Nobody Wants a Charlie in the Box

Or

Concrete Shoes Charlie

Or

Ground Chuck

Chuck Bednarik, star of the last Philadelphia Eagles team to win a championship, has died at the age of 89. The last two-way star of the NFL, his bad assery was legendary, and despite playing on both offense as center and defense as a linebacker for much of his career, he missed just 3 games in 14 seasons – two of those games in his rookie season. In an exhibition game, his bicep tore away from the bone, falling into his forearm. He pulled it back into place and used tape to hold it in place. In a 1960 game, he hit Frank Gifford so hard he missed the rest of the season and the entire 1961 season, and was never the same player. That was also the year the Eagles beat the Green Bay Packers for the NFL Championship – the only title game that Vince Lombardi ever lost. At 35, Bednarilk was the oldest player on either team, but was on the field for 139 of the total 142 plays – 58 of the game’s 60 minutes – and made the game-saving tackle on Packer’s fullback Jim Taylor at the 9-yard-line, holding him on the ground as time expired, before telling Taylor “You can get up now, this fucking game is over.” Bednarik had worked in steel mills growing up, then flew bombing missions over Germany in World War II. Putting the GI Bill to use, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he excelled as a center, linebacker and occasional punter, earning All American honors twice, finishing 3rd in the 1948 Heisman trophy voting and winning the Maxwell Award, en route to being the top pick in the 1949 draft. Bednarik was elected to both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame, and he is the namesake for the award given to the Best Collegiate Defensive Player. By extension, he was also the most accomplished concrete salesman in Pennsylvania, his offseason job throughout his time with the Eagles, earning him the nickname Concrete Charlie. Bednarik had little regard for modern NFL players, calling them “pussyfoots” (in his more generous moments), who "suck air after five plays." When Deion Sanders earned comparisons to Bednarik because he played offense and defense as wide receiver and cornerback, Bednarik was incensed and said that he "couldn't tackle my wife Emma." While earning him a bit of a “get these kids off my lawn” reputation, such blunt talk endeared him all the more to Philadelphia fans.