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00:01...that made receivers fear him.
00:07Martial arts, black belt, fifth degree.
00:09He leveled a fan. He did level a fan.
00:11I'm looking to hurt people on this football field kind of intimidation.
00:16He would run you down. He would hunt you down.
00:30...
00:38Knock the f***ing head out.
00:40All right.
00:41My permission.
00:41Knock the pole.
00:42Let's do it.
00:45They're the last guys you want to see in a dark alley.
00:49He was just going to do everything he could to make you feel pain until he heard the listening.
00:54And the first guys you run behind in a bar fight.
00:57Hey baby, let's go out there like a bunch of crazed dogs and have some fun.
01:03That guy's really mean.
01:05You can't hurt this.
01:06I'm a machine, you jerk.
01:07Have you ever seen that?
01:09A guy gets hit so hard that his equipment comes off.
01:12He got separated from his helmet.
01:14I've never seen that.
01:15Woohoo!
01:16Woohoo!
01:17Woohoo!
01:18Woohoo!
01:19Take it to the house, take it!
01:20They're the top ten most feared tacklers of all time.
01:23And only the best at intimidating, bullying, and scaring the heck out of their opponents were even considered for our
01:29list.
01:31Hey Sula, you better hope I never get back in and I will kick your ass!
01:38The number ten most feared tackler of all time.
01:41John Lynch.
01:45John Lynch definitely belongs on there.
01:47Lynch was fearless.
01:48You made sure you located 47.
01:50Lynch would come up and take your head off.
01:52We go helmet to helmet.
01:53My eyes were crossed.
01:54My knees were buckling.
01:56He's like,
01:57Hello John, how are you?
01:58Huh.
02:03John Lynch loves to hit.
02:05It was fastballs in high school,
02:06ball carriers in the NFL,
02:08and no run is off limits.
02:11The Bears had a tight end named John Allred,
02:13who happened to be John's brother-in-law.
02:15We talked about that all week,
02:16that he was gonna play his brother-in-law that grew up together,
02:19best of friends, happened to marry his sister.
02:21Well, John Allred caught a pass against the Bucs
02:24and Lynch came out of like a freight train.
02:27He hit him so hard.
02:28He knocked him out.
02:29He knocked him out.
02:30And his brother-in-law was laying crone on the field
02:32and Lynch dusted himself off and went back to his position.
02:36I went, oh man.
02:38When he came off the ground,
02:39I remember looking at him and I said,
02:40Linda's really gonna be mad at you right about now.
02:44In addition to family members,
02:46some of our number ten tacklers' biggest hits
02:48came against the biggest names in the NFL.
02:50Barry Sanders, the former Lions running back
02:53who no one could ever get a good angle on.
02:56John Lynch laid a hit on him once
02:57that Barry Sanders said was the hardest
02:59he'd ever been hit on a football field.
03:01Barry Sanders came off tackle
03:03and he had a little bit of wiggle room
03:05and John got him.
03:08That'll probably be one of his greatest moments,
03:10tackling Barry Sanders in the open field.
03:11Another time Marshall Falk
03:13on a Monday night football game in Tampa.
03:15I never had a guy hit me as much as John hit me in one game.
03:20Lynch hit him so hard, it was almost like a seismic blow.
03:24You could just feel the stadium shake.
03:26Woo!
03:27John Lynch!
03:28Go there, Lynch!
03:29Man, he caught me and must have flipped me over
03:31and the only thing I could do was just tell him to keep bringing it,
03:34knowing that he was bringing it about as hard as I wanted to.
03:36It was one of those things where you watched it, absorbed it,
03:39and then looked at the people around you.
03:40So did that really happen?
03:42Like, gosh, look at how hard that was.
03:46Hey, defense! Let's go!
03:47John was the guy that shit was dead.
03:50A lot of people was telling him
03:51that he's going to play in the league, you're too slow.
03:53None of that resonated to John.
03:55And if you asked John, John would tell you,
03:57hey, I was the best safety ever.
03:58If John hits you, you would feel as if he was the best safety.
04:03Did you get a big hit on that one?
04:04Down here without Harding.
04:06I got one.
04:07The guy was holding him up.
04:08Didn't you scare him?
04:09The safety position lends itself to hitting,
04:11and if you're in the right defense,
04:13it's going to allow you to do what you do,
04:15which is just fly to the football
04:17and be fearless and risking life and limb
04:19to separate a guy from the football.
04:21Whoa!
04:22Did he stick it to him on that one?
04:24John Lynch has been in the right systems,
04:26with the right attitude.
04:28Yeah, I'd say he's one of the best hitters of all time.
04:30Coming along, which feared tackler looks scarier in the parking lot
04:34than on the playing field?
04:35Full speed, and there's no way to avoid it.
04:38I wouldn't want to see them chasing me.
04:40Out of bounds would be my best friend if I saw that.
04:43But some simply weren't scary enough to make our list of feared tacklers.
