Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules - Dudes on Dick Butkus

Episode Date: July 25, 2026

We're covering NFL legend, Dick Butkus! Gronk and Julian Edelman discuss what made Dick Butkus so great and some of their favorite stories.Support the show: https://hoo.be/dudesondudesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

150 years ago, they were hunting us down to kill us, and now they're hunting down immigrants to deport them. This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be, and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Emily Astor. I'm an economist and data expert. And I'm Perry Wilson. I'm a medical doctor.

And this is our new podcast, Wellness Actually. You're getting a staggering amount of health and wellness information, and some of it is awesome. And some of it is, well, actually, bullshit. Fortunately, we're both people who know how to read studies and can tell you what's worth trying out and what you can safely ignore. Listen to Wellness Actually on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Mangish Hatikula and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, cremudgeons, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way.

I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the Thing.

I talk to composer Mark Shaman. It's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with the people that you're with. You know, Rob and I was always a great hang. And director Morgan Neville. Film School teaches you all the wrong things about making documentary. What do you want to say? Documentary is all about your ear.

What do you hear? I feel like my job is listening really, really hard. Listen to Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Chased Lions running back, Altie Taylor into the stands. Taylor told a reporter he thought Buckus was overrated. After Taylor stepped out of bounds to avoid a hit in the game,

Buckus kept chasing him all the way to the stands of Soldier Field. Dick Buckus. Dick Buckus. That was me. What's the first thing you think of right there? Jules, there you are, is Rambo. Oh, look at you, man. I love that ammo around your shoulder as well, man.

You can't prepare. Nah, bro. The black face. No, it's not black face. Remember in the wood he put his shit on? Yeah. That's just, that's kind of like I black boy on your whole face. So you can blend in the woods better.

First thing I think of about Dick Buckus. Yeah, what's the first thing you think of besides an inappropriate first name? Well, that's what I know you're thinking of. No. Yeah. am. That's the first thing I think of like, wow, he must have had a huge piece if that's your name.

Yeah. I think his name was Richard and they call people Richard Dick, but first thing I think of just old school football. Oh, he was Richard. Yeah. Oh, all right. All Richards are Dick. You know that, right?

I didn't know that. If you're Richard, you could be. I thought Richards, you are a dick, but you can also just be named Dick, but not Richard. No. I don't think anyone just named Dick. Yeah, Dick's sporting goods. That is, that is correct. That is correct.

They're not Richard sporting goods. Are all Richard's Dix? Yeah. Yeah, all Richards are Dicks. That is correct if you use the nickname. I have a good one. I just, I just had a monster appearance,

and my security guard name was Richard, and he goes, yeah, everyone knows me as a monster dick, security monster dick and like that was pretty cool I thought that was cool sorry but it goes to the point anyone named Richard is dick so I was like oh my security guard has a monster

dick that's what I was thinking I'm protected I'm productive so yeah if you're Richard yeah you're dick okay back to Dick Buccas Dick Bucket's he's got butt in his last name too I mean this guy is very scary that is scary is it he tore the offense

fucking offensive line's ass he shredded them like that's why is that's why but in his name tore their asses apart on that football field i mean that is is that a mount rushmore or football name it might be it's top it's top name it's one of the top names what are some other big names i mean he also had other nicknames as well the animal the enforcer the maestro maestro of mayhem that was me as a kid by the way like well how we were just talking about me dressing up as a kid i was a maestrel i was a maestrel of mayhem. Oh, and the robot of

destruction. Oh, that was also me too. Walking into rooms and just me being on the field as a kid. Me and Dick are very similar. Do you ever meet him? Have I ever met him? He's not alive anymore, is he? He died recently for last like five years. I don't think I ever got to meet him.

