It took a certain frame of mind for a linebacker picked in the 18th round of the NFL Draft to emerge as one of the best defensive players of his time — certainly among the best defensive players to wear a Washington Redskins uniform.
It took a burning intensity that, for Chris Hanburger, didn’t just shut off when the game was over. He was as ferocious in the locker room as he was on the football field when he played linebacker for the Redskins from 1965 to 1978.
So he wasn’t exactly winning friends and influencing the press during his playing time.
“I realize I was not the poster boy for reporters,” Hanburger said in an interview this week from his South Carolina home.
Maybe Hanburger paid the price for that when it came time to honor him — a nine-time Pro Bowl player, a four-time first-team All-Pro selection and the 1972 NFC defensive player of the year — with a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
There are all sorts of circumstances that contribute to why a deserving candidate for Canton gets passed over — competition on ballots, NFL championships and media relations among them.
But today, there can be no debate about this: Chris Hanburger was a deserving Hall of Fame candidate who was passed over. And on Saturday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors will get the chance to rectify that mistake when they vote on Hanburger, one of two senior candidates on the ballot.
Senior candidates — different from the five modern-era candidates such as Deion Sanders and Cris Carter — are selected by the Hall of Fame Seniors Committee. This group exists for the purpose of the function it likely will perform Saturday when it votes on Hanburger — to go back and fix an oversight. Senior nominees traditionally get elected.
“I know there is a lot involved in the process to select Hall of Famers,” Hanburger said. “And there are a lot of great players who are not in the Hall of Fame. It is an honor for me just to be selected as a finalist.”
Hanburger, 69, was not one of these players who sat home for decades feeling denied.
“I never played the game for individual honors,” he said. “It was great to make all those Pro Bowls, but I never played thinking about what sort of honors I would receive.”
He didn’t have the luxury of spending much time thinking about his personal goals. Hanburger, who arrived in Washington in 1965 for Bill McPeak’s final years as Redskins coach, played for Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi, Bill Austin and George Allen before retiring in 1978, Jack Pardee’s first season running the team.
When Pardee ended his playing career in Washington in 1973, Allen looked to Hanburger to be his quarterback on the defense.
“Coach Allen put it on my shoulders, and I welcomed it,” Hanburger said. “Allen prepared defenses like I’ve never experienced before. We probably had more than 100 plays we could call audibles on, almost any situation. It was a great defense to work with.”
Hanburger probably symbolized those Allen defenses as much as any player, so he will be a worthy representative in Canton of those great Redskins teams that became the identity of the city.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
