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49ers All-Time Defensive Tackle #1

Leonomellini_medium

Editor's Note Midnight: Alright I'm a moron.  Somehow I ended up on a single track thinking Bryant Young at defensive tackle and completely forgot about Leo Nomellini.  I'm going to redo this and figure out a better way to handle this position.  I originally had Bryant Young as an automatic entry, but as spenczar so astutely pointed out, that was a mistake on my part.  So I'm going to make some changes to this and get it back up shortly.

A while back we had a vote on whether to go with the 3-4 or the 4-3 for the defense on our all-time team.  Now that the polls have closed, it was close enough to lead to an executive decision.  I've decided to go 4-4 to combine the best of both worlds.  Yes this would technically lead to a 12-man defense, but I don't think it's all that big a deal.  So, the defensive line will consist of two defensive tackles and two defensive ends, which leads to today's selection.

I had initially thought about opening up a poll including Leon Nomellini and Bryant Young among others.  However, as has been pointed out below, Nomellini has been recognized by the NFL as an all-time defensive tackle.  Nomellini was the first 49er draft choice after they entered the NFL.  While statistics are not available, the awards piled up for Nomellini.  Aside from his outstanding offensive line play, he was a 4-time All-NFL defensive tackle and went to 10 Pro Bowls.  Add in being named to the NFL's All Time Team at defensive tackle, and there's not a whole lot more you can ask of the man.

What makes his play even more amazing is the fact that he played offense and defense and went 14 years (1950-1963) without missing a game.  As they state at his Hall of fame website:

The choice of Nomellini proved to be a superb one. At 6-3 and 260, "The Lion” had everything needed to be an all-time pro great – size, speed, agility, aggressiveness, dedication to the game, superb conditioning and the willingness to go the full 60 minutes of any game.

And a piece of information that is clearly more important than anything else: In the offseason Nomellini was a professional wrestler winning multiple titles in the NWA and AWA.  I think that's a sufficient cap to an all-around amazing career.  We'll be back with a poll for the #2 defensive tackle later in the week.

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Big mistake.

No way this should be an automatic! I really, really disagree.
Leo Nomellini:
Never missed a game for 14 years. – 266 straight games.
Played DT and OT, so he took twice the punishment. Imagine a player going 28 straight years without missing a single game!
10-time probowler
9-time All-Pro selection
Named to the NFL’s all-time team at DT – in other words, named the best Defensive Tackle ever by experts around the league.

Bryant Young:
4-time probowler
NEVER on the NFL all-pro team – while Nomellini was the best DT in the league 9 years, Bryant Young wasn’t even ONCE.
Named to the NFL’s 90s team.

I know we’re all biased by being young. That doesn’t excuse this. In an era when the defensive tackle was far more important with more run-heavy offenses, Nomellini was the best. He was easily the greatest defensive tackle ever for the Niners. While I love BY as much as anyone – I wear his jersey all the time – this is an insult to Leo.

by spenczar on Jun 3, 2008 11:44 PM PDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

good call

Thanks for the heads-up. Got in one particular zone and had on blinders. I think the safest bet is to name Nomellini as the #1 DT and then open up a vote for the #2.

Niners Nation - The premier 49ers blog on the Internet!

by Fooch on Jun 4, 2008 12:02 AM PDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I know the feeling Fooch and I've done the same thing

That’s why its nice to have excellent readers such as spenczar.

by Chris on Jun 4, 2008 2:25 PM PDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I may be young

but I’m very immature for my age.

by methodrampage on Jun 4, 2008 3:47 PM PDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

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