04:47We've commented a number of times how good Roy Williams has been this season in the open field.
04:53Roy Williams, Mark Carrier, and Chuck Cecil were close.
04:57Even Rodney Harrison, the most fine player in league history,
05:01didn't make our countdown.
05:03Yeah!
05:03He's insane.
05:04If you just watch 37, if you put an ISO cam on him,
05:07you could sell that separately as an NFL Films product.
05:10One of the three safeties who made the cut comes in at number nine.
05:16The number nine most feared tackler of all time,
05:20Steve Atwater.
05:21Oh, Steve Atwater.
05:22Atwater was a...
05:23I mean, he was an intimidating player.
05:25He made some of the best plays that I've ever seen a safety make.
05:31Your first impulse was...
05:33Boy, that must have been the middle line back.
05:36Really keen to realize...
05:37Get out of here!
05:38No safety.
05:40One of the biggest and best safeties in football is Denver's menacing Steve Atwater.
05:46After winning Rookie of the Year in 1989,
05:48Atwater exploded onto the scene with a dynamite hit in the second game of his second season.
05:55Certainly the one anybody remembers is Christian Akoye.
05:58260 pounds as a running back and ran about a 4-4-40.
06:02Boy, he is too big and too fast to be playing running back in the NFL.
06:07Well, Christian Akoye was just running roughshod through the NFL and was just trampling everybody.
06:13An incredible run with about five guys on his lap by the Nigerian nightmare, Christian Akoye!
06:20We got Akoye at fullback.
06:22I don't give a f***ing player wide receiver.
06:24Christian's still in!
06:25What's the name?
06:27What's the name?
06:27But Akoye's reign of terror ended with a single collision.
06:30We got lead on his ass this time, baby!
06:32He slammed off.
06:33I'm still Akoye!
06:36I mean, it was, it was wild.
06:39That was one of the greatest hits that I've ever seen.
06:42And that Christian Akoye, for the first time in his life, went backwards.
06:46He stood over the guy and talked to him.
06:50That one hit made Steve Atwater's career and diminished Christian Akoye's reputation as one of the great power running backs
06:57in the game.
06:57I mean, that's the kind of impact, literally, the impact Steve Atwater had.
07:04Play hard, play smart, and knock their ass off every chance you get, baby!
07:07There was a time where, with Atwater and Mecklenburg and Rulon Jones, I mean, they had pretty darn good defense.
07:14And, uh, Atwater, he was one of the big components of that defense.
07:18What up, man? Where to bring you?
07:20Our defensive coordinator did a tremendous job of putting him in positions where he could be like a linebacker in
07:26the box.
07:29And he filled that row extremely well.
07:31We got it! We got it!
07:32Got it 6'3", 6'4", 220, playing safety.
07:39Okay! I'm getting ready to meet you, though!
07:42Put your head on the swim!
07:43So, he was feared.
07:45Atwater's impact wasn't limited to big hits.
07:49Our number nine most feared tackler amassed over a thousand tackles in his ten years with the Broncos.
07:55He was a sure tackler.
07:56And that's what a safety does, because he uses it in the last line of defense.
08:00And he's a guy that's got to get the guy down somehow, some way.
08:05And that's what Steve was good at.
08:11Atwater earned eight Pro Bowl appearances.
08:18But made his biggest hits on the big stage of Super Bowl XXXII.
08:23When he came up to hit somebody, there was a violent collision.
08:27And he usually got there right on time.
08:30He was Denver's most dominant defender.
08:32Forcing the fumble.
08:36And helping to KO the Packers' comeback host.
08:40Denver, I'm the win! Are you kidding me?!
08:43He knocked out himself, the opposing receiver, and his own teammate.
08:49Steve was a, you know, he was a great player.
08:54But a tremendous tackler.
08:59The number eight most feared tackler of all time.
09:02Jack Lambert.
09:05Let's take a look at the toughest of them all. Jack Lambert.
09:09Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert was an icon of the Steelers City.
09:13He won the number eight spot on our list and a bust in the Hall of Fame.
09:17And the amazing thing about Jack Lambert is he wasn't very big.
09:20One of the Steelers' administrative people looked at him and said,
09:23Who's that?
09:24They said, That's our number two pick.
09:26And he goes, What? Another wasted pick.
09:28The only thing wasted was Lambert's opponent.
09:32How could he do that?
09:34He's a skinny rail.
09:36I think he did two sets of bench presses.
09:38I think he did two sets of curls, lit a cigarette, and walked.
09:44Jack was one of those guys that was in on a lot of tackles.
09:51That hole was there. He was in the hole. He made the tackle.
09:54None better than Jack Lambert could do that.
09:56And Jack Lambert was a wonderful football player.
09:59There's a big difference between athletes and football players.
10:02Lambert had an instinct for the game that was unique.
10:07It came from the floor up. I mean, he tried to run through you.
