It's hard to believe that Bears' great Dick Butkus turned 68 last week. We take a look at the linebacker legend:

Dick Butkus: The Punisher - (Neil Hayes - Chicago Sun-Times)
He wore No. 51 for the Bears, but nobody ever needed a number to identify him on the field. He had a primal, predatory gait, and he closed on opposing ball carriers like a runaway locomotive. No one was better at finishing a tackle. He would slam a running back to the ground or engulf him with his bulk, making the smaller player disappear behind his wide shoulders as if he had been swallowed whole by a man NFL Films once described as ''Moby Dick in a goldfish bowl.''

Mostly, Dick Butkus' career was defined by high-impact collisions. When he hit somebody, you could almost hear twisting metal and shattering glass.

Butkus may have been the most feared defender in NFL history and perhaps the greatest linebacker of all-time.

CAREER STATS (Pro-Football-Reference.com) 

*****

Is he the greatest of all-time? I still say it's Lawrence Taylor, but Butkus was easily a top five back. As Eric Williams wrote in his article on the Five Best Linebacker in NFL History, "Butkus wasn't the most athletic linebacker to ever play the game. Heck, I can easily think of ten guys who were either faster and several, who were stronger. However, there has never been a linebacker who put the fear of God into opposing players like Butkus."

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