With the Hall of Fame class of 2012 set to be announced in a couple weeks I figured that it would be nice to profile the senior nominees. Each year two forgotten players are nominated by the Senior Committee. They typically slide right into the class with little debate. This year those nominees are cornerback Jack Butler and lineman Dick Stanfel. I'll start with Jack Butler this week.
Its gotten to the point where we expect the Pittsburgh Steelers to be contenders. We expect them to be great. Six Super Bowl wins will do that. That wasn't always the case. The team was formed in 1933 and they were horrible for pretty much the next 40 years. Their pathetic play might be the reason that Jack Butler has been ignored for so long. He was signed as a free agent in 1951 out of St. Bonaventure. He immediately made his mark on the Steelers and the NFL when he intercepted five passes as a rookie. He intercepted four passes in one game against the Washington Redskins in 1953. He was known as a great tackler but he was an intercepting machine. Despite recording 25 interceptions in his first four seasons Butler received no personal accolades. Perhaps due to the poor Steelers teams of that time. His first Pro Bowl came following the 1955 season. Surprisingly, it was the first season in which he had no interceptions. He made up for that in the Pro Bowl by intercepting two. In 1957, Butler intercepted a career high ten passes to share the league lead. An injury in 1959 against the Philadelphia Eagles forced his retirement. He went on to 46 years as a scout with the BLESTO Scouting Combine. 44 of those years were as the director.
Jack Butler was one of the finest cornerbacks of the 1950s. His 52 career interceptions was second in league history at the time of his retirement. He played in four Pro Bowls and received All-Pro recognition three times. He was selected to the All-Decade Team of the 1950s.
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