10:12No one wanted to be hit by Jack Lambert, but everybody was hit by Jack Lambert.
10:17He was every beat.
10:19He just had a relentless competitiveness.
10:22You could see it in his eyes.
10:23He was an enforcer.
10:25Jack Lambert is so mean, he doesn't even like himself.
10:31I don't care that my opponents like me. I care that they respect me, though.
10:35With those steely eyes, with the Dracula fangs.
10:38He looks like Count Dracula in police.
10:41And nobody's approach to football is more basic.
10:45He had the look. You know, everybody knows the Lambert look.
10:48Limit in his teeth.
10:50And I turned around and I looked at the guy.
10:52And when I realized, he took his thing out.
10:54He had his teeth up front. I went, wow.
10:57I said, that doesn't really mean.
11:00He was a guy who was always trying to jaw with other people, but he backed it up.
11:06Lambert had some choice words for Ram running back Wendell Tyler.
11:17He really hated running back.
11:20He was just going to do everything he could to make him feel pain until he heard the whistle.
11:26But our number eight tackler's most notorious play occurred after the whistle blew.
11:31On to sunny Super Bowl 10 against the...
11:34Cliff Harris was harassing the kicker, Roy Jarella.
11:38And then...
11:40Jack Lambert just threw him.
11:42The Dallas Cowboys.
11:44Craziest game I ever watched.
11:47At that point in the game, the Cowboys had kind of had the better of it early in the game.
11:52Roy Jarella attempts a field goal and misses it.
11:56Cliff Harris, who's rushing, sees the kick go wide.
11:59And he pats Jarella on the helmet as if to say, hey, thanks.
12:04And he goes back and he grabs Cliff Harris and throws Cliff Harris on the ground.
12:08Jack Lambert is after Cliff Harris.
12:10Jack Lambert kind of put him in his place.
12:11Oh, now Lambert's walking by. Here's Harris telling him something.
12:14And grabs the kicker.
12:16And Lambert at 6'5", works him over.
12:18Nobody came to Cliff Harris' defense on the Dallas side.
12:22Did it change the energy on the field?
12:24Absolutely it did.
12:25They became the intimidators again.
12:27The Steelers won the game, and Lambert won a spot on our list of fear tacklers.
12:33Coming up, Howie Long, George Atkinson, or Jack Tatum.
12:37Which raider bad boy wreaked enough havoc to make our havoc to mistake?
12:42Just a total disregard for anybody around him.
12:45The other guy's body, his own body. Bang.
12:48You know, he was just so physical, and he was a ball of muscle.
12:52Just missed our list.
12:54What are you gonna do? I mean, your reaction is, what? You hate it.
12:58No, not that mad dog.
13:00Mike Curtis, you're out of the way, will you? Mad dog!
13:05But if the mad dog is mad at us for leaving him off our most feared list, we're not alone.
13:11Never has a man been unhappier the day of a game.
13:14He hated Darce Day, the American flag, his own teammates.
13:18Even Johnny Unitas.
13:20I almost punched him out.
13:21He went with a fan.
13:24You ask that fan if Mike Curtis isn't one of the top ten hardest hitters.
13:27It's an absolute injustice against all things holy that Mike Curtis is not on the top ten list.
13:32But while we didn't make the mad dog the pick of the litter, another Baltimore bad boy made our list.
13:38Ray Lewis.
13:40The number seven most feared tackler of all time, Ray Lewis.
13:45I think Ray has to be inside the five.
13:48No, I'll tell you why he probably shouldn't be higher.
13:51Ray Lewis was at his best when he wasn't touching.
13:54Feared or overrated.
13:56Ray Lewis has heard it all before, but no one can argue the guy can deliver a crushing blow.
14:05He just likes hitting guys.
14:07Hitting anything that moves with the football.
14:09Even when they played in that football.
14:10He wants to hit it.
14:11He's hitting anything moves today now.
14:13He's hitting anything moves today.
14:14He reminds me of Mike Curtis.
14:16He's 252 and 55 pounds.
14:19When he first came in he was running a 4-4-4-5-40.
14:22He was like Dick Buckus, but like short.
14:27And he surpassed Dick Buckus.
14:29I mean, that's unbelievable.
14:36As he's matured as a football player, he's also added now that anticipation.
14:43That ability to size up a situation and actually see it before it happens.
14:47It makes him one of the most voracious tacklers in the game.
14:55Ray keeps his own top ten list in his basement.
14:57For those on it, however, it's a makeshift haul of shame.
15:01Man, we'll meet you in the backfield and knock the snot out of you.
15:04He was playing at the Pro Bowl and then put on his jersey.
15:07Just don't hit me.
15:09Peace.
15:10Another jersey on that wall belongs to Eddie George.
15:13Now, Eddie George, big tough back.
15:15Pro Bowl back.
15:17And he was a different player against Ray Lewis.
15:19Yeah, I'm not saying he just rolled down and curled up, but you could tell that Eddie George was intimidated.
