Former NFL offensive lineman Shane Olivea dies at 40

The Los Angeles Chargers announced Thursday that Shane Olivea, a former offensive tackle for the team and a standout player at Ohio State University, has died. He was 40.

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His cause of death was not immediately released.

From 2000 to 2003, Olivea was a star player for the Buckeyes, according to Sports Illustrated. He started for each of his three years with the team and was twice named to the All-Big Ten second team, WBNS-TV reported.

The Chargers chose Olivea in the seventh round of the 2004 NFL Draft. Over four seasons, he started in 57 of the 60 games he played with the team.

“In 2006, Olivea was an integral piece of an offensive line that helped Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson break the NFL’s single-season touchdown record,” team officials said Thursday in a statement.

He was released by the team in February 2008 after developing a painkiller addiction, according to WBNS.

“There wasn’t one day in the NFL I wasn’t high on a pill after my rookie year,” Olivea told The Columbus Dispatch in 2016. “At my height on Vicodin, I would take 125 a day. … It got to the point I would take a pile of 15 Vicodin and would have to take them with chocolate milk. If I did it with water or Gatorade, I’d throw it up.”

Olivea overcame his opioid addiction and, in 2016, earned a bachelor’s degree in sports industry through a degree-completion program at OSU, the Dispatch reported. He had recently been living in the Phoenix area, according to the newspaper.

John Macko, assistant director for OSU’s Student-Athlete Support Services, remembered Olivea as “just a great guy who worked his tail off to get his degree,” the Dispatch reported.

“Just so young to die, and I’m so sorry for his family,” he said. “It’s such a shock. It’s hard to put words to it. So sad.”

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