Christopher John Doleman (October 16, 1961 – January 28, 2020) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He spent the majority of his career with the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

, and also played for the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

and

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

. Doleman was an eight-time

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

selection and a three-time first-team All-Pro, recording 150.5 career sacks. He is a member of the

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...

class of 2012.

Early life

Doleman attended

William Penn Senior High School The William Penn Senior High School is a large, urban, public high school serving the City of York, Pennsylvania in York County, Pennsylvania. There were 876 pupils enrolled in 2014. It is the sole high school operated by the School District o ...

York, Pennsylvania York ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populati ...

, and graduated in 1980. He spent a postgraduate year at Valley Forge Military Academy in 1981.

College career

Doleman played football collegiately at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

. He was a star linebacker and defensive end for the Pitt Panthers from 1981 to 1984. He ended his career at Pitt with 25 sacks which was good for third all-time at the time of his departure. That total still ranks sixth in the Pitt annals.

Professional career

Doleman was selected by the

in the first round (4th overall) of the

1985 NFL Draft The 1985 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. The draft was held April 30 and May 1, 1985, at the Omni Park Central Hotel in New York City, New York. The league also hel ...

. He began his NFL career as an outside linebacker (OLB) in the Vikings' 3–4 defense, but for the 1987 season (Doleman's third season) the team decided to switch to a 4–3 defense, which resulted in him being moved from his spot at OLB up to the defensive line to play as a defensive end. The move paid off for Doleman, who recorded 21 sacks in the 1989 season, the highest total recorded that season and the fourth-highest total ever. The 21 sacks in a single season was a Vikings record until

Jared Allen Jared Scot Allen (born April 3, 1982) is a former American football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. He played college football at Idaho State and was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth ...

recorded 22 sacks in 2011. Doleman later played for the

and the

before returning to the Vikings in 1999 for his final season. He was a first-team All-Pro in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

and

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

. He garnered second-team All-Pro selections in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

and

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

. In 2012, Doleman was elected to the

NFL career statistics

Personal life

On January 25, 2018, Doleman had brain surgery for a condition which was later diagnosed as

glioblastoma Glioblastoma, previously known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is one of the most aggressive types of cancer that begin within the brain. Initially, signs and symptoms of glioblastoma are nonspecific. They may include headaches, personality ch ...

. On January 28, 2020, Doleman died from the disease at the age of 58. He was honored prior to kickoff at Super Bowl LIV five days later.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doleman, Chris 1961 births 2020 deaths American football defensive ends American football linebackers African-American players of American football Atlanta Falcons players Minnesota Vikings players Pittsburgh Panthers football players San Francisco 49ers players National Conference Pro Bowl players Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees Players of American football from Indianapolis Sportspeople from York, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Pennsylvania Deaths from brain cancer in the United States Deaths from glioblastoma 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people 100 Sacks Club