White struggled with cocaine and marijuana use during his years at USC. In 1978, Sports Illustrated article, he admitted to smoking marijuana daily at USC and snorted his first line of cocaine a few weeks before the 1977 Rose Bowl.
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White continued his cocaine use through college and on into his early NFL career with the Browns. He checked into drug rehab in 1982 and was clean for three years.
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Even so, the Browns cut him in 1985 and he was picked up on waivers by the Los Angeles Rams, where he was reunited with John Robinson, his former college coach at USC.
A Los Angeles Times article on July 17, 2022, by Bill Plaschke, describes White’s struggles with dementia and how he was living in an Orange County, CA assisted living facility as of 2022.
He died on January 11, 2023, at the age of 64.


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