Photo courtesy of Alchetron.com

MIAMI – Former NFL defensive lineman Ray Seals, who skipped playing college football and went straight to the pros, died on April 4, according to reports.

He was 59.

A cause of death wasn’t disclosed.

Seals, who was a star high school player in New York, bypassed college football and played semi pro football with the Syracuse Express of the Empire Football League in 1986.

Seals said he went from high school straight to the pros because his family was struggling financially at the time.

He later was picked up by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1988, and started for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX against the Dallas Cowboys.

Seals also played for the Carolina Panthers and ended his career with the Cincinnati Bengals in 1998.

Seals was inducted into the American Football Association’s Semi-Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.