Douglas John Buffone (June 27, 1944 – April 20, 2015) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. Buffone, the son of a coal miner (whose parents were Italian immigrants from the southern province of Cosenza, regione di Calabria), attended high school at Shannock Valley High School in

Rural Valley, Pennsylvania Rural Valley is a borough in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 876 at the 2010 census. Geography Rural Valley is located in eastern Armstrong County at (40.798714, -79.315932). Pennsylvania Route 85 passes throug ...

College career

Born in

Yatesboro, Pennsylvania Yatesboro is an unincorporated community located in Cowanshannock Township, Pennsylvania. The community is located west of Rural Valley. Yatesboro has a post office with ZIP Code 16263. The elevation is 1,132 feet. Yatesboro appears on the Rur ...

, Buffone played

and

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

from 1962 to 1965 at the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

. Buffone is one of only four players to lead UofL in

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football ** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking u ...

for three consecutive seasons. The others are Mark Sander, Tom Jackson (1970–72) and

Tyrus McCloud Tyrus McCloud (born November 23, 1974) is a former American football linebacker. He played college football for the Louisville Cardinals. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1997 NFL Draft. He played two seasons in the National Football Lea ...

(1994-96). He remains the Cardinals' No. 3 all-time tackler with 479, just nine stops behind the program's all-time leader Mark Sander (1987–90). Veteran

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Frank Camp Edward Franklin Camp Jr. (December 23, 1905 – January 26, 1986) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Louisville from 1946 to 1968, compiling a record of 118–95–2 (.551). He is c ...

, who tutored NFL greats like

Johnny Unitas John Constantine Unitas (; May 7, 1933 – September 11, 2002) was an American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Baltimore Colts. Following a career that spanned from 1956 ...

, Lenny Lyles,

Ernie Green Ernest "Ernie" Green (born October 15, 1938) is a former American football Running back, halfback and Fullback (gridiron football), fullback for the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League. Early years Born and raised in Columbus, Geo ...

and

Ken Kortas Kenneth Conrad Kortas (May 17, 1942 – October 15, 2022) was an American professional American football, football player who was a defensive tackle for six seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the St. Louis Cardinals (N ...

, said Buffone was "the most complete ball player I've ever coached."

NFL career

Following his collegiate career, Buffone was selected by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

in the fourth round of the

1966 NFL Draft The 1966 National Football League draft was held at the Summit Hotel in New York City on Saturday, November 27, 1965. The expansion Atlanta Falcons were awarded the first pick in each round as well as the final pick in each of the first five rou ...

and the eighth round of the

American Football League Draft The American Football League (AFL, 1960–1969) stocked its teams in two ways: # Signing free agents (players whose contracts in other professional football leagues had expired, or who had no professional experience). # Signing players from ...

by the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

. Buffone went on to play 15 seasons at linebacker for the Bears, retiring in 1980 as the all-time leader in games played for the legendary organization. In his professional career, Buffone gathered more than 1,200 tackles, going over the 100-tackle mark in seven seasons. He also had the honor of serving as defensive captain for eight seasons, beginning in 1972. Buffone retired with 24 career interceptions to lead all Bear linebackers. The first two pickoffs of his career came off future Hall of Famers

Bart Starr Bryan Bartlett Starr (January 9, 1934 – May 26, 2019) was an American professional football quarterback and head coach for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at the University of Alab ...

and Johnny Unitas. His retirement from football also signaled the end of an era for the Bears as he was the last active Bear to have played for

George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (; February 2, 1895October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was an American professional football player, coach, and team owner. He was the founder and owner of the National Football League's Chic ...

Post football career

Buffone and his family resided in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and he was heavily involved in Chicago sports and

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...

. Doug was one of the founders of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

, starting the

Chicago Bruisers The Chicago Bruisers were a professional arena football team based in Rosemont, Illinois. They were founded in 1987 as a charter member of the Arena Football League (AFL). They played their home games at Rosemont Horizon. History Founding (1987) ...

franchise, which played in the

ArenaBowl II Arena Bowl '88 (or Arena Bowl II) was the Arena Football League's second championship game. The game featured the number 2 Detroit Drive (9–3) against the number 1 Chicago Bruisers (10–1–1). With 37 combined points it is the lowest-scoring A ...

