Who was The Most Feared Defensive Player?

[volhound]

<TABLE height=100 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=612 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>Red Grange
says






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<!-- RELATED MODULE 180 --><TABLE style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 15px; MARGIN-LEFT: 15px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=180 align=right bgColor=#08477a background=/images/modules/related-bg.gif border=0><TBODY></TBODY></TABLE><!-- END RELATED MODULE -->In the National Football League’s early years, players moved from team to team with a great deal of regularity. In fact it wasn’t uncommon for a player to leave one team for another during the same season. But, one notable exception to this general pattern was George Trafton, the durable, hard-hitting center of the Chicago Bears between 1920 and 1932.

Trafton began his pro career with the Decatur Staleys, forerunner of the Bears, in the first year of the American Professional Football Association, forerunner of the NFL. Trafton followed the Staleys when the team moved to Chicago in 1921. However, in 1922, he took a year off from the pros to serve as an assistant football coach at Northwestern.


He returned to the Bears in 1923 and remained there for an additional 10 outstanding seasons. George was an excellent player and a superior competitor. Six times during his 12 seasons he was named to various all-league teams. He also earned, and most observers of the day say rightfully so, a reputation as rough player who was not afraid to get into an on-field scrap.
Even teammates like the fabled halfback Red Grange called him the “meanest, toughest player alive.” One writer reported that Trafton was strongly disliked in every NFL city, with the exception of Green Bay and Rock Island. In those places, "he was hated."

Trafton, however, was far more than just a roughneck. He was a skilled defensive player who had the moves of a halfback to go with his size and strength. He was one of the first centers to rove on defense and the very first on offense to center the football with only one hand. The Bears' press book once claimed their dynamic team captain never made a bad snap "in 201 games or 158 hours of actual competition. "


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[volhound]

.

They don't make them like they used. I would love to see forearm to the face and the clothesline, the club.

This is from Cliff Christl who writes a web log for the Packers.


The meanest, toughest ever!

I was too young when Hardy Brown was playing to remember him, but from everything I've read and heard, he was the meanest, toughest football player that ever lived.

Brown was a linebacker for the 49ers from 1951-'55. He began his career in the old All-America Football Conference in 1948 and ended it with Denver in the American Football League in 1960. He also had brief stints in the NFL with Washington, Baltimore and the Chicago Cardinals.

In his first year with the 49ers, Brown knocked cold 22 backs. He was so tough that he wasn't even allowed to scrimmage against his own teammates.

Billy Wilson, one of Brown's former teammates, recalled several years ago a game against the Steelers in 1951.

"Hardy caught Joe Gere high on the face, and he dropped as if pole-axed," said Wilson. "Coming out on the field with the offensive team, I passed right by Joe. He was in convulsions on the ground. One of his eyes was hanging out of its socket. That night, Gere looked all over Pittsburgh with a pistol. He was going to kill Hardy."

In 1953 against the Eagles, Hardy crashed into back Toy Ledbetter. Ledbetter was carried off the field on a stretcher. At halftime, Ledbetter had to be supported by two teammates as he left the field. His face was still a mass of blood. Hardy nudged Wilson in the ribs and said, "Look at him. Just look at him, Bill! I sure got him good, eh?"

Hardy didn't tackle opponents, he hit them with a lethal shoulder shot to the face.

Bill Johnson, another former teammate who later coached the Cincinnati Bengals, once said of Brown: "Hardy had a fiendish delight in crunching an opponent. To him destruction was the game. It was more important than the points."

Too bad, Hardy Brown won't be playing Sunday

 

[jlyons777]

Charles Jefferson...Ridgemont High

 

[Journeyman]

LOL Charles Jefferson...

"My brothers gonna sh!t

"Dude not a problem, my dad's got an awesome set of tools, he's a TV repairman"

"My brothers gonna kill us"

"Make up your mind dude, is he gonna sh!t, or is he gonna kill us"

"First he's gonna sh!t, then he's gonna kill us"

Classic !:lolBIG:

 

[jlyons777]

"CRUSHED by Jefferson"

 

[volhound]

one of the best movies of our generation

 

[Glaken]

one of the best movies of our generation

What Movie? I missed it.

 

[volhound]

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

 

[bulldog77]

Joe Greene

 

[Sticky]

Meanest/Dirtiest player ever....Not defensive..

Conrad Dobler! Master of the mule kick, ear box, you name he did it. The best story I ever heard of his was on some talk show where he was asked "If a guy was beating you, and every dirty trick you knew wasn't working what wouold you do?" He said he had one trick that NO MAN could endure. He would line up accross from the DL, he was a guard if memory serves and say "Watch this!!". Then he would stick his hand down the back of his pants and stick his finger you know where then show it to the DL. When the whistle blew he would facemask the DL on purpose and rub his finger all over the guys mouth, nose and eyes!!! Wow!

 

[Sticky]

As for defensive players......Tatum (He parylized people has to this day has no remorse!), Lambert (How scarey were those three teeth?), Butkus. I saw an interview with Butkus and he said that before the games on the sidelines he used to scan the opposing sideline for guys screwing around who weren't respecting the game. He WROTE THEIR JERSEY NUMBERS DOWN so he could remember who to punish. Damn!