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The 10 best players in NFL history to never win a Super Bowl

By Erik Lambert

FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - JANUARY 13: Philip Rivers #17 of the Los Angeles Chargers reacts during the fourth quater in the AFC Divisional Playoff Game against the New England Patriat Gillette Stadium on January 13, 2019 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - JANUARY 13: Philip Rivers #17 of the Los Angeles Chargers reacts during the fourth quater in the AFC Divisional Playoff Game against the New England Patriat Gillette Stadium on January 13, 2019 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /
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05. Dick Butkus (Chicago Bears)

At least other people on this list can say they participated in a Super Bowl. Hell, they can even say they played in the playoffs. Dick Butkus, arguably one of the 2-3 greatest middle linebackers in professional football history can’t even make those claims. He came at a time when the Chicago Bears organization was undergoing a major transition. George Halas was winding down as head coach and the team was beginning their long (long) search for a replacement.

Butkus became trapped in the dead period that followed. Year after year he would put together brilliant seasons, terrorizing ball carriers with some of the most ferocious tackling ever witnessed on a football field. He also collected 22 interceptions and a then-record 27 recovered fumbles. He was everywhere. However, the team never improved. If anything they only got worse. The best season they had with him came in 1965, his rookie year.

It’s incredible to think about to this day. One has to wonder how his legacy might be viewed differently if he’d been born a decade later than he was and been around for the Bears’ rise to greatness in the 1980s.

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