Former Denver Broncos Super Bowl Champ Dies Suddenly Overnight

A member of one of the Broncos Super Bowl championship winning teams has passed away at the young age of 52. He played for the Denver Broncos from 1994 through the 1997 season, which saw the team defeat the Green Bay Packers for their first championship, before leaving for the Detroit Lions as a free agent the following year.

Linebacker Allen Aldridge, Jr. was taken by the Broncos in the second round of the 1994 draft and earned a starting role the following season, Mike Shanahan's first as Broncos Head Coach.

He would go on to be a key piece of the Broncos defense in the years that followed, part of the great 1996 Broncos team that set all kinds of records and was expected to get to the Super Bowl before losing a shocker to the Jacksonville Jaguars at home in the first round of the playoffs.

The following year, they would struggle at times through the regular season earning a Wild Card berth, before embarking on what was later known as "The Revenge Tour," defeating Jacksonville, Kansas City and Pittsburgh before a trip to the Super Bowl in San Diego where they upset the defending champion Green Bay Packers.

While the Broncos would go on to repeat as champs for the 1998 season, Aldridge left the team in the prior offseason to sign a free agent contract with the Detroit Lions, where he played another four seasons before retiring in 2002.

He since returned to his hometown in the Houston, Texas area, where he's served as the head coach for Fort Bend Bush High School in Richmond since 2008.

He passed away overnight Sunday at the age of 52, and no cause of death has been released.