George Atkinson (American football)
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Personal information
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| Date of birth: January 4, 1947 | |||||||||
| Place of birth: Savannah, Georgia | |||||||||
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Career information
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| College: Morris Brown | |||||||||
| NFL Draft: 1968 / Round: 7 / Pick: 190 | |||||||||
| Debuted in 1968 for the Oakland Raiders | |||||||||
| Last played in 1979 for the Denver Broncos | |||||||||
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Career history
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Career highlights and awards
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Career NFL statistics as of 1979
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| Stats at pro-football-reference.com | |||||||||
| Stats at DatabaseFootball.com | |||||||||
George "Butch" Henry Atkinson Jr. (born January 4, 1947 in Savannah, Georgia) is a former professional American football player. He played football collegiately at Morris Brown, where he was a defensive back and a kick returner and professionally in the American Football League and National Football League for the Oakland Raiders from 1968 to 1977.[1] He was a member of the Raiders' Super Bowl XI championship team.
Atkinson set the Raiders' single-game record for punt return yardage in 1968, with 205 yards against Buffalo. He ranks fifth on the Raiders all-time interception list with 30.
In a regular-season game in 1976 vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Raiders' arch-rival, Atkinson hit an unsuspecting Lynn Swann in the back of the head with a forearm smash, even though the ball had not been thrown to Swann. The hit rendered Swann unconscious with a concussion.[1] Atkinson had also hit Swann in a similar manner in the previous season's AFC Championship game, which also gave Swann a concussion.[1] After the second incident, Steeler's coach Chuck Noll referred to Atkinson as part of the "criminal element" in football. Atkinson subsequently filed a $2 million defamation lawsuit against Noll and the Steelers, which Atkinson lost.[1]
Atkinson currently works as a Raiders broadcaster, doing the pre-game and post-game shows. He also hosts a television program called Behind the Shield. Since 2008, Atkinson has been a major spokesperson for "The Clothing Broker", a warehouse-style clothing store in Oakland, California.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d "An Old Raider’s Old-School Values". The New York Times. December 7, 2009. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
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