Diane Addonizio is an American former attorney and author best known as the wife of NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long. She attended Villanova University to study Classical Studies before graduating from the University of Southern California with a law degree. After being licensed to the California Bar in 1987, she practiced law for a number of years before deciding to put her family’s needs ahead of her own.
Howie Long and Diane Long were married in 1982 after meeting at Villanova University. Chris Long, Kyle Long, and Howie Long Jr. are their three kids. Howie Jr. worked in professional football personnel, while Chris and Kyle both went on to play in the NFL. In 2000, Diane published He’s Just My Dad!: Portraits of Celebrity Athletes and Their Kids. Despite her family’s close ties to professional football, she has largely kept to herself.
Bio TableHowie Long
| Full Name | Diane Addonizio |
|---|---|
| Born | March 16, 1962, in Red Bank, New Jersey (Monmouth County) — one source notes that detailed public birth records are limited |
| Age | 64 (as of 2026) |
| Heritage | Italian-American |
| Parents | Reported as Frank Addonizio and Marie Cecere; not independently confirmed by a top-tier source |
| Sibling | Reported as a brother, James, an attorney, appears in only one source |
| Education | Undergraduate degree from Villanova University; law degree from the University of Southern California School of Law |
| Career | Practiced law before stepping back to focus on raising her family; later became an author |
| Published Work | “He’s Just My Dad!: Portraits of Celebrity Athletes and Their Children” (2000), featuring 200 photographs by Sam Abell |
| Spouse | Howie Long, Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end and Fox NFL broadcaster (married June 27, 1982) |
| Children | Three sons: Chris Long (retired NFL defensive lineman), Kyle Long (retired NFL offensive lineman), and Howie Long Jr. |
| Net Worth | Not reliably known; no independently confirmed figure exists |
Who Is Diane Addonizio?
American novelist and former lawyer Diane Addonizio is most recognized for being the spouse of retired NFL player and Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long. She attended Villanova University to study Classical Studies before graduating from the University of Southern California with a law degree. She worked as an attorney before leaving the legal profession to focus on her family.
Chris Long, Kyle Long, and Howie Long Jr. are the couple’s three sons. Diane married Howie Long in 1982. She has largely maintained a private life while supporting her family and has also worked as an author, publishing He’s Just My Dad!: 2000 portraits of famous athletes and their kids.
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A Villanova Romance That Predated Howie Long’s NFL Fame
Years before Howie Long rose to prominence as an NFL defensive end and eventually became a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Diane Addonizio met him while they were both Villanova University students. According to one account of their early relationship, Diane has described Long as difficult to get to know and notably moody in those early days, though she’s also acknowledged, with some humor, that his good looks made an impression regardless. The two married on June 27, 1982, just as Long was beginning to establish himself in professional football with the Oakland (later Los Angeles) Raiders.
Addonizio was born on March 16, 1962, in Red Bank, New Jersey, part of Monmouth County, into an Italian-American, Catholic family. One source is worth noting for its own honesty here: it states her birth date plainly but adds that detailed public records confirming it are limited, a useful reminder that even a widely repeated fact isn’t always independently verifiable from a primary document, even when multiple sites agree on it.
A Legal Career Set Aside, Not Abandoned by Circumstance
Addonizio’s educational background is genuinely substantial: an undergraduate degree from Villanova, followed by a law degree from the University of Southern California School of Law. She went on to practice law for a period before choosing to step back from full-time legal work as Long’s football career and their growing family took shape. That’s a detail worth stating carefully; sources consistently frame this as her own choice tied to the demands of raising three young children alongside a husband whose career involved significant travel and public visibility, rather than any external pressure specifically documented in the material reviewed for this piece.