15:26And Eddie George wanted no part of Ray Lewis when he got.
15:29Oh, Eddie George was not intimidated by Ray Lewis.
15:32He just couldn't beat Ray Lewis.
15:35To a certain point of the game.
15:36He took it away from Eddie George.
15:39It was a wrestling match out there.
15:41And who won?
15:42My man, Ray Lewis.
15:47But our number seven tackler isn't picky.
15:50Pro bowlers weren't the only ones to take his best shots.
15:53Here's Bam Morris.
15:54There's big back.
15:55He's got a full head of steam.
15:57And Bam tried to show what an athlete he was by hurtling a player in front of him.
16:02And all of a sudden, Ray just goes over one guy and boom.
16:10Ray Lewis didn't leap.
16:11He exploded.
16:12He blew Bam up.
16:14And it's like an 18-wheeler getting 18 flats all at once because he just goes right down.
16:19And it was one of those collective moves because you know that hurt.
16:24Ray Lewis brings a certain flair to the game.
16:27With the tackling comes a lot of talking.
16:31Get off the field.
16:32Get off the field.
16:33I told you I'm coming.
16:34Ray has that rare ability of being able to talk and back it up almost simultaneously.
16:41The ball snapped Ray's talking right up to the point he's tackling.
16:45I'm going to knock him out now.
16:47I'm going to catch him in a minute.
16:48Ray's going to tell you he's going to hit you.
16:51He's going to hit you.
16:51And he's going to tell you afterwards.
16:53I just hit you.
16:54And you come back here.
16:55I'm going to hit you again.
16:56I'm off now.
16:57Y'all going to have to play football in a minute.
17:00Fuck off.
17:01Fuck off.
17:02He's that kid who when you had to play a high school game and you showed up and you looked
17:07across the field, he was the kid who became a man before everybody else.
17:11You can't hurt this.
17:12I'm a Brazilian, Jordan.
17:13He believes he's badder than everybody else.
17:16And once he got to the NFL level, he's still more of a man than everybody he's going to tackle.
17:22So when they meet, Ray has that psychological advantage of, I was a man first.
17:27I'm still more of a man.
17:28And when you get up, I'll be even more of a man.
17:33The number six most feared tackler of all time, Jack Tatum.
17:38Too low.
17:38The assassin, Jack Tatum.
17:41He's only number six?
17:42He should be number one.
17:43Number six on your list as feared.
17:45Number one as most dangerous.
17:47Jack Tatum played nine of his ten seasons with the Oakland Raiders.
17:51A member of one of the best secondaries ever, Tatum made his mark as the unit's enforcer.
17:56I play a hard-hitting game.
17:57I just like to have receivers think about me a little bit, why they're trying to catch the ball.
18:01Football was different back then.
18:02A lot of his hits were legal that would not be legal today.
18:05Jack Tatum was a great tackler.
18:08I'm a dirty tackler and I won't do that.
18:11I don't think he is.
18:12I think it's a big factor if you can get a receiver thinking about you.
18:15And then he can't be concentrating on you and the ball at the same time.
18:18Jack Tatum wanted to be known as the one guy to ever play the game.
18:26Hit you.
18:26You know, I'm going to make you regret that you ever played professional football.
18:32He had that innate ability to explode on a ball carrier.
18:36As a hitter, you hit beyond your target.
18:38It's kind of like dimensions.
18:39You hit two guys back.
18:42So that takes you through.
18:43He perfected that.
18:44Football is a collision sport.
18:46And Jack Tatum was as good a collider that I've seen in a football uniform.
18:51And the fact that he was a secondary guy and could deal out that kind of punishment.
18:55You know, I tip my hat.
18:56He's not a criminal to me.
18:57He's a heck of a football player.
18:59Some can argue about his technique, but all agree our number six tackler's hits were vicious.
19:04And everyone seems to have their favorite.
19:06My number one Jack Tatum hit, of all times, was we were playing the Denver Broncos.
19:11And Riley Odoms, who's about 6'5", 260 or so, comes across the field.
19:16All of a sudden...
19:16It just...
19:17Boom!
19:19Boom!
19:20And Riley goes underground, and lays there...
19:23In his head, the eyeballs went back up in his head.
19:25And I...
19:26Jack Tatum was giving up, more than half a foot, and 60, 60...
19:3165 pounds.
19:33So to lay him out like that is...
19:36Is...
19:36Disgusting.
19:38I said to myself, he killed him.
19:40Luckily, Riley was okay.
19:42He helped him off the field.
19:43I will never say that anybody out there in the NFL is trying to kill someone.
19:47But if there was somebody, that would be Jack Taylor.
19:53We're playing the Raiders in the Dome.
19:55It was fourth and one.
19:57Earl Campbell had the football.
19:59And he and Earl collide on a sweep by Earl around the right end.
20:04And it was a collision that was heard outside the Dome.
