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View Full Version : Dick Butkus in Denver


Steve_Atwater
08-20-2006, 04:25 AM
Reading "The making of the Super Bowl" by Don Weiss and Chuck Day, I stumbled upon a tidbit of information I wasn't aware of. I quote:"Draft rights to Dick Butkus were swapped too - by the AFL. They originally belonged to the Denver Broncos. The Broncos concluded that they couldn't match the Chicago Bears' prestige or pocketbook but maybe Sonny Werblin (the Jets owner) could". (p. 26).

That would have been something had Dick Butkus played in Denver. We will never know how it would have turned out in the end (would it have kept him away from playing a basketball coach in a teenagers' show? Would it have saved him from the XFL?). But I don't believe that the Broncos would have been the laughingstock of professionnal football all trough the 60's and much of the 70's had he played for the team...

CCN
09-08-2006, 10:21 AM
Reading "The making of the Super Bowl" by Don Weiss and Chuck Day, I stumbled upon a tidbit of information I wasn't aware of. I quote:"Draft rights to Dick Butkus were swapped too - by the AFL. They originally belonged to the Denver Broncos. The Broncos concluded that they couldn't match the Chicago Bears' prestige or pocketbook but maybe Sonny Werblin (the Jets owner) could". (p. 26).

That would have been something had Dick Butkus played in Denver. We will never know how it would have turned out in the end (would it have kept him away from playing a basketball coach in a teenagers' show? Would it have saved him from the XFL?). But I don't believe that the Broncos would have been the laughingstock of professionnal football all trough the 60's and much of the 70's had he played for the team...
As great as Butkus was, the Bears didn't light up the world while he played for them, so I'm not sure how much he would have helped Denver.
He might have forced them away from those really bad helmets, though, through intimidation.