To hear Baltimore Colts linebacker Mike Curtis discuss the moment for which he would be most remembered, you might think he was a college professor assessing judicial philosophy.
“What I liked about professional football was that I was able to resolve disagreements … immediately.”
His tone is thoughtful. His pacing, considered. This is clearly a subject that has garnered the attention of a cerebral man. A cerebral man whose nickname on the football field was “Mad Dog.”
Mike Curtis’ most famous play wasn’t a play at all
Mike Curtis was the Baltimore Colts middle linebacker for eleven seasons, from 1965 to 1975. He made four Pro Bowls during that time. It would have been more, but that was the era of the middle linebacker in the NFL.
Butkus, Lanier, Nitschke, Buoniconti, Huff … all Hall of Famers. A lot of fans think Curtis and Atlanta Falcons great Tommy Nobis deserve to be in Canton as well. It was an era in which clotheslining quarterbacks around the neck wasn’t just legal. It was encouraged. Those middle linebackers were the toughest guys on the field.
Curtis was not just tough. He was smart. His most important play came at the end of Super Bowl V, when he was in position to intercept a Craig Morton pass, setting up Jim O’Brien’s 32-yard field that gave the Colts their first Super Bowl win.
That may have been his most significant play, but it was not what he would be best-known for. That moment came about a year later, late in the 1971 season. Baltimore was playing Miami in old Memorial Stadium. It was the fourth quarter.
As the two teams huddled, a fan ran onto the field and snatched the ball, a wide, drunken grin plastered on his face. He took about three steps when Curtis leveled him. As though he was chasing down Floyd Little or Larry Csonka. Curtis took about four strides and unloaded, hitting the grinning fan with a left shoulder to the chest.
“I just gave him a flipper. I didn’t try to put his lights out,” he would later recall.
The ball popped up in the air. The fan hit the deck. Security came to escort him from the field. Curtis casually returned to the huddle and got ready for the next play.
It would go down as one of the most memorable moments in Colts’ history and public sentiment would favor Curtis, adding to the legend of Mad Dog. But in the immediate aftermath of the game, things were not so clear. Two of the Colts team leaders, Bill Curry and Bubba Smith, told Curtis after the game that he may have damaged the reputation of football players with his brutal reaction.
Curtis’ reply?
“That guy came into our place of business. I enforced a city ordinance that prevents him from doing that.”
Baltimore won the game 14-3. Tom Matte ran for a couple of touchdowns. Curtis’ fellow linebackers Ted Hendricks and Ray May each had key interceptions. Nobody remembered any of that.
What everyone remembered was Mad Dog Mike Curtis resolving a disagreement. Immediately.