If he had a choice, MacArthur Lane once said that he’d pick a grizzly bear for a one-on-one rather than Dick Butkus. Rightfully so. Getting hit by the Chicago linebacker was no better than a nightmare. If anything, hoping to get back up was the only thing on Lane’s mind, and so many others’ upon facing him. Because while the rest utilized warm-ups to prepare physically, Butkus would warm up to be mad.

“It always worked for me,” he would admit. That mindset, through his nine-season career, landed the linebacker as No. 2 on the Chicago Bears’ best 100 players of all time in 2019. But Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman believe the fierceness was limited only to Butkus’ linebacker duties– he would be no match when it came to the passing coverage. Without batting an eye, Edelman, an effi

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