By Nick Calabrese
Editor’s Note: The Mind of Sabol series continues to look back at the game through the notes of late NFL Films President Steve Sabol. In this fourth installment we take a look at some of the toughest men to play the game. Please let us know what you think about Mr. Sabol’s famous card catalog by leaving a comment below or tweeting @NFLFilms with #MindofSabol.
“Linebacker isn’t a position, it’s a state of mind.” – Steve Sabol
Mike Curtis
“Played with tremendous sincerity and passion
used his anger to convert his body into the instrument he needed to satisfy his ambitions
sense of frontier justice.” – Steve Sabol
“Who, by his own admission, was not always a nice man. ‘I have never looked upon a football field as a place to make friends.'”
Dick Butkus
“Dick Butkus – who became a legend at MLB by bending every bone he couldn’t break and dragging or knocking off a QB’s head and watching it roll down the field.” – Steve Sabol
“Ham was a quiet linebacker, one of the smartest men to play the position, but with great powers of anticipation and an almost unerring sense of doing the right thing.” – Steve Sabol
Jack Ham
(click to enlarge)
“By nature, Sam Huff is a friendly sort with the widest smile in football. But he has no trouble working up a cold-eyes mean streak as game time approaches; by kickoff, he hates everyone on the other side of the scrimmage line.” – Steve Sabol
Sam Huff
