State Your Case: Joe Fortunato
The Hall of Fame is one Bear linebacker light
Joe Fortunato photo courtesy of the Chicago Bears
The Pro Football Hall of Fame has always rewarded the best outside linebacker of each decade.
Well, almost always.
It was Derrick Brooks in the 2000s. First-team all-decade, Hall-of-Fame gold jacket. Derrick Thomas in the 1990s. First-team all-decade, gold jacket. Lawrence Taylor in the 1980s – first-team all-decade, gold jacket. Jack Ham in the 1970s — first-team all-decade, gold jacket. Bobby Bell in the 1960s – first-team all-decade, gold jacket.
The 1950s decade was when the 4-3 defensive alignment arrived in the NFL. Chicago Bears coach George Halas stood up his nose guard Bill George in 1954, backed him off the line and the middle linebacker position was created. Linebackers became categorized from that point on as middle or outside.
Joe Fortunato was the best outside linebacker of the 1950s but his career remains unrewarded and his candidacy for the Hall of Fame all but forgotten. Fortunato is in his 54th year of eligibility and his career has never been discussed by the Hall of Fame selection committee.
There were only four linebackers selected to the 1950s NFL all-decade team. Joe Fortunato was assigned to the second-team only because the other three earning first-team acclaim were all middle linebackers – George, Sam Huff and Joe Schmidt. There were 14 defensive players named first- and second-team all-decade for the 1950s and Fortunato is the only one still without a bust in Canton.
Fortunato became the prototype for the outside linebacker position – big enough to handle a tight end, fast enough to run with backs and athletic enough to negotiate traffic. He was Jack Ham before Jack Ham.
Fortunato was the captain and defensive signal caller of Chicago’s 1963 NFL championship team. He was voted to five Pro Bowls and was a first-team all-pro in three seasons and a second-teamer in another. He once went seven consecutive seasons during his 12-year career leading the Bears in tackles – an impressive feat considering he played his entire career alongside a pair of Hall-of-Fame middle linebackers, George and Dick Butkus.
And Fortunato excelled despite missing what would have been the first three seasons of his career.
Fortunato was a two-way player in college at Mississippi State, earning All-America honors in 1951 as a fullback on offense and a linebacker on defense. He became a seventh-round draft choice of the Bears in 1952 but his career was put on hold by the Korean War. He was a first lieutenant who served for three years in the military before joining the Bears in 1955.
Now 25 years of age, Fortunato become a walk-in starter at left outside linebacker. He moved to the right side in 1956 and came up with four turnovers to help the Bears reach the NFL title game. He returned one of his takeaways for a touchdown – a 27-yard interception against Detroit. He recovered three more fumbles in 1957 and then was voted to his first Pro Bowl in 1958.
Fortunato moved back to the left side in 1958, intercepting five passes and recovering four fumbles over the next three seasons, but the Bears became also-rans on the field as the Green Bay Packers were emerging into a dynasty in the West. But Fortunato returned to the Pro Bowl in 1962 – the first of four consecutive Pro Bowls. He was voted second-team all-pro in 1962 and first-team from 1963 through 1965.
Fortunato played one more season at 36 years ago before a knee injury ended his career in 1967. He left the game with an NFL-record 22 fumble recoveries by a linebacker. Only three outside linebackers since then have recovered more and all were edge rushers who recovered most of the fumbles off the pass rush – Rickey Jackson, Cornelius Bennett and Kevin Greene.
Fortunato was enshrined in the Mississippi State Hall of Fame in 1978 and has been named one of the 30 greatest Bears of all time by a variety of Chicago news outlets. Considering the Bears already have 30 players in the Hall of Fame, Fortunato is in elite company. He passed away in 2017 at the age of 87.
The Bears have had four modern-era middle linebackers enshrined in the Hall of Fame – George, Butkus, Mike Singletary and Brian Urlacher – but no outside linebacker. Which is a shame, because there should be one.
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