Chuck Muncie

Muncie was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 1976 NFL Draft with the third overall pick. He teamed with Saints' second round pick Tony Galbreath to form a backfield dubbed by then-coach Hank Stram as "Thunder and Lightning".[11]

Muncie played in the Pro Bowl after the 1979 season with the Saints and was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the game. He was the first Saints player named to the Pro Bowl and also was the first Saints player ever to reach the 1,000-yard rushing plateau when he ran for a then-team record of 1,198 yards in 1979.[1] Coming from the tolerant environment in Berkeley, it was a culture shock for Muncie in New Orleans, where his house and car were regularly vandalized by racists despite his living in a nice neighborhood.[3] He frequently expressed his unhappiness in New Orleans.[12] Saints coach Dick Nolan grew tired of Muncie being late for meetings and practices. After the Saints began the 1980 season with an 0–4 record, they traded Muncie to the 4–0 San Diego Chargers.[13]

Muncie with the San Diego Chargers c. 1981

With the Chargers, Muncie was selected for the Pro Bowl twice as a member of their high-scoring Air Coryell offense.[14] He also appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated two additional times during the NFL Playoffs.[15] He enjoyed his best season in 1981, when he ran for 1,144 yards and 19 touchdowns, tying the then-NFL season record for rushing touchdowns.[lower-alpha 3][17][18] He went on to rush for 120 yards and a touchdown in San Diego's 41–38 win over the Miami Dolphins in a famous playoff game known as The Epic in Miami, and 94 yards in the AFC title game, known as the Freezer Bowl. Muncie also helped lead the team to two AFC West division championships.

After the 1982 season, former New Orleans teammate Don Reese said he used cocaine with Muncie during their time with the Saints.[10][19] Muncie said that he had cut down on his cocaine since his trade to San Diego. He admitted he still had a problem with alcohol and marijuana, and he underwent an initial round of rehabilitation.[10] However, after missing a bed check and a practice during training camp, he underwent three weeks of additional rehabilitation, and returned for the start of the 1983 season.[20] Before the second game of 1984 against the Seattle Seahawks, Muncie missed the team's charter flight from San Diego. When he arrived in Seattle, he told coach Don Coryell that vandals slashed the tires on his car. Coryell didn't believe him, and sent him back to San Diego.[21][22]

Two days later, Muncie was traded to the Miami Dolphins for a second-round draft pick.[21][23] At the time, he was the NFL's 13th leading rusher of all-time with 6,702 yards;[2] however, the trade was voided after a urinalysis conducted by the Dolphins showed cocaine in his system.[21][24] Afterwards, Muncie entered an Arizona drug rehabilitation center for a month. On November 15, he was suspended indefinitely by the NFL;[21] he never played another NFL game.[17] In March 1985, Chargers owner Alex Spanos said Muncie would never play for San Diego again, even if his suspension was lifted.[21]

After being reinstated later in 1985, Muncie was traded to the Minnesota Vikings. He started and performed well in the final exhibition game,[24] but he served a one-game suspension in the season opener after failing to attend two aftercare therapy sessions that were one of the conditions of his reinstatement.[25][26] Muncie retired three days later, citing his need to make his life his first priority and the difficulty with balancing drug rehabilitation with playing football.[24][26]

Muncie finished his nine-season career with 6,702 rushing yards, 263 receptions for 2,323 yards, 20 kickoff returns for 432 yards, and 74 touchdowns. He completed four passes in his career, all for touchdowns, with three of them to Wes Chandler, and he had a 141.4 passer rating.[27] Muncie's rushing yards were the seventh-most in the NFL from 1976 though 1984, while his touchdowns ranked fourth. His 71 rushing touchdowns ranked ninth in NFL history at his retirement.[28] At his death in 2013, he ranked fifth in Saints history in career rushing yards, and his 19 touchdowns in a season and 43 in his career with the Chargers had been surpassed only by LaDainian Tomlinson.[17] He also shares a Chargers record with LaDainian Tomlinson and Clarence Williams with four rushing touchdowns in a single game (against Denver in 1981), and holds the Chargers playoff franchise records with 110 rushes for 516 yards and 86 yards per game, along with 644 career yards from scrimmage, and two playoff games with 100+ yards rushing. He was named to the Saints Hall of Honor,[11][29] and he was a member of the Chargers' 40th and 50th anniversary teams.[17]

The Los Angeles Times wrote that Muncie "was gifted with size, speed and power",[30] while The Miami News said he possessed the strength of a fullback and the elegance of a halfback.[2] U-T San Diego added that he was "widely considered the most talented running back of his era",[31] and the San Francisco Chronicle said Muncie "could have been the greatest running back in NFL history, a 2.0 version of Jim Brown" if he had the discipline of running backs like Walter Payton or Roger Craig.[32] "His head is the only thing holding him back", said Jim Brown. "If he had total dedication, he could achieve any goal."[2] While he was in New Orleans, he frequently slept through meetings whenever he attended them at all. Whenever the Saints broke the huddle, quarterback Archie Manning had to walk by Muncie and tell him exactly what he was supposed to do in the upcoming play. Manning recalled years later that it was obvious that Muncie "wasn't thinking about football" during the week.[1]

Muncie was frustrated that he was neither in the Pro Football Hall of Fame nor the Chargers Hall of Fame, acknowledging that "I'm not there because of the choices I made."[33] He described himself as a "functioning addict" during his Chargers tenure.[33] He did cocaine after games, and sometimes would be high for days leading up to game day.[31] In 1982, Reese said Muncie had to be "superman" to perform at his high level in spite of his addiction.[19][30]

Muncie was one of the first players to wear glasses or goggles while playing.[4][34][35] He began wearing glasses at Arizona Western, when he wore them at practice one day and realized they improved his nearsightedness.[4][34] Muncie wore thick black frames throughout his career, switching to sports goggles late in his career. While with the Saints, he was featured in a full-page ad by glassmaker PPG for shatter-resistant glasses.[34] Decades later in the 2010s, National Basketball Association (NBA) players were considered hipsters for wearing thick black glasses.[36][37]