Bearly Legal 10-11-10: Alan Page and Joe Delamielleure

Robin and David line it up with former Vikings & Bears DT Alan Page, who not only holds the honor of being in the NFL Hall of Fame, he’s also an Associate Justice with the Minnesota Supreme Court. Then, we power up with a member of the Buffalo Bills’ vaunted Electric Company of the 1970’s, NFL Hall of Fame OG Joe Delamielleure

Alan Page

Alan Page, a consensus All-America at Notre Dame in 1966, was the Minnesota Vikings\' second pick in the first round of the first combined AFL-NFL draft in 1967. Although he had played defensive end in college, he was moved to defensive tackle with the Vikings.

Page won the starting defensive right tackle job in the fourth game of his rookie season and he remained a starter for the rest of his career. Alan excelled with the Vikings for 11 seasons and six games into the 1978 campaign, when he was waived. The Chicago Bears quickly signed him and he moved into the starting lineup without missing a game.

Page wound up his career in 1981 after playing 238 games, all but three of them as a starter. Included were 16 NFL/NFC playoff games and Super Bowls IV, VIII, IX, and XI.

During Page\'s tenure, the Vikings won four of the five NFL/NFC title games in which they played. Page, who in 1971 was named the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player, was only the second defensive player to be accorded such an honor. He was also named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1971 and 1973. Page earned All-Pro honors six times, and was named second-team all-league three additional times. Voted to nine straight Pro Bowls, Page was named to an all-conference team ten times.

Intelligent and hardworking with amazing speed and quickness, Page accumulated some imposing career statistics. He recovered 23 opponents’ fumbles, and unofficial figures show that he also blocked 28 kicks and recorded 173 sacks. Rather than wait for the ball carrier, he sought him out. “A defensive player should think of himself more as an aggressor, not as a defender,” he explained. After retiring from pro football, Page became a lawyer and was elected to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Alan\'s Career Stats

Joe DeLamielleure

In the 1970s, Joe DeLamielleure and his Buffalo Bills offensive line mates were dubbed the “Electric Company,” because they “turned the Juice loose.” The “Juice” of course was Hall of Fame running back O.J. Simpson. An All-America and three-time All-Big Ten performer at Michigan State, “Joe D” as he was known, was selected in the first round of the 1973 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills.

At first, when he failed his physical, it seemed he would never play pro football. Fortunately, further tests showed his irregular heartbeat was not serious, and Joe went on to win All-Rookie honors. It was the beginning of a string of career honors that few guards had or have since exceeded.

He went on to become the most honored lineman of the Bills respected front wall. Eight times during his career he was selected first- or second-team All-Pro; seven times he was named first- or second-team All-AFC, and six times he was named to the Pro Bowl. Since 1970, only two Hall of Fame guards, John Hannah with 10 and Gene Upshaw with seven, were named All-Pro more often. In 1975, the NFL Players Association named him Offensive Lineman of the Year.

Extremely durable and dependable, Joe played in 185 consecutive games during his 13 playing seasons with the Bills and the Cleveland Browns. A starter from the first game of his rookie season, DeLamielleure played and started in every game for eight seasons in Buffalo before being traded to Cleveland in 1980. During five years in Cleveland he played in every game and had only three non-starts.

Primarily due to the success of the Bills running attack led by Simpson, DeLamielleure was best known for his run blocking. Behind the swift pulling guard, O.J. became the first player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season. But Joe was more than just a run blocker, he was also an effective pass blocker and rarely allowed his opponent to disrupt Buffalo’s or Cleveland’s pass plays. DeLamielleure, who was named to the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade Team, finished his career in 1985 with a final season back where it had begun, in Buffalo.

Joe\'s Career Stats