#15

 

ANTHONY MUÑOZ

There was nothing brutish about the way Anthony Muñoz played football. He was a big man for his time and exceptionally strong and powerful, but Muñoz was the top blocker of his time because of his skills and talent. However, don’t think for a second that Muñoz was not about blasting his opponents into submission. He did it regularly when he finished his blocks.

But even when Muñoz was run blocking he would start off with the sweetest technique that NFL observers had ever seen. Muñoz learned the finer points of blocking under coach John Robinson at USC and continued to develop once he was drafted third overall by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1980. “I enjoyed what I was doing and I never really thought it was about me showing the other guy who was tougher,” Muñoz said. “I wanted to create a hole for the running back or protect the quarterback. To me, that was all about technique. My technique against his technique. You want to turn it into some physical battle or some war, fine. But that’s not going to change my objective. I want to open a hole. I want to create a running lane. I want to protect the quarterback. I’m not going to get drawn into your war.”

When Muñoz was playing left tackle for the Bengals, he opened huge holes in the running game. Eleven times chosen to the Pro Bowl and a nine-time first-team All-Pro selection, Muñoz led Cincinnati to the most productive running game in the league from 1986 to 1989, when almost all the key runs were to his side of the ball.

James Brooks was a very good running back, but he is never going to be compared with Barry Sanders, Walter Payton, or Emmitt Smith. Yet when he was running behind Muñoz, he was one of the most feared backs in the league. “I didn’t feel like I needed that much room to make a big play,” Brooks said. “I was quick and I could get through a small crack. But when you run behind Anthony you don’t get a small crack. He was so big, so powerful, and just so good that you got a whole lane to run through and then you could cut off his back as he was finishing his block. He was like nobody I ever played with.”

Muñoz was a student of the game and he was blessed with a tap dancer’s feet. He could sprint when he had to in order to make a block on the corner but what made him superior was his ability to change direction without losing his balance.

“I don’t care who he was playing against, what the conditions were like or what his assignment was,” said longtime Bengals offensive-line coach Jim McNally. “He never fell down. He had the most incredible balance I’ve ever seen. Even against the quickest pass rushers he would never leave his feet. He had incredible balance and anticipation. He was a great player to coach and just a tremendous student of the game.”

Muñoz actually viewed himself as something of an artist on the field. He viewed offensive-line play as the most unsung aspect of football and his goal was to play the position to perfection. His wife DeDe offered perhaps the best insight of anyone when it came to Muñoz’s career. “If you really watch the way he plays offensive line, it’s different than any other player in the league,” she told Sports Illustrated. “Instead of trying to intimidate someone or overpower them, all he wanted to do was show how his skill level was higher than his opponent’s. It’s artistic the way he plays. He makes it look easy.”

Muñoz was huge on conditioning but not necessarily the weightlifting aspect that is such a big part of today’s game. Muñoz would run two to three miles before practice and then take part in the regular drills that the rest of his team took part in. He pushed himself even harder as he got older. Muñoz realized that older players had an edge in knowledge and technique but younger players were more athletic. That’s why he kept pushing himself because he never wanted his opponent to have an edge on him.

“I’ll tell you that he was one great player,” said former Houston Oilers defensive end William Fuller, who would line up against Muñoz twice a year. “The man had the most unbelievably quick feet at the position that I ever saw. Nobody was even close. And when you combine that with his technique it was a brutal assignment to try to get the best of him. He had the best feet and his hands were just at about the same level. He was the best and by a wide margin.”

Pass blocking was almost easy for Muñoz. As he would settle into his backpedal, he got to his blocking position quickly and then would not give another inch. His consistency amazed Ken Anderson and Boomer Esiason, the Bengals’ primary quarterbacks when Muñoz played each of whom went to a Super Bowl with Muñoz up front.

“Here’s the thing you have to know about Anthony Muñoz,” Esiason said. “He always did his job. I don’t know anything that’s better to say about a professional football player. He didn’t use excuses and he didn’t need them. He was there to do a job and he did it the way you were supposed to. It didn’t matter who he was going up against. Anthony was always there and always holding up his end of the deal. The only thing he didn’t do was disappoint you.”

In an era when athletes frequently went for the glory and the gusto, there was no element to his game that was about trying to grab credit. “He never said anything when you played against him,” said Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith. “No trash talking. No nothing. The only thing I ever heard from him was an apology when his fingers went inside my facemask. If that had happened with other players you would have thought they had done it to get an edge. Not with Anthony. Not only didn’t he need to get an edge, he would never have played dirty, not even for a second.”

Sounds like the perfect offensive lineman. There aren’t too many that would argue the point.