Bednarik also flew 30 combat missions over Europe as a B-24 waist gunner during World War II—before his 21st birthday. The odds of completing your combat tour (at the time) were about 30%.
After seeing a lot of his buddies blown apart by flak and German fighters, the NFL must have seen relatively tame.
One of the toughest guys who ever wore the uniform, in the Army Air Corps and the NFL.
Yup. As tough as they come. Maybe if more men were made tougher these days, we wouldn’t be governed by pantywaists. RIP Concrete Charlie