What ironic cosmic shenanigans are these? Just one day before noted curmudgeon and defensive football savant Buddy Ryan died, Rick Telander of Sports Illustrated has written for Sports Illustrated the sad story of William “Refrigerator” Perry, Ryan’s most celebrated pupil on the 1985-86 Super Bowl winning Chicago Bears.
Perry, the rookie DE from Clemson, weighed in at 308 pounds by the time he got to the Bears, and probably 330-340 by the time he retired. That’s not so remarkable today, but by 1986 standards that was P.T. Barnum enormous — something rarely seen in nature.