Dick Butkus, legendary Bears linebacker and Hall of Famer, dies at 80

CHICAGO — Dick Butkus, the player who perhaps best epitomized the tough and determined identity of the Chicago Bears, has died, the Chicago Tribune confirmed Thursday. He was 80. The Butkus family said Thursday he died “peacefully in his sleep overnight at home” in Malibu, Calif. A product of Chicago’s working-class South Side and the University of Illinois, Butkus became a fierce Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker before embarking on a modest but enduring television and acting career in Hollywood. “After football, it was difficult for me to find what I liked second best,” Butkus once told t...