Sam Mills, 45; Linebacker Played Five Times in the Pro Bowl

Sam Mills, an undersized linebacker who became a Pro Bowl player with the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers and was later an assistant coach for the Panthers, died Monday after fighting cancer for nearly two years, Panther officials said. He was 45.

Mills, who was diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine in August 2003 but continued to coach Carolina’s linebackers between chemotherapy treatments, died at his home in Charlotte, N.C.

“You would never know that he was a player who made Pro Bowls and had all this attention, because he treated everybody the same no matter who they were,” Carolina General Manager Marty Hurney said. “And [he] had a great ability to laugh at himself.”

A five-time Pro Bowl selection, the 5-foot-9-inch, 225-pound Mills spent the final three seasons of his 12-year NFL career with the Panthers, beginning with their inaugural season in 1995.

Mills spent his first nine NFL seasons with the New Orleans Saints, following three seasons in the United States Football League. He finished his career with 1,319 tackles while starting in 173 of 181 games.

He joined the Panthers’ coaching staff upon his retirement.

Born in Neptune, N.J., Mills was an undersized linebacker out of Montclair (N.J.) State who tried -- and failed several times -- to catch on with NFL and Canadian Football League teams. He gave professional football one last shot when the USFL debuted in 1983.

Every day, Baltimore Stars coach Jim Mora asked his assistants who the best player on the field was. Every day, they told him, “Sam Mills.”

“I don’t need a 5-9 linebacker,” Mora kept saying.

But Mills ended up being one of Mora’s favorite players, and when Mora went to the Saints in 1986 after the USFL’s demise, he brought Mills with him. Mills went to his first four Pro Bowls with the Saints.

After Mills moved to the Panthers, he led the team in tackles in 1995 and 1996, when the Panthers won the NFC West and made a surprise run to the NFC title game.

Mills was diagnosed with cancer in 2003, hours before the Panthers’ preseason finale. It was a devastating blow to the team, which had learned two weeks earlier that linebacker Mark Fields also had cancer.

“Although it can be said that he left his imprint on the NFL as a player, it is his legacy as a human being that serves as an example for all of us to follow,” said Bill Kuharich, Kansas City’s vice president of pro personnel, who was with Mills with the Stars and Saints.

Mills is survived by his wife, Melanie, and four children: sons Sam III and Marcus, and daughters Larissa and Sierra.