My aunt’s football of a dog once bit my eyebrow because I got too close to her when she was eating. That damn overgrown rat almost cost me an eye.
It sure as hell wasn’t the only time she had bitten me.
Conversely, she had a golden colored mutt with no tail that loved me.
Sometimes the big dogs afre just easier to live with than the little ones. My younger dog is 85 lb. and either half black lab and half pit or half black lab and half Great Dane. He’s the world’s sweeetest, silliest dog and never has done anything like the “football” you describe.