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The man nicknamed “The Hulk” was built to be hard to knock down. That makes the news harder to take. Allen Bailey, who spent eight seasons as a defensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs, has died at age 37. He was found Tuesday, Oct. 20, inside his Florida home. His family believes he died of natural causes. No official cause of death has been released.
The news came first from TMZ. Bailey’s brother, Alford Bailey Jr., told the outlet that Bailey’s wife found him inside their Florida home. The Chiefs soon posted a statement calling him “an excellent teammate, generous man, and kind soul.” At his Wednesday news conference, head coach Andy Reid said the death came “way too young.” Reid coached Bailey for six seasons, from 2013 to 2018.
Reid’s praise went beyond a standard statement. He called Bailey “one of my favorite players” and “a great kid.” Chiefs pass rusher Chris Jones and former teammates Dwayne Bowe, Mitch Morse, and Mitchell Schwartz also shared their love and respect for his fun, energetic personality, ESPN reported. Miami teammates posted tributes online too. So who was the man behind the nickname?
From a Tiny Georgia Island to the NFL, Bailey’s Path Began in a Gullah-Geechee Community
Bailey was born on March 25, 1989, on Sapelo Island, Georgia. He grew up in Hog Hammock, a Gullah-Geechee community whose ancestors were enslaved West Africans. Sapelo is a small barrier island off the Georgia coast, about 10 miles long and 2 miles wide. A 2013 Kansas City Star column said fewer than 50 people lived there year-round. He attended McIntosh County Academy on the mainland, in Darien.
Bailey grew up in a place where everyone knew everyone. In a 2010 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he said, “We have always lived there and I’m pretty much kin to everybody.” Nearly every major college program recruited him, according to a Kansas City Star column, and he chose Miami. There he became a two-time All-ACC player, and Miami named him its Strength Training Athlete of the Year.
The nickname fit. Bailey was listed at 6 feet 3 inches and 288 pounds. At the 2011 NFL Combine, he had the third-highest vertical leap of any defensive lineman, at 36.5 inches. The Chiefs drafted him in the third round, 86th overall, in 2011. That is a big leap for a man that size. Then the real work began in Kansas City.
Bailey Played Eight Seasons for the Chiefs, Part of a Defense Before the Mahomes Era Took Off
Bailey was a steady part of the Chiefs’ defensive line for eight seasons. He played in Kansas City from 2011 to 2018 and finished that stretch with 19.5 sacks and 207 tackles, according to Yahoo Sports. A sack means tackling the quarterback before he can throw. In 2014, he set career highs with 41 tackles, five sacks, and two passes defended. In 2018, his last year with the team, he had a career-best six sacks.
Reid was clear about what kind of player Bailey was. He told reporters Bailey was “one of my favorite players,” and IBTimes reports he also called him “dirty tough.” Bailey’s last Chiefs team reached the AFC Championship Game in January 2019, one win from the Super Bowl. He left for Atlanta after that season. The Chiefs won their first Super Bowl in 50 years the following season, after he had moved on.
Bailey’s NFL career ended in Atlanta. He signed a two-year deal with the Falcons in 2019, played his last season in 2020, and was released in February 2021. In all, he played 10 NFL seasons and 133 games, with 248 tackles and 22 sacks, according to Yahoo Sports. By then he had already started giving back to the places that raised him.
Off the Field, His Foundation Gave Backpacks, Camps, and Scholarships to Kids in the Places That Raised Him
Bailey built something lasting off the field. The Allen Bailey Foundation is a nonprofit that supports high school student-athletes and families in Southeast Coastal Georgia and Florida. Bailey founded it to help young people in the region around his hometown. The foundation offers free football camps, scholarships, backpack giveaways, and community events. It says its 2025 backpack giveaway gave out more than 180 backpacks to children across southeast Georgia.
Those who knew him kept coming back to the same word: kind. Former Chiefs offensive lineman Jeff Allen wrote that he “lost a teammate, a friend, a brother.” Former Chiefs team reporter BJ Kissel called Bailey “one of the nicest players I was ever around.” Sports journalist Kevin Clark, who attended Miami during Bailey’s years, described him as an exceptionally kind person.
The nickname told the world what Allen Bailey looked like. The people who spoke after his death told it who he was. They described a generous teammate, a kind man, and a boy from a tiny island who put his success to work for other kids. He was 37. A box score can count the sacks. It cannot hold what was lost.