20:06And the two guys hit and collided.
20:08And they just looked like that, like two Rams or something.
20:12And then they just fell into the end zone for a touchdown.
20:16Both of them knocked out.
20:19That was the most vicious hit that I have ever witnessed in a lot of years of football.
20:26And I know about four months later, Bob had traded for Jack Tatum.
20:29Not many people had hit Earl one-on-one like that.
20:32From the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, it is Super Bowl XI.
20:37But maybe Tatum's biggest hit came on football's biggest stage when, in Super Bowl XI, he launched
20:43into the Vikings' Sammy White.
20:44Great hit, wasn't it?
20:45That right there alone should put Jack at number one.
20:48Have you ever seen that?
20:49Hop a ball.
20:51You've got to get hit so hard as equipment comes off and rolls.
20:54He got separated from the Salmon.
20:56I've never seen that.
20:58He makes contact.
20:59That person goes that.
21:00Actually, one of the Dolphins did that to Larry Brown in Super Bowl XI, which was a few years
21:08early.
21:09And he's looking over.
21:11Number six.
21:12Re-evaluate that.
21:14I don't even want to know who you got.
21:16One, two, three, four, five.
21:18Coming up, the one member of our top ten you probably have never heard of.
21:22Who's he?
21:24And now, the number five most feared tackler of all time, Hardy Brown.
21:30Hardy Brown?
21:32Who's he?
21:33The name Hardy Brown may be obscure to the casual fan.
21:38All I know is Hardy Nickerson.
21:42But to those who knew him, he was a true legend.
21:48Hardy Brown made his name as a linebacker for the 49ers in the 50s, but he didn't make many
21:53friends thanks to his physics-defying hits.
21:57At 6,880 pounds, he wasn't really awesome in stature.
22:01He was a little guy for a keeper, basically a fly-around linebacker.
22:04But boy, he learned how to put that hump into you from Tulsa, and he hit.
22:09Hard-hitting Hardy Brown hurls his hefty hulk into the ball carrier, and it's a fumble.
22:13Hardy was just a guy who knew how to use his shoulder.
22:16He'd hit you with the shoulder to the head just by throwing his shoulder out there and
22:21not using his arms.
22:22It's like a boxer.
22:23He could just knock them out.
22:25Take one step forward, kick your back straight, keep your eyes open, and shoot.
22:30Catching a guy when he was unprotected, he'd just drive his shoulder into his face or whatever
22:36was handy and do incredible damage.
22:41He broke jaws, he broke cheeks, he gave guys concussions.
22:45I mean, he was just brutal.
22:47That's it.
22:48That's all there is to it, huh?
22:50Yeah.
22:53Hardy came up through some hard times, had it rough his whole life.
22:57Perhaps Hardy Brown's violent nature was shaped at the Masonic home for orphans in Fort Worth,
23:03Texas.
23:04It was a rough and tumble place.
23:06My father was murdered, and they sent me and my brother and my sister out there.
23:11That's when we started football.
23:14Football was where our number five tackler channeled his frustrations.
23:18Hardy just had this mean streak in him that he used to his advantage.
23:22He was going to make people pay for it.
23:26He kept the chart of who he knocked out of games.
23:28I mean, knocked them out.
23:29You see these Westerns, you see guys having niches on their belts for guys that killed.
23:35Why Hardy Brown had niches on his belts for all the jockstraps he got.
23:39Over the years, I guess I've got 75 or 80 knockouts playing freshman football.
23:45No, I don't feel sorry for anybody out here.
23:48There were all sorts of accusations because of the effectiveness of his hit.
23:51He must be wearing something in his shoulder pads, a metal plate or something extra.
23:55Officials would check and make sure.
23:56People always said that I was the dirtiest man that ever lived in football.
24:05Opponents were putting bounties on his head to get him out of the game before he put two
24:09or three of their teammates out of the game.
24:11The Rams had a $500 deal for my getting knocked out of the game.
24:15And the guy that told me was Paul Berry.
24:17And I said, Paul, hit me and I'll fake and go out and we'll split that $250 a piece.
24:24It's intercepted by Hardy Brown with a 49er.
24:27And the dirtiest man in the NFL has a clean pass in the end zone for the score.
24:34When Bob Waterfield got through playing for the Rams...
24:37Now meet that terrific titan, Bob No. 7 Waterfield.
24:40One day he was crossing some street, a Volkswagen hit him.
24:46And they said, you all right?
24:47And he said, yeah, I'm all right.
24:49But I thought Hardy Brown was in town.
24:52Hardy Brown was a dangerous man.
24:54He was the guy that you had to watch out for at all times.
24:58The No. 4 most speared tackler of all time, Ronnie Lott.
25:03Ronnie thought that making a big hit in a game could change the momentum of a game.
25:08And he was the one guy that I could think of that did it constantly throughout his career.
25:14No hit was bigger than the one Lott unleashed in Super Bowl XXIII.
