CHARACTER great players can build their legacies with excellence on the field… and antics off of it. by Lisa Altobelli ome possessed fun-loving nicknames like Broadway Joe, The Fridge, and Prime Time. SOthers were a bit more hard-nosed—like the men themselves—such as Concrete Charlie, Mean Joe Greene, and Night Train Lane. On occasion, entire lines became notorious with labels like the Fearsome Foursome, the Hogs, and the New York Sack Exchange. And then there are those select few so renown they can be readily identified by just one word: Butkus. Riggins. Favre. “MAD DUCK” 218 SUPER BOWL XLV KARRAS NFL.COM “DEACON” JONES Their impact on the playing field is indisputable. So, too, is the behind- the- scenes aura they created and cultivated. It may have been their showmanship in full view of a crowd, or their unflinching toughness that pushed them through injuries no one knew about, or even their innate sense of humor that gave them license to pull off tension-easing pranks on team- mates. Whatever the reasons, they are revered as pro football’s ultimate “character men,” those players blessed with exceptional talent and larger-than-life personalities that transcended the game. Yet while the Bears took things to unprecedented levels, the game has always had characters. In the 1930s and 1940s, Redskins QB Most teams are likely to have one or two such characters, but the Slingin’ Sammy Baugh rifled the game into the forward pass era, while Super Bowl XX-winning Chicago Bears accumulated a locker room full beasts like Bears fullback Bronislau “Bronko” Nagurski tore through the of them, starting with their head coach: the cigar-chomping, locker- opposition, and according to Giants tackle Steve Owens, was “the only punching, headset-kicking, Sergeant Slaughter of a leader, Mike Ditka. man I ever saw who ran his own interference.” The former Pro Bowl tight end nicknamed his players “The Grabowskis” In the 1950s, the most comical player in the league was Colts tackle to exemplify the blue-collar work ethos of the city, but this team Art “Fatso” Donovan. The Bronx native was as well known for his was made up of anything but. offbeat one-liners as he was for his All-Pro defensive play, and once His 15-1 Bears had superstars/characters like Walter Payton claimed that if he ever wanted to get pumped up for a game, he would (Sweetness), Jim McMahon (the Punky QB), and William Perry just drink a case of beer. Decades after his playing days were over, (Fridge), who excited a nation and were showered with endorsement Donovan became a favorite on the late-night talk circuit, introducing opportunities, hawking everything from paintball guns to NutraSweet himself to a whole new generation of fans. and gaining a recurring “Da Bears” skit on Saturday Night Live. During that same era, the Lions locker room was entertained by the Defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan was a character all to himself antics of quarterback Bobby Layne and his frequent off-field companion, and oversaw a unit that featured the fearless “Samurai” Mike Singletary tackle Alex “Mad Duck” Karras. “When I was a rookie, I went with and Steve “Mongo” McMichael among others. They were confident, Layne to get a tube of toothpaste and didn’t get back for three days,” too. What other team would have the chutzpah to record a song, “The said guard Harley Sewell. Super Bowl Shuffle,” in the middle of the regular season? While Layne may have needed the occasional headfirst dunk into a Yet onto the Super Bowl they shuffled, where they took over the barrel of water to get ready for battle, he routinely delivered and became host city of New Orleans. The ringleader was McMahon, with his known as the “toughest QB who ever lived.” Tex Maule wrote in the trademark Revo shades, headband, and Jack Nicholson smirk, and Dec. 2, 1957, issue of Sports Illustrated, “The cocky, tough Texan is gen- whom Payton dubbed as “Your Outrageousness.” The QB lived up to erally regarded as the finest clutch player ever in professional football. His his moniker with late-night reveling on Bourbon Street and even ebullient behavior off the field has never affected his play; he works as dropped his drawers to display his black-and-blue posterior to a news hard after a long night of living it up as he does after a full night’s sleep.” helicopter to “show ’em where it hurt.” His counter was Perry, the gap- Two of football’s most feared players of the 1960s were linebackers toothed, gargantuan defensive lineman who joked on his signing day, Dick Butkus of the Bears and Ray Nitschke of the