Sport: Football
Born: December 27, 1959
Town: Newark, New Jersey
Andre Bernard Tippett was born December 27, 1959 in Birmingham, Alabama and grew up in Newark, NJ. Andre began studying karate as a teenager and fell in love with martial arts culture. It not only improved his focus in school, it helped his anticipation and balance in sports—particularly in football, where he earned a reputation as a fearsome tackler. Growing up in one of the city’s roughest neighborhoods, Andre was involved in his fair share of altercations. Once, he was mugged by two teenagers who took the watch his grandmother had given him for Christmas. Payback came during a game when he recognized one of the boys as the opposing team’s quarterback; he was removed from the field on a stretcher, the first of many memorable notches in Tip’s belt. At 6’3”, he developed into a breathtaking two-way player at defensive end and offensive tackle.
Andre spent a year at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls burnishing his academic skills before joining the University of Iowa varsity in 1978. Hawkeyes football was at a low ebb when he arrived, but Hayden Fry began his first season as head coach in 1979 and Andre helped spearhead a dramatic turnaround. Playing defensive end and outside linebacker, he became an elite pass-rusher, leading the Big Ten with 20 sacks as a junior in 1980. In 1981, he was named a senior captain and was a consensus All-American linebacker. Iowa scored huge upsets over Nebraska, UCLA and Michigan to crack the Top 20 and ended up sharing the Big Ten championship with Ohio State. Andre’s final college game was the Rose Bowl, where the Hawkeyes were creamed 28–0 by to the University of Washington.
The 1982 NFL Draft was a linebacker gold mine. Joining Andre on everyone’s draft board were Chip Banks, Bob Crable, Jack Squirek, Mike Merriweather, Johnie Cooks and Bruce Scholtz. The New England Patriots selected Andre in the second round with the 41st pick and, after a year on special teams, he joined veteran Steve Nelson to give the Pats an awesome linebacking duo on the left side. Andre racked up 8.5 sacks in his first year as a starter. In 1984 and ’85, Andre was credited with 18.5 and 16.5 sacks—an unheard-of two-year total for a linebacker and more than Lawrence Taylor ever produced in back-to-back seasons.
The 1985 campaign marked his second of five consecutive Pro Bowl nods for Andre and his first of two selections as a first-team All-Pro. After starting ’85 with three losses in its first five games, New England won nine of its final 11 to grab a Wild Card spot. The Pats had to win three road playoff games to make it to the Super Bowl and, sure enough, they did—playing shutdown fourth-quarter defense in victories over the Jets, Raiders and Dolphins. The magical run finally came to an end in Super Bowl XX with a 46–10 loss to the Bears. After the season, Andre was named AFC Defensive Player of the Year.
Andre missed the entire 1989 season after suffering a shoulder injuring during the Pats’ final preseason game. The team that took the field upon his return in 1990 was almost unrecognizable. The Patriots went 1–15 and were fortunate to win even once. They had the worst offense in the NFL and the second-worse defense. Things improved somewhat over the next few seasons and Bill Parcells took over as coach in 1993, but Andre was nearing the end of the line at that point. He retired prior to the 1994 season. He had amassed 100 sacks in his career—a franchise record—as well as 19 fumble recoveries—and was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1980s. In 2008, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
After football, Andre took a job in community affairs with the Patriots and became the department’s executive director. Andre lost his mother and stepfather during the Covid pandemic, but also saw his son, Coby, become a star defensive back for the University of Rhode Island. Though he went undrafted in 2022, Coby attracted attention from several teams, including the Patriots, who invited him to camp as a punt-return specialist.