Review of
Great Linebackers of the NFL,
by Richard Kaplan
Four out of five stars
Contribution to the major debate on excellence
The 1960’s
could be considered the decade of the debate over NFL linebackers. Followers of
the NFL regularly argued over who was the best linebacker, specifically middle,
in the game. Dick Butkis, Ray Nitschke, Mike Curtis and Tommy Nobis were the
primary names featured in those conversations. This book contains brief
biographies of those players as well as some who played outside linebacker.
One of the most
positive features of the book is that some of the earlier stars are included.
All-time great linebackers such as Mel Hein and Bulldog Turner are also
featured. They were both two-way players that excelled on both sides of the
ball and are not well known.
This is very
much a YA sports history book written in the form of books published in the
1960’s. The content is laudatory and there is none of the dirt on players that
now seems obligatory in books about stars in any sport. It is a simple, fun
read.
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