I never got to meet him either, but I was just watching some highlight films of him, man, and I just loved the way that he plays. And he has to be one of those first true linebackers where it's like he's huge. Yeah. Like being that size. 245 back then's huge. Exactly. He looked bigger than

offensive alignment. He looked bigger than defense alignment. I love the way that he wore his shoulder pads. It made him just look even bigger than everyone else because they were like stalky. It was like he was he wore those fullback shoulder pads a little bit, but at the linebacker position. But what I really loved about his game is that he ran after the ball carrier, like there was

no one else in his way. Like he would just run. Alignment would come and block him. But it's like he could see through the linemen. He could run right through the lineman he can avoid that lineman that's coming at him and he would get to the ball carrier every single time someone falls on the ground in front of him somehow even though he's staring at the ball carrier he would leap over the guy that's on the ground instead of tripping over him it's like nothing was stopping him from getting to that ball carrier and that's what defines a great legendary linebacker is they see ball carrier get the ball carrier tackle ball carrier

and that was dick buckus and that's why he was one of the scariest guys to block because It's so hard to block a guy that their motive is just to get the tackle because they can just swoop right around you, run through you. They just don't see you, Jules. No, I mean, I've seen some highlights of him where he just literally four, like, I've seen him close-arm people. Like, that was the game back then was basically just like murder on a field. It was like these guys were poking each other's eyeballs freaking. And it was just a completely different game. And whenever you talk to anyone of like,

who's a historian of this game, they always talk about Dick Buckus. And we even said it, you know, talking about him 60 years later, his impact on the game was clearly insane. They say he had a 4-540 back then at 2.45. I mean, that's just crazy. hard-nosed, had speed and range, was able to cover sideline to sideline.

The sideline to sideline talk. Oh, he was so good at that. So good. That was because of Dick Buccas. You know, that's where they got the term, sideline to sideline. And it was pretty cool that he played his whole football career in the state of Illinois. You know, he went to University of Illinois, played for the Bears. And he's a legend.

He's just an absolute legend. He played with the ferocity of an angered animal. Hall of Fame coach George Allen on Dick Buccas. The first time I saw Buccas, I started packing my gear. There was no way that guy wasn't going to be great. Bill George, Buckus' predecessor at linebacker for the Bears. This is one of my favorite quotes right here by Bears Center, Mike Pyle. Yeah, yeah, Mike.

Yes, yes. and just trying to get buckets to go easier in practice because I kind of did this sometimes. Brother-in-law. They call that brother-in-law. Brother-in-law in practice. And I did it plenty of times, especially with Ninko.

I got to give credit to Ninkovich. I mean, he wasn't a great cover guy. You know, he's kind of mind-boggled every single day as well. But this guy has low center of gravity, Ninkovic, and it was so hard to block him. He had so much power. So I always try to become buddies with him.

Yeah. Because I want to be. I wanted to, you know, beef 100% for games on Sunday. And I just can't pound my head against Ninkovich every day. I already knew that. But so this is a trick I like by Mike Pyle because I would try to butter up Ninkovich. Is that I spend all this money buying him dinner and beer and stuff like that. So he wouldn't take it out on me in the scrimmages.

Like that just explains how good Dick Buccas was and how hard he played. But do not put Ninkovich in the same sentence with Dick Buccas. Absolutely not. I was just putting him in the same sentence of how I'm. Both Chicago guys. Yeah, they're both from Illinois and how I just buttered up Nicos, just because that's the only skill he had was coming off the line and trying to hit me. No.

I just, no, what do you mean? No, I just say. Don't give him credit. He rags on us 24-7. Yeah, we can't get all with Nico too bad. He might. Yeah, he might cry. Yeah, he might get all sad.

I'll hang out with him next week. He had more skills than just coming off the line. He actually had over 50 sacks in his. He did. We hear about it every time. Yeah, we do. We do. And the most force fumble or the most fumble recoveries or something I've done. And the most underpaid white linebacker defensive ever play. But no who wasn't under well Dick Buckus was probably underpaid too back in those days. He probably made $300 a game. He really did. Yeah. 1965. Did he have a job out of the season? Probably. That's how that's how it was back then. Remember we did the, remember we did the day? Were you there with

Coach Belichick where we did the day where we were supposed to be from like the 30s or something or the 40s where they took out like all the breakfast and they just gave you coffee and like cereal and like people were smoking cigarettes in practice and stuff you know what I mean did you see that you remember that day no I don't I wonder what year that was we did like a time lapse thing it was like a time lapse team building day where we were going to see how it was back in the day when I think you were a rookie when this happened and I wasn't on the team No, maybe it was the year you left or you retired. Yeah, I just wasn't there for it.

