RIP Dick Butkus

He and Gale Sayers, rookies in ‘65, were the reason everyone was a Bears fan. Both were must watch.
Butkus was why everyone wanted to be a MLB.
RIP.

 

He retired not long before I was born. I started to get into the NFL around age 10, when the Bears were getting good ahead of the 1985 team.

Obviously the name Butkus was mentioned a lot. Then I discovered the stuff NFL Films did on him. So good.

 

I sort of asked this question when Sid passed and I'm not afraid to ask it now: Did Dick Butkus die so he wouldn't have to watch this Bears team anymore?

 

At least half of the tackles they are showing on ESPN would be 15 yard penalties today.

 

I did. An absolute terror on defense. An instinctive nose for the ball. Punishing tackler. Feared by opponents. And a softie off the field. Leaves his high-school sweetheart, married for 60 years.

 

Probably only LT and maybe Ray Lewis have approached his mystique since.

The Bears ranged from mediocre to off-the-end-of-the-earth abysmal during his (and Sayers') careers.

It's kind of an amazing bizarro world accomplishment to have two of the top 10 players of all time (by many lists) and still struggle to reach .500.

Of course, I think there were only a couple seasons in which both were mostly healthy.

 

All true.

 

Years ago I did a hit and run interview with Gayle Sayers who was passing through town on a book tour and we wanted his input on some news of the day - back in my newspaper days didn't freak out over meeting heroes of my youth much, but that was one. And then about 10 years ago, Butkus was coming through town for an appearance and I was working the event. He posed for pics with everyone who wanted one, didn't do autographs because of arthritis in his hands. But as the line dwindled down, one of the organizers asked me if I wanted a photo with Butkus - I said, "hell yeah." Told him, "I'm sure I'm not the first person to tell you I wore 51 in high school because of you."
Absolute legend. Larger than life.

Too many great TV ads to post.

 

I seem to remember him doing NBC games with Dick Enberg.

 

I had read some minor musings that he was starting to slip a bit in recent years, but the dude was 80. From most accounts, he was still pretty conversant until recently, which ironically was probably a result of his knee-injury-shortened career.
If he had played a full decade or more with the power and violence he delivered in his first few healthy seasons, it's hard to think he wouldn't have soaked up some serious concussions along the way.

 

I for one, as a young teen, had Staci Keenan on my list of greatest actresses in the world along with Alyssa Milano and Danica McKellar.