, he appeared on some Bruisers Radio and TV broadcasts with Les Grobstein, and was involved in the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

with the

Chicago Blitz The Chicago Blitz was a professional American football team that played in the United States Football League in the mid-1980s. They played at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. Team history The Blitz were one of the twelve charter franchis ...

. He provided broadcast

color commentary A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

for the first NFL game (featuring the Bears and the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

) in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. Buffone co-hosted "Chicago NFL Live" on "The Score"

WSCR WSCR (670 AM) – branded as 670 The Score – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois, servicing the Chicago metropolitan area and much of surrounding Northern Illinois, Northwest Indiana and parts of the Milwa ...

670 AM, as well as Bears postgame with

Ed O'Bradovich Edward O'Bradovich (born May 21, 1940 in Melrose Park, Illinois) is a former American football defensive end in the NFL that was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the seventh round (91st pick) of the 1962 NFL Draft; he spent his entire ten-year ...

, and recently completed 14 seasons of ''The Doug Buffone Show'' on

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

Chicago. Buffone was the star of a popular segment of the Mully and Hanley show on WCSR on Fridays during the football season. He played the part of "Big Doug", a bookie and collector, noted for his humour in character as "Big Doug". Other shows Buffone was involved in producing included ''The

Neal Anderson Charles Neal Anderson (born August 14, 1964) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. Anderson played college football for ...

Show'' for

WBBM-AM WBBM (780 kHz) – branded ''Newsradio 105.9 WBBM'' – is a commercial all-news AM radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois. Owned by Audacy, Inc., its studios are located at Two Prudential Plaza in the Chicago Loop, while the stati ...

, and ''The

Mike Ditka Michael Keller Ditka (born Michael Dyczko; October 18, 1939) is an American former football player, coach, and television commentator. A member of both the College (1986) and the Pro (1988) Football Halls of Fame, he was UPI NFL Rookie of Year i ...

Show'' for WSCR-AM. On "The Score", Buffone also co-hosted shows with

Mike North Mike North (born c. 1952) is an American radio sports personality, formerly working for Clear Channel Communications as a cohost with Andy Furman on ''Fox Sports Daybreak'' Mon-Friday from 5am-8am CST on their Fox Sports Radio subsidiary, until ...

(''The Wise Guys'') and

Norm Van Lier Norman Allen Van Lier III (April 1, 1947 – February 26, 2009) was an American professional basketball player and television broadcaster who spent the majority of his career with the Chicago Bulls. Early life Norman Van Lier was born in East L ...

(''The Bear and The Bull'') as well as other hosts. In May 2009, Buffone and his long-time Bears post-game partner

left WSCR-AM and joined Chicago Sports Webio. However, in June 2009, the founder of Chicago Sports Webio was charged with operating a

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

, and the site was shut down. Buffone and O'Bradovich re-signed with the Score in late August 2009. Buffone was an entrepreneur, and part owner of several Chicago area businesses, including "Gibson's Steak House", one of the most popular nightspots in Chicago's Rush Street area, and Digital One, a video production and streaming video company in the Chicago suburbs. Buffone's company Digital One is the creator of ClickStreamTV, an online video platform product that was designed for small to medium-sized businesses. Also, Buffone had a blog on his website where he posted his opinions on sports. Buffone began broadcasting

Chicago Rush The Chicago Rush were a professional arena football team based in Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Located immediately northwest of Chicago, as of the 2010 census it had a population of 4,20 ...

games for Comcast SportsNet and WGN in 2010.

Death

Buffone died at his residence in Chicago, Illinois, on April 20, 2015, aged 70.

Records and accomplishments

* Played 186 games as a Bear, the third most among Bears. * Had a career-high 158 tackles in 1972 * Had 11 solo tackles vs. New Orleans (10/6/74) * Holds the Bears record for most career interceptions at linebacker (24) * Was voted into the Louisville Hall of Fame with Johnny Unitas in 1979 * National Italian American Sports hall of fame member since 1992

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffone, Doug 1944 births 2015 deaths American people of Italian descent American football linebackers Players of American football from Pennsylvania Sportspeople from Pennsylvania Louisville Cardinals football players Chicago Bears players Arena Football League executives United States Football League announcers People from Armstrong County, Pennsylvania