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: 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.