Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker Ted Hendricks comes in at number 82 on NFL Films' "The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players" list produced in 2010. Subscribe to NFL Films: goo.gl/XJTggL
I met Ted Hendricks at a golf tournament, waited for him to get off the green and asked him for a picture. I am 6'2" 205 lbs and Ted made me feel small. He is every bit of his height listed. Then Ted said (in a very raspy voice) "Nah this angle is no good, lets go here!" He took his hand and grabbed the back of my neck, rather than asking me to walk over 5 feet the other way. I thought this must have been a scary human being on the field with cleats, shoulder pads and a helmet. Nice dude though.
Reading these comments, I was born in 1979. I've watched countless NFL Films videos. When this list came out in 2010, I'd never even heard of Ted Hendricks. I'd seen vids of Mike Curtis and Doug Atkins, ect. at that time.
Sadly Ted is not as well remembered as some of the others, except to us old time football fans. I'll always remember #83 regardless of what team he played on
"The Mad Stork" is the coolest nickname to have in my opinion. Love that nickname for Ted Hendricks as he stood out and is different, what a character and a great football player.
The 'Mad Stork' was a terror. Being only 82nd on this list is really doing him a disservice. Should be at least top 60 when he could impact a game as a pass rusher, pass defender and on special teams. Plus he was a winner (4 Super Bowls). What's he gotta do to get higher than 82? Gotta add I'm quite impressed a 6'7" guy could move well enough to be a good pass defender.
I think defensive players are done a disservice by the rankings. They don't have the ball and have to work harder to impact the game. Hendricks was a beast. Him and Harold Carmichael were probably pen pals.
David Sieradzki , it's almost as if they should have a seperate list of the 100 greatest defenders. Defense gets little love. And oldschool OLBs and safeties get even less.
Joshua Eden, most OFFICIAL sacks. Sacks weren't counted as an individual stat until 1982. LT's career total doesn't include sacks from his rookie season of 1981. Teams kept unofficial numbers but they aren't honored by the NFL. There've been several DTs who were noted for their inside pass rush, among them Ernie Stautner, Art Donovan, Bob Lilly, Merlin Olsen, Joe Greene, Buck Buchanan, and a forerunner to Randle at Vikings DT, Alan Page. I think Page was unofficially credited with 173.5 sacks.
I completely agree with what you said, but still no DT had more sacks than randle since 1982 and probley no one ever will (maybe aaron Donald). the game have evolved so much that defensive tackles are rarely racking up more than 8 or 9 sacks a season. keep in mind randle was undersized as well so is absurd to not include him on this list.
Best outside Linebacker ever. He could do everything on defense. He tackled guys, sacked the qb, forced turnovers, and blocked kicks. Zero flaws. He had so many on the field jobs and did them all very well
Not even close the greatest olb goes to lawrence taylor period. Then it's derrick brooks, derrick thomas, jack ham, bobby bell, von miller, demarcus ware, kevin greene. Ted can be near #9 and 10
This guy is my personal favorite. Watching him during the 82 season, through the playoffs and through killing the Skins in the 83 Super Bowl this guy always knew where the play was going and if he didn't make the play himself he was right near the ball. And tough as nails
Indeed... tremendous leg drive and upper body strength, agility, quickness and had a Tesla level IQ in football terms. And he had a huge heart. I loved watching this guy play.
There’s this book about the Raiders in the 70s called Badasses. I think I read this around 2011 maybe 2012, really opened my eyes to what they were like back then. Ted became one of my favorite players just from this book which led me to his highlights. What an interesting character.
@@jameswest1911 Her mother is GUATEMALAN (German origen) not Hispanic HUMBLE FAMILY The Guatemalans whites or Europeans have their origen from Germany Cataluña and Corsea (Italy). They hardly have Hispanic Origen. Only the Mestizos (from Mexican origen left by the Spanish conquerers. The GUATEMALANS speak Spanish because they had tremendous influence by Mexico and the rest of central America
@@christopherlux352 His mother is German. not an Indigenous. The Germans are called indigenous because of the dark propaganda Guatemala suffered after the US invasion in Guatemala in 1954.
Ted was a man of the people. He just happens to be a Giant! & a very Cool Guy! He was behind us at the Orange Bowl for the 1985 MNF game. The 85 Bears only Loss too the Dolphins. 😆 I couldn't believe he was in the cheap seats? Maybe he was just visiting friends there for a while? Because he was a legend at the Orange Bowl. Being an All-American for UM
It really angers me that because of the NFL being fixed, the greatness of the Raiders is in our past and we'll never have that again. Because football isn't what it used to be. RIP Oakland Raiders. RIP football.
It's interesting that the Raiders lost their 'mystique' after he retired from Football! He was the real reason the Raiders won those 3 SBs in the mid 70's and the early 80's! No doubt about it.
