Posted on 10/05/2023 7:57:25 PM PDT by whitney69
The passing of Dick Butkus is one of the saddest times for the sport. Butkus was a real star both on and off the field. A throwback to the old 1930's through 1950's players that were there to win at any cost. He played from 1965 till 1973, all with the Chicago Bears prior to being brought up in the sport in Chicago as a child, and was all pro seven of his nine years. Elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
https://www.chicagobears.com/news/bears-legend-dick-butkus-passes-away
Dan Obramowitx said it best, “Dick was not satisfied with just an ordinary tackle. He had to hit you, drive you, and grind you into the ground.”
Deacon Jones once said "I called him a maniac, a stone maniac. He was a well-conditioned animal, and every time he hit you, he tried to put you in the cemetery, not the hospital."
RIP to the greatest middle linebacker and one of the true charity leaders that ever played the game.
wy69.
I wore his Jersey number, my HS colors were very similar to Da Bears. Black and White, which in my head was the uniforms color on TV...even in color it looked B and W.
Coming from Deacon Jones that is high praise. He was definitely old school. Watching highlights from his career this evening, he was savage. When savagery was what the NFL required and desired. Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke (the prototype), Chuck Howley, Mike Curtis..... they set the mold.
Off the field and post-career he seemed like a good man.
RIP MR Butkus.
I have fond memories of watching him play whenever a 🐻 game was televised in our area. The little bit of football I played I tried to emulate how he played, hit hard and don’t let go until the whistle sounds.
I just wonder what type of monster he would be in the modern era with the nutritional knowledge, conditioning and health care available now.
IDK if he would be welcome in the soft game today.
I met him and Bubba Smith at the Foxx Inn in Santa Monica California. I went to California to hang out with a childhood friend at the local bars for the 1980 Super Bowl. Butkus asked if he could join us at our table. We had a great time with him and Bubba. Two of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet.
When I was stationed at Chanute AFB in Illinois, we got to watch the Bears at the Service Club every Sunday. Butkus on the Defense, Gale Sayers on the offense. I loved it. until Sayers got hurt.
You were so lucky!
In my part of Virginia we only got to see the Bears 2 or 3 times a season so we made the most of it. My grandfather, my Dad and myself would be parked in front of the TV as soon as church let out. Sunday dinner was served in the living room.😇
I found this... Butkus and Sayers
https://youtu.be/pk35vPHDtAQ?si=lQsxIW4lftTqnCCS
go bawls out. hit hard. don’t stop until the whistle.
and when it’s over you will have given it everything you had and then some.
that’s how we were taught to play the game in the late 70s / early 80s.
that’s how Butkis did it. he showed us the way.
and that’s how America worked and played.
at our best, we were awe inspiring. which scared the ever livin’ crap out of the world.
which is why they attack us and try to destroy our country...
I watched the flick - - thanks for passing it along!
“IDK if he would be welcome in the soft game today.”
His game would be considered criminal today. Leading with the helmet, crack backs, blind side hits and blocks, head slapping and chop blocking were all normal parts of the game that are penalized today. It was a game of survival then and the pit, that area within three yards of the snap, was considered open season then which is where Butkus lived. He was the quintessential tough guy—strong, silent, and self-contained.
However, his game and the targeting of him shortened his career. During his years the passing game wasn’t near what it is today and running through the Bear defense meant right through him. And since you couldn’t take him straight up, the blocking schemes were creating opportunities for cracks and chops so it was a way of life for him. It took his legs. But it never took his heart as he played for years with the bad legs until he couldn’t go any longer. And the medical care, and drugs, they have today to lengthen a players career didn’t exist then. So repair wasn’t available and it just got worse. But that is what the game really is, and used to be. And when it was a game played by men for peanuts. They loved the game. The money was never there even though they earned it far more than today’s players do.
wy69
“When savagery was what the NFL required and desired. Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke (the prototype), Chuck Howley, Mike Curtis..... they set the mold.”
A few names you might add to the founders style of the game…Jack Lambert, Joe Schmidt, Mike Singletary, Bill George, Chuck Bednarik, Willie Lanier, Sam Huff, and Lee Roy Jordan might have made that list of players in the transitioning years before the game became so money hungry. Only their play demanded attention, not their hype, size, color, team...these guys were respected, and in some cases feared, for their game. They all could hit like the noon express and you earned every inch you got. This was that time frame.
Wy69
post-career he seemed like a good man
I recall an interview a guy did with an ex heavy weight fighter. The journalist said, “I have met three heavyweight fighters and they are all so nice” the ex boxer said “yea, we have had all the mean knocked out of us.”
“They loved the game. The money was never there even though they earned it far more than today’s players do.”
John Unitas played a year for the Bloomfield Rams, a semi-pro team after being cut by the Steelers. He was paid $6/game. When called by the Colts he almost didn’t go to camp, his wife basically made him take the chance.
I remember Art “Fatso” Donovan talking about what jobs different players had in the off season so they could support their families. He took a bonus he got and bought a package store, it put his kids through college.
If not for men like Sayers, Butkus, Donovan, Ditka, Unitas and a host of others Tom Brady and P Mahomes might be digging ditches somewhere.
No one ever accused him of being a ‘dirty’ player, like a Conrad Dobler, but everybody he ever hit knew Butkus meant to do them harm.
“No one ever accused him of being a ‘dirty’ player”
In Butkus’ words, “I’m not so mean,” Butkus told Chicago Tribune reporter Cooper Rollow. “I wouldn’t ever go out to hurt anybody deliberately. Unless it was, you know, important – like a league game or something.”
And the Detroit Lions did say he shouldn’t be out there:
But sometimes the reputation hurt him, when his hard hitting was misconstrued as dirty. He wrote about one such moment in his 1972 book “Dick Butkus, Stop-Action.” After the death on the field of Lions receiver Chuck Hughes during a Bears game in Detroit in 1971, Butkus wrote he picked up a magazine that had a quote from Lions middle linebacker Mike Lucci: “Something ought to be done about Butkus. He intentionally tries to hurt people, and that’s wrong.”
Hughes died of a heart attack, not a hit. So the label was public and it just stuck. Course, Butkus didn’t take much action to stop it and used it as an intimidation. No one wanted to run at him and receivers did not want to cross the middle. Changed offensive schemes.
But the legend continued when it went public that he punched Joe Greene, spit on a downed and injured Bill Bergey, and kicked Merlin Olsen in the head. But I can appreciate him as he made no bones about his play and it cost him as he died from brain damage from years of leading with his head and rooster blocking opponents. He used to send his opponents across from him letters in the off season telling them what he was going to do to them. At least he was honest about it. And I wouldn’t have the pelotas to piss off people like Green and Olsen. There’s a fine line between courage and stupidity.
wy69
“If not for men like Sayers, Butkus, Donovan, Ditka, Unitas and a host of others Tom Brady and P Mahomes might be digging ditches somewhere.”
The game has gotten too big for itself. They now pay players rediculous amounts of money to be entertainers. And since it based upon violence, criminals. The intricacies of the game have gone away and is now who can show off better. And it is providing a horrible role model for the kids coming up as these behaviors are being lowered to everything from Pop Warner through NCAA. This also includes the drug used also.
And the stupidity for the players saying they aren’t role models is factual. But that is what puts butts in the seats if that’s what they are going to sell. So they are lying through their teeth to even themselves on that topic.
wy69
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