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Best NFL Players of All Time: Chuck Bednarik

Chuck Bednarik is not only in the front row of the team photo of the hardest players to ever play the game, but he is also one of the bravest warriors in a sport.

On my list are Dick Butkus, Deacon Jones, Big Daddy Lipscomb, Charlie Haley, Ray Lewis, Jack Youngblood, Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Doug Atkins, Gino Marchetti, Randy White, Dan Hampton, and Lawrence Taylor. It’s up for argument whether or not other players should be involved, but gather all of those individuals in one room and let them do their thing. Here, one would assume that either Bednarik, Butkus, or Taylor would win.

Jim Brown is a very proud man and is arguably the best football player of all time. It’s noteworthy when Brown gives another athlete a complement. According to Brown, Chuck Bednarik was the best linebacker to have ever lived. “Nobody could kick his butt today, I don’t know how old he is.”

In 1925, Bednarik was born. When Brown made his assessment, he was 79 years old. For the Philadelphia Eagles, Bednarik played middle linebacker on defense and center on offense. The final two-way player was him. It was a little exaggerated to refer to him as the “60-minute man.” Bednarik participated in every offensive and defensive play, however he was not involved in kickoffs. He played more than 58 real game minutes in the 1960 NFL Championship Game.

His two most famous plays are a knockout blow on Frank Gifford during the Eagles’ 1960 championship season and Jim Taylor’s last-second tackle in the championship game of that season, which kept Philadelphia ahead of the Green Bay Packers.

The Gifford hit has caused decades’ worth of ripple effects in the NFL. In the fourth quarter of the 1960 Eastern Conference title game at Yankee Stadium, the Eagles were leading the Giants 17-10. With the ball, New York was trying to drive for the game-winning touchdown. George Shaw, the quarterback for the Giants, found Gifford with a ball down the middle, but Bednarik tackled him squarely before he could advance.

With full force, the blow knocked Gifford ying backwards, arms and legs splaying rearward as his skull struck the frozen ground. As the football slid away, Gifford remained motionless. After hearing the hit and witnessing the outcome, the magnificent stadium became silent. Chuck Weber, a linebacker for the Eagles, stumbled over the ball but got up. Bednarik was only responding to his team’s recovery of the ball and the fact that it guaranteed victory, despite what an image from Sports Illustrated appeared to show.

“I declared that the game was over,” Bednarik recollected. “I wasn’t talking about Frank. All I wanted was for us to win. Should someone believe that I was sulking over Frank, they couldn’t be more mistaken.

Nevertheless, the play served as a representation of Bednarik’s principles and standards. After winning the Eastern Conference, the Eagles qualified to play Vince Lombardi and the emerging Packers for the league championship.

Although it was a Philadelphia game, most experts predicted a victory for the Packers. Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor, Willie Davis, and, of course, Vince Lombardi were among the players watching from the sidelines for Green Bay.

The Eagles had a number of role players, an aged Bednarik, and Norm Van Brocklin, who was playing in what ended up being his final game of his career. In the final seconds, the Eagles led 17–13 and played with guts and emotion. But with time for one final play, Green Bay kept the ball at the Philadelphia 22-yard line.

Starr passed the ball to Taylor, a concrete block of a guy who buried his head and bounded his way to the 9-yard line, after failing to find an open target in the end zone.

Right there to greet him was Bednarik. When the game was about to end, he would not let go of Taylor. He stopped him and forced him to the ground.

Bednarik remembered Taylor wriggling and attempting to get up. However, I could not stand up and allow them to perform another play. I obeyed Taylor’s advice to run away from him when he swore at me and the second hand reached zero. We didn’t have a lot of talent, so it was a huge victory and accomplishment. We won the game, albeit I’m not sure how we accomplished it.

When it came to suffering, Bednarik was not just the one doing the giving. He only missed three games throughout his 14-year career, and two of those were as a rookie. His own body suffered from the force of his blows. Specifically, the fact that none of his fingers stick out straight makes his hands appear like something from a movie. Every one of them is deformed, twisted, and gnarled.

Near the end of his career, Bednarik was playing off a block in a preseason game when he hit a runner and felt a sharp ache in his arm. His biceps muscle had ripped, causing it to move from his upper arm to his forearm. Eagles teammate Tom Brookshier stated, “Chuck pushed the muscle back in its place and went to the sidelines.” “He went back in after telling the doctor to wrap it with tape. He was playing as if it were the championship game, even though it was only an exhibition. He became the outstanding player he was because that is how he played all the time.

Bednarik acknowledges that the athletes of today are more powerful and larger than those of his day. However, there isn’t enough of a disparity in size and athleticism to determine if a 6-foot-3, 235-pound linebacker might still have the same effect. “I once thought I could play with the guys playing today, a reporter asked me,” Bednarik recalled. I informed him that his inquiry was derogatory. I could play today, of course. I would also become famous.

That’s it. The tale is over.

Best NFL Players of All Time: Chuck Bednarik Stats

Regular Season

Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Int	Yds	TD	Lng	PD	FF	Fmb	FR	Yds	TD	Sk	Sfty	AV
1949	24	PHI	C	60	10	7			0
1950	25	PHI	RLB/C	60	12	12	1	9	0	9			0	1	0	0
1951	26	PHI	LLB	60	12	12			0				0	2	5	0
1952	27	PHI	RLB	60	12	12	2	14	0	12			0	1	0	0
1953	28	PHI	RLB	60	12	12	6	116	1	41			1	4	6	0
1954	29	PHI	RLB/C	60	12	12	1	9	0	9			0	4	0	0
1955	30	PHI	RLB	60	12	12	1	36	0	36			0	0	0	0
1956	31	PHI	LLB	60	12	12	2	0	0	0			0	2	4	0
1957	32	PHI	LLB	60	11	11	3	51	0	37			0	2	0	0
1958	33	PHI	C	60	12	12			0				0	1	0	0
1959	34	PHI	C	60	12	12			0				0	1	0	0
1960	35	PHI	C	60	12	12	2	0	0	0			0	2	0	0	0		14
1961	36	PHI	C/MLB	60	14	14	2	33	0	33			0	0	0	0	0		8
1962	37	PHI	MLB	60	14	14			0				0	1	0	0	0		6
Career					169	166	20	268	1	41			1	21	15	0	0		28

Playoffs

Year	Age	Tm	Pos	G	GS	Int	Yds	TD	Lng	PD	FF	Fmb	FR	Yds	TD	Sk	Sfty
1949	24	PHI	C	1	0
1960	35	PHI	C	1	1			0			0	0	0	0	0	0

 

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