25:19To give to Woods, sweeping the outside, cuts back in.
25:22And oh, okay, now.
25:25Tore him loose, man.
25:27I can still feel it.
25:29That hit on Inky Woods set the tone.
25:31I got on the line.
25:32Yeah, big enough.
25:33And really put a belt on.
25:35And you can see the whole team jump up and down like they just won the game.
25:39And it rallied that football team.
25:42San Francisco went on to win its third championship of the decade.
25:45And the No. 4 most feared tackler of all time was born.
25:49Everybody sold out this week.
25:51Everybody.
25:53Damn, it's great, isn't it?
25:55You got to let it go.
25:56It is great.
25:59I want you to tackle me.
26:03Get real.
26:04You're the NFL's baddest dude.
26:06There has never been a quarterback with a knack for arriving at the precise moment
26:12that the receiver touched the ball.
26:15And now he's clobbered.
26:16He wasn't one of those little ankle biters.
26:19Ronnie was a guy that just threw his whole body into it.
26:22He loved the impact.
26:24He would try to run through people.
26:27You got to give a woo.
26:29Almost everybody who stands up to woo.
26:31Everybody stands up when they see woo.
26:33Martial arts, black belt, fifth degree.
26:36I'm looking to hurt people on this football field kind of intimidation.
26:39Ronnie gave me just sort of a little turned up grin and then went, wow.
26:44And I mean, he just dropped me.
26:46Oh my God.
26:51If he's number four, then they probably didn't pull too many guys that he hit.
26:57I mean, if there's somebody ahead of Ronnie Lotz, give me a break.
27:00Because anybody that he really hit, they'd have him number one.
27:06One of the men who transformed an organization from perennial laughing stock to instant Super
27:12Bowl winner.
27:13Super Bowl!
27:15Back to back.
27:17Back to back.
27:19His ability to get the team to rise up was always extraordinary because he would lead
27:24by example.
27:26No event was more inspirational than the time our number four most feared tackler chose
27:31to have his pinky amputated so he wouldn't miss a playoff game.
27:35It was like, well, of course Ronnie isn't going to miss a football game over something as silly
27:40as a bad finger.
27:41You know, Ronnie's just like he was just the tip of his finger.
27:44Because he probably would have given him the same answer if it was his forearm.
27:48It was clear.
27:49The game was important to him.
27:52Competing and doing your best was important.
27:55The guy lived and died to win.
27:57And that's why he sacrificed everything, his body.
28:00And Ronnie said, if that's what it takes to win, that's what it takes to win.
28:04No position has produced more feared tacklers than linebacker.
28:09Here are a few bone crushers who just missed the cut.
28:13I like this kind of body!
28:15With a single look, Samurai Mike made opponents quiver with fright.
28:22He struck fear with a snarl and an old-fashioned blow to the head.
28:27Ooh, what a hit!
28:28I'm surprised he held on his teeth.
28:31With his relentless style, this junior made plenty of ball characters say it.
28:36Get the f*** out of here, baby!
28:39Derrick Brooks built his reputation one hit at a time.
28:43Boy, did he get grilled!
28:46While all of these linebackers were feared tacklers, none of them could spread terror like the next player on our
28:52list.
28:55The number three most feared tackler of all time, Lawrence Taylor.
29:05When we went to the Meadowlands, here comes 56 running out the tunnel.
29:09And we all went.
29:11We're watching the film.
29:12We think we're looking at some guy that's maybe like 6'1 or 6'2.
29:16Because nobody 6'4 can run around like that.
29:18Dan doesn't look at the end.
29:19Offer pass.
29:21He might go all the way!
29:22It wasn't so much that he played linebacker as it is that he stalked his prey.
29:27He was always...
29:29There are guys they talk about when they deliver a blow.
29:31It's like they got a ton of bricks in their butt.
29:33He was one of those guys, except he had two tons.
29:36Hey, baby, let's go out there like a bunch of crazed dogs.
29:38Now some fun!
29:39You look at all those things, and then you just throw in 80 pounds of intensity.
29:43He was intense on the point of being a madman.
29:46Hey, Sula, you have hope I never get back in there.
29:49I will kick your ass!
29:52Man wrecking crew at the quarterback.
29:55He came off that edge, and he came off that edge with an attitude.
29:59That had to scare the hell out of a lot of quarterbacks.
30:02Don, tell that who got in this.
30:04LT scared the hell out of the offensive tackles.
30:07I was afraid of what the net result could be.
30:10If he beats you for three sacks, your life is crap.
30:13You didn't worry about a sack nearly as much as you worried about the fact that, besides being separated from
30:18his senses, your guy was going to be separated from the ball.
30:21You know, these teeth aren't mine.
30:23These are bonded.
30:24I'm getting them veneered now.
30:25I mean, I think it's improved my smile.
30:27You have veneered.
