(Reuters) -The menacing Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus, who struck fear in opposing offenses and quarterbacks for nine National Football League (NFL) seasons, has died, the Chicago Bears said on Thursday. He was 80.
Known as a ferocious and punishing tackler, Butkus came to define the modern middle linebacker while spending his entire career in Chicago, where he earned eight Pro Bowl selections.
“The Butkus family confirms that football and entertainment legend Dick Butkus died peacefully in his sleep overnight at home in Malibu, California,” the Butkus family said in a statement provided by the Bears.
The late Deacon Jones, a defensive end and fellow Hall of Famer, once described the two-time Defensive Player of the Year as “A well-conditioned animal, and every time he hit you, he tried to put you in the cemetery, not the hospital.”
A Chicago native, Butkus played his college football at the University of Illinois and was taken third overall in the 1965 draft by the Bears.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington, Steve Keating in Toronto and Amy Tennery in New YorkEditing by Costas Pitas and Matthew Lewis)
