I'm obviously biased and would say number 66 on the Packers - Ray Nitschke. Lambert would be a close 2nd.

Try to tear your head off, tackle you, stand over you, spit in your face then help you up for the next play. Old school football.

Probably missed a few but just thinking the 60's, 70's, 80's time frame.

as you already knew, impossible to prove...but I'd add Willie Lanier to your middle area and Nick Buoniconti to the earlier time frame, could probably add several more.

But...Lawrence Taylor was probably the greatest linebacker ever, much as I hate to pick a hated NY Giant for anything good.

Belichick has been saying so for years.

He wasn't flashy and didn't get nearly the same amount of publicity as #66 but OLB #89 Dave Robinson was a heck of a ballplayer too. Some say he was the Lawrence Taylor of his day. Robinson made Dallas QB "Dandy" Don Meredith throw up the pass at the end of the 1966 NFC Championship game that Tom Brown intercepted to seal the game and send GB to the first Super Bowl.

But iffin' we talkin' only Middle Linebackers, then gotta add the likes of:

****** Butkus
Joe Schmidt
Sam Huff

Shouldn't there be a disclaimer that LT needs to be coked out to be considered

I have to put "Concrete Charlie" Chuck Bednarik, in for "honorable mention". (Yes, he was a an EAGLE)
Played both ways, (Linebacker & Center).
Probably most remembered for his "shoestring tackle" on Frank Gifford.

I knew, when creating this post, that I'd miss many of the greats. What sparked it was watching some highlights of Jack Lambert.

I remember when I was a kid, probably like 5 yrs old, going to a local liquor store in the burbs of Milwaukee where Ray Nitschke was doing a meet and greet type of thing for the Boy Scouts. Go in, and he'd sign your tee shirt, a picture and stuff like that. I remember looking at him and holy crap he was huge (coming from a 5 yr old). He signed a picture and offered me to put on his Super Bowl ring. That thing was huge and wouldn't even fit on my thumb.

This was back in the day when they didn't charge you for a signature. He was there to raise money for the local Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts. A bucket for voluntary donations. There was no line out the door, flashing lights and stuff like that. They were just regular folks that played football every Sunday and didn't take on the Movie Star attitude that many do today.

Lawrence Taylor and Jerry Rice might be the best football players ever.

I think LT was a bridge to a new prototype of LB…..so in my mind he’s not an old school LB in the way Díck or Ray or Jack are. Jack was nasty, Ray was nasty as was Díck. I think Díck was the most athletic (they were all also intimidating which is another classic trait for this discussion).

I'd say Butkus...NFL RB's and QBs celebrated when he literally lost some teeth in his later years...saved their fingers...

funny story: I chartered a fresh water fishing guide in Kauai years ago...the guide said his last customer, the day before, was ****** Butkus; he said he was initially nervous and somewhat fearful, given the reputation, but Butkus turned out to be a polite, calm and cool conversationalist, funny and often self-deprecating...his lasting memory is of the mangled appearance of Butkus' fingers and hands

Back-in-the-day, MLB or at least one of the inside LBs in the old Oklahoma 5-3 / 5-2 alignment, was THE position on defense. ‘Backers were expected to make no less than 10 solo tackles a game. Iffin’ you didn’t, you didn’t last too long as the starter (…I speak from personal experience on that…).

Kinda, sorta funny now but there were some borderline legal things our coaches taught us to do. Head slaps, forearm chops to the back of the center (…especially the long snapper…) and unmentionable grabbing / twisting / punching things when you’re on the bottom of the pile trying to recover a fumble. Hell, horsecollar tackles were completely legal. Tried that once against Mosi Tatupu…needless to say, it didn’t work out too well for me. [frypan]

Mosi was a great man and a rugged, beloved Patriot.
Stayed in the Foxboro area after retiring.
Died way too young

Based on that line of characters, Taylor.

Ironic as he loved lines.

My favorite LB to watch, Derrick Thomas. 11 years with the Chiefs. (Yeah, I'm biased)

Here's some of my Mosi stories:

In 8th grade, he was in my Homeroom and 1st period Agriculture class. A bunch of us also used to walk home with him after school. Being friends with a good-sized Samoan and arguably the "bull" of 8th grade helped keep any undesirables away. He was already too big to play Pop Warner football so was just a "regular" guy that Fall. Spitballing and trying to remember 50+ years ago, I'd say he was at least 5'8" and about 160 lbs.

The Statue of Limitations has longed passed so I can tell this story but on our way home, there were a couple of times when a Coca-Cola truck would be making a delivery and the driver would leave the sliding side door open so we would "liberate" a few Cokes and stick them in Mosi's corduroy coat. He was the fastest of all of us so it made sense for him to have the freed bottles. We would go up to his grandmother's apartment and drink them warm.

Mosi told us when he was around 5, his family moved to Hawaii, he couldn't speak any English so he was held back in school. The village he was from didn't issue any birth certificates so he was, most likely, born in 1954...but, also coulda been 1953. Who really knows? Anyway, we all knew Mosi was older by at least a year. At 14, mebbe 15, he was already lookin' like a man. Oh yah, I also had PE with him and we HAD TO shower afterwards so there's that too.

After 8th grade, Mosi and two other of my friends were recruited by and received scholarships to Punahou School. A few years later, Barry Obama would later attend the same school. Punahou is / was an old time private establishment that generally catered to Caucasians and well-to-doers. Trust me, Mosi and my friends were far from either but they could play football like no other 8th graders. They were held back 'cause, well, the rules allowed them to repeat 8th grade, especially since they were coming from a public school.

Played against Mosi and my two friends, Wendell Ho and James Kealoha from sophomore year and on. Needless to say, Mosi was the star RB wherever he played. Wendell was the JV QB and James the center. All 3 played varsity as 10th graders although, iirc, only Mosi started. In a game my junior year, Mosi was the short man on the kick return team. On the opening kickoff, he got the ball. It was on the opposite side of the field from me so by the time I got there, 4 or 5 of my teammates had surrounded him but the pile was moving forward. I thought, 'cause I was young and dumb, that I could hurl myself into the pile and drive it backwards. Hahaha! What a foolish thought. Even after running into it at full speed, the pile moved forward. I worked myself to the side, grabbed Mosi's shoulder pads (horsecollar) and fully expected to pull him back. Hahaha! What a foolish thought again. Eventually the 8 or 9 of us got Mosi to the ground. In the meantime, I got twisted around and my hand bent in a weird position. My middle finger on my right hand was the last one stuck and it hurt like heck for a couple of weeks.

Fast forward about 6 years.

After setting Hawaii high school rushing records, Mosi went to USC. However, they used him as a FB so, iirc, he blocked for Charles White. Anyway, James and I were coaching Pop Warner football at my old stomping grounds, Palama Settlement, and James brought in Mosi to talk to the kids. That was really cool but I was frickin' shocked, Mosi spoke with ZERO accent, nothing close to what he was like at Kalakaua Intermediate. Perfect English. Of course it was great to see him again but proved to be the last time I saw him in person.

Forgot him. There are many that can be included.

Hard to go wrong picking any of the four in the poll.

There's a reason they call it the Butkus award

Yup...BUT...Junior Seau...Chris Spielman...Brian Urlacher...and Mike Singletary could fill in for a few downs while he catches his breath!