You weren't that one. No. It was pretty crazy that they lived like that. But let's get back to Dick Buckus, okay? He made it immediate impact, his rookie season, five interceptions, seven fumble recoveries. And I just loved the way when he picked up the ball. He would just go full speed as well. Full speed.

And become a ball carrier. He was just so great to watch. He was entertaining. He had incredible career at Illinois, he's All-American, can play center and linebacker. I mean, he had the size, like I said, he was bigger than these offensive line at the time. He looks like a football player.

He does. He is, he's the definition of a football player. One of the first guys to wear a bullring, I think, too. Was he one of that? That was like, that's, he made the bull ring for middle linebacker. That was like a, if you were a badass middle linebacker,

you had the bull ring. And I think it was because of Dick Buckus. In 1970. 1970. We're talking a year after 1969. I don't know why I just brought that up, but I just kind of felt like I should have just popped up in my mind. He signed a multi-year contract extension that remain in Chicago.

And the contract, the contract raised a salary from $50,000 per year to around $80,000 to $100,000 per year. And we're talking a complete football player. And he was just making $100,000 a year. But $100,000 back at that time. Yeah. I mean, it was probably like two million now.

Maybe something like that. We don't, Rob probably did the math. Yeah, it was about two million now. It's about two million right there. So he was all right. He was fine. He had money. They didn't even keep...

He probably didn't have to pay for a single thing, though, in the state of Illinois. No. This guy didn't know nothing. Even his center was buying him beer. Yeah. Yeah, this guy didn't have to pay for a thing. Hey, do you think he could have covered you, Jules? No.

Yeah, I know. I was watching him cover guys. guys. Back in those days, they didn't really have the athleticism. If he got his hands on me. Yeah, he could have kind of pulled you. They probably would have like probably like just tackled me.

Yeah, exactly. And that would have been allowed. Because he would have only had to tackle you in order to cover you. But we would have smoked him back in day. I saw him in coverage. But I wouldn't say we would smoke him in the run game. I think he would run right through us. But man,

in the past game, I would give it to us. Chase, Lions running back. Altie Taylor into the stands. That's how scary this Joker is. Taylor told a reporter he thought Buckus was overrated. After Taylor stepped out of bounds to avoid a hit in the game,

Buckus kept chasing him all the way to the stands of Soldier Field. I love it. I love it. Time. Dick Buccas. What a replayer. And rest in peace to Dick, he passed away a few years ago. And we're talking about him to this day.

one of the founding fathers of this league. And thank you to Dick Buckus for, you know, setting the standard of what it is to be a football player. That is exactly. Not an athlete out there and be a freak of nature. A football player just going out there and dominating on the football field. Thank you, Dick. I mean, he could probably be a bunch of these things.

He was such a huge dude, ran four, five, obviously has dog tendencies. But I think it's one thing. when you look at them, it just stands out. And like what I really like about him as well is that stash that he has. That stash just stands out to me and just made him that much more scary. Yeah. So what kind of duties?

On three. One, two, three, stud. Yeah. He's got his center buying him beers. He got that stash that I just brought up. I got to bring it up again because we didn't talk about it at all. I mean, just the way he can go. from sideline to sideline.

And he's been the, like, role model for every middle linebacker since. Like, everyone talks about Dick Buccas. Ray Lewis talks about Dick Buccas. Like Fred Warner probably talks about Dick Buccas. I don't know if he does, but probably. Probably. Probably.

Probably because that's how studly he was. 150 years ago, they were hunting us down to kill us, and now they're hunting down immigrants to deport them. This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Emily Oster. I'm an economist and data expert. And I'm Perry Wilson. I'm a medical doctor. And this is our new podcast, Wellness Actually.

You're getting a staggering amount of health and wellness information, and some of it is awesome. And some of it is, well, actually, bullshit. Fortunately, we're both people who know how to read studies and can tell you what's worth trying out and what you can safely ignore. Listen to Wellness Actually on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Mungeshatekular and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, curmudgins, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with,

living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive,

How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the thing. I talk to composer Mark Shaman. It's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with the people that you're with.

You know, Rob and I was always a great hang. And director Morgan Neville. Film School teaches you all the wrong things about making documentary. What do you want to say? Documentary is all about your ear. What do you hear? I feel like my job is listening really, really hard. Listen to Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.