Gabe Rivera
1961-2018
Former Pittsburgh Steeler Gabriel Rivera died yesterday at the age of 57.
Steelers fans know his story. He was a number one draft pick out of Texas Tech in 1983, the guy whom Chuck Noll was going to use as the cornerstone of a revamped and rebuilt defense, much like he did with Joe Greene fourteen years earlier. Six games into his Steelers career, Rivera, after a night at a bar, had a horrific automobile accident that paralyzed him for the rest of his life. Not only was a promising football career cut short, but Rivera's life was dramatically changed forever.
Steelers fans also know the other part of the story. When Noll drafted Rivera, Pitt's quarterback Dan Marino was still available to them in that draft. It was felt that Terry Bradshaw still had a few good seasons left in him (he didn't, as it turned out). Marino went on to a Hall of Fame career with Miami, and it took the Steelers twenty years to adequately replace Bradshaw.
None of that, of course, was Rivera's fault, and we will never know what kind of career he would have had as a Steeler. He may very well have been the linchpin defensive lineman that Noll envisioned, and the course of the Steelers fortunes through the 1980's could have changed for the good, but we will never know that. It kind of bothered me that the obit for Rivera that appeared in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette focused more on how the Steelers should have drafted Marino than on the tragic circumstances that changed Rivera's life forever.
I can only imagine the thoughts that must have gone through the mind of Gabriel Rivera over the last thirty-five years. It must have been a living hell for him. From a personal viewpoint, the story off Gabe Rivera has never left my mind whenever, and more so in my younger days than now, I was out for an evening and having a drink or two. I always consider what I am doing when I know I have to get in a car and drive. Maybe I have Gabe Rivera to thank for that, and maybe others do as well. Again, this is something that we will never know.
I hope that Rivera came to peace with the events of his life, and that he was able to live a fulfilled life.
RIP Gabe Rivera.
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