Former Redskins linebacker Chris Hanburger reached a destination he never thought he’d get to: the Hall of Fame.
Hanburger — in his 28th year of eligibility — will be one of seven enshrinees in Canton, Ohio, this summer, along with Richard Dent, Marshall Faulk, Ed Sabol, Shannon Sharpe, Deion Sanders and Les Richter.
“I’m overwhelmed,” Hanburger told the NFL Network. “It’s such a tremendous honor to be nominated, let alone to get voted in. It’s a select few that make it and the only reason it’s happening to me is I had the fortune of playing defense on the Redskins with wonderful people and that made it all work for me.”
But Hanburger made it work for them, no doubt. He made nine Pro Bowls in his 14-year career and even now he’s probably not sure how it happened. He was a shade over 200 pounds when he played — small even by the standards of the 1960s and ’70s. In fact, he used to tape 2.5 pound weights to his body when he weighed in a training camp, just to seem a little bigger.
“Shucks, I’d go to camp at 215 and halfway through the season I’d be down to 200, 205,” he told me for my book Stadium Stories. “It was my quickness more than anything else. Certainly I couldn’t take people on, so I had to try and set up blockers so they missed me.”
But he survived on smarts and discipline, the latter stemming from a military background. He spent two years in the military before going to college at North Carolina and his father served two years in the Army.
Hanburger was a good linebacker before George Allen took over as Redskins coach in 1971; he already had made four Pro Bowls. But Hanburger flourished under Allen, who made him study film for the first time in his career. Before then? “I’d never thought to take film home and it was never offered,” he said in Stadium Stories.
Hanburger also sat in on meetings with the defensive backs and defensive linemen, becoming a student not only of opposing offenses but the entire defense. He excelled at finding tendencies in opponents that would tip him off on what plays were coming.
Under Allen, he was named the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1972 and made the Pro Bowl in every year from 1972-76.
This from a guy who wouldn’t move his wife to Washington for his first training camp. Didn’t know how long he’d last. He lasted 14 years; and now found football immortality.
To read the Redskins reaction, click here.
