Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Son of Mandingo

Happy Birthday to my man Ken Norton, Jr. (b. 1966), Seattle's linebackers coach from 2010-14.

He won three Super Bowl rings as an All-Pro linebacker for the Cowboys and the 49ers before joining Pete Carroll as a defensive coach at USC and then Seattle.

Norton had the guts to jettison first-round bust Aaron Curry and the skill to mold KJ Wright, Bruce Irvin and Bobby Wagner into one of the league's best linebacking corps and key components of one of the greatest defenses in the history of the NFL.

He is now Oakland's defensive coordinator.

Norton is the son and namesake of boxing legend Ken Norton, Sr., who later starred in the blaxploitation classic Mandingo and Drum, which helped inspire Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.

No comments:

Post a Comment