COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. — Woodrow Lowe, a three-time All-American linebacker at Alabama and an 11-year starter for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers, has died. He was 71.
Lowe died at his home in Collierville, Tenn., on Thursday, according to the National Football Foundation.
Lowe was a 2009 NFF Hall of Fame inductee. He starred at Alabama (1972-75) and was the second player in program history to make the first-team All-America list three times. He helped the Crimson Tide make the Sugar Bowl in 1973, losing to eventual national champion Notre Dame, and was a consensus All-America selection the following year.
“Woodrow Lowe was one of the finest linebackers ever to play the game, and we are deeply saddened to learn of his passing,” NFF Chairman Archie Manning said. “A three-time All-American and one of the most decorated linebackers in college football history, he defined excellence at one of the top programs in the country.
“After his playing days, he dedicated himself to shaping young lives as a coach and mentor, carrying forward the lessons of excellence and dedication that defined his own career. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and the entire Alabama football community.”
Born June 9, 1954, in Columbus, Ga., Lowe got his football start at Phenix City Central High in Alabama. He stayed in state for college and set a single-season record at Alabama with 134 tackles in 1973. The Tide went 43-5 during his four seasons in Tuscaloosa, and his 315 career tackles still rank fourth in school history.
A fifth-round draft pick by the Chargers in 1976, Lowe played in 164 of 165 possible games during his NFL career and tallied 21 interceptions, including four returned for touchdowns.
He coached at the high school, college and professional levels before retiring in Tennessee.
Lowe also was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame and the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame.
Former USC and NFL linebacker Keith Browner died Tuesday morning in San Leandro, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau confirmed Wednesday. He was 63.
Keith Browner Jr. told TMZ that he talked to his father Monday night when the elder Browning was having stomach problems, vomiting and feeling tired. Browner Jr. said his father told him he would go to the hospital the next morning.
Browner was getting ready to go to the hospital Tuesday morning, according to TMZ, “when he curled over the side of a chair and collapsed to the floor next to his girlfriend.” TMZ also reported that “it appears” Browner suffered a heart attack and that his death was “unexpected and sudden.”
Alameda County authorities provided no cause of death Wednesday.
Born in Warren, Ohio, Browner was the fifth of six brothers, all of whom played college football and four of whom went on to play in the NFL. A second-round pick (30th overall) for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1984, Browner also played for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Raiders and San Diego Chargers during a five-year NFL career.
Oldest brother Ross Browner spent 10 years in the NFL, playing for the Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers. Jimmie Browner Jr. played two years with the Bengals. Joey Browner was a six-time Pro Bowl player who spent nine seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and one with the Buccaneers.
Browner Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps as a college and pro football player. A standout defensive end at Dorsey High, Browner Jr. played three seasons at California and one season with the Houston Texans.
A nephew, Ross Browner’s son Max Starks, played nine years for the Pittsburgh Steelers and one for the St. Louis Rams.
Browner — who was 14 when his father, Jimmie, died of cancer at age 49 — said his mother Julia was the driving force behind her sons’ passion for the sport.
“She’s the one who always urged us to play,” he told the Dayton Daily News in 2023, “and sometimes she’d be right out there with us in the yard when we were having pick-up games.”
A three-sport standout at Warren Harding High, Browner spent four seasons at USC (1980-83), overlapping with brother Joey for the first three. He was named a captain for his final season and finished his college career with six interceptions in 34 games played.
Browner made the NFL’s all-rookie team in 1984. After three years with the Buccaneers, he split the 1987 season between the 49ers and Raiders before spending his final NFL season with the Chargers.
He finished his NFL career with 10.5 sacks, four interceptions (including one returned 55 yards for the Chargers against the Seattle Seahawks in 1988) and five fumble recoveries, then played two seasons in the Canadian Football League and six in the Arena Football League.
Browner is survived by his son and four daughters.
The Chargers struck a deal Tuesday to acquire Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Odafe Oweh in exchange for safety Alohi Gilman.
The Chargers, who play at Miami on Sunday and are looking to stop a two-game slide, are getting a pass rusher who had a career-high 10 sacks last season but had yet to collect one in Baltimore’s 1-4 start this season. Oweh was a first-round pick in 2021.
The Ravens, who host the Rams on Sunday, are in need of secondary help with safety Kyle Hamilton recovering from a groin injury that sidelined him last Sunday against Houston. It’s unclear if he will be ready to play against the Rams.
