3-time Grey Cup champion Carl Crennel dead at 74
Posted August 22, 2023 11:43 am.
Carl Crennel, a longtime CFL linebacker who won three Grey Cups in the 1970s, has died, the Montreal Alouettes announced Tuesday. He was 74.
Crennel played in six Grey Cups, winning twice with the Alouettes in 1974 and 1977 before adding a third title in 1979 with Edmonton.
Crennel also played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Saskatchewan Roughriders — with whom he ended his 11-year CFL career with in 1981.
The product of Lynchburg, Va., made the league’s East Division All-Star team in 1973, 1978 and 1979.
Before entering the CFL, Crennel played one season for the Pittsburgh Steelers after being a two-time all-American with the University of West Virginia Mountaineers. Crennel was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
His brother, Romeo Crennel, was the head coach of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns from 2005 to 2008 and the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2012. Romeo most recently served as interim head coach of the Houston Texans in 2020.
