As news of Cortez Kennedy's death stunned the NFL community Tuesday, former teammates and coaches remembered the Seattle Seahawks Hall of Fame defensive tackle for his dominance on the field and his generosity off of it.

"He took care of everybody," said Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, who played two seasons with Kennedy and grew closer to him after they both retired. "Everybody loved him in that building. You just hate to see a guy lose his life this early because he had so much more to offer."

Kennedy, who was 48, played 11 seasons with the Seahawks and made the Pro Bowl eight times. He had 58 career sacks and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012.

Dave Wyman played linebacker behind Kennedy for three seasons and recalled a play in 1992 during a game against the New York Giants that exemplified Kennedy's unselfish nature. Kennedy had been causing havoc all game long, so the Giants decided to pay even more attention to him. He took on a double-team and forced running back Jarrod Bunch to cut back.

Wyman was lurking behind Kennedy unblocked and put a lick on Bunch for the tackle.

"It was a great hit," Wyman said. "I was on the ground on my back and Cortez picked me up and said, 'It was your turn.' He would wipe out double-teams and sometimes three guys blocking him just so other guys could make a play. It's just little things like that. You'd see sometimes him grabbing an offensive guard. If he couldn't get there, he was going to make it so you could.

"There's so much to be gained and learned from every player in the NFL in knowing what Cortez was about. Never bragged. Never was critical. Never got angry at anybody in the media or anything like that. He was a total humble gentleman off the field, and then on the field he was just a total holy terror. That's how you should be as a football player. That's what stands out to me."

Legendary offensive line coach Howard Mudd had to coach against Kennedy and then joined him in Seattle in 1993.

"He was just so disruptive," Mudd said. "Disruptive is the word. It's Reggie White. Lawrence Taylor. If you're going to throw the ball, you better know who that one guy is. As an opponent, that's what we had to do. So you better plan to put more attention to that guy than to single him. You weren't going to single block [Kennedy]. You better have someone in position to help whoever was going to single block him. Otherwise he was going to be in your backfield on a run play, and he was going to shove somebody into the quarterback and tackle the quarterback."

Wyman said Kennedy had the utmost respect from his peers even though fans might have underrated him because the Seahawks didn't have a lot of games on national television.

"Earl Thomas is a guy that sometimes you have to run the tape back to see, 'How did he get there? How did he do that?' Tez was that kind of player," Wyman said. "I played with [John] Elway, and he was the same type of guy. Cortez, he would do things on the field, and you would go, 'Oh my God. Come look at this.' That's pretty high praise coming from your peers. And he was that kind of a player -- just so dominant. It was unbelievable."

In 1992, Kennedy had 14 sacks and was named Defensive Player of the Year even though the Seahawks went 2-14.

The only time the Seahawks made the playoffs with Kennedy was in 1999. Quarterback Brock Huard was a rookie on that team.

"When I came to the Seahawks, there were a lot of old, crusty veteran guys," Huard said. "Mike Holmgren had come in. I was part of the first draft class. And I think a lot of the veterans knew they wouldn't be around long with a new head coach. So they weren't the most welcoming, nor the most friendly. But the Hall of Famer was by far the one with the most class and the biggest heart. He was really a gentle giant, kindhearted and looked out for a rookie quarterback, third-stringer, like I was one of the starters on the defense. He had me over to his house a few different times. Just genuinely cared for everybody on the team."

When Tommy Brasher was the defensive line coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he hosted Kennedy on a pre-draft visit. Later, he'd coach Kennedy for seven seasons in Seattle.

"I took him to my house, and we spent the day at my house -- just he and I. I got to know him really well. He got to know me really well," Brasher said. "And then later on, the Seahawks traded up in front of us to draft him because I opened my mouth to somebody. But in a year, I was the line coach in Seattle. He was a great person and a big pleasure to coach."

Kennedy's natural strength and instincts are what set him apart. But physically, he did not have a prototypical NFL body.

Huard recalled a story that former Seahawks coach Tom Flores told him about Kennedy.

"He was telling me when they drafted [Kennedy] in the top five, they had to burn the combine pictures," Huard said. "They would not allow [owner] Ken Behring or his son to see the pictures of Cortez in his gym shorts. Otherwise they would have more than likely vetoed the possibility of drafting him as high as they drafted him because they’d have looked at that body and said, 'No chance.' Literally burning the pictures and never letting them see him with his shirt off until after they drafted him."

Added Wyman, "You see Aaron Donald. That guy will take his shirt off. Tez? No (laughs). He was not built like a statue. I remember I would come in some mornings, and he would be in there in the sauna or the steam room trying to sweat off the 175 chicken wings that he'd eaten the night before."

Randy Mueller, now an executive with the Los Angeles Chargers, worked in the Seahawks front office during Kennedy's playing career and considers him a member of his own family. He remembers observers looking at Kennedy's body type and being stunned at the way he moved.

"It added to the aura of, 'Are you kidding me?' " Mueller said. "He was 6-1 1/2. Sometimes he would come to camp at 330. He had a dumpy-looking frame. Some people would say, 'What the hell?' All you had to do was snap the ball, and he moved like a cat. It was so easy for him."

When Moon became Kennedy's teammate in Seattle, he marveled at how Kennedy went out of his way to befriend everyone in the organization. Moon said Kennedy would be remembered most for his generosity.

"The equipment guys don't get a lot of love," Moon said. "They're always being asked to do stuff -- whether it's new shoes or another jockstrap. It's always somebody coming to them, saying, 'I need, I need, I need.' Well, he's a guy that would give to these guys. He would take them to dinner at times as a group. He would buy those guys lunch and just have it delivered to them in the equipment room. Whatever it was, even after he wasn't here in Seattle anymore, he would come back and he'd still take those guys out. He just never forget who they were. And they always remembered him for that.

"Not a lot of guys are like that as professional athletes. They're always asking for stuff, always expecting things. Cortez wasn't a guy that expected anything, and when he did get something, he always seemed to return that favor."