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Charle Young, former NFL and USC tight end, dies at 75

Brian Jones Profile Picby: Brian Jones05/12/26brianjones_93

Charle Young, a former NFL tight end who also played at USC, has died, the San Francisco 49ers announced. He was 75 years old.

The cause of death was not revealed, but the 49ers said that they mourned “the passing of former TE Charle Young. Our organization sends its deepest condolences to the Young family and friends.”

Young began his NFL career in 1973, when the Philadelphia Eagles selected him in the first round of the draft. He was with the team for four seasons before joining the Los Angeles Rams in 1977.

After spending three seasons in LA, Young joined the San Francisco 49ers in 1980 and helped the team win a Super Bowl that season. He spent two more years with the 49ers before spending his final three seasons with the Seattle Seahawks.

In his NFL career, Young caught 418 passes for 5,106 yards and 27 touchdowns. He was named to the Pro Bowl and the All-Pro Team three times. Young’s best season was in 1973, when he caught 55 passes for 854 yards and six touchdowns with the Eagles.

Charle Young was a legendary player at USC

One of the reasons Young was a first-round selection is what he did at USC. He was a second-team All-American in 1971, a unanimous All-American in 1972, and helped the Trojans win the national title during the 1972 season. In his three seasons at USC, Young tallied 1,008 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

In 2017, Young looked back at his time with the Eagles and the NFL. “One of my fondest memories (from my time with the Eagles) is the camaraderie that we had on that team,” Young said, per the Eagles’ official website. “There were guys like Roman Gabriel, and you had all the guys that came in with me – Jerry Sisemore, Guy Morriss, Randy Logan, Will Wynn, Joe Lavender, and a plethora of other people. All of those came in from a winning program.

“When I first came into the league, it was more about individual stats, but I learned quickly that it is the team stats that are most important, where you accomplish the ultimate goal, and that’s to win. And so looking from the standpoint, that solidifies the legacy of being a winner because I won in college, the National Championship, I won in the NFL, a Super Bowl (XVI) championship (with the San Francisco 49ers). And so that is what I look at as being the most promising and probably the most fruitful of my endeavors.”