Chuck Bednarik

Credit;Me.It's my card

I'm sure most of you long term readers recall that I was a Eagles fan from 1987 to the beginning of the Andy Reid years.
I became an Eagles fan because of my huge fandom of Buddy Ryan,I loved the crisp,kelly green uniforms and the Eagles ranked right there with the Browns.
That is how I became friends with Jeff Obert-Thorn through the Eagles and the draft.
I slowly pulled away from the Eagles between the hatred of Andy Reid's West Coast offense,a dislike of Donovan "Blame anyone,but me"McNabb and the change of helmets/uniforms to the infamous Midnight Green,but between my continued love for the teams I followed (those Eagles reside high right beside the 70's George Allen Redskins and the 70's & 80's Broncos of my youth) and the passion for the tradition of the game,I dove into Eagle culture.

And there is NO more loved Eagle by Eagle fans than Chuck Bednarik,who passed away this morning at the age of 89.
The last of the two way players (center and linebacker),the first ballot Hall of Famer (1967) would likely be the hands down winner if there was a voting for "Mr.Eagle".
The legendary "Concrete Charley" is remembered by most for two plays from the era where there isn't a ton of footage available-his tackle of Jim Taylor,holding Taylor to the ground as the time expired (it was legal then) in the last Eagles championship team in 1960 and the hit that drove Frank Gifford from the game for a season and change with the resulting iconic picture of Bednarik standing over a limp Gifford,like Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston.

However,there was far more to Bednarik than just those plays-his distinguished record with the Air Force in World War II,missing just three games in a career that spanned parts of three decades at positions that required a physical player to play and being an iconic figure to Eagles fans for just a few.
Bednarik was from a time when toughness was a prerequisite to play the game,not just being fast and strong in a workout.
The players of today are certainly faster,stronger and maybe even more talented,but they sure weren't tougher and they sure weren't grounded to earth like the players of old.
Chuck used to laugh when guys like Deion Sanders were touted as two way players which led to the famous comment that Sanders "couldn't tackle my wife",which if you had ever seen Deion Sanders tackle might not have been far off and I've never even seen Mrs.Bednarik!

The greatest generation continues to fall by the wayside and time defeats the toughest of us all,but I can safely say I doubt I'll ever see someone like Chuck Bednarik in the NFL in my lifetime again.