If LeBron James played today, he’d be just a guy

His Lamborghini.

Who hates Lance Briggs anyway?

Dan really likes to say "granular level."

My understanding is guys can have a great '40' time, but not be particularly quick on the field. LB in particular does not often emphasize straight-ahead speed unless they blew a coverage or something.

Clearly Butkus is way better than Bernstein's statement indicates (which he also says to get people all riled up and talking about Dan in some form or fashion, 'negative' or otherwise), but as to him being 'faster' because his '40' time was terrific is a bit sketchy. He could be, but not because his '40' time was that good.

i remember when Butkus was doing informercials for some portable grill that ran off newspapers burning
he definitely couldn't BBQ in this era

George Foreman could grill in any era!

Could Ray Lewis play a lovable soda jerk on "My Two Dads"?

Bernstein is a major league asshole. I have watched a lot of football over the years just like a lot of you. I can honestly say the highlights of a Butkus tackle is more ferocious than just about anything I have ever seen on a football field except that time Mike Hartenstine hit Ray Jaworski or the Wilbur Marshall hit on Joe Theismann.

Remember when Marshall basically slap-punched Eric Hipple (?) and was fined, even though there wasn't a penalty flag?

Christ, I wish the Bears had kept him.

True, but there are more teams now too. Also, there are more options. Today's Babe Ruth might be riding a snowboard in the X-Games. One hundred years ago all he had was baseball or boxing.

Anyway, it's funny that Bernstein called Butkus "slow, tiny, and white." He was bigger and faster than Ray Lewis. I guess one out of three ain't bad though.

There is no record of any Butkus 40 time.

The only thing close is an espn article where one of Dick's teammates said it would take Butkus 3 days to run a 100 yard dash. Same article said he was really quick inside 20 yards tho.

He'd be ok. Nothing great.

To be fair though Butkus never had the killer instinct Ray Lewis does

“God has done something in my life—and not just for me to see it..."
* Then his eyes flash, and he starts shouting, pointing *
God has done something in my life for ev-ery hat-er, ev-ery enemy...

My understanding is guys can have a great '40' time, but not be particularly quick on the field. LB in particular does not often emphasize straight-ahead speed unless they blew a coverage or something.

Clearly Butkus is way better than Bernstein's statement indicates (which he also says to get people all riled up and talking about Dan in some form or fashion, 'negative' or otherwise), but as to him being 'faster' because his '40' time was terrific is a bit sketchy. He could be, but not because his '40' time was that good.

Was Hipple the guy he sent about 10 yards off his ass? I seem to remember Theismann getting blasted,but maybe it was Hipple.

Butkus absolutely could play today and do very well. But there is no way his 40 time was faster than Ray Lewis.

Butkus was freakishly fast for a guy his size. Ask jimmypasta or Walt.

Marshall knocked out Hipple and Joe Ferguson

I did not see him play, but I have watched a ton of old clips of him. I dont see someone that is faster than Lewis.

So IMO the eye test and the lack of 40 times says to me that Lewis was faster, but that is in no way a shot at Butkus because again he could do very well in todays game

I wouldn't judge off old film clips. Babe Ruth was fast as fuck too. Believe me, he didn't run like he was tiptoeing on eggshells the way it appears on those old degrading films. Although most films of Ruth are from the end of his career when he was fat. There are no films of him at 22 years old patrolling the outfield like a gazelle.