He was an NFL punter with a linebacker’s body and a champion’s heart.
But that heart seemingly failed Reggie Roby on Tuesday when the former Miami Dolphins standout died of an apparent heart attack at 43. An official cause of death is expected after an autopsy.
Roby was found by his wife, Melissa, on Tuesday morning in their Nashville home. He was unconscious but had a pulse. CPR was administered at his home, in the ambulance and in the emergency room to no avail. Roby leaves behind his wife, six children and a dual legacy as a punter with a booming leg and a charitable man with a giving spirit.
“This is a tremendous loss for his family but also for a lot of young boys in Nashville,” said Joe Davis, founder of Backfield in Motion, a non-profit organization whose mission is to inspire Nashville’s inner-city boys to become contributors to society.
Roby moved from South Florida three years ago and worked for the Nashville-based organization as the marketing and development director. He was overseeing 30 boys, Davis said.
In working for Backfield in Motion, Roby simply was putting to use a charitable spirit he often tried to keep veiled while he played with the Dolphins from 1983 to ’92.
“Every Christmas morning, he would get up and head off to some soup kitchen to help feed people,” said Broward-based attorney Scott Alan Salomon, who represented Roby much of his 16-year career. “He didn’t want the media to know about it because he wasn’t doing it for the publicity.
“He was just doing it because it was in his heart. He was just a good man.”
“I remember him as having one of the strongest legs in the history of the NFL,” former Dolphins coach Don Shula said in a statement. “Often on walk-throughs in domed stadiums the day before the game, he would try to hit the top of the dome with a punt.
“He sometimes succeeded.”
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The Dolphins released Roby in the summer of 1993. He had suffered financial setbacks and was threatening to void his contract by filing for bankruptcy, which he eventually did.
He also had been injured much of 1992, and his average had dipped to a career-low 41.2 yards. But upon his release, Roby was able to rebound.
He signed a lucrative contract with Washington and was named to his third Pro Bowl after earning two trips to Hawaii as a Dolphin.
He also had stints with Tampa Bay, Houston, Tennessee and San Francisco before he retired after the 2001 season.