RIP Mr. Bednarik

The NFL lost one of it's iconic football players. Chuck Bednarik passed away yesterday morning after a brief illness. He was 89.

Bednarik=Football.

It's as simple as that. Nagurski, Hinkle, Hein, Baugh, Bulldog Turner, Halas, Hubbard, Johnny Blood, Bednarik. Names that mean football. Names that were football. The way that it used to be played. Chuck Bednarik bridged football eras. He was the last of the two-way players. The 60-minute players. I always found it interesting that Bednarik was the last to play offense, defense, and then some yet his career started with the introduction of two-platoon football. Bednarik entered the league in 1949 and free substitution was allowed in 1950. He played offense and defense at a time when he no longer had to play offense and defense. He played both because he was great at both. He earned All-NFL honors at center. He earned them at linebacker. The list of players that were great on offense and defense is a short list. Bednarik is on it.

Chuck Bednarik played his entire entire 14-year career with the Philadelphia Eagles. He helped lead the Eagles to the 1949 NFL Championship in his rookie season. They won again in his 12th season. He was no longer playing center but an injury returned him to his 60-minute ways during the season. He played nearly the entire 1960 NFL Championship game against the Green Bay Packers. His game-saving tackle of Jim Taylor preserved the win for the Eagles. It was also the only postseason game that Vince Lombardi would ever lose.

Chuck Bednarik is an icon to the football world. He may mean more than that to Pennsylvania. He was born in Bethlehem, PA. Excluding a detour for World War II, a detour that included 30 combat missions over Germany as a B-24 waist-gunner, he spent his entire life in the state. He went to Liberty High School in Bethlehem. He attended the University of Pennsylvania. Maxwell Trophy winner. Third in the Heisman Trophy voting. Not bad for a center/linebacker. First pick in the 1949 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. He earned his nickname "Concrete Charlie" for his offseason work in the concrete business. It was an appropriate nickname for his work on the football field as well. Not only did he work on every down of his football job. He worked year round. Players had to do that then. The Eagles have won three NFL titles. Bednarik was a big part of two of them. It's impossible to imagine Eagles football without visions of Bednarik roaming the field. In a state that is linked so strongly to the quarterbacks that it has produced it's kinda funny that it's most iconic player is one that tried to put those quarterbacks to sleep.

Chuck Bednarik's football profile is so full that it reads more like fiction. All-Pro. Pro Bowls. Pro Bowl MVP. NFL 1950s All-Decade Team. NFL 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team. Pro Football Hall of Fame. College Football Hall of Fame. He has a trophy named after him. The Bednarik Award is presented to the defensive player of the year in college football. Chuck Bednarik is football. He always will be.

Chuck Bednarik is survived by his wife, of 67 years, Emma, his five children, 10 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.