'What am I going to tell them?': Dick Butkus declines to speak to Illini team
Illinois Hall of Famer Dick Butkus has declined the invitation of Illini head coach Lovie Smith to speak to the team prior to its Saturday matchup vs. No. 16 Michigan.
Smith said Monday he expected the NFL Hall of Famer to speak to this Illini team but Butkus, who arrived late Thursday night for the unveiling of his statue in front of the newly opened Smith Football Center, said he has no message for the Illini (2-3, 0-2 in Big Ten).
The reason? He doesn’t speak to teams as a personal policy. Butkus referenced a reason being that he spoke to the Illini team prior to his number being retired on Sept. 20, 1986 and Illinois proceeded to lose 59-14 to Tom Osborne’s Nebraska program.
Butkus admitted sheepishly that this statue was not a project the NFL Hall of Famer he was in favor of.
“What the hell can you say? (A statue) is usually something for dead people,” Butkus said. “I really made it tough for (sculpture) George (Lundeen). I really wasn’t for it. He did an excellent job.”
Butkus was two-time consensus All-American who he led the Illini to a Rose Bowl victory in 1963 and was voted the most valuable player in the Big Ten Conference in 1964. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and had his jersey retired at his alma mater three years later.
“We hope our fans will come help celebrate Dick's remarkable legacy and pay tribute to all that he has meant to our University and to the game of football,” Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman said.
Butkus expressed some frustration with the Illini football rebuild under Smith in his Friday media conference.
“We came here (and) it was a losing team, I think they’d lost 15 in a row but the coaches recruited certain guys and we turned the program around,” Butkus said. “So what am I going to tell these kids? You’re in the same situation I was."
Illinois is currently 11-30 overall under Smith in his four seasons with the Illini program and 4-25 in Big Ten play.
“You can get your ass beat but you can let them know that you know what, that’s a hell of a team. They come after you,” Butkus said. “I say that because at the college All-Star game and the Hula Bowl, my sophomore year we won like two games and those college all-stars would come up to me and say ‘we hated to play you guys, you weren’t worth a shit but we knew we were going to get our ass knocked off’. That’s kind of a tribute at least. You knew you were in a game when you played us. I don’t know if they feel that way here.”