Written by Peter King at MMQB.com
Somber day in the NFL. Not a lot of people around the league were tight with Hall of Fame defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy, the 1992 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. (Defensive player of the year awards: Kennedy one, Deion Sanders one, Champ Bailey zero, Julius Peppers zero.) Kennedy was closer to the security guys, the video guys, the neighbors on his block—some of whom didn’t know he was a football player.
When former Seahawks contract negotiator Mickey Loomis—who did the big deals with Kennedy’s agent for the nine-time all-pro player—was let go during a change in ownership late in Kennedy’s Seattle tenure two decades ago, the first call Loomis got was from Kennedy, wishing him well, asking if he could do anything. And when Loomis got the front-office job in New Orleans in 2000, he stayed in close touch. When Kennedy’s Seattle career ended, Loomis called, offering a one-year deal in New Orleans. “I can’t do it,” Kennedy said. “I can’t do that to Seattle. I want to say I played my whole career with Seattle.”
Kennedy died of undetermined causes in Florida on Tuesday at 48. He hadn’t been feeling well, but the cause of death has not been determined.
Loomis was still broken up Tuesday evening. Kennedy became such a close friend that the Saints became his adopted team. He knew all the Superdome staff, and all the behind-the-scenes people at the Saints’ training facility. He loved Loomis’ family. Sometimes, unannounced, he’d come to town just because he missed the Loomises, and he’d sleep on their couch. Loomis has twin 6-year-old kids, and when they visited Orlando to see Kennedy a year or so ago, they burst past security for a hug with Kennedy, screaming, “UNCLE TEZ!”
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