Bradley Scott Beckman (December 31, 1964 – December 18, 1989) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

and the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the

University of Nebraska at Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kno ...

and was drafted in the seventh round of the

1988 NFL Draft The 1988 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 24–25, 1988, at the Marriot Marq ...

by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

. Beckman was killed when the car he was a passenger in bumped a car in front of it and then lost control and was hit broadside by a truck. The accident was on I-85 near Lilburn in icy conditions on December 18, 1989, nearly two weeks before Beckman's 25th birthday. His death was the second one for the Falcons that year, and the third in the space of two years. Four weeks prior, offensive tackle Ralph Norwood died in a separate traffic collision; a year before, cornerback

David Croudip David Rodney Croudip (January 25, 1958 – October 10, 1988) was an American football defensive back. He played for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers and the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL and the USFL's Los Angeles Express and Houston Gambl ...

died of a cocaine overdose. At the time of his death, the Falcons had played 15 out of 16 games in the season. Beckman had played in all 15 games for the Falcons up to that point, starting in two of them.

References

External links

NFL.com player page
* 1964 births 1989 deaths Sportspeople from Lincoln, Nebraska American football tight ends Nebraska–Omaha Mavericks football players New York Giants players Atlanta Falcons players Road incident deaths in Georgia (U.S. state) {{tightend-1960s-stub