The Chargers and Ravens have close ties, with the teams coached by Harbaugh brothers Jim (Chargers) and John (Ravens), as well as Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz previously working in Baltimore’s front office.
The deal also involved a pick swap, with the Ravens getting a fifth-round selection next year, and the Chargers getting a seventh in 2027.
The Chargers had one sack Sunday in a 27-10 loss to Washington, and this move bolsters an edge rush that is missing Khalil Mack, whose return timeline from a dislocated elbow remains uncertain. The production of outside linebackers Bud Dupree and Caleb Murphy has been underwhelming opposite Tuli Tuipulotu, who had four sacks against the New York Giants.
Gilman started all five games for the Chargers this season with 22 tackles and three passes defensed. This is his sixth season, all with the Chargers, and for his career has five interceptions and 21 passes defensed.
Gilman played at Notre Dame but began his college career at Navy, so returning to Maryland is a homecoming.
Safety is one of the few areas where the Chargers are flush with healthy players. In addition to All-Pro Derwin James, they have Elijah Molden, Tony Jefferson and rookie RJ Mickens, so Gilman was more expendable.
The lion’s amber gaze fixes forward on Nate Landman’s left bicep, its mane fanning across the curve of his arm. Above Landman’s wrist, a zebra bends to graze, while a giraffe behind steps through a stand of wind-bent acacia trees.
Together, they form a tattooed sleeve of Zimbabwe — an inked landscape of home carried by the Rams’ newest defensive signal-caller.
“There’s not many Zimbabwe migrants in the United States,” Landman said, “so to represent my country and have this platform to do it is huge.”
Rams linebacker Nate Landman shows tattoos on his left arm of a lion, giraffe and zebra from his native Zimbabwe.
(Ira Gorawara / Los Angeles Times)
At age 4, Landman’s family of six traded the southern tip of Africa for Northern California, chasing wider playing fields and educational opportunities for their children. Twenty-two years later, the red soil and wild coastlines of his first home still ride with him — in the way he stalks, strikes and erupts.
So when tight end Davis Allen cut through a seam and caught a pass during Saturday’s training camp session, Landman tracked him with the patience of a predator. He measured each step, sprang forward and then uncoiled, thumping the ball out of Allen’s grip to send it skidding to the turf.
After witnessing several of those jarring shots, safety Quentin Lake coined the nickname “Peanut Punch Landman,” a nod to Landman’s ability to force fumbles.
“He has just a knack for the ball,” Lake said.
The Atlanta Falcons were the first to detect that hunch, scooping Landman out of Colorado as an undrafted rookie. In each of the last two seasons, he forced three fumbles.
That instinct — and the trust he’s earned — fast-tracked Landman’s role with the Rams. Signed as a free agent in March, Landman wasted little time winning over Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula, who stuck a green dot on Landman’s helmet, designating him as a commander of the defense.
“The way that he understands the game, he’s able to talk to everybody on the defense,” Rams inside linebackers coach Greg Williams said. “It was almost a no-brainer when coach Shula came to me and said, ‘I think Nate should have the green dot.’”
And for the Rams, that leadership and knack for creating turnovers came at a bargain. In a defense that doesn’t spend big at linebacker, Landman — who signed a one-year, $1.1-million contract — arrived as a low-cost addition with high potential return.
“He’s a great communicator. He’s got great command. He’s got the ability to elevate people,” coach Sean McVay said, adding, “I just like the way that this guy’s got a great vibe.”
Before Landman became an on-field general for the Rams, he was in teacher mode, offering teammates a primer that had nothing to do with playbooks.
During a team meeting, Landman unfurled a map of Africa, tracing its outline with his finger before shading the small patch of land he calls home — wedged right above South Africa — to give his locker room a visual pin on where his story began.
“A lot of guys don’t know that Africa, the continent, is full of just individual countries,” Landman said. “They think it’s states and stuff. So it’s cool to be able to share that with them — not everybody believes when I say I’m from Africa.”
Amid that crash course, one question kept resurfacing.
Are there lions and deer roaming around?
“A lot of people are fascinated,” Landman said. “It’s such a rare thing, that’s why I’m so proud of it.”
Though it’s been a few years since Landman last stood on Zimbabwean soil, his family ties still tether him there. And as football sent him crisscrossing the United States, his homeland’s hues and emblems have come along for the ride.
