Webster’s Dictionary describes “team” as “a number of persons associated together in work or activity: as a group on one side (as in football or a debate)."
In 12 years in the National Football League, I learned that a team is much more than that. Baltimore Colts’ coach Ted Marchibroda built our “team” into a family, and – with no disrespect to the World War II veterans – in many ways we became a band of brothers. That feeling of family, of brotherhood, has now spanned 40 years.
In recent months, I witnessed and was part of perhaps the most moving example of that bond between and among my Baltimore Colts teammates as we came together to support, encourage, care for, and pray with
Toni Linhart as he battled colon cancer. It didn’t matter what position you played; what race, religion or political belief you embraced; or what relationship you’d had with Toni. And across the league, retired players – some of whom had faced the Colts in classic match-ups of the mid- to late 1970s – wrote and called to offer encouragement, support and prayers for Toni.
That, I believe, is the meaning of "team" -- and whatever path you take after your playing career, those bonds still bring you back to your team and your teammates.
Throughout his career – and in more than three decades since he retired – Toni has been there for us. Whether it was a game-winning field goal, a golf tournament for a charity, or a visit to wounded warriors, Toni stepped up.
Anton “Toni” Linhart
July 24, 1942 – May 12, 2013
In the end, our lives might appear to be reduced to that – a name, a date of birth, and a date of death. As professional athletes, we may be immortalized in a Hall of Fame, in the memories of fans, in NFL Films. Yet while the sports world may remember Toni Linhart as a good kicker, I’ll remember him as a good man and a good friend.
May he rest in peace.
Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal Foundation
Baltimore Colts, 1972-1981
San Diego Chargers, 1982-1983
