Dick Butkus’ football career began before I was born. It ended when I was six.
Still, I knew the impact he had on the National Football League.
We all did.
See, Butkus was the epitome of how a defensive player should look. And act. And play. He was a ferocious hitter with a mean streak the Grinch envied. He just didn’t tackle ball carriers; he tried to slam them through the ground.
But Butkus was also athletic, which is why he intercepted 22 passes, and was competitive, which is why he recovered 27 fumbles. When you consistently chase the ball and play every snap like it’s your last one, the ball finds you.
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Butkus, one of the best players in NFL history, died in his sleep Wednesday night at his home in Malibu. He was 80.
“Dick Butkus was a fierce and passionate competitor who helped define the linebacker position as one of the NFL’s all-time greats. Dick’s intuition, toughness, and athleticism made him the model linebacker whose name will forever be linked to the position and the Chicago Bears,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “We also remember Dick as a long-time advocate for former players and players at all game levels.”
Dick Butkus became an immediate NFL star
Butkus, inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979, was named to the NFL 100 All-Time Team and NFL 75th Anniversary Team.
He was a member of the All-Decade Team for the 1960s and 1970s, which made sense since his career started in 1965 and ended in 1973 because of a chronic knee injury.
He was an eight-time All-Pro and played in eight Pro Bowls, back when the players actually blocked and tackled. And the former University of Illinois star has a college trophy named after him. The nation’s best linebacker receives the Butkus Award each year.
“He was Chicago’s son,” Bears chairman George McCaskey, Halas’ grandson, said in a statement. “He exuded what our great city is about and, not coincidentally, what George Halas looked for in a player: toughness, smarts, instincts, passion and leadership. He refused to accept anything less than the best from himself or from his teammates.”
If you want to understand Butkus’ legacy, all you have to do is look at all of the Bears’ fans wearing No. 51 jerseys in Washington last night.
The stadium was filled with patrons wearing Butkus’ jerseys. They didn’t all purchase them before the game.
It seemed fitting the Bears ended a 14-game losing streak — spanning two seasons — with a surprising 40-20 blowout win over the Commanders.
Dick Butkus was synonymous with Chicago
Butkus, a star from the moment he entered the NFL, was the third pick of the 1965 draft. Gayle Sayers was the fourth.
Each made the Hall of Fame. Joe Namath and Fred Biletnikoff were the only other players from that draft who were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Even though they had two of the greatest players ever to play the game on their roster, the Bears rarely won. Back when the NFL had a 14-game schedule, they won nine games in 1965 and seven games in 1967 (they were 7-6-1). Those were their only winning seasons with Butkus on the roster.
The Bears finished last in their division in four of Butkus’ last five years. But the teams’ losing ways never diminished his greatness.
He is as synonymous with Chicago as the Magnificent Mile or Lake Michigan. And he left a city full of football fans with memories that will never fade.
Jean-Jacques Taylor is an NFL Insider for Sportsnaut and the author of the upcoming book “Coach Prime“, with Deion Sanders. Follow him on Twitter.