NFL
Former Buffalo Bills lineman Mitch Frerotte dies of heart attack
The Buffalo Bills have not had too many backup players in their history as colorful as Mitch Frerotte. The reserve offensive lineman cut a distinctive figure on the field with his long blond hair, tattoos and elaborate face paint while a member of the Bills’ team in 1987 and from 1989 through ’92.
Frerotte, 43, died unexpectedly in his home in Kittanning, Pa., on Wednesday. He died of a heart attack, according to cousin Gus Frerotte, a Minnesota Vikings backup quarterback.
According to the Associated Press, Armstrong County Coroner Robert Bower said Frerotte died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle which can cause sudden death, and that his family has a history of the condition.
The American Heart Association reports Frerotte's condition is the "most common cause of sudden death in young athletes."
Frerotte made the Bills’ roster as an undrafted free agent out of Penn State in 1987. He was cut from the team in 1988 and spent the entire 1989 season on the injured reserve list after suffering a back injury in training camp. Frerotte made the team in 1990 and was a regular on the special-teams units for the Bills’ first three Super Bowl teams. Overall, he appeared in 58 games for Buffalo with three starts.
Frerotte loved to ride motorcycles. He applied black paint around his eyes and down his cheeks on game day. He often said during his playing days that his goal was to become a professional wrestler after football.
“In this game, I can be as free-spirited as I want,” Frerotte told The News in 1990. “Guys who are doctors, lawyers, businessmen, whatever, they can’t be that way. They have to have a certain kind of image. But in football, it’s a matter of who’s sicker out on the field on Sunday. And I have the opportunity to just be crazy and nuts.”
“Obviously he was a free spirit,” said Bud Carpenter, Bills trainer. “I think that’s probably the best word that describes him. He came here as a free agent from Penn State. He was always in [coach] Joe Paterno’s doghouse, but that’s just the way he lived his entire life, whether it was on a motorcycle or on the field. He was free-spirited. He had an unbelievable work ethic, and he was as tough as anybody.”
In his last season with the Bills, Frerotte caught three touchdown passes, two in the regular season and one in a playoff win at Pittsburgh. Frerotte played virtually the entire game in Super Bowl XXVII against Dallas in 1993 after Kent Hull was injured early.
Frerotte left the Bills as a free agent in 1993, signing with Seattle. However, on his third day in Seahawks training camp, he suffered an injury to the second and third vertebrae in his neck. He never played again in an NFL game.
Frerotte was plagued by back pain and degenerative disks in his neck after retiring from the game.
“I’m damaged,” Frerotte told The News in an interview in 2005. “I’m 40 years old and all I know how to do is pull and pass block. I can’t work because I’m totally disabled.”
At the time of his death, authorities said Frerotte was helping coach some local youth football teams.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
