Schmidt was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 after his highly decorated career. "He and Kaline were acquaintances more than close friends. In the first game of the 1953 season, he helped the Lions to a 38–21 win over the Pittsbur… He was kind of like the Jim Brown in Cleveland in baseball.
"And they wanted to cut his pay.
He anticipated plays with uncanny accuracy. Kaline never bragged about his accomplishments. Later in his career, he was the team's field captain for nine straight seasons. He was elected to the Pro Bowl ten straight years from 1955 through 1964 and his teammates voted him their Most Valuable Player four times.Sign up and get Insider's information & Special OffersSchmidt didn't exactly create the middle linebacker position but it was a job that was developed in the 1950s with the change of the ordinary defensive structure to the 4-3 frontal alignment. He was fast enough to evade a 250-pound guard, to follow a play along the line or to drop back to cover a pass. "He was special," former Lions linebacker Mike Lucci said. But I’ve known him since the '60s and he was always classy. Joe Schmidt's Career Capsule. Without question, he was the first to play the position with such finesse that even the masses in the stands could see the growing value of the "defensive quarterback." "'We were obviously playing at the same place (at Tiger Stadium) and we rooted for him," Lucci said. Schmidt’s No.
He was a deadly tackler. "He was a cut above.
But his greatest talent may well have been his uncanny knack of knowing what the opposition was going to do.Honor the Heroes of the Game, Preserve Its History, Promote Its Values & Celebrate Excellence Everywhere For all of those honors, perhaps the finest accolade an athlete can earn is the universal respect of his opponents and teammates and Joe earned this kind of acclaim in abundance.
Mine was just knocking people around.
It was a different sport altogether than what I was doing.
The Lions and Schmidt both had doubts as to whether a seventh round pick would be able to make the lineup of the best defense in the NFL. Of all the pieces of memorabilia Joe Schmidt has from his playing days with the Detroit Lions, one picture stands above the rest..
"You had (Bill) Freehan and him and (Norm) Cash and (Mickey) Stanley and Earl Wilson.
“Joe Schmidt was a transcendent linebacker for over a decade, earning eight first-team All-Pro honors in 10 years and making the Pro Bowl every season from 1954-1963. He was a little quieter, or stayed out of public a little bit.
Full Name: Joseph Paul Schmidt Birthdate: January 18, 1932 Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania High School: Brentwood (Pittsburgh, Pa.) Elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame: January 13, 1973 Enshrined into Pro Football Hall of Fame: July 28, 1973 Presenter: William Clay Ford, Owner/President, Lions Other Members of Class of 1973: Raymond Berry, Jim Parker
"Everybody knows about it.
Joe also can have the satisfaction of knowing that his presence played a big role in changing defensive play in professional football.When Schmidt started playing pro football, the Lions were traditionally a strong defensