As a safe for the St. Louis Cardinals , Larry Wilson helped his team defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers 21 - 17 on November 7 , 1965 . This win give up the Cardinals to rest in competition for the conference ’s Eastern Conference rubric .
Wilson set up the spirit of the game when , betimes in the first one-quarter , he burst through the Steelers ' nauseating line and clobber down a Bill Nelson authorize .
As the ball fell aimlessly toward the ground , Wilson scooped it out of mid - air and rambled 34 one thousand to the Pittsburgh 3 . The Cardinals scored on the next gambol .
While handsome plays were nothing new for the Cardinals ' All - Pro refuge , what made this one different was that Wilson was play with mould on both hands , sustain a week in the beginning sustained a broken left hand and a broken finger on his right hand .
Wilson ( born 1938 ) truly earned the reputation of being the " tough musician in the NFL . " The Cardinals ' innovative safety blitz was designed around the 6'0 " , 190 - pound defensive attitude back .
" I had to hold off for the right player to execute it , " explained Chuck Drulis , the Cardinals ' defensive coordinator and blitz architect .
" He had to be flying , he had to be a surd tackler , and he had to have a lot of gut because he could be belt really hard by those big nauseous linemen if anything give out untimely . Larry had all those attributes . "
A 7th - rounddraftchoice out of Utah in 1960 , Wilson had serious doubtfulness that he would even make the Cardinal ’s squad . Not only did the next Hall of Famer make the squad , but he started as a rookie and made the first of his eight Pro Bowl appearances in 1962 .
In addition to being a virulent in force blitzer , Wilson was also recognized as an outstanding coverage man . He led the conference in interceptions in 1966 with 10 , including a strand of seven games in which he had at least one pick . He finished his career with a club - record 52 interceptions .
According to Steelers Hall of Fame field general Bobby Layne , Wilson " may have been the ruffianly guy , hammering - for - pound , who ever played this game . "
To learn more about football greats, see:
To learn , see :
