By Grand Rapids Anonymous
thursday, october 5, 2023 at 10:58:00 p.m. edt
GRA: What a player Dick Butkus was. I think he was the first football hero of mine when I started following the sport, back in about 1970-1971.
The team was awful, but Butkus was worth the 2 1/2 hours I spent in front of the TV set on a fall afternoon.
I only saw the Bears twice a year back then—when the Lions played them at home and on the road. Butkus hated the Lions. Butkus hated any player who was trying to score a touchdown on his defense, but he especially detested the Detroit Lions—which made him MY favorite.
I received Stop Action, which Butkus wrote in the early 70s, as a Christmas gift and thought it was fantastic—a Jim Bouton, Ball Four-style book which was part autobiography and part diary of the 1971 season. I highly recommend it.
He hated the way Howard Cosell said his name:
“But-kus.”
It was a funny book, but one that also showed the intensity and competitive attitude that was a Butkus trademark.
Back then, sports figures were bigger than life.
And though today, Dick Butkus has hung up his earthly jersey, he still is bigger than life in my sports memories.
--GRA
2 comments:
Off to the big game in the sky kinda like Valhalla. Lots of tackling, hitting, maybe some biting.
Dick Butkus made some amusing comments on Twitter right up to six days before his demise.Some pretty funny stuff.
For N.S.:
February 2,2022
"It's Groundhog's Day,that means the N.Y.Jets have already been eliminated from the playoffs."
--GRA
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