Longtime Bears linebacker Doug Buffone, who played next to Dick Butkus for Buffone’s first eight seasons in the NFL, used to recall standing on the field in the midst of a Bears game, looking at Butkus “frothing at the mouth” with the typical rage that fueled Butkus’ manic game and thinking one thing:
“I’m glad he’s on my side.”
Every Bears fan and every Chicagoan can relate to that sentiment about Butkus, the Bears’ legendary Hall of Fame linebacker who died in his sleep at 80 on Thursday at his Malibu, California, home.
The Bears never made the playoffs during Butkus’ nine seasons with the Bears. They were 53-83-4, with just two winning seasons (9-5 in 1965 and 7-6-1 in 1967). In 1969, the Bears went 1-13.
But through all that misery, Bears fans always had Butkus on their side. Gale Sayers ran like nobody else could. But Butkus was a Chicagoan who played football like all of us wanted to — with grit, ferocity, anger and relentless aggressiveness. Through all those losing seasons, he played the game as if he felt our pain.
That’s one reason Butkus doesn’t need a statue to live forever in his hometown. Though he retired in 1973, he remains not only a standard for linebacker excellence in the NFL, but — along with Walter Payton — the definition of what a Chicago Bear is and what fans think a Chicago Bear should be.
The old-school notion during the post-Halas era that if those Bears teams couldn’t win, they at least made you pay a price for beating them is ridiculed as meathead, neanderthal thinking. But let’s face it, Butkus was the embodiment of that. He made watching the Bears fun when it really wasn’t. All you have to do is watch the Bears today to know the value in that for Bears fans of the late ’60s and early ’70s.
Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus pauses to catch his breath as his team’s offense worked against the Green Bay Packers during an NFL football game in Green Bay, Wis., Nov. 15, 1970. Butkus, a fearsome middle linebacker for the Bears, has died, the team announced Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. He was 80. According to a statement released by the team, Butkus’ family confirmed that he died in his sleep overnight at his home in Malibu, Calif.
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AP Photos
Chicago Bears’ Dick Butkus (51), Doug Buffone (55) and Joe Taylor (20) stop Detroit Lions running back Steve Owens (36) during an NFL football game Nov. 21, 1971, in Chicago. Butkus, a fearsome middle linebacker for the Bears, has died, the team announced Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. He was 80. According to a statement released by the team, Butkus’ family confirmed that he died in his sleep overnight at his home in Malibu, Calif.
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Fred Jewell, AP Photos
Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus poses for a photo in 1970. Butkus, a fearsome middle linebacker for the Bears, has died, the team announced Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. He was 80. According to a statement released by the team, Butkus’ family confirmed that he died in his sleep overnight at his home in Malibu, Calif.
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AP Photos
Former Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus is surrounded by football memorabilia at his home in Malibu, Calif., Jan. 6, 2000. Butkus, a fearsome middle linebacker for the team has died, the Bears announced Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. He was 80. According to a statement released by the team, Butkus’ family confirmed that he died in his sleep overnight at his home in Malibu.
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AP Photos
Dick Butkus , Former Bears middle linebacker Dick Butkus blasts out of the rough on the first fairway Monday in the Jack Quinlan Memorial Golf Tournament at Olympia Fields Country Club in May 1988.
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Gene Pesek/Sun-Times
In this Oct. 29, 2016, file photo, Dick Butkus, former Illinois and Chicago Bears linebacker, is recognized during a time out as the first inductee of the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame during an NCAA college football game against Minnesota at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Ill. Butkus is being honored with a statue at Illinois, where he played three seasons and helped the Illini win the 1964 Rose Bowl.
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AP Photos
Dick Butkus, Pre game honors to bear hall of famers. Here Dick Butkus holds up a turn back the clock jersey on Sept. 18 1994.
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Phil Velasquez/Sun-Times
Chicago Bears great Dick Butkus watches from the sideline during the first half of the team’s NFL football game against the Houston Texans on Sept. 25, 2022, in Chicago. Butkus, a fearsome middle linebacker for the Bears, has died, the team announced Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. He was 80. According to a statement released by the team, Butkus’ family confirmed that he died in his sleep overnight at his home in Malibu, Calif.
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Nam Y. Huh, AP Photos
Chicago Bears’ Lee Roy Caffee (60), Dick Butkus (51) and Phil Clark (39) try to stop Green Bay Packers’ John Hilton (86) after a pass reception during an NFL football game Nov. 15, 1970, in Green Bay, Wis. Butkus, a fearsome middle linebacker for the Bears, has died, the team announced Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. He was 80. According to a statement released by the team, Butkus’ family confirmed that he died in his sleep overnight at his home in Malibu, Calif.
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AP Photos
Bears’ veteran linebacker Dick Butkus goes through calisthenics in preparation for coming season, Sept. 2, 1973.
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Bob Langer/Sun-Times
Dick Butkus on Dec. 13, 1970.
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Bob Langer/Sun-Times
Former Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus chats with a reporter on the sidelines as the Bears take on the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Former Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus poses for a photo with fans as the Bears take on the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023.
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Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Few players, if any transcend, the generations like Butkus. Nearly 50 years after he played his last game, he ranks with Ray Lewis as the best inside linebacker in NFL history and still is ranked among the top 10-15 players to ever play in the NFL. Though there have been bigger and faster and more lethal linebackers, like Lewis and Lawrence Taylor after him, it’s the Butkus Award that honors the best linebacker at three levels of football — high school, college and the NFL.
Butkus is best known for his maniacal aggression that struck fear into the best opponents and every so often went over the line of fair play. But that reputation sometimes overlooks the reality that Butkus was a technically sound football player, blessed with phenomenal instincts and anticipation and great hands.
He had 22 interceptions and 27 fumble recoveries in his 119-game career. And while his highlight videos show Butkus’ brutality in all its glory, they also show that he was a textbook tackler. Butkus was more than a monster. He was a great football player.
Butkus was everything Bears fans wanted him to be. And whenever he returned to Chicago, those fans — including many who never saw him play — always gave him the biggest ovation of all. That last happened in the season opener against the Packers on Sept. 10 at Soldier Field, when Butkus was among Bears alumni honored at halftime.
Interviewed earlier in the game, Butkus spoke for every Bears fan there when he said it was “always good to be back in Chicago, especially when the Bears are going to kick the Packers’ [butt].” The crowd, of course, loved it. Butkus was one of them to the end.
