Paying Attention: With the Superbowl just hours away and the TV packed with lots of great old bits and remembrances of football players great and no-so-great, it seemed like an appropriate time to come up with an All Star team of my own.
Didn’t want to base it on stats or playoff game performances, but decided to select the team on something a little more colorful: a terrific nickname. Position played is not a factor.
Below is our first annual NFL All-Star Nickname Team..special thanks to running buddy and football advisor Russ Kirkland who helped compile this list.
“Broadway Joe” Namath
William “Refrigerator” Perry
“Mean Joe” Green
“Hollywood” Henderson
“Neon” Deion Sanders
Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch
John “Diesel” Riggins
Jerome “The Bus” Bettis
“Bullet” Bob Hayes
Ben “Big Ben” Rothlisburger
Lance “Bambi” Alworth
Jack “The Assassin” Tatum
Andre “Bad Moon” Rison
Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch
Gene “Big Daddy” Lipscombe
“Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid” ( Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick of the Miami Dolphins)
Troy “The Flyin’ Hawaiian” Polamalu
“Dwight Hicks and the Hot Licks” The 1984 San Francisco 49ers Secondary lead by Dwight Hicks
Art “Fatso” Donovan
Dave “Ghost” Casper
Brett “The Gunslinger” Favre
“Hacksaw Jack” Reynolds
Paul Hornung, AKA “The Golden Boy”
Jared “The Round Mound of Touchdown” Lorenzon, also known as the “Pillsbury Throwboy”
“The Hogs”, nickname for the Washington Redskins Offensive line
“Iron Mike” Ditka
Craig “Iron Head” Heywood
“The Law Firm” is BenJarvus Green-Ellis
Jim “Machine Gun” Kelly
Ted “Mad Stork” Hendricks
Dick “Night Train” Lane
“The Manster” , Randy White
“Marion The Barbarian” Barber
Calvin “Megatron” Johnson
Eugene “Mercury” Morris
Reggie White, the “Minister of Defense “
Daryl “Moose” Johnston
“The Mossiah”, Randy Moss
Aaron “Mr. Rodgers” Rodgers
Christian Okoye, “The Nigerian Nightmare”
Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson
“The Playmaker”, Michael Irvin
Floyd “Pork Chop” Womack
“The Purple People Eaters”, nickname for the 1970s Minnesota Vikings Defensive Line (Alan Page, Carl Eller, Gary Larsen, Jim Marshall)
Robert, “RG3” Griffin III
“Rodger the Dodger”Staubach
Raghib “Rocket” Ismail
“Run DMC” , Dexter McCluster
“The Sheriff” , Peyton Manning
Walter “Sweetness” Payton
Jack “The Throwin’ Samoan” Thompson
Billy “White Shoes” Johnson