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FILE – Chicago Bears great Dick Butkus watches from the sideline during the first half of the team’s NFL football game against the Houston Texans on Sept. 25, 2022, in Chicago. Butkus, a fearsome middle linebacker for the Bears, has died, the team announced Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. He was 80. According to a statement released by the team, Butkus’ family confirmed that he died in his sleep overnight at his home in Malibu, Calif.
“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 levels of the game.
FILE – Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus poses for a photo in 1973. Butkus, a fearsome middle linebacker for the Bears, has died, the team announced Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. He was 80. According to a statement released by the team, Butkus’ family confirmed that he died in his sleep overnight at his home in Malibu, Calif.
Butkus inherited the middle linebacker job from Bill George, a Hall of Famer credited with popularizing the position in the NFL. In 1954, George abandoned his three-point stance in the middle of the defensive line and started each play several paces removed, a vantage point that allowed him to watch plays unfold and then race to the ball.
And he didn’t always stop there. Several times Butkus crashed into ball carriers well past the sidelines. More than once he pursued them onto running tracks surrounding the field and even into the stands.Despite those efforts, the Bears lost plenty more games during his tenure than they won, going 48-74-4. Dealing with tendon problems that began in high school, Butkus suffered a serious injury to his right knee during the 1970 season and had preventive surgery before the next one.
The Bears climbed back to the top in the 1985 season with their lone Super Bowl championship. But they have been back to the title game only one time since. Butkus couldn’t understand why.
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