"To play this game -- and I've always said this -- you have to have a Neanderthal gene. Butkus had two," says former Chicago Bears teammate Doug Buffone on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series.

The ceremony will welcome the finest linebackers and celebrate one of the greatest to ever play the game, Fighting Illini alumnus Dick Butkus. The Butkus Award is presented annually to the ...

Butkus not only hits, he crushes and squeezes opponents with thick arms that also are extremely long. At any starting point on his build, he is big, well-proportioned, and getting bigger." ...