Remembering Former GM Bobby Beathard, "the Smartest Man in the NFL"

(EDITOR’S NOTE: To listen to the Bobby Beathard interview, please click on the following link: Bobby Beathard Interview by Talk of Fame Network (soundcloud.com)

When the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened the contributor category in 2015, former GMs Bill Polian and Ron Wolf were its first inductees. Three years later, a third general manager – Bobby Beathard – was the contributor finalist, and Polian was asked what he thought.

What he thought, Polian said, was that he shouldn’t have been enshrined before Beathard.

“To me” he said, “Bobby Beathard was the single greatest evaluator I’ve come across.”

Polian wasn’t alone. So renowned was Beathard, that Sports Illustrated called him “The Smartest Man in the NFL” in a 1988 profile. He found players where others could not. He took chances when others would not. And he won Super Bowls (3) when others did not.

Beathard passed away earlier this week at the age of 86, with the news Wednesday provoking an outpouring of sympathy, admiration and love from the NFL community.

“Bobby was a man of extraordinary class and integrity,” the Washington Commanders said in a prepared statement, “and was the architect behind the greatest teams in this organization’s history.”

I was privileged to present Beathard to the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame’s board of selectors in 2018, the year of his induction to Canton, and can never forget what John Madden, a former teammate of Beathard’s at Cal Poly San Obispo, told me about his lifelong friend.

“The thing about Bobby,” he said, “is that he never had a bad day in his life. He enjoyed every part of it.”

In remembrance of Bobby Beathard, we re-post a 2016 interview he did with the Talk of Fame Network. To hear it, click on the following link … and enjoy every part of it:

Bobby Beathard Interview by Talk of Fame Network (soundcloud.com)