Packers. Butkus played “I’ve been big ever since I was little.” with intensity on every down, saying, “I wouldn’t ever set out to hurt s i v a Their 46-10 domination of the overmatched Patriots only added anyone deliberately unless it was important—like a league game or D k c a J y to the mystique. “The number one factor in that game was the fact something.” In the 1976 classic Rocky, Sylvester Stallone’s running b s n o i t that we put an A-B-C offense out there against a Ph.D defense,” said companion, his bullmastiff dog, was named Butkus as a nod to the a r t s u l l I then-Patriots coach Raymond Berry. legendary linebacker. Nitschke, rumored to have been able to take NFL.COM SUPER BOWL XLV 219 “BROADWAY JOE” lug nuts off a car with his teeth, also was celebrated in cinematic history, his mention coming in Brian’s Song when cancer victim Brian Piccolo said not to worry because “the only thing he was allergic to was Nitschke.” Some of the best characters in the league are the ones who can talk a good game as well as play it. It was an art form perfected by David “Deacon” Jones, a member of the Rams’ “Fearsome Foursome” that was rounded out by Rosey Grier, Lamar Lundy, and Merlin Olsen. While Jones was called the “Secretary a wild contraption that allowed of Defense” and became known for his fierce head slaps (that you to jump rope and lift a barbell at the same time. were made illegal in 1977), his other moniker was the “Secretary of Bradshaw also worked his way into movie roles in Cannonball Run and Smack.” Jones explained, “Some guys rattle with smack.” Smokey and the Bandit II, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Another quirky character was Conrad Dobler, an offensive guard for Fame in 2001, the first Pro Football Hall of Famer so honored. the 1970s Cardinals who made a living out of suspect moves, but unlike But while Bradshaw may have a star, he’s among numerous enigmatic Jones, downplayed the yapping. “You have to get just the right comment football players who transferred their talents to the screen. Back in the to make them mad,” said Dobler. “Verbal abuse could take all day— 1920s, Red Grange starred in two silent films and then in a miniseries a faster and more efficient way to aggravate and intimidate people is to about his exploits called The Galloping Ghost. Other successful tough knock the stuffing out of them.” guys-turned-actors were Butkus in My Two Dads, Karras in Webster, And that he did—stomping, biting, and once punching “Mean” John Matuszak in The Goonies, and Bubba Smith in the Police Academy Joe Greene in the face and kicking Olsen. Dobler is also infamous for franchise. Even Jim jumping into a coffin “just to see how comfortable it was,” but it was Brown, considered Olsen who put him in the grave, albeit fictionally on TV, when he starred by many as the in the Father Murphy series and had the camera linger on a headstone in finest running “THE a cemetery scene that read, ‘Conrad Dobler. Gone, But Not Forgiven.’ back in league FRIDGE” While these tough guys had their glory, there’s nothing like the celebrity quarterback to up the ante, and no one embodied that more than the fur coat-wearing, pantyhose-endorsing, actress- dating New York Jet, Joe Willie Namath. It began when “Broadway Joe” was bold enough to make “The Guarantee” that he would lead his team to victory against the Colts in Super Bowl III, but the fact that he was able to back up that claim catapulted him into a cult hero. Another charismatic quarterback who parlayed his Super Bowl success into celebrity status was the Steelers’ Terry Bradshaw, at one time derisively nicknamed the “Bayou Bumpkin” and who took his share of abuse for his southern twang and aw-shucks demeanor. But Bradshaw was smart enough to cash in on his four Super Bowl rings by endorsing everything from Qualar toupees to the ‘Jog & Lift’— 220 SUPER BOWL XLV NFL.COM history, announced his retirement from the “THE game on the set of The Dirty Dozen in 1966. Some players used their athletic prowess JOKESTER” to continue to entertain fans in the world of pro wrestling. Nagurski ruled as a three-time heavyweight champ in the 1940s, while the Bears’ McMichael became known in World Championship Wrestling for his pile driver finishing move called the “Mongo Spike.” Other prominent gridders who stepped into the wrestling ring and enjoyed a degree of success included Karras, “The Big Cat” Ernie Ladd, “Wahoo” McDaniel, Bill Goldberg, and Kevin Greene. Lyle Alzado managed to combine the two by playing a wrestler in the 1988 TV sitcom Learning the Ropes.