RIP Doug Atkins

Member of both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. Star with Tennessee and the Bears, and an original New Orleans Saint:

Hall of Famer Doug Atkins dies at age 85

 

The Big Guy was one of pro football's all-time great characters, not to mention a tremendous player. There are a million stories out there about his offbeat, bizarre and at times downright dangerous behavior.

 

Aw, man. RIP.

 

One of the better stories is when, near the end of his career in training camp, some rookies were making a lot of noise at night. Atkins asked them several times to keep it down. The rookies kept making noise, so Atkins opened up his door, and fired a shotgun down the hallway. The rookies were silent after that.

RIP

 

As the story goes, Atkins refused to practice — ever — for like the last 5 years of his career.

 

The way I heard that one is that the offending players were in the room above his and after he told them to knock it off and they refused, he pulled out his gun (I was thinking it was a pistol, but I could be wrong about that) and fired a couple shots into his ceiling (their floor).

 

Was originally recruited to play basketball at Tennessee, as there were not a lot of 6' 8" guys on campus back then, before The General got his mitts on him; went on to lead UT to a NC and was named SEC Player of the Century for the years 1950-1975.

 

He and Doug Buffone (I think it was those two) were very good on the NFL Network "Football Life" story on Gale Sayers and Dick Butkis.

 

Great anecdote:

An outspoken free spirit, Atkins was not Cleveland coach Paul Brown's kind of player. After two seasons, he was traded to the Chicago Bears, where he clashed with Bears owner-coach George Halas.

Once, after some disagreement at practice, Halas told him to run laps and, to make it particularly uncomfortable on a hot day, ordered Doug to wear his helmet. When he looked up, Halas saw Atkins running his laps wearing his helmet -- and nothing else!

 

Atkins apparently got in a fist fight with Halas over a bottle of coke during the halftime of a game. I also think it was in Paper Lion where they talk about Atkins's crushing a ropes drill with his feet.

Finally, per the Browns, in the late 1950s and early 1960s they got rid of Atkins, Willie Davis, Henry Jordan and Jim Marshall. Could have been the greatest defensive line ever.

 

Bears defensive back Richie Petitbon told The Times-Picayune that he once saw Atkins eat 45 pieces of fried chicken in a single sitting.

“I really was never much of a big eater,” Atkins responded. “Now, drinking was something else. I think Richie might be confusing chicken with martinis.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/sports/football/doug-atkins-feared-pass-rusher-dies-at-85.html