The tattoo sleeve climbs into his chest, framing a map of Africa with Zimbabwe shaded deep. He still eats sadza nenyama , the maize-and-meat staple that fed his childhood. And in his parents’ home, light falls on a gallery of African vignettes and keepsakes.
His helmet bears the same allegiance, Zimbabwe’s flag tagged proudly on the back.
“I love wearing that Zimbabwe flag on the back of my helmet,” Landman said, “and I’ll do that as long as I’m in the NFL.”
Seventh in a series of stories profiling top high school football players by position. Today, Tristan Phillips, Ventura linebacker.
It’s lunch time, and standout linebacker Tristan Phillips has arrived in his truck at a private training facility near Ventura High for a workout. When he starts his stretching exercises, you can’t miss his bulging biceps or the intense focus on his face.
“He’s obsessed with working to be the best possible version of himself,” coach Tim Garcia said.
At 6 feet 3 1/2 and 215 pounds, Phillips’ size alone makes him someone running backs and quarterbacks want to avoid. Add his work ethic to keep getting stronger, his instincts to figure out where the ball is going and his passion to finish plays, and you have a linebacker with all the qualities to be successful.
“I’m very obsessed with the process,” the 17-year-old said.
Last season as a junior, Phillips recorded 80 tackles, including nine for losses. At first, the recruiting process was slow, then came a point when he was getting constant phone calls and texts. He’s committed to Oregon and has offered a lesson to those just beginning to understand the changes taking place. He stressed it needs to be a “balancing act.”
“At first, it was hard to navigate through and frustrating when I wasn’t getting the attention I thought I deserved,” he said. “When I got a couple offers, I felt it was amazing. I realized how stressful it gets coaches calling you and texting you. It can be a lot for a 17-year-old kid.”
Phillips has been helped by the background of his father, Brett, who used to coach at Rio Mesa, Oxnard Pacifica and Channel Islands. His late grandfather was the principal and former coach at Rio Mesa. He has lived in Ventura all his life and has grown up with quarterback Derek Garcia. They’d carpooled since youth days, Phillips asking questions of Garcia’s dad hoping to prepare to play high school football.
“He’s always had support of his parents with understanding what athletics does for younger generation and to be productive on a daily basis,” Tim Garcia said. “Watching his growth as not just as an athlete but a human being is special. Tristan was always asking the right questions. ‘What’s going on with Ventura? What about this player? What do you think of this?’’ From an early age, he had his mind set what he wanted to do.”
Linebacker Tristan Phillips of Ventura prepares for a workout with a stretching exercise.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
So what makes people excited about Phillips as a linebacker?
“His ability to make plays directly at him and away from him are spectacular to watch,” Garcia said.
Said Phillips: “Whether blocking or hitting on defense, I want to make sure I’m putting you in the ground and you’re feeling it.”
Tristan Phillips of Ventura is one of the top returning linebackers in California.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Much of Phillips’ preparation comes from his belief that magical things can happen in the weight room. During the spring, he was lifting in the morning, then in the afternoon, but also recognizing he needs time to recover and not to overdo it.
“On a football team, it all starts in the weight room,” he said. “You have to be sturdy, strong, fast, move side to side, keep yourself healthy. There’s a lot of things you can do in the weight room to prevent injury and improve.”
Phillips’ competitiveness comes through in workouts and executing little things, such as stretching. It’s all part of the process he embraces trying to get better every day.
“I’ll admit I’m a sore loser,” he said. “I put so much time into it. I know you’re not going to win every battle but just making the most of every opportunity really matters.”
Tuesday: Palos Verdes defensive back Jalen Flowers.
Linebackers to watch
Taven Epps, Tustin, 6-4, 225, Jr: Lots of talent and potential
Dash Fifita, Santa Margarita, 5-9, 190, Sr.: Arizona commit is All-Trinity League selection
Taylor Johnson, Cajon, 6-1, 200, Sr.: USC commit averaged 14 tackles last season
Isaiah Leilua, Servite, 6-0, 220, Jr.: Toughness and aggressiveness come through
Jonathan McKinley, Corona Centennial, 6-2, 225, Sr.: Cal commit makes plays
Samu Moala, Leuzinger, 6-4, 225, Sr.: Texas A&M commit will be used all over field
Matthew Muasau, St. John Bosco, 6-1, 225, Sr.: UCLA commit
Isaiah Phelps, Oxnard Pacifica, 6-1, 200, Jr.: Has quickness, instincts
