March 19, 2007 Observer Newsletter: Ernie Ladd & Black Shadow pass away, TNA Destination X
Ernie Ladd holds a number of unique distinctions in the sports world, as well as the pro wrestling world.
As one of the most famous players in the history of the old American Football League (which later became the AFC in its merger with the NFL), he is, along with Bronko Nagurski, the biggest dual sports pro wrestling/football star who ever lived.
There were ex-NFL stars who were as big a star as he was, like Dick the Bruiser and Wahoo McDaniel, but they were not the caliber of football player he was. Leo Nomellini was a better football player, but not nearly as big a national wrestling star. Ladd and Nagurski were the only close to Hall of Fame caliber performers in both sports. In his heyday of the 60s, where he played football and then wrestled during the off-season, he was the biggest man in one and bordering on the biggest in the other. Grizzly Smith of the Kentuckians tag team, the father of Jake Roberts, was roughly as tall, and heavier, although Smith was hardly the sculpted athlete with a 52 inch chest and 39 inch waist that a young Ernie Ladd was.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.