'Heartbroken': Super Bowl champion dead at 41

Former Indianapolis Colts offensive lineman and Super Bowl champion Matt Ulrich died at the age of 41, according to Colts owner Jim Irsay.

“I am heartbroken to hear of the passing of Matt Ulrich,” Irsay posted on X on Wednesday morning. “Matt was with us only two seasons, but left his mark on many. Great guy, I hear he was a great dad — and he was a Super Bowl champ. My prayers to his family.”

Ulrich signed with the Colts as an ungrafted agent and played for them from 2005-06, winning a Super Bowl ring following Indianapolis’ win over the Bears in Super Bowl XLI.

“Again, seeing the confetti come down Colts colours and be able to hold the Lombardi Trophy, everyone being on the field, I had to remind myself to take one moment for myself – it was good advice I got from someone that if you do win it take that last moment to look back at the tunnel and just look at the scoreboard, look at the field, and just know you’re at the pinnacle of sports,” Ulrich told Montanasports.com in 2019. “And that’s quite an awesome feeling.”

The former Northwestern captain played in 10 games across two seasons with Indianapolis — five in each season — which marked his only two seasons in the NFL.

“I’d love to tell you that I could have played for another decade. But the fact of the matter is, and I’ve probably said this to you before, that the NFL stands for ‘Not For Long.’ I was a guy who had to beat out a draft pick in 2005 and beat out another draft pick in 2006,” Ulrich told Montanasports.com.

“We won the Super Bowl that year, the 2007 Super Bowl 41. Went on to have another season in NFL Europe, came on to training camp with the Colts and just knew those roster spots are so slim and I tell the athletes I work with, have something past football.”

Ulrich eventually landed in Montana, and was listed as chief growth officer and partner with PIE.

His PIE bio said he was also a player adviser for the Harvard Football Players Health study, and he received education certifications from Stanford in strategic marketing management and from Harvard Business School in leading professional service firms.

That bio said he has four pre-teen sons.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission