Card: 1966 Philadelphia Football Card #31

Team/Position: Chicago Bears / The Middle Linebacker

Cost: $45.00

Dick Butkus was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979 and is without a doubt, the greatest linebacker to ever put on a pair of shoulder pads. Butkus was, and always will be, the meanest sunnabitch to ever play football.

Butkus’ numbers, as great as they may be, still pale in comparison to his relentless style of play.  Butkus struck fear into the hearts of anyone that lined up across from him.  It was as if Butkus was protecting his family from an armed intruder on every play. Butkus played on sheer animal instinct and there was little doubt that he exhibited “fight” rather than “flight”.

I wouldn’t ever set out to hurt anyone deliberately unless it was, you know, important; like a league game or something. — Dick Butkus.

Butkus’ tenacious style eventually caught up to him as his knees gave out on him in the early 70′s.

Butkus played through the pain, but eventually had to retire after only 9 years in the NFL.

In those 9 years, Butkus was voted to 8 Pro Bowls and 6 First Team All Pro teams.  For his efforts, Butkus was voted to both the 1960′s and the 1970′s NFL All-Decade teams.

With Butkus’  and Gale Sayers’ Rookie Card in the same set, Philadelphia ’66 is one of the best football sets out there.

Card: 1954 Bowman Card #23

Team/Position: Chicago, Houston, Oakland / Quarterback & Kicker

Cost: $35

The NFL has taken it upon itself to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the AFL in 2009 with AFL rivalry games featuring some of the gaudiest jerseys known to man.  I’s clear that Joe Namath reigns supreme as the most recognizable ambassador that the AFL had, but without a doubt, George Blanda is Top-5.

Namath and Blanda represented the AFL in vastly different ways.  The AFL wanted itself to be seen as Namath, who had signed with the Jets for more money after they’d selected him first overall in 1965. Namath was a brash playboy with a youthful energy that seemed to be contagious, exactly what the AFL wanted.

The NFL wanted the AFL to be seen as George Blanda, though. Originally Blanda came off as an NFL washout, no longer good enough to play for the Chicago Bears of their prestigious league.  Blanda kept playing though…and playing…and playing…and playing, before eventually ending his career after 26 seasons in Professional Football.  Blanda is too often defined by the length of his career which indirectly reduces the significance of many of his other accomplishments.

Blanda’s Accomplishments

In 1949, Bears’ owner, George Halas, signed George Blanda for $600, thus beginning the start of a great career.  Almost none of that career occurred with Blanda’s original team though.  Blanda was the starting quarterback for the Bears in ’53, but an injury in ’54 sentenced Blanda to the role of full-time kicker, back-up quarterback.  Blanda retired after the 1958 season, knowing that he was a capable quarterback and not just a kicker and thus began the career of George Blanda.

When I acquired the 1954 version of Blanda’s rookie card, I was terribly tempted to grab the 1960 version of Blanda as a member of the Houston Oilers.  Blanda’s career started when he dawned an AFL jersey and Fleer’s 1960 card of George Blanda wearing the Oilers’ blue can be had for around twenty dollars.

Blanda lead the Oilers to the first AFL Championship in 1960 before going off in, what’s generally considered his best professional season, 1961.  Blanda once again took home the AFL Championship, but this time it came with AFL Player of the Year honors.   Blanda led the AFL in passing yards (3,330) and passing touchdowns (36) that year.  Blanda was a passing machine, leading the league in both attempts and completions from 1963 through 1965.

By 1967, Blanda’s time had run out with the Houston Oilers but he was quickly snapped up by the Oakland Riaders.  After a terrific career with the Oilers, Blanda was now comfortable operating in the role that the Bears had seen him in so long ago. Blanda, who was still a straight ahead kicker, repeatedly came up in the clutch for the Raiders.

In 1970, Blanda was released by the Raiders only to, you guessed it, resign with them before leading one of the craziest five game stretches in the history of football.

Game 1 vs. Steelers: Lamonica gets hurt, Blanda throws three touchdowns to win ‘er.

Game 2 vs. Kansas City: Blanda kicks a field-goal with 3 seconds left to tie ‘er up.

Game 3 vs. Cleveland: Off the bench, Again!  Blanda throws a TD with under two minutes to play to tie the game up before booting a ridiculous 52-yard field-goal to win ‘er.

Game 4 vs. Denver: Blanda gets the call in the 4th quarter only to throw the winning touchdown with two minutes left.

Game 5 vs. San Diego: Blanda knocks in a chip-shot field goal in the closing seconds to beat the Chargers and end one of the greatest streaks of balls-to-the-wall football in the history of the game.

Eventually, the 1970 season ended with Blanda becoming the oldest quarterback (age 43) to start a Championship Game.

Blanda’s Records (straight from wikiland)

• Passing TDs in a game: 7 (Tied with 4 others)
• Most seasons played: 26
• Only player to play in four different decades; (40s, 50s, 60s, 70s)
• Most PATs made (943) and attempted (959)
• Most interceptions thrown, single season: 42 (1962)
• Held record of most pass attempts in a single game: 68 until 1994, when Drew Bledsoe had 70
• Oldest person to play in an NFL game: 48 years, 109 days
• First player ever to score over 2,000 points
• Oldest quarterback to start a title game
• Most total points accounted for (including TD passes) in a career: 3,418

Blanda is no longer the proud owner of the Most Career Interceptions which now belongs to Brett Favre.

The Card

I absolutely love the look of this card; it’s simple, classic and it shows us that George Blanda used to be one very good looking dude.  It’s refreshing to see this shot of Blanda, rather than the grey haired man hunched on the Raiders sideline.

I’m still torn on whether or not I made the right call.  The Fleer card doesn’t look quite as classic and it’s not quite as old, but it’s Blanda as a member of the AFL.

1960 Fleer Blanda, Courtesy of Footballcardgallery.com

Card: 1983 Topps Card #38

Team/Position: Oakland Raiders / Tackle

Cost: Almost Free!

I ended up grabbing this Singletary in an ’83 Bears lot; so it came cheap.  It’s brutally off-center and it’s pretty freakin’ ugly to boot.  Something definitely happened to Topps’ design team when the clock struck 1980.

Green and Purple as the two main colours just don’t do it for me.

With that in mind, I love Mike Singletary.  I love what Singletary’s done for the 49ers and I’d have no problem just writing about that.

Singletary’s one of the few “motivational” rather than “mad-genius” coaches that I love.  As long as you have a strong staff in place, guys like Singletary can really excel at coaching players rather than entire teams.

There was basically no way in which he could top Mike Nolan, who’s an all-time favorite, but showing his ass to Vernon Davis definitely helped.

Singletary: Chicago Bears’ MLB.

The Chicago Bears refuse to play a season without an outstanding Middle Linebacker.  It all started way back when Bill George decided to take a step back from the defensive line.  George was an absolute monster, yet the inventor of the MLB spot often gets lost in the shuffle of great Bears’ MLB by the younger fans.

…and then came Butkus, Dick Butkus.  There’s not much you can say about Butkus that hasn’t already been said, but The Greatest Middle Linebacker of All Time sums it up.

After a brief period — the Tom Hicks period — a man named Mike Singletary came to Chicago.  Singletary quickly asserted himself as the defensive leader of the Chicago Bears, which eventually culminated in a 1985 Super Bowl.  Singletary wasn’t quite as mean spirited as the other Bears’ MLB, but the intensity and motivation was definitely there.

Singletary’s skills were magnified ten-fold by the way he played the game.  He somehow managed to balance a ferocious style with smart play which lead him to 10 Pro Bowls and 2 Defensive Player of the Year Awards.  Singletary just seemed to be everywhere at the same time.

Urlacher’s athletic ability blows all of the previous linebackers away, but playing MLB in the Tampa-2 is a completely different ball-game.  For that reason, it’s really difficult to see the same attacking style that previous linebackers like Singletary and Butkus brought to the table.  The eye-black helps though, Yup.

The Chicago Bears and the Middle Linebacker will forever be united.  I really cannot think of another Team & Position that fit together so perfectly.  When all is said and done, the Chicago Bears could easily have four of the all-time top-5 MLB.

Card: 1966 Philadelphia Card #38

Team/Position: Chicago Bears / Halfback

Cost: About 90 Bucks

Born in Wichita and educated at KU, the Kansas Comet was the only fitting nickname for a player of Sayers’ speed and fluidity. For all of Gale Sayers’ greatness, his Achilles heel ended up being his knees.  In this day and age, runningbacks routinely undergo surgery to fix their torn cruciate ligaments and are back up to speed in a year and a half.  However, Sayers wasn’t nearly as lucky and knee injuries robbed him of his greatness, forcing him into early retirement.

Sayers’ first injury resulted from San Francisco’s Kermit Alexander hitting him low during one of his patented cuts.  Sayers’ knee was toast as all four ligaments were compromised. Sayers’ rehabilitation from the injury was detailed in the movie Brian’s Song ( here too, I guess) along with Brian Piccolo’s battle with cancer.  Sayers later injured his other knee and was eventually forced to retire after only six seasons in the NFL, despite comeback attempts in both ’71 and ’72.

Even in such a short career, Gale Sayers made enough of an impression to become the youngest player ever elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame at age 40.

What Made Sayers Great?

Seriously, this is like asking what makes bacon so damn delicious; The Answer: Everything!

Sayers was drafted in the first round of both the NFL and AFL entry drafts, but decided to head for Chicago rather than the big-bucks the AFL had to offer.  Sayers finished 1965 as the unanimous selection for Rookie of the Year after posting gaudy numbers in rushing, receiving and returning.  Sayers’ 22 touchdowns in his 1965 rookie-season still stands as an NFL rookie record.

Gale Sayers and Barry Sanders will forever be linked by their terrific stop-on-a-dime cuts and highlight reel runs, but people too often forget the dreadful conditions that Sayers ran in compared to Sanders.  Sayers was making the kind of cuts in the slop of Wrigley field that Barry Sanders was making in pristine conditions of the Pontiac Dome.  Sayers more than likely would have destroyed his knee tendons by himself had he run on Astroturf, but that’s hardly the point.  By the time the Bears had moved to the Astroturf of Soldier Field, Sayers was a man without knees or any of the skills that once made him great.

Gale Sayers is the epitome of an “Did He Just Do That?” player and where you rank him on your all-time list really depends on how heavily you weight consistency.  I suppose Neil Young’s It’s better to burn out than to fade away line from Hey, Hey, My, My (Out of the Blue) rings true with Sayers.

Who knows how many yards Gale Sayers would have accumulated if he’d stayed healthy, but he’d never have the mysterious quality that transcends sports and begins to enter into modern-american folklore.

What’s Sayers Upto Nowadays?

As is the case with most of the retired greats, Sayers is using his celebrity and influence to help kids. The Sayers family is a strong supporter of the Cradle Foundation, and most recently built the Gale Sayers center in Chicago.  Kansas University is also bringing Sayers on board as Director of Fundraising for Special Projects.

As always, Wikipedia does a good job summing everything up.

The Card

The Card’s pretty nice as it’s got Sayers in the Heisman-pose pasted over what appears to be Wrigley Field, but there’s nothing overly special.  As was the case with Jimmy Brown, the next offering was my favourite card.

1967 Philadelphia (pictured left) used the same picture of Sayers, but zoomed in and added a yellow border.  BAM!

After that, I think we’re on to the 1969 Topps offering which uses a fairly badass magenta background (or pink for those who prefer the simpler times.)

The 1969 Card can be had for as little as about 10 bucks on the eBay, and it’s pretty freakin’ badass if you ask me.

Both Panini (Donruss) and Upper Deck have produced Sayer’s certified autographs in the past couple of years, all of which can be had at a fairly reasonable price:

2008 UD Exquisite Sayers

The 2008 Upper Deck Exquisite series is my favourite with most of the legendary signatures coming in this terrific gold paint pen and double jersey combination.  These can be had for about the same price as a Sayers rookie card on eBay.