![]() ![]() When he hit you, he hurt you.” Link - ( New Window ) He intercepted 25 passes, sacked 22 quarterbacks (in an era when linebackers did little blitzing), recovered 10 fumbles and scored four touchdowns in his career. His versatility is bolstered by his productivity. All are now in the Hall of Fame.Ĭurtis, however, has never even been discussed as a finalist. That earned him the first of his two team MVP honors from the Colts.Ĭurtis stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the best in a golden era of linebacking from 1965-75: Butkus, Ray Nitschke, Willie Lanier, Sam Huff, Nick Buoniconti, Bobby Bell, Ted Hendricks, Dave Robinson, Dave Wilcox, Chris Hanburger, Jack Lambert and Jack Ham. He was the best player on the entire team in 1970 when the Colts won their first Super Bowl. That sent him to the first of his four Pro Bowls. Curtis also served as a team captain of both the Colts and Seahawks.Ĭurtis was the best player on a Baltimore defense that allowed the fewest points in the NFL in 1968. When Curtis moved to the expansion Seattle Seahawks for their inaugural season in 1976, he slid over to weakside linebacker and remained there for his final two seasons with Washington. With the retirement of incumbent Dennis Gaubatz, Curtis shifted to middle linebacker in 1969 and earned second-team All-Pro acclaim behind Dick Butkus. Curtis became a full-time starter in 1968 at strongside linebacker for the Colts and was voted first-team All-Pro. Like his 60-yard fumble return for a touchdown against Minnesota in the 1968 playoffs and his late interception of Dallas quarterback Craig Morton that set up the winning field goal in Super Bowl V.Ĭurtis may have been the most versatile linebacker of his era. That’s sad, because there were so many more tackles, interceptions, sacks and fumble recoveries by Curtis that provide better feeds for the NFL memory bank. Starting with Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value metric - a useful tool to help evaluate contributions across the various eras - each member of the organization was scored on their career achievements, three-season peaks, game-by-game greatness, longevity and postseason contributions.Įarlier we tackled the first half of our results, No.s 100 through 51, which have not been updated for the 2019 season that is currently underway.“ Mike Curtis will be forever remembered for tackling a drunken fan trying to steal the football during a 1971 game between his Baltimore Colts and the Miami Dolphins. As such, a formula was necessary to measure individual impact across the last six decades that produced eight trips to the Super Bowl and five championships. It led to a tough decision-making process this summer in identifying who was the best to don the star. They haven’t been a part of the entire NFL history, being celebrated in 2019 with their 100th anniversary, but they certainly are one of the league’s biggest chapters in their history book. While most organizations struggle to find 50 or 60 players to exalt as among the best to be in the league, the work performed by the Dallas front office to acquire talent in various dark corners and small schools, and hit on projecting bigger school talent, is uncanny. Love them or hate them, everyone has an opinion about the Cowboys and their large collection of top talent accrued over the last 60 years. As the Dallas Cowboys continue to dominate NFL ratings game to game and year to year, it’s easy to forget there have been lean times when the franchise was not front and center in the hearts of all football fans.
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