Though Channing Crowder had a respectable NFL career, his second act might be even bigger. Crowder was an All-American at Florida in 2004 and was drafted in the third round in 2005 by the Miami Dolphins. He was solid from 2005 to 2010, starting 74 games and racking up 470 combined tackles.
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However, Crowder abruptly retired in 2010. He cited many reasons—most notably that he didn’t want to go through the physical rehabilitation from injuries anymore, he already had financial stability, and he didn’t want to jump from team to team. So he went into a broadcasting career that finally began to bear fruit with his involvement in the popular podcast The Pivot with fellow NFL alums Ryan Clark and Fred Taylor in 2022.
The podcast has given Crowder a real platform to speak not only about sports but also about himself and how he deals with hardships. One of those instances came up recently when his father, fellow former NFLer Randy Crowder, passed away at the age of 72 last week.
“You can see it going downhill, but the finality of it is something that you’re never ready for. Just a good man. Good father, grandfather, great husband. I’ll be honest, it’s probably the toughest thing I’ve ever been through in my life, just last week. I was sitting there next to my father, grabbed his hand the second it happened, when his soul, his spirit had left,” an emotional Crowder said.
Crowder went on to share some more words about how he hopes that his father is still watching over him and his family.
“The finality of it was tough. Because you wake up and you know you’ll never see him again… I wanna think he still has his hands somewhat around my family and around the people I love.”
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Randy Crowder wasn’t just Channing’s father, though. Before Channing was born in 1983, Randy had already lived quite the life. In high school, he was All-American in football and All-State in basketball. Schools actually wanted him to hoop in college, but he chose to join Joe Paterno’s burgeoning Penn State football program, which had not become a powerhouse yet.
We are saddened by the passing of former Dolphins player Randy Crowder, who played for the team from 1974-1976. pic.twitter.com/LRpWOPqgfu
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) May 21, 2025
There, he earned First-Team All-American honors in 1973, leading the Nittany Lions to an Orange Bowl triumph alongside Heisman winner John Cappelletti.
Crowder was then drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the sixth round of the 1974 draft by the very same Dolphins team that would draft his son just 31 seasons later. Unfortunately, he joined the team just after they had won back-to-back Super Bowls. However, his 7.5 sacks in his sophomore season in 1975 ranked second on the team, and he was a solid contributor to the defense through the 1976 season.
However, in one of the strangest stories in modern NFL history, Crowder and Dolphins teammate Don Reese were caught trying to sell a pound of cocaine to an undercover police officer in the spring of 1977. Both men were arrested and sentenced to one year in prison. But that’s not the strange part.
In what has to be an unprecedented occurrence in NFL lore, both men served their sentences without issue and, upon release, promptly signed with new teams for the 1978 season. Reese joined the Saints and played four more years, while Crowder joined the expansion Buccaneers from 1978 to 1980. After retiring, Crowder went on to coach at Penn State before moving into private business in Tampa.
