Former Chargers linebacker Billy Ray Smith Jr. died Wednesday, his family announced. He was 64.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is with profound sadness that we share the loss of our beloved Billy Ray Smith Jr., who passed away peacefully surrounded by family,\u201d the family said in a statement. \u201cBilly Ray faced his long journey with dementia caused by CTE with unmatched bravery, dignity, and strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cBilly Ray brought so much joy, light, and laughter to the world as a devoted father, husband, son, and loyal friend. On the NFL gridiron for a decade with the Chargers, and decades that followed in sports broadcasting, Billy Ray earned deep respect from teammates, colleagues, and fans, who he cherished in return.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe leaves an irreplaceable void in our lives. His undeniable legacy will live forever in our hearts, and we thank our incredible community for the outpouring of love and support.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chargers made Smith the fifth overall pick in 1983 out of the University of Arkansas, where he was a two-time unanimous All-American. He finished eighth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting.<\/p>\n
He played all 10 seasons of his NFL career with the Chargers, totaling 26.5 sacks, 15 interceptions and 13 forced fumbles in 126 games.<\/p>\n
Smith was a member of the Chargers\u2019 50th Anniversary Team.<\/p>\n
After his retirement, Smith became a sports broadcaster on TV, radio and online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Chargers linebacker Billy Ray Smith Jr. died Wednesday, his family announced. He was 64. \u201cIt is with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-792687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}