A photo of Dick Butkus sneering behind his facemask filled the cover of Sports Illustrated's 1970 NFL preview, topped by the headline, "The Most Feared Man in the Game." Opponents who wound up on the business end of his bone-rattling hits could testify that wasn't an exaggeration.
Dick Butkus was a legend who embodied what it means to be a Chicago Bear. Our hearts go out to his family and friends. pic.twitter.com/8UEVuuZLwiTrading on his image as the toughest guy in the room, Butkus enjoyed a long second career as a sports broadcaster, an actor in movies and TV series, and a sought-after pitchman for products ranging from antifreeze to beer.
Butkus, however, brought speed, agility and a scorched-Earth attitude to the job that his predecessors only imagined. He intercepted five passes, recovered six fumbles and was unofficially credited with forcing six more in his rookie year, topping it off with the first of eight straight Pro Bowl appearances. But his reputation as a disruptor extended well past the ability to take away the football.Butkus would hit runners high, wrap them up and drive them to the ground like a rag doll.
When a surgeon asked him "how a man in your shape can play football, or why you would even want to," Butkus announced his retirement in May 1974.
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