Former Ohio State national champion, offensive lineman reportedly dead at 40

Shane Olivea, a former Ohio State offensive linemen that helped the Buckeyes win the 2002 National Championship, died Thursday at age 40, according to multiple reports. A cause of death has yet to be released.

Olivea was a three-year starter for Ohio State, earning All-Big Ten second team honors in two of those seasons. Following his collegiate career, Olivea was selected by San Diego with the 209th pick in the seventh round of the 2004 NFL Draft where he would go on to start 57 games for the Chargers before being released in February of 2008.

“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,” the Chargers said in a statement following Olivea’s death.

In a 2016 interview with the Columbus Dispatch, Olivea discussed how his painkiller addiction destroyed his NFL career. Two months after his release from the NFL, he checked into rehab. In the interview he noted that he took up to 125 pills a day at the height of his addiction. There wasn’t one day in the NFL he wasn’t high on a pill after his rookie year, according to Olivea.

“It got to the point I would take a pile of 15 Vicodin and would have to take them with chocolate milk,” he said. “If I did it with water or Gatorade, I’d throw it up.”

After rehab, he reenrolled at Ohio State in 2015, entering the sports department’s degree completion program. In 2016 and at age 35, with eight years of sobriety behind him, Olivea earned his college degree in sports industry and received his diploma.

“I looked at it like three times,” Olivea said told the Dispatch. “I never thought I’d ever see a college diploma with my name on it.”

Former Ohio State teammates put together tribute posts about his death on social media, including NFL veteran-turned radio host Bobby Carpenter. “Woke to the sobering news that @OhioStateFB lost a great one this morning. Shane Olivea passed last night … More importantly, I’ll never forget the kindness he showed to a young freshman who was clueless and didn’t know anything about anything,” Carpenter wrote.

It is unconfirmed whether or not his history with addiction played any role in his death.