On October 30, 1960 the CBS news anthology The Twentieth Century ran an episode entitled “The Violent World of Sam Huff,” in which narrator Walter Cronkite extolled the virtues of Huff, the middle linebacker for the New York Giants.
The fact that CBS was devoting a half hour to the NFL was validation for pro football’s increasing popularity. But it also solidified the idea that linebackers were the biggest, baddest folks on the field. Whether fans were watching Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke, Mike Singletary, Lawrence Taylor, Ray Lewis or Jack Lambert, linebackers best epitomized the idea of mobile, agile and hostile.