THE LAST IRON MAN

Chuck Bednarik died at the age of 89 this past weekend. He was the last of the two way players in the NFL. He was an All-Pro Center and All-Pro Linebacker. It is unfathomable to think of a modern day football player being the best at two different positions simultaneously. These supposedly phenomenal athletes need a rest after every five plays. He played every down of every game and missed only three games in his entire career (two were in his rookie season). He was a real man. He was a real American.

This is one of the most iconic pictures in NFL history. Chuck Bednarik after laying out Frank Gifford with a clean hit in 1960 that put the receiver out of action for the next 18 months. Bednarik was 35 years old, having played for 14 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. He led them to a championship in his first season in 1949 and again eleven years later in 1960 against Vince Lombardi’s invincible Green Bay Packers.

Here is Bednarik leaving the field with Paul Horning and Jim Taylor after the Eagles’ 17 – 13 victory over Green Bay in the 1960 championship game. With time winding down from the Eagles’ 22, Bart Starr threw a short pass to Jim Taylor, who headed toward the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown. But Bednarik, the oldest player on the field (35), wrestled Taylor to the ground short of the goal line and held him down as the final seconds ticked off the clock. The victory was the last time the Eagles won a title.

This is how real men celebrated championships in 1960.

But he wasn’t just a football player. His parents had emigrated from Slovakia in 1920 to Bethlehem, PA, where his father ended up working in the Bethlehem steel mills. At the age of 18 he joined the U.S. Airforce as a B-24 waist gunner. He flew 30 combat missions over Germany and was awarded the Air Medal and four Oak Leaf Clusters, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and four Battle Stars. He’s the large dude on the far left.

After the war was over he enrolled at the University of Penn. He was an All-American three times while playing center and linebacker and is in the college football hall of fame.

He was inducted into the NFL hall of fame in 1967. Playing two way football for 14 years took its toll on Chuck. Shaking his hand was a challenge.

Chuck married his sweetheart Emma in 1948 and stayed married for 67 years, until his death. They raised five kids and never left the Philadelphia area. He was truly a man’s man. Rest in peace Concrete Charlie. You were the last of the iron men.

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card802
card802

Damn.

overthecliff

card + 10.

Billy
Billy

Screw Tony Stark…

These were the guys who used to be our Heroes…

They were the genuine article.

And they are sorely missed.

TE
TE

This brought a smile to my heart.

Real men that built a life, didn’t become celebrities with a posse, didn’t screw 100 women and creates dozens of basically fatherless children while earning millions in royalties and endorsements.

Thanks for sharing and may his time in purgatory be short, his eternity long and blessed.

Rise Up
Rise Up

Quite a dislocated pinky!

indialantic
indialantic

Great post!

Tucci78

And “Concrete Charlie” never hesitated to express his unremitting contempt for the prima donna characters taking the field in lieu of football players nowadays.

The embodiment of the blue collar city Philadelphia USED to be, not the festering bantustan it’s been since the dinges took over City Hall.

flash
flash

Definitely one of the last of the great….Nowadays , heroes don’t traverse the inquisitive eye of recorded time as well as the cultured gentlemen in the past.

‘Serial rapist’ Darren Sharper headed to prison after striking plea deals

OS ANGELES — Just five years from reaching the NFL pinnacle as an All-Pro and Super Bowl champion, Darren Sharper is now likely headed for a lengthy prison sentence after reaching plea agreements in charges involving the drugging and sexual assault of at least nine women in four states, his lawyer said Friday.

The alleged sexual assaults happened after Sharper’s 2011 retirement and followed a similar pattern. In all of the cases, Sharper is accused of slipping drugs to women and sexually assaulting them when they were unconscious or otherwise unable to resist or consent.

His Los Angeles attorney, Blair Berk, said Sharper would enter pleas in Los Angeles and Phoenix on Monday and would make similar pleas later in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Brian Russo, his attorney in Arizona, said his client will use video conferencing from Los Angeles, where he’s being held, to allow him to make a change of plea in Phoenix.http://nypost.com/2015/03/21/serial-rapist-darren-sharper-likely-headed-to-prison-after-striking-plea-deals/

Bostonbob

Actual governor in Massachusetts, former two way football player, only for 1 season, Governor King:

Edward J. King
No. 34
Guard / Defensive end
Personal information
Career information
College: Boston College
Debuted in 1948
Last played in 1950
Career history

Buffalo Bills (AAFC) (1948-1949)
Baltimore Colts (1950)
From his Wiki page:

“On October 25, 1977, King announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for Governor. A fiscal and social conservative, King ran as a pro-life candidate and supported capital punishment, offshore drilling, increased nuclear power, greater research on solar energy, less business regulation, raising the drinking age to 21, and mandatory sentences for drug dealers.[2][3] King was able to raise more money than his opponents due to his support from the business community. King focused his spending on extensive media advertising while his main primary opponent, incumbent Governor Michael Dukakis, spent more money on organization. Ackerman struggled to raise money throughout the campaign and could not afford to advertise on television or in daily newspaper.”

Hard to believe he was elected in Massachusetts. I worked with his son Tim, nice guy, spoke well of his dad.

Bob.

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