Nick Buoniconti

Nicholas Anthony Buoniconti (December 15, 1940 – July 30, 2019) was an American professional football player who was a middle linebacker in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He played for the Boston Patriots and Miami Dolphins, winning two Super Bowls with the Dolphins. Buoniconti was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001.

Buoniconti was born to Nicholas Anthony Buoniconti Sr. and Pasqualina “Patsy” Mercolino in Springfield, Massachusetts. The couple ran a family bakery in the predominantly Italian South End of the city. He was raised Roman Catholic and played football for Cathedral High School, where a plaque honoring him as a “Hometown Hall of Famer” was unveiled in 2012.

In 1985, his son Marc suffered a spinal cord injury making a tackle for The Citadel, rendering him a quadriplegic. Nick became the public face of the group that founded the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, now one of the world’s leading neurological research centers.