MIAMI —Nick Buoniconti, a Hall of Fame linebacker for the Miami Dolphins’ Super Bowl teams of the 1970s and an outspoken advocate for safety in his sport, has died, the Dolphins confirmed. The legendary defensive stalwart was 78 and The Palm Beach Post reported he had been admitted into hospice earlier this week.

Buoniconti, who won two Super Bowls with Miami, was a two-time All-Pro and was named to the American Football League (AFL) All-League Team eight times. He’s a member of the AFL All-Time Team and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001. His off-field and post-career contributions were just as notable, though.

Buoniconti worked as an agent, representing about 30 professional players, including MLB stars Bucky Dent and Andre Dawson. He was later a co-host of HBO’s Inside the NFL and even later was the subject of HBO’s The Many Lives of Nick Buoniconti, a documentary focusing on his storied playing career, as well as his struggles with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the tragic paralysis of his son Marc Buoniconti.

In the documentary, Buoniconti was lucid enough to take part in extensive interviews, but he said CTE had made him, “half the man I used to be.”

“Everything is jumbled for me,” Buoniconti said after losing his train of thought at one point in the documentary. “It’s just not possible for me to do it without stumbling.”

Buoniconti, who was a 13th-round pick by the Boston Patriots in 1962 and was traded to the Dolphins before the 1969 season, announced in 2017 he plans to donate his brain to aid in CTE research.

His crowning achievement, however, may be his work in paralysis research. Buoniconti’s son was paralyzed from the shoulders in 1985 while playing in a game for The Citadel Bulldogs, which sparked his activism in paralysis research. Buoniconti had raised tens of millions of dollars for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.