as good as they come. I can’t put into words the impact that Darryl had on me… he was my position coach for five years, and he’s been one of the greatest mentors and friends in my life since we met.”
Dwayne Penn, a Brownsville High School graduate, played for Drake at Western Kentucky in 1987 and 1988. He called Drake a mentor and kept in touch with him for the past 30 years.
“I was just getting ready to call him,” Penn said. “Coach Drake was like a big brother to me. He wasn’t my position coach, but he was a mentor. He went to the NFL. He knew what it would take. He saw some of the same traits in me. We’d always talk before and after practice. He was such a good father, a family man. He was one of those guys who was more than a coach. He had a big impact on the team. He was the ultimate leader. He would come to the field early and stayed late. He lived it.”
Drake was Dave Roberts’ first hire when he took over as the head coach at Western Kentucky. Drake, a native of Louisville, graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky in 1980 after a standout career as a receiver. He went to training camp with the Redskins in 1979 and the Bengals in 1983. He played in the CFL with the Ottawa Roughriders in between.
“We took over an 0- 10 team,” Roberts said. “We had no weight room, no locker room. He did as much for Western Kentucky as anyone. We had to do everything. He was instrumental in us getting players. We started to win, the attendance went up. It was his doing that made that all happen. Then he went with me to Baylor years later and did it again with another losing team. He was a brilliant coach, but he was a better person than a coach.
“He was just a great person. It’s a shock. I’m so sorry for his family. But what a life he had. I’m sad, but people like Darryl, they go to a better place.”
Penn and Roberts said Drake lived for his wife and three daughters — Shanice, Felisha and Marian.
“His daughters were his everything,” Penn said. “That’s all he talked about — his kids. That was everything to him — his kids and football.”
Drake was a coach at Western Kentucky from 198392. The school’s football team is now a member of Football Bowl Subdivision, but it was an Football Championship Subdivision school during his tenure there. The success the program enjoys now, Roberts said, is owed to Drake and the work he did.
“He was just a great representative of Western Kentucky. The players have already started calling me. It’s amazing — 30, 40 years later — what they all thought of him.”
“I don’t think I ever came across a player that didn’t like coach Drake,” Penn said.