Countdown to Kickoff… Bulldog Turner Days from Chicago Bears Season Opener

I decided to do a countdown to the Chicago Bears season opener on September 8th versus the Cincinnati Bengals.  Thanks to one of my Twitter followers, I decided to combine the countdown with a roster preview of sorts.

We’re Bulldog Turner days away from the start of the Chicago Bears season.   We don’t go very deep on #66’s in Bears history and that’s because the Bears retired that number for Clyde “Bulldog” Turner.

Turner was the Bears’ first round draft choice in the 1940 out of Hardin-Simmons University.  There was a bit of a dispute with Turner, who tried to pull an Eli Manning and didn’t want to play on the Bears.  The Lions offered him $200 to turn down other offers, but the Lions were fined $5000 for tampering and Turner ended up on the Bears.

Turner was a two-way player for the Beloved, playing both Center and Linebacker.  He was a six-time all-pro center and had four interceptions playing linebacker in five NFL championship games.  He was a player of the decade for the 1940’s en route to four championships.   Turner had a long career, playing with the Bears from 1940 until 1952.   Later in life, he took up coaching, where he spent a season coaching the New York Jets in 1962.

We’re 66 days from kickoff.  Are you ready???