He played college football for the Auburn Tigers and selected by the Saints in the third round of the 1981 NFL draft.
He attempted a football comeback in 1996 but doctors discovered multiple heart blockages and he had cardiac surgery less than two years later.
Frank Warren died in 2002, at the age of 43, after suffering a heart attack at his home in Birmingham, Alabama.
By tragic coincidence, he had only five days earlier been interviewed for the HBO television program Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel to discuss the dangers of rising obesity among NFL linemen, many of whom now top 300 lb (140 kg).
Warren stated that his weight scared him and left him wondering every night if he'd wake up to see the next morning.