Gold Jacket Spotlight – Ted Hendricks, Football's Brilliant Iconoclast

Hall of Fame coach John Madden gave players on his Raiders teams only three rules to follow. The first: Be on time.

When a training camp practice was about to begin in the summer of 1975, Madden noticed that Ted Hendricks was not among the players going through the obligatory pre-practice stretching routine.

About the time Madden began to say something, Ted appeared.

Astride a horse, he arrived at the field in full practice gear. Wearing a German military helmet with “83” (his uniform number) painted on both sides, Ted rode to the center of the field, dismounted and declared himself ready for practice.

“We all just looked at each other and said, ‘Yep. Fits right in,’” Ken Stabler told biographer Mike Freeman. 
Ted, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 1990 who this week steps into the Gold Jacket Spotlight, had just joined the Raiders. He came to the team as a two-time All-Pro outside linebacker with a Super Bowl win on his resume – the ring coming as a member of the 1970 Baltimore Colts.

He also came with a reputation for being, well, ideally suited to play for the Raiders.

Madden once said, “Ted’s elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top.”

In reality, though, that was Madden offering fodder to the media to perpetuate the legend Ted was building. Madden also called Ted “brilliant” publicly and declared him one of the smartest players he ever coached.

Teammates agreed.

“Ted Hendricks is one of the smartest guys I’ve ever been around – in business, in television and in football,” said Howie Long, whose own Hall of Fame career benefitted from its first three seasons overlapping Ted’s final three.

Long said that while Raiders linebackers watched opponents’ game films in their position meetings, “Ted would sit there, half awake, and would call out the play they were going to run before they ran it.”

Ted’s academic IQ matched his football IQ. He majored in physics and mathematics at the University of Miami, where he was a three-time All-America selection.

At 6-foot-7 but only 220 pounds, many scouts considered Ted too tall to be a linebacker and too light to play defensive end. Not Don Shula and the Baltimore Colts, who drafted him with the 33rd overall pick in the 1969 AFL-NFL Draft. 

Ted did not become a full-time starter as a rookie, but he played immediately. And he never missed a game, playing an NFL-record (for a linebacker) 215 consecutive regular-season games. He also played in eight Pro Bowls, seven AFC Championship Games and four Super Bowls (V with the Colts; XI, XV and XVIII with the Raiders). He was named All-AFC seven times and All-NFC once for his standout 1974 season with the Green Bay Packers.

Over 15 seasons, Ted intercepted 26 passes, recovered 16 fumbles, recorded a record-tying four safeties and blocked 25 kicks. When his career ended, he was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team for both the 1970s and 1980s and later to the NFL 100 All-Time Team.

Along the way, he entertained fans and teammates with various harlequin masks, a helmet carved from a pumpkin and other benign escapades.

“I just do what I feel like doing,” Ted told NFL Films. “As long as I don’t interrupt anybody or hurt anyone, that’s how I feel about it.”

Al LoCasale, a longtime Raiders executive, said Ted “has done it all (and) done it with class. If he had certain eccentricities, he earned the right to have those eccentricities.” 

In presenting Ted for Enshrinement, Hall of Fame owner Al Davis said, “Ted Hendricks, if there ever was one, was a maverick.”

A maverick who was one of the best at any position.

Madden’s two other rules: “Pay attention and play like hell when I tell you to.”