NFL Greatest Players

Alan Page: Call him the thinking man's defensive tackle, a destroyer who only employed contact as a means to an end.

Alan Page never wore arm pads during his 15-year NFL career because he planned to go around blockers, not hit them.

He relied on intelligence, speed and explosive quickness to win battles in the trenches, a style that allowed him to redefine the position over a Hall of Fame career that started with the Minnesota Vikings in 1967 and ended 218 games later in Chicago.

The 6-4, 245-pound Page was thinner than most tackles, but he also was quicker and faster. The former Notre Dame star played like a linebacker in a three-point stance, an aggressive attack man who didn't need brute force to blow past a blocker.

Page's strengths were quickness off the snap and pursuit -- a sideline-to-sideline determination to chase down the ball. His uncanny ability to get into the backfield gave him distinction as the game's first outstanding pass-rushing tackle and a dangerous kick-blocker.

A free-lancer within the Vikings' defensive system, Page became the centerpiece for the famed "Purple People Eaters" defense that carried Minnesota to Super Bowls after the 1969, 1973, 1974 and 1976 seasons -- all losses.

Page and end Jim Marshall formed a dynamic right side through most of the 1970s, with Carl Eller operating efficiently on the left. With the relentless, unemotional Page often controlling the flow of games from 1968 through 1977, the Vikings were 104-35-1.

Through all of his success, the nine-time Pro Bowl selection professed a take-it-or-leave-it feeling about football and earned a law degree before finishing his career.

He also became fascinated with running and competed in marathons, a pastime that contributed to his late-career drop to 220 pounds and his 1978 breakup with the Vikings. He now is serving as an associate justice in the Minnesota Supreme Court.