30:31Busted chops were nothing compared to the busted leg that ended Theismann's career.
30:36Viewed by a nationwide audience, the gruesome injury only added to Taylor's madman mystique.
30:44I remember it like it was yesterday.
30:46What jumped out at me was, first of all, was the sound.
30:48You could actually hear the brakes, the two muzzled gunshots.
30:51And then the suddenness with which it broke, it really went like a breadstick.
30:54The large tail was up, same thighs when he was hurt.
30:57It was a scary moment, but it kind of showed you the power that he has.
31:01And, you know, up until the moment that he broke the leg, he probably was intending on, you know, breaking
31:05him in half.
31:06And then he did it.
31:07It's like, oh, what have I done?
31:08It was even a little bit beyond his comprehension.
31:15Opponents weren't the only ones afraid of our number three most feared tackler.
31:19Taylor's teammates had to be wary, too.
31:22When I first came here to the Giants, there's one thing they did not have here was enthusiasm.
31:28I love showing my enthusiasm for the game.
31:31If I'm close to him, I'm going to jump on and, you know, try to wring his neck.
31:38LT was more than just a fierce hitter.
31:40He was an unstoppable force.
31:42Because of his ability to demolish an offense, number 56 earned the number three spot on our list.
31:49He made offensive coordinators stay up nights saying, we cannot allow 56 to dominate this game.
31:57We would set up our boards in game preparation.
31:59We used to have all those little letters and symbols.
32:02And then right over here, with a big circle around it, was number 56.
32:06You better damn well pay attention to what's going on right over here or else it's going to get you.
32:11Holy smokes!
32:12Talk about putting it in your face!
32:14And everything they tried to do usually met little success.
32:20Yeah, LT.
32:21Man, he was something.
32:22Coming up on Top 10.
32:25What feared tackler was afraid to fly?
32:28Before we kick off the rest of our list, let's take a look at some of the least feared tacklers
32:33of all time.
32:35Kickers.
32:35I think bowlers are better athletes than these guys are, for sure.
32:41Adam Vinatieri went Super Bowling five times, but he never mastered the lost art of tackling.
32:48Touchdown!
32:49Nobody touched him!
32:50Darryl Yopremian's imperfect tackling almost cost the Dolphins a perfect season.
32:55When he didn't have the guts to throw his body at Mike Bess, I just couldn't believe anybody could be
33:00that yellow.
33:01Martin Gramatica could hit kicks with pinpoint accuracy, but he couldn't hit opponents.
33:06One man to beat, they're not going to get a god-awful tackling shameful.
33:11You've got to be kidding.
33:12Embarrassing.
33:13Gramatica wasn't Automatica as a tackler, unlike the next man on our list.
33:19The number two most feared tackler of all time, Night Train Lane.
33:25He could deliver a blow that made receivers fear him.
33:29Look out, Daniel!
33:31Oh!
33:36He was one of the few players that hurt you every time he tackles you.
33:39The pass is good, but bang!
33:42They never knew for sure where he was going to be or what he was going to do.
33:45The play is diagnosed perfectly by Night Train Lane.
33:49Receivers don't like to go across the middle.
33:50I don't think they want to go across the middle with Night Train.
33:52Definitely the best hitting corner I've ever seen.
33:55He certainly would be up there in the top five if you're talking about a list.
34:02The Night Train's signature move was take your head off.
34:05Rugged defense has been the trademark of Detroit Lion teams.
34:09You don't hit him right, you break your elbow, your arm or something, you know.
34:13So you've got to really get him right in front of him and hit him with that four to rip
34:18him up.
34:18The Night Train necktie was just what we call a clothesline today.
34:22You've got to understand, back then, a lot of things weren't illegal.
34:25When he came into the league, they had just started to introduce face masks.
34:29And he figured out early on that if you grabbed the guy here and yanked him down,
34:33you possibly could put him out of the game.
34:35Holy mackerel!
34:36We finally brought in the rule that eliminated the clothesline and the face mask.
34:40I mean, those two rules were really a direct result of the way Night Train played.
34:45Yeah, that's what he had to do.
34:48Night Train seemed like the perfect nickname to match Lane's fearsome style.
34:53But legend has it that moniker was given for a less dreadful reason.
34:57The reason he was called Night Train was that he hated to fly.
35:01On Friday, as if a team would practice, he would get on the Night Train
35:05and take it to wherever the team was playing that weekend.
35:13While our number two most feared tackler preferred to make ball carriers earn their wings,
35:18this locomotive could pull the lines to victory in a variety of ways.
35:22His 14 interceptions in a single season is still a record.
35:27Night Train had the ability to do the bait and switch.
35:30He would play off.
35:31The opposing quarterback would look and say,
35:33Oh, jeez, the guy's uncovered.
35:34And at that moment, Night Train would break for the ball.
35:38That's why he got so many interceptions.
35:40Johnny Unitas and the Colts try to come from behind.
