Former Jets defensive player Abdul Salaam dies at the age of 71

Abdul Salaam (X)

According to Alex Raskin of Daily Mail on Wednesday, former New York Jets defender Abdul Salaam of New Brockton, Alabama passed away at the age of 71. Salaam played eight NFL seasons with the New York Jets from 1976 to 1983. The defensive positions Salaam played were defensive tackle and nose tackle.

Salaam played 97 games for New York. He had 21 sacks and four fumble recoveries.

What Salaam was most recognized for was being part of the Jets’s New York Sack Exchange. It also consisted of defensive end Mark Gastineau of Ardmore, Oklahoma, defensive tackle Joe Klecko of Chester, Pennsylvania and defensive tackle and defensive end Marty Lyons of Takoma Park, Maryland. Salaam and Lyons played their entire professional football careers with the Jets, while Klecko played one season with the Indianapolis Colts, and Gastineau played one season with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League.

Salaam played his college football at Kent State University in Ohio. He was the Jets’s seventh round pick, 188th overall, in the 1976 NFL Draft.

It should be noted that Salaam’s original name was Larry Faulk. However, he changed his name to Abdul Salaam in 1977 according to the Kent State Hall of Fame website. The name of “Abdul Salaam” means “Soldier of Peace.” Another high profile professional sports athlete who changed his name in the 1970s was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of Harlem, New York. The basketball legend who played with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, had the previous name of Lew Alcindor. On December 18, 2019, The Sporting Base declared Abdul-Jabbar as the third best NBA player ever.

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