Former Northwestern captain, Super Bowl XLI champion and retired Indianapolis Colts offensive guard Matt Ulrich has died, team owner Jim Irsay announced on X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday afternoon. Ulrich was 41.
“I am heartbroken to hear of the passing of Matt Ulrich,” Irsay wrote in the post. “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 was named a captain for NU ahead of the 2004 season and earned an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention nod that year.
The Streamwood, Illinois, native signed with the Colts as an undrafted free agent in 2005 and spent the entirety of his two-year NFL career with the franchise. He went on to win the Super Bowl in 2007 alongside Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning.
In a 2019 interview with MontanaSports.com, Ulrich recounted the memories of defeating his hometown Chicago Bears in one of sports’ greatest crowning achievements.
“Seeing the confetti come down Colts colors and being able to hold the Lombardi Trophy, everyone being on the field, I had to remind myself to take one moment for myself,” Ulrich said. “It was good advice 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. And that’s quite an awesome feeling.”
After leaving the NFL, Ulrich co-founded DexaFit LLC, a national chain of body fat and metabolic testing centers. The former Wildcat also served as chief growth officer and partner for Profitable Ideas Exchange, a “business development partner to professional service firms” based in Bozeman, Montana, according to the company’s website.
Ulrich also assisted the Harvard Football Players Health Study as a player advisor. He earned executive education certificates from Harvard Business School in Leading Professional Services Firms and from Stanford in Strategic Marketing Management — according to his bio page on Profitable Ideas Exchange’s website.
Ulrich is survived by his wife, Alison Ulrich, and their four sons. The former offensive lineman called keeping up with his four sons “the highlight of my life.”
No cause of death has been revealed at this time.
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