35:42The big Night Train lane derails the attempt.
35:45I always played from outside in so I could see the quarterback.
35:48I always felt he'd just throw the ball to the open spot.
35:51I would go get it.
35:52But while Night Train's picks are in the record books,
35:55he made the most impact when he made impact.
36:00Coming up, who had legal?
36:03And now, the number one most feared tackler of all times,
36:08Dick Putkus.
36:11Number one.
36:12Number one.
36:13Yes, I totally agree with that.
36:15Dick Putkus, the most feared tackler who ever lived.
36:17Dick Putkus was the most frightening linebacker who ever played pro football.
36:21He was an eight-time pro bowler in nine years.
36:27And he played the last four years basically with no knees.
36:30Oh, look at that, that's knee.
36:31That's gone, man.
36:32Look at that.
36:33And they still closed that.
36:34Putkus was playing at, what, 250, 260 at a time when the other linebackers were 30 or 40 pounds lighter.
36:42What he was really great at was taking the ball away from you.
36:46Putkus set the career record for defensive fumble recoveries,
36:48but he was even more skilled at stripping offenses of their dignity.
36:53He scared you, he hurt you, and he brought you down.
36:56Well, this guy looks like he spent an afternoon playing against Dick Putkus.
37:00He hit you where it hurt, he hit you, he hit you, he hit you where it hurt, right in
37:01your heart.
37:02I want to just let them know that they've been hit.
37:06And when they get up, they don't have to look to see who was that hit them.
37:09You had the feeling that he was serious, that it wasn't just a game, that when he wanted to drill
37:16you, he really wanted to drill you and probably would want to drill you when the game was over.
37:23When he hit you, you stayed hit, I mean, he hit with violence.
37:29Violence is his lifestyle.
37:32I think with Puss Rock Street Charlotte, I got kind of a charge when that head come rolling down the
37:36stairs.
37:37I kind of like to sit there and watch it, project those things happening on a football field and not
37:41to me.
37:42There were more people in the training room after we played the Bears than any other opponent.
37:48Everybody was bleeding, bruised, marked up.
37:51I remember looking at one of our assistant trainers and I said, was it that tough out there?
37:55And he looked at me and he said, Butkus, there are no victories in a bout with Butkus.
38:01Just watching him out there had to scare some of these guys.
38:04If I had to play him, I'd cramp the back.
38:07I would go caca in my pants.
38:13When God created the Bears, he created human beings who looked like Bears.
38:19Dick Butkus was a bear who walked like a man.
38:25Butkus grunted a lot and growled a lot when he was back at the line.
38:30He never took a shower after the game.
38:32He just went in front of his locker and would lie down and lick himself.
38:36People say he was mean, ass, you know, he would bite people and different things like that.
38:40A lot of offensive guys will tell you that they felt, somebody's biting on my finger.
38:46And it'd be Butkus trying to take another chunk out of an offense.
38:50The official came running in and said, Butkus out.
38:52He bit my finger.
38:57Used to be lawyers.
38:58I was made to play football.
39:00When we found out he was taking Shakespeare, that threw me back a little bit.
39:04Shakespeare's words could well have immortalized Dick Butkus.
39:09But Dick Butkus wanted to expand his horizons and he always hated being called, you know, the dumb jack.
39:15Our number one tackler never mastered Shakespeare's plays.
39:18He was horrible.
39:20But plays by Butkus inspired a generation of art and poetry.
39:25Roses are red and violets are blue.
39:27If you've got any sense, he'll keep Butkus away from you.
39:33Our top tackler preyed on blood, sweat, and fears.
39:36So why is he number one?
39:38We couldn't rank him any higher.
39:40Dick Butkus was the personification of defensive intimidation in pro football.
39:47Simply out to punish him.
39:50That's what he wanted to do.
39:51That's what he thought football was all about.
39:54There was no one better than Dick Butkus.
39:58This is one list no one should argue with, but it's...
40:02You know what?
40:04Dick Butkus, Dick Night Train Lane.
40:07Both of these guys, these dicks were hard, man.
40:15Generated two responses, fear and outrage.
40:19My top guy on my list is always Joe Smith.
40:21Rodney Harrison should be on that list.
40:25Rodney Harrison would change and infuse the temple of a game probably better than John Lynch would.
40:31It's an absolute injustice against all things holy in Baltimore that Mike Curtis is not on the top ten list.
40:36Chris Hamburger was a feared tackler because he never tackled below the jawline.
40:41Betneric.
40:41Chuck Betneric.
40:42Of course, that hit that he put on Frank Kifford.
40:44Ray Nitschke.
40:45Nitschke.
40:46He was outstanding.
40:47I played against Ray for five years.
40:49It's outrageous.
40:50This kid is Megan, isn't it?
40:52No matter where you stand, there's no denying fans will always be passionate about the hit men who seek and
41:00destroy.
41:01What the hell?
41:01What the hell?
41:02What the hell?
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