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One Time Packer Prospect KilledBy Lance Allan
Mandrell Dean, a receiver and return man who in 2000 spent a week in training camp with the Green Bay Packers, was shot and killed last month in Oklahoma City. He was 33.
He was shot Jan. 27 after allegedly breaking into an apartment, assaulting a woman and demanding money and jewelry. A 17-year-old boy in the apartment shot him.
Dean, who had remarkable speed, starred at Millwood High School in Oklahoma City and was hailed as perhaps the best receiving prospect in the nation in 1993. However, he never played college football because he wasn’t academically eligible.
A 5-foot-11, 200-pounder, Dean played for eight professional or semipro teams, most of them indoor teams, before joining the Green Bay Bombers of the Indoor Football League in 2000. He had five touchdown catches and three kickoff returns for touchdowns in his last five games with the Bombers.
Bud Keyes, the former Green Bay West High School and University of Wisconsin quarterback who coached the Bombers, told the New York Times earlier this week that Dean “loved to go deep,” often going off his pass routes to try to make a big play.
He was the first Bombers player signed by the Packers, who as camp opened in late July 2000 were unhappy with the performance of rookie Joey Jamison and in desperate need of a punt returner. However, Dean was released after a week.
Dean’s last known stint in football was brief. Three years ago, he was released by an indoor team in Oklahoma City.
Dean wore red when he was buried, signifying his membership in the Northside Island 456 Piru Bloods, an Oklahoma City gang. Oklahoma City police said he’d been arrested 13 times since 1990.
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