Eason Super Bowl Champion

Feb. 2, 2009

Clemson, SC – Former Clemson defensive tackle Nick Eason won his first Super Bowl Championship ring on Sunday as a member of the winning Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers downed the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in Tampa. Eason played as a reserve defensive tackle in the contest.

A Clemson starting defensive tackle between 1999-02, Eason was a first-team All-ACC player for the Tigers in 2002 when he had 62 tackles and seven sacks. He graduated in three years and played his final two seasons as a graduate student. For his career he had 153 tackles. He was also named the Most Valuable Player of Clemson’s 2000 season defense.

This year, Eason played in 15 of the 16 regular season games and had 17 tackles, all as a reserve on Pittsburgh’s number-one ranked defense. He had a season high four tackles in the first game of the year against Houston. It was his second year with the Steelers after three years with the Cleveland Browns and one year with the Denver Broncos.

Eason is the 21st different Clemson player to win a Super Bowl Championship ring, the first since Chris Gardocki was the starting punter for the World Champion Steelers of 2005. Eason is actually the fourth different former Tiger to win a Super Bowl Ring with the Steelers. In addition to Gardocki, Bennie Cunningham was a member of the Steeler championship teams of 1977 and 1978 and John McMaken was a member of the 1974 Steelers team that won a Super Bowl Championship.