A Book That’s Actually Real, and Actually Interesting
This is where Addonizio’s story distinguishes itself from a lot of similar “athlete’s wife” profiles: she’s a published author with a genuinely specific, verifiable body of work. She published “He’s Just My Dad!” in 2000. Portraits of Celebrity Athletes and Their Children,” a book built around interviews with male professional athletes and their children, offering what’s been described as a humorous and occasionally surprising look at parenting styles among sports stars. The book includes 200 photographs taken at the athletes’ homes and behind the scenes, shot by a team led by Sam Abel, a photographer known for decades of work with National Geographic, which lends the project a level of professional polish worth noting rather than treating it as an incidental vanity project. It’s a rare case, in this kind of biographical subject, where there’s an actual, citable, tangible piece of creative work to point to rather than vague descriptions of “philanthropy” or “advocacy.”
Three Sons, Two NFL Careers
Diane and Howie Long raised three sons: Chris Long, who went on to a lengthy career as an NFL defensive lineman before retiring; Kyle Long, who built his own NFL career as an offensive lineman; and Howie Long Jr., whose career path has stayed connected to professional football in a less publicly detailed way than his brothers’. Having two sons follow their father directly into professional football is a genuinely notable family outcome, and it’s the kind of detail that gives real weight to descriptions of Addonizio as central to the family’s stability during Howie’s own playing and broadcasting career even though, as with most people in this category, there’s limited direct, first-person commentary from her about what that experience was actually like day to day.
A Deliberately Private Life, With One Exception
Beyond her book and the basic facts of her marriage and family, Addonizio has kept a low public profile, appearing at events like the 2015 Friars’ Club Roast of Terry Bradshaw and other sports-related gatherings alongside her husband without becoming a media subject in her own right. Her net worth isn’t reliably known, and at least one source is appropriately direct about that uncertainty rather than offering a specific, unsupported figure.
One source reviewed for this piece stands out for the opposite reason: quality, not caution. A site called BlessInsight publishes a profile of Addonizio containing visibly garbled, likely poorly machine-translated language throughout, including phrases like “gambling a communal and fascinating home,” “sports pleasure,” and “relative adventure ring.” That same source also includes a suspiciously specific, unverifiable physical description—height, eye color, and hair color—that doesn’t appear anywhere else and reads as invented filler rather than researched detail. It’s excluded from this piece’s confirmed facts entirely.
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Net Worth
Diane Addonizio’s estimated net worth is around $1 million, according to several online biography sources. However, her exact personal wealth has not been revealed. “The same source also has an unverifiable, suspiciously detailed physical description of height, eye color, and hair color that doesn’t appear anywhere else and reads more like manufactured filler than investigation. and publicly verified, so the figure should be treated as an estimate rather than a confirmed amount.
Her financial background is associated with her former legal career, business activities, and book-related work. It is important to distinguish her personal estimated wealth from her husband Howie Long’s finances, as there is no authoritative public record confirming Diane’s individual net worth.
FAQs
Who is Diane Addonizio?
She is the wife of Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end and broadcaster Howie Long, a former attorney, and a published author.
Where did Diane Addonizio and Howie Long meet?
At Villanova University, where both attended school.
What did Diane Addonizio do before raising her family?
She earned a law degree from the University of Southern California and practiced law before stepping back to focus on raising her three sons.
Has Diane Addonizio written a book?
Yes, “He’s Just My Dad!: Portraits of Celebrity Athletes and Their Children,” published in 2000, featuring interviews and 200 photographs by Sam Abell.
How many children do Diane Addonizio and Howie Long have?
Three sons: Chris Long, Kyle Long, and Howie Long Jr. Chris and Kyle both played in the NFL.
What is Diane Addonizio’s net worth?
Not reliably known; no verified figure exists.
Is Diane Addonizio active in public life?
Not extensively. She occasionally attends events alongside her husband but has generally maintained a private profile.
Final Words
Diane Addonizio is an American former attorney and author best known as the wife of Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long. She built her own professional background through her education and legal career before stepping away from practicing law to focus on raising her family.
Diane and Howie Long have three sons, Chris Long, Kyle Long, and Howie Long Jr., with Chris and Kyle both pursuing careers in the NFL. She has also contributed to the sports world through her book He’s Just My Dad!: Portraits of Celebrity Athletes and Their Children. Despite her connection to a prominent football family, Diane has largely maintained a private life and stayed away from the spotlight.
