Liquid Tension
Footballguy
Swilling?
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Top linebackers of the 1980s (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Doug Drinen
- Start date
I think it's safe to say only his mother would know this.Who???????????????
Doug B
Footballguy
Went and looked it up.
Strange thing is ... that guy got no run at all in the 80s. Back then, I used to read every football magazine I could get my hands on, plus checking out SI all the time and catching George Michael's Sports Machine every Sunday night. Warner Wolf on CBS Morning News during the week. Regularly caught Brent Musberger, Jimmy the Greek, Ahmad Rashad, Pete Axthelm, and Larry King on the Sunday NFL shows. SportsCenter started coming into its own in the late 80s.
I was as much of an info junkie as the pre-Internet 80s allowed.
And yet this guy totally escaped my attention.
And though it was a down decade for the franchise, they did have some other high-profile guys ... so it wasn't because of the team.
Strange thing is ... that guy got no run at all in the 80s. Back then, I used to read every football magazine I could get my hands on, plus checking out SI all the time and catching George Michael's Sports Machine every Sunday night. Warner Wolf on CBS Morning News during the week. Regularly caught Brent Musberger, Jimmy the Greek, Ahmad Rashad, Pete Axthelm, and Larry King on the Sunday NFL shows. SportsCenter started coming into its own in the late 80s.
I was as much of an info junkie as the pre-Internet 80s allowed.
And yet this guy totally escaped my attention.
And though it was a down decade for the franchise, they did have some other high-profile guys ... so it wasn't because of the team.
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Dexter Manley
Footballguy
Jon Offerdahl of the Fish?
PlasmaDogPlasma
Footballguy
Offerdahl was a Pro-Bowler his first five years in the league, but his rookie year was '86 and we've already been clued that it's someone that played the whole decade. Sam Mills was also a rookie in '86.
It really should be Mecklenberg or Matthews no matter who it turns out to be.
Edit: I've cheated and looked too and I can honestly say I would have never have guessed the right guy. I'm don't think I watched more than a couple of his team's games during that decade.
It really should be Mecklenberg or Matthews no matter who it turns out to be.
Edit: I've cheated and looked too and I can honestly say I would have never have guessed the right guy. I'm don't think I watched more than a couple of his team's games during that decade.
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stevegamer
Footballguy
I think it's going to be someone from a team that was bad the whole decade like the Falcons, Packers, or Cardinals that I know very little about.
EJ Junior?
EJ Junior?
Doug Drinen
Moderator
I was going to post this almost word for word. I was born in 1971 and absorbed literally as much NFL information as it was possible for a teenager to absorb during the 1980s. And somehow the sixth-best LB of the entire decade escaped my notice.The guy is John Anderson, a Packer and former Michigan Wolverine.Went and looked it up.
Strange thing is ... that guy got no run at all in the 80s. Back then, I used to read every football magazine I could get my hands on, plus checking out SI all the time and catching George Michael's Sports Machine every Sunday night. Warner Wolf on CBS Morning News during the week. Regularly caught Brent Musberger, Jimmy the Greek, Ahmad Rashad, Pete Axthelm, and Larry King on the Sunday NFL shows. SportsCenter started coming into its own in the late 80s.
I was as much of an info junkie as the pre-Internet 80s allowed.
And yet this guy totally escaped my attention.
In his 12-year career, he never made a Pro Bowl. Not only that, the UPI named first- and second-team all-conference squads, and Anderson never even got a second-team all-NFC nod.
His Wikipedia page says he was the Packers' all-time leading tackler when he retired. It also says he is currently a middle school science teacher, and in my book that's pretty cool.
The coolness of that aside, I just don't see any way this guy could have been a better choice than Mecklenburg, Chip Banks, or Clay Matthews. There has to be a story here. I wonder what it is.
dgreen
Footballguy
Pretty impressive INT stats for a LB. Maybe he was a good cover LB?
He was clearly an all-around threat. In 1979, he made an XP and a FG. 
Jene Bramel
Footballguy
I was going to post this almost word for word. I was born in 1971 and absorbed literally as much NFL information as it was possible for a teenager to absorb during the 1980s. And somehow the sixth-best LB of the entire decade escaped my notice.The guy is John Anderson, a Packer and former Michigan Wolverine.Went and looked it up.
Strange thing is ... that guy got no run at all in the 80s. Back then, I used to read every football magazine I could get my hands on, plus checking out SI all the time and catching George Michael's Sports Machine every Sunday night. Warner Wolf on CBS Morning News during the week. Regularly caught Brent Musberger, Jimmy the Greek, Ahmad Rashad, Pete Axthelm, and Larry King on the Sunday NFL shows. SportsCenter started coming into its own in the late 80s.
I was as much of an info junkie as the pre-Internet 80s allowed.
And yet this guy totally escaped my attention.
In his 12-year career, he never made a Pro Bowl. Not only that, the UPI named first- and second-team all-conference squads, and Anderson never even got a second-team all-NFC nod.
His Wikipedia page says he was the Packers' all-time leading tackler when he retired. It also says he is currently a middle school science teacher, and in my book that's pretty cool.
The coolness of that aside, I just don't see any way this guy could have been a better choice than Mecklenburg, Chip Banks, or Clay Matthews. There has to be a story here. I wonder what it is.
There's an argument that Mike Douglass was the better player -- he certainly got more end-of-season honors -- and I remember Brian Noble more than Anderson. The all-decade teams were voted on by the HOF voters, so maybe something was up there.I can't find any story on him. The Packer HOF website says little other than he was the team's all-time leading tackler. I'd argue that it was a "compiler" thing, but Doug has already pointed out that there are a couple guys on this list who didn't play the entire decade.
I don't remember seeing anything special on Anderson, but I'll flip through the indexes of some of my stuff tonight and see if there's any hits.
Ditkaless Wonders
Footballguy
I loved watching him club people with the cast he wore on his broken arm. I had an encounter with him and T.E. Mike Coffman in a bar in Milwaukee as the two drunken slobs behaved inappropriately towards my kid sister.
Ditkaless Wonders
Footballguy
The guy always seemed to have a broken arm. He had it casted to play with. That cast became a weapon. In going to that weapon he would rebreak the arm needing the cast again . An interesting circle. As I recall his cast eventually became the subject of some NFL rulemaking.
He was a pros pro who labored in obscurity. Freddy Carr, Mad Dog Douglas, and Brian Noble had greater short term acclaim, but Anderson was incredibly solid for a long time.
,
He was a pros pro who labored in obscurity. Freddy Carr, Mad Dog Douglas, and Brian Noble had greater short term acclaim, but Anderson was incredibly solid for a long time.
,
Bracie Smathers
Footballguy
Clay Mathews and probably Ricky Jackson or Pat Swilling to replace Lambert/Hendricks who were both more 1970's LBs. Heck Lambert didn't even make it thru the 1980 season before he was gimped with his career ending turf-toe. Side note. My ninth grade health teacher was on the same college football team with Lambert. Jack hung him out of a five story hotel room on his arm till he was begging to be let in. Out teacher hated Lambert.
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