He was the greatest "Monster of the Midway"! I met him in a supermarket once. I acknowledged him but didn't want to bother him. He was very gracious and appreciated my gesture. He thanked me for allowing him to go about his business. He was shopping for his elderly parents. Everyone knew where they lived but they were left alone. The whole family was very nice.
As a long time Lion follower, #51 was a beast on the field but from what I heard from a high up person in the Lions organization back in the 70’s and was a good friend of Mr. Butkus, that off the field, he was a very nice man. This person said that when Chuck Hughes died at Tiger Stadium during the Bears/Lions game, Mr. Butkus was one of the first people to get to him and that Hughes sudden death really impacted #51 for a long time. RIP Mr. Butkus, God now has the all time best Middle Linebacker for his team.
I first heard of him as a kid growing up in Ireland before I immigrated to NYC in the 2000s from the Rocky movie , his dog Butkus , Rocky loved him so much he would name his beloved dog, that’s some compliment RIP
No body hit harder than Butkus. I loved watching him play full bore back in the day when there weren’t so many rules for safety purposes. He was one tough MF.
25 tackles in one game. No LB ever intercepted the ball better. 18 sacks in one season, while always dropping back into coverage. No linebacker ever forced and recorded fumbles better. EVERY facet. He was pretty much the tops. RIP to the GOAT Defender.
I'm 64 years old so I remember all these old times players passing away but this one hit hard I remember him well he was the best linebacker ever better than Lt I'm the only one that says that too
Butkus had 29 more Career Takeaways and Averaged 31 more Tackles per Season than Taylor, with very little help, outside of Buffone and O'Bradovich, on Defense.
I can remember driving down Hwy. 41 & on the side of the road in a very modest home was the mail box with the Butkus name on it!!! What a great MONSTER of the MID-WAY....R.I.P. my dear friend GOAT
I had the pleasure of meeting this wonderful man several times. In one conversation I told him my HS had a huge poster of him on a wall in the weight room. The pic was black & white but you knew the streaks on his pants were blood. He nodded, leaned in close and said, with a grin, "none of it was mine." If you can find it, he had co-written his auto biography. Very interesting read. His winning lawsuit against the Bears was the reason it took so long for them to retire his number. He was a fierce player and a sweet man.
His biography is great. If you ask me, he was the best player to EVER play the game. His knowledge and performance was unmatched. Loved watching him play, except when he played my team... the packers.
Nice thought. It’d be like watching a Tyrannosaurus in a petting zoo, compared to the sterilized game of today. Too much carnage, fans would love it too much. QBs actually got dismembered.
Life long Packer fan got to see A LOT of Mr. Butkus as a kid. Him and Sayers were always tough on the Pack in the best rivalry series in sports. Thank you. RIP
Not only the best linebacker ever but the best defensive player ever. He played the game the way it should be played. They didn’t call him the “animal” for nothing.
Watched him play and him and Sayers were the only reason to watch the Bear's back then but what a great time it always was to watch this monster at MLB the very best of all time I well really miss him This coming from a MN Vikings fan
It's to bad that Butkus was not the Commissioner of Football. Can you imagine what football would be like today. He was Mr. Football and will be sorely missed. As has happened to to many of the 1985-86 Bears that have died. Including Walter Peyton. These men were people that loved the game and played it with veracity and full throttle to the max. So long Raging Bear
No better linebacker nor will there ever another like him. People may be compared to him but no one will surpass him. Jack Hamm may come close but no cigar. He’s the best
I've never seen anyone own the middle of the field like him, terrorizing anyone who ventured into his real estate. I've just never seen anyone hit another player harder. Not LT, not Ronnie Lott, not Reggie White, not Jack Lambert. Nobody.
"U can talk about your Cindy and your Marylou..." As the great song suggests there are alternatives but NOT for Butkus. Bill George, Huff, Les Richter et al could not hold a candle. Butkus was the GOAT at MLB.
Such a great comedic actor too. Who can forget Drootin, the fascistic Drill Instructor at the fast food training university in 1986's Hamburger: the Motion Picture, 😂.
I heard off the field, he would give you the shirt off his back, on the field he would try to literally rip your head off your shoulders, Love you and God bless you Mr Butkus
He was immortal? Given the fact that he died like any other human being has to at some point in time this was a double contradiction. If he had been immortal he'd still be alive. If you deem him immortal as an icon that is something else. Yes, I know this is nitpicking, but hey, maybe to remind ourselves that these guys on the podium didn't do much in their life but play football at one point in time. That doesn't mean they have achieved anything significant nor that they are smart cause they get paid shitloads for talking shop.
@@jayem3720 Bwahaha... you ignorant atheists, you're taking the eternal dirt nap after a barbecue of immense proportions. I'm spending eternity in Heavenly bliss. You don't have to. You can change. But from the tenor of your comments, You'll blindly follow your programming to it's bitter end.
Too bad all the history and great players dont mean jack. All the rule changes not any great defensive players since Ray retired. Added an extra game. F-the NFL its ruined
The heros that never let us down. The all time definition of a linebacker . Thanks for the memories. I always wore 51 when playing sandlot ball as a kid. RIP Mr Butkus
I remember one play in 1971, I believe, which was Bears first season at Soldier Field. There was a bad snap from center on a late game PAT, but somehow one of the Bears got the ball and heaved it into the end zone and Butkus caught it. Of course back then it was only worth 1 point, but if it occurred in the game I think it did, the Bears beat Dallas by 1 point. That may have been Bears last win of the season(likely mid October to early to mid November). It also may have been Cowboys last loss enroute to winning Super Bowl.
Mr. Butkus was a tremendous football player truly a great guy all around as a kid watching him play we always looked up to him as one of our heroes and role models. I had the pleasure of meeting him once at an event and he made every kid feel special and gave us the courage to believe we could do anything we wanted truly a special man.
