On Pro Bowl weekend, we review the greatest Notre Dame players who excelled in the NFL. Based strictly on his pro career, we listed 22 on offense, including utility player Paul Hornung, who could fill in at quarterback, running back, receiver, linebacker, safety, kicker or punter. Here are the other 20 on defense and special teams.
Defensive Line: Alan Page, Bryant Young & Bob Golic
In a 3-4 alignment, Golic is our nose guard, with Page and Young as the ends.
Page finished with 215 consecutive starts after not starting the first three games of his 1967 rookie season. He was selected to nine straight Pro Bowls while recording 148 1/2 career sacks, and was the league’s MVP in 1971, a first for a defender. Page and wide receiver Tim Brown have the most Pro Bowl appearances by Irish alumni in the Pro Bowl.
Young was the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year for the 1994 Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers and a four-time Pro Bowl pick during a 14-year career. Selected to the NFL’s 1990s All-Decade team, Young recorded 605 tackles, with 89.5 sacks, while often facing double teams. Like Page, he also was remarkably durable, although he did have to come back from a severe knee injury, and started all 208 games he played.
Golic played 14 years at nose guard (1979-92) and made the Pro Bowl three consecutive seasons with the Cleveland Browns. He made 160 career starts in the NFL.
Alternates: Leon Hart, Bob Toneff & Justin Tuck
A case could be made for 1950s stars Hart and Toneff to be first team. Hart was All-Pro on offense and defense in his second season during his eight-year career with the Detroit Lions. He was productive on offense, where he caught 174 passes and scored 26 TDs, and he later lined up at fullback, but he was a force on defense as well. Hart could also be positioned at receiver, if needed.
Toneff played six years apiece at San Francisco and Washington and was a four-time Pro Bowl pick from 1952-64. In a 4-3 set, we would move him ahead of Golic.
Tuck played 11 seasons, made two Pro Bowls and was an alternate two other times. He recorded 66.5 sacks, 510 sacks and an argument could have been made for him to be Super Bowl MVP in both titles won by the New York Giants during his time.
Linebackers: George Connor, Nick Buoniconti, Jim Lynch & Myron Pottios
Connor made All-Pro at three different positions, including linebacker, on offense and defense. Although Connor was a lineman in college, his bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame refers to him as “first of the big, fast linebackers” in the league’s history. Paul Hornung referred to him as the greatest football player who graduated from Notre Dame.
Buoniconti (1962-76) was the ringleader of the Miami Dolphins’ vaunted “No Name” defenses, highlighted by the perfect 17-0 team in 1972. He was chosen first team on the All-Time AFL/AFC team and could play both the run and pass (32 career interceptions). Buoniconti made the AFL All-Pro teams six times and was twice in the NFL Pro Bowl.
Lynch played in 142 consecutive games for the Kansas City Chiefs, helping them to the 1970 Super Bowl title. He was overshadowed by linebacker teammates Willie Lanier and Bobby Bell, both in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but Lynch also made it to the Pro Bowl by his second season of an 11-year career.
Pottios played 14 years in the league and was a Pro Bowl selection three times in the 1960s.
Alternate: Jim Martin
A 14-year pro, Martin started at left tackle and left guard before moving to linebacker and, later in his career, at kicker. He made the Pro Bowl in 1960 when he was 38 years old.
Defensive Backs: Dave Duerson, Dave Waymer, Todd Lyght & Dick Lynch
Duerson played in four straight Pro Bowls from 1985-88 and was a cog on one of the most fearsome defenses ever, the 1985 Chicago Bears.
Waymer’s 48 career interceptions in 13 years (1980-92) are the most by an Irish alumnus. He and Lyght both played 13 years in the league, and both made the Pro Bowl once.
Current Irish defensive backs coach Lyght made 132 consecutive starts, picked off 37 passes and made the Pro Bowl in 1999, the year his St. Louis Rams won the Super Bowl.
Lynch, best remembered for his 1957 TD sweep on fourth down that ended Oklahoma’s NCAA record 47-game winning streak, led the league in interceptions twice (nine apiece in 1961 and 1963) during a stellar career with the New York Giants. Like Lyght, he had 37 career interceptions in the NFL.
Alternates: John Lujack & Bobby Taylor
Lujack played only four years in the NFL, and made the Pro Bowl twice as a quarterback. But as a rookie with the Chicago Bears in 1948, he tied the franchise record with eight interceptions.
Taylor played 10 years from 1995-2004 and made the Pro Bowl in 2002 with the Philadelphia Eagles. He recorded 19 career interceptions in 109 starts.
Special Teams: John Carney (kicker), Craig Hentrich (punter), Allen Rossum (returns)
Carney ranks fifth on the all-time NFL scoring chart with 2,062 points and made the Pro Bowl at age 44 in 2008 before retiring.
Hentrich was the league's first million-dollar punter and completed his 17th NFL season in 2009 while on injured reserve. He played in 241 games, was on Green Bay’s Super Bowl champs in 1996 and fell just short of 50,000 career yards punting.
One of the fastest players ever to suit up for Notre Dame, or anywhere, Rossum was a Pro Bowl pick as a return man. He had six career TDs off of returns (two more than Tim Brown), and another in the playoffs.
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