Lots of NFL players have nicknames. Beast Mode, Megatron, and The Fridge come to mind. But as nicknames go, James “Cannonball” Butler really had a leg up. Butler joined the Falcons in 1968 after three seasons with the Steelers, the team that drafted him out of Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida.
Standing 5’9 and weighing less than 200 pounds, Butler wasn’t the biggest guy on the field. But what he lacked in size, Butler made up for with his speed and strength. Kinda like, ya know, a cannonball. At the end of his second season with the Falcons, Butler made a Pro Bowl appearance.