SPORTS UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, October 5, 1994
3B
Pain in Butkus' knee serves as reminder of strong career
By Hal Bock The Associated Press
Every so often Dick Butkus feels the ache in his right knee, a nagging remindef of his NFL career — nine seasons with the Chicago Bears as one of the fiercest linebackers in history.
Crewcut then and now, he played defense with an attitude. He pays with pain now, but that's OK. As far as he's concerned that was part of the deal.
"I walk OK. At least I think I do.
What do you think?"
Hey, if it's OK with him, it's OK.
"Anybody who gets out of the game without pain," he said, "I question if he played hard."
Don't worry, butkus played hard. He recovered 25 fumbles, made 22 interceptions and generally terrorized offenses on his way to the Hall of Fame. And he did it playing for George Halas, one of the inventors of the NFL, who didn't fool around. "What he said went," butkus said.
There was, for example, the matter of Sunday practices during training camp. The buzz around the Bears one year was that the Baltimore Colts were being given Sundays off.
"After practice one day, the old man asked if there were any questions," Butkus recalled.
One hand timidly went up and the coach nodded at the player.
"Yeah," Halas harumped. "What is it?"
"Coach, we hear Baltimore doesn't practice on Sundays," the player said. "So? Hales grumbled."
"Well," the player said, his voice
dropping as he realized he might have made a mistake raising the issue,
"how come we practice on Sundays?"
was perplexed by the ques
Halas was perplexed by the question.
"Because," he said evenly, "we practice on Sundays. Next question."
And that explained that.
Butkus bumped heads with Halas more than once, mostly over contracts. The linebacker came out of Illinois in 1965, at the height of the AFL-NFL signing war and was wined and dined when he came to New York for an All-America dinner. "We went to the Latin Quarter, and I got a $1 cigar, which was a big deal then," he said. "We were carrying on and Milton Berle velled 'Shut Up!' at me."
The battle for Butkus would be waged between the Bears and Denver Broncos with fancy numbers being tossed around, more money than he ever dreamed of. "I couldn't figure out how they knew they would be able to draft me. That's how naive I was," he said.
The AFL was flexible. It sent Butkus old Illinois teammate, quarterback Mike Taliaferro, after him. Taliaferro was with the New York Jets and if butkus wanted to play for them instead of the Broncos, why that would be fine too.
It turned out to be too late. Butkus' lawyer had agreed to a deal with the Bears but when the linebacker arrived to sign, it was for half the money he thought he was getting. Call it the Hlasa differential. Butkus shrugged off the difference. "I wasn't very sophisticated," he said. "I just wanted to play."
He knew exactly where each player's button was located.
Butkus recalled how Halas knew how to rev up the engines of his players.
"He came up to me before one game against Detroit and said, 'Did you hear what Ed Flanagan said about you?' the linebacker said.
"Isaid, 'No, what'd he say?"
Halas just took a puff on his cigar, turned and walked away, leaving Butkus in a fever pitch, yelling after him. "What'd he say? What'd he say?"
Flanagan probably had said nothing, but that didn't matter. It was what Butkus imagined he had said that counted with his coach.
Butkus tore up his right knee badly enough to have surgery four times. By the middle of the 1973 season, he couldn't play any more, causing a nasty divorce from the Bears.
Halas was a master psychologist.
George Allen, who had been with Chicago when Butkus arrived, thought a linebacker who played with abandon was just the thing the Redskins needed.
"I told him I couldn't play, but George wouldn't take no for an answer," Butkus said. "He insisted that I go to this doctor in Oklahoma City for an exam. It was top-secret. So there I am, under cover, wearing sunglasses in January, flying to see George's doctor."
The doctor confirmed the diagnosis and dutifully reported it to Allen. Butkus' knee was nothing more than a memory. He was done. The coach considered the medical verdict for a moment.
"OK," he said, "but could he be ready for next year's playoffs?"
Injuries are key to Oilers' problems as the team gets off to 1-4 start
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — Despite a partially separated shoulder, broken nose, and gimpy knee and ankle, Houston quarterback Cody Carlson's condition is no worse than that of Oilers.
They were a bickering, embarrassed and angry bunch after the 30-14 loss Monday night to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
"I feel like we're the laughing stock of the league," safety Marcus Robertson said. "I'm embarrassed for the offense and the defense and the whole organization."
At least the defense isn't criticizing only the offense, as it did earlier this season.
There are enough problems for everyone now that the Oilers have dropped to 1-4, the same low they reached last season before reeling off 11 straight victories.
"The only thing we did deciently was not give up," coach Jack Pardee said. "We're struggling right now,
and we've got to fight through it."
Pardee mercifully benched Carlson in the second quarter after it became obvious the Ollers were going nowhere with him at the controls.
The Oilers already were playing without starting running back Gary Brown, safety Bubba McDowell and cornerback Steve Jackson.
Carlson entered the game with an assortment of injuries acquired since the season opener. Carlson wouldn't remove himself, but Parlee did.
"With Cody hurt, maybe it was a mistake to start him," Pardee said. "The protection wasn't good and we got him out. I just hope he didn't hurt his shoulder any worse."
Carlson said the shoulder wasn't the reason for his removal.
"We weren't playing well and he made a change," Carlson said. "I didn't want to come out, but it wasn't my decision."
Miami player vows to ignore fans
The Associated Press
DAVIE, Fla — Miami linebacker Bryan Cox has promised to respond with class if Buffalo fans repeat last year's racial taunts when the Dolphins play the Bills on Sunday.
"I will probably put tape over my ear holes and maybe even over my mouth so that I can't hear what they're saying and can't say anything back to them," Cox said Monday.
Cox was fined $10,000 by the NFL for his response to slurs from fans on Sept. 26, 1993 — two raised middle fingers were broadcast on national television. The fine was reduced to $3,000 on appeal.
lawsuit in New York against the NFL. It demanded compensation for money lost and mental pain suffered from the incident and that the NFL "eliminate the racially hostile environment in which black football players must work."
Cox said the incident damaged him emotionally, and he began drinking heavily after he felt the NFL aligned itself with the disorderly fans.
If fans do taunt Cox again on Sunday, he said he has thought through his possible responses.
In July, Cox's attorney Mike Baird filed a discrimination
"I could handle it the way I handled it last year and give them the birds again.
" I could take the next step and go into the stands after the idiots who think they're really tough, and we'll see if they are or not.
"Or the third way, I could ignore the whole thing, handle it with class and concentrate on playing a good game and helping my team win." he said.
Cox, who received a telephoned death threat on the eve of last year's game in Buffalo, said he hoped the incidents would not be repeated.
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