David Butz was an American professional football player who played defensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL)
for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Redskins during the course of a 16-year career from 1973 to 1988. He passed away on November 4, 2022.
He represented the Purdue Boilermakers in collegiate football.
Butz was born in 1950 in Alabama. He was a two-time high school All-American while playing football for Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Illinois.
[1] He was the Illinois High School discus champion and a basketball player as well, setting a state record.
Butz participated in collegiate football at Purdue University and was a 1972 Lombardi Award finalist.
He participated in the East-West Shrine Game and Senior Bowl, where he was voted the Defensive MVP, and was a member of the Big Ten's first team.
In the future, Butz was selected for Purdue's All-Time Football Team[1], and in 2014, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Butz was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round (fifth overall) of the 1973 NFL Draft, and he would play for them for two seasons.
For the right to Butz, Redskins coach George Allen traded two first-round draft picks and a second-round pick to the Cardinals.