Chiefs Coach Talks About Wrestlers Turned Football Players

lower center of graviety, and are hard to knock off their feet. I think Curly Culp was a wrestler.

Curley Culp (born March 10, 1946 in Yuma, Arizona) is a former professional American football player. A versatile offensive and defensive lineman, he played college football at Arizona State University, and played professionally in the American Football League for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1968 and 1969, and for the National Football League Chiefs, Houston Oilers, and the Detroit Lions. He was an AFL All-Star in 1969 and a six-time AFC-NFC Pro Bowler.

College years
During his years at Arizona State, this future NFL stalwart honed his skills on the gridiron by becoming a master grappler on the mats — winning the 1967 NCAA heavyweight wrestling title. His combination of compact bulk, amazing leverage “I got my strength carrying 50-gallon cans of feed on my dad’s pig farm in Yuma,” said Curley and quickness made him the prototype that all future nose tackles would be measured by. Pro defenses in the 1970s then began widespread use of the versatile 3-4 alignment, made possible by these powerful titans of the middle.

Culp was also an outstanding wrestler. In 1967 he dominated the NCAA tournament by pinning three of four opponents while capturing the heavyweight title. As a wrestler, he was known for his unstoppable lateral drop. Culp was also named to the 1968 U.S. Olympic wrestling team.

Due to his accomplishments both in football and wrestling, Culp was named the Greatest Athlete in the History of Arizona during the state’s centennial celebration. He was named All-American in football by the Sporting News and TIME in 1967.

It’s a pretty common overlap, as they have different ‘seasons’ in high school. I would agree that balance would be the biggest overlap between the two. Tackling would probably be improved for football players as well.

Wrestle in HS, but my class was part of 2 state championships, and lost our third by 1/2 point, and were always knows as a wrestling school. My sport was football, and being a small school we all played football, and then about 1/2 played bball and the other 1/2 wrestled, so I played Football with alot of wrestlers, and I definately think it can help. That said, there is no prerequisite that you have to have wrestled to be a great football player.

Wrestling as a sport to me is a very broad based sport because of weight classes. Our bread and butter were not the big weight classes, but the small and medium weight classes and our football team reflected that. A 275 pound match is a whole different game than a 103 pound wrestling match.

Things I noticed is that our wrestlers were incredible tacklers, especially in the open field. They could catch an ankle and drop a guy quickly, and the wrestlers almost always tackled low, whereas some of the non wrestlers like me liked to tackle more chest to chest or at the waist. I think balance was improved but I would say in my experience we had an explosion and a nasty attitude that other teams didn’t, and I think some of that came from the wrestlers. It was a mentality that it didn’t matter what the guy across from you was, you were gonna tear him up every play. Also while not a blazing fast team as far as top end speed, from linemen to backs we were all extremely quick, and explosive.

but he was pretty amazing. Here’s another paragraph, see what the comments are about the 3-4 defense:
At 6’1" and 265 lbs, Culp was considered a bit too short for the defensive line and a bit too slow to play linebacker. He moved from Denver to Kansas City in search of a team that could properly utilize his unique talents. Culp’s play as a nose tackle actually took root in Super Bowl IV. Chiefs coach Hank Stram, in an attempt to nullify the Minnesota Vikings’ quick outside rushing attack, decided to line Culp directly nose-to-nose with Vikings center Mick Tingelhoff. The smaller Tingelhoff could not block Culp one-on-one and had to be helped by the other linemen. This freed teammates Buck Buchanan, Willie Lanier, and other Chiefs defenders to get into the Vikings offensive backfield and shut down their running game. This game is often credited as the advent of the 3-4 defense.[by whom?]

"Curly Culp was a tremendous athlete," Pro Football Hall of Fame QB Len Dawson said. "He had such strength and quickness. I remember Jack Rudnay used to say that every center in the league should have to go against Curly in order to know what it’s like to go against the very best."

Culp helped anchor the Kansas City defensive line during one of the greatest eras of Chiefs football. Heralded as one of the quickest defensive linemen in the league, Culp spent seven seasons in Kansas City (1968-1974). He was a starting defensive tackle on the Chiefs Super Bowl IV squad and appeared in 82 games with Kansas City. A member of the Chiefs 25-Year All-Time Team, Culp played in the 1969 AFL All-Star Game and the 1971 Pro Bowl. He was twice honored as the Associated Press Defensive Player of the Week and claimed the Chiefs unofficial sack crown in 1973 with 9 QB takedowns. Culp also registered five fumble recoveries in his Kansas City career.

I believe len said one reason that Jcak Rudnay was such a good center was he was a wrestler also.

there was a neighboring town whose football team that hadn’t won a game in 7 years when I graduated. It took them 4 more years to get a win. 11 years without a single win, the reason was that the wrestling coach pushed the talented athletes to wrestle and refused to let them play football so they wouldn’t get hurt. Once the wrestlers started playing football again the team started getting wins again. Not saying it wasn’t just a lack of talent, but it sure couldn’t have hurt.

Broke out once he started MMA. I guess he is sort ot a football player turned wrestler but it def. helped him

I did both in HS, and being able to combine good balance with better foot movement and hand movement made me a better football player. We looked funny as all the other starting offensive linemen were 6 foot or taller and there was me, the starting guard at 5’8", but no one could get by me because I could get lower and could move my feet after contact a lot better than the average highschool player.

So I am definitely on board with that.