No, this title is not a tease. During an appearance on San Francisco’s 95.7 FM with The Rise Guys, Hall of Fame Linebacker Dick Butkus responded when asked whether he would’ve killed another player on the field had he used performance-enhancing drugs in his era via sportsradiointerviews.com:
“I probably could have, but then I’d probably be dead myself.”
After speaking about an anti-performance-enhancing drug initiative that he’s involved with, Butkus, whose post playing career has featured both television (NBC’s “Hangtime”, great Saturday morning show) and film (“Any Given Sunday”) acting gigs, went on to offer his opinion on whether football is better off today compared to when he was terrorizing opposing offenses:
“I’d question that. I hate to bring this up, the old guys always say this — the old timers. But they’re a different breed today. And I’ll give you an example of I think what says it all. I was talking to Gale Sayers a couple years ago and he was telling me that he was talking to a current back, a running back, and some way or another Jim Brown’s name came up and the kid said, ‘Who’s that?’ I mean, that says it all.“
There’s a saying amongst NFL players and coaches that the NFL is like a fraternity, and Butkus sounds just like an “old head” talking about a recent visit to The Yard. I am curious to know which current running back asked Gale Sayers who Jim Brown was though. I’m not going to act like I’m a professor of NFL history, but not knowing Jim Brown? If players truly treat the NFL like a fraternity, it doesn’t sound like whichever current running back Gale Sayers talked to pledged.