Lawrence Taylor was fast, an amazing pass rusher... Maybe the best ever at that. But he didnt cover, all he did was rush.. Ted Hendricks, Bobby Bell, Jack Ham, Rod Martin, were all - COMPLETE - linebackers, that had a complete game.
Look at the tackle at around 3:50. In (I believe) Jack Tatum's book he said Ted could not bench his weight and could barely do a pull-up. But he could take the hardest squeezer grips and hold them completely closed for hours to the point where they did not spring back out. I saw so many tackles where he reached over a blocker on a sweep and grabbed a running backs jersey with one hand and would just pull him down or held him up until another defender finished the tackle like you saw here. The Raiders would have "mercy" contests and he would put players like Matuszak, Upshaw, and Shell to the ground bending their wrists back.
I'm so glad have been a raider fan since 1968 and sold malts and sodas at the coliseum, while living five blocks away and having true earlier years signed memorabilia.... I saw a lot of these games personally year after year.... Generation Blanda, Lamonica, Stabler and Plunket alumni... John Madden, speaks for himself.. Carr...Hmmmm!
I saw a video where Ted threw a $100 bill in the toilet. When asked why he said I dtopped a $5 in there earlier and wasn't going to reach in there for just 5 bucks. Hilarious
Ted just made the NFL 100 All Time Team along with Willie Brown and Mike Haynes. Was a little surprised Marcus Allen got snubbed. Hopefully Biletnikoff and Branch both make it too. How Cliff Branch isn't in the HOF I'll never know
Ted was a Holy terror in every Game especially if you were rooting for the other team. In the Cincinnati area , me and my buddies knew every year the road to the Super bowl for our Bengals required at least one W in regular season against the Raiders if there was only one we still knew we'd most surely see em again before ever coming against an NFC champ they messed us up a lot Ted the Stork was certainly a part of that problem even though I can't remember how . . Seeing him in action in this clip brings only a smile. Thanks for the Clip NFL films.
I am almost 56 and saw the man play in person too ( 1980 Oakland Raiders ) .." LT " IS # 1 like Howie says ( mainly because of his 4.5 /40 speed !! Ted Hendricks ( Joe Montana also said ) was a close 2nd as far as ALL~TIME GREATS at OLB's ever to play the game ! 4 RINGS too !
You never knew where he was going to line up or whether or not he was rushing the QB or dropping back into coverage & neither did his opponents or nor did the Raiders
It's interesting that the Raiders lost their 'mystique' after he retired from Football! He was the real reason the Raiders won those 3 SBs in the mid 70's and the early 80's! No doubt about it.
With him went the bonafide pirate, psycho mystique, from the early days of the Raiders. The folks who were crazy after were self-destructive, non-productive and...well just plain pathetic.
A Big guy, and took full advantage of his Height. Tough Guy but never really blew people up, and he could've. Smart, Active, and always made plays. His career ended a long time ago, but I'll always remember Ted Hendrix,The Mad Stork. As well as Lawrence Taylor, the best outside linebacker that ever played.
Wow. Around the 3-minute mark he calmly sheds Bob Kuchenberg, a borderline Hall of Fame guard, then makes the tackle for a loss. Hendricks was such a solid tackler. He just engulfed people. Or stretched their jersies until they submitted. OLBs suffer perceptionwise compared to MLBs. The implication is that they weren't smart enough or lacked sideline-to-sideline range. But Hendricks, Jack Ham, Bobby Bell and Derrick Brooks had the smarts and skills to play the more glamorous MLB position. Old-school OLBs aren't celebrated like MLBs. Look at the distance between the top OLB ( LT at #3) to the 2nd greatest OLB (Ham at #60). I doubt any other position has such a wide gap between #s 1 and 2.
The mad stork. Why aren't nicknames today as creative as they were back then? Megatron was the last good one and most of the other nicknames today are kind of disappointing.
In the argument for the greatest defensive player from the U. Along with Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Jerome Brown, Warren Sapp, Cortez Kennedy and Sean Taylor!!!
His best season was with the Packers in 1974 - his only season as a Packer. Besides being a terror at everything on defense, he had 5 INTs and 7 blocked kicks in 1974. Sacks weren't tracked until 1982, but he would've probably been among the leaders in sacks too.
Ted at #82 is way too high. First and foremost he was a Baltimore Colt. The idiot Robert the drunk Irsay traded him to Green Bay then the idiots who ran the Packers let Al the moving van Davis get him. In a 4-3 defense my starting lbs would be Ted, Taylor and Butkus. Thats how good he was imo.
I remember watching him when he was a tight end at Hialeah High School. I remember wondering, "How in hell is THIS gonna work out?" when University of Miami Coach Charlie Tate converted him to a really skinny defensive end. He was made of steel cable. My dad, an original "Gator Hater," used to say as Hendricks would strong-arm someone to the ground, how he had the "strongest fingers in football."
The Guatemalan Ted Hendricks; perhaps the best linebacker in NFL history; according to Joe Montana the best. Of course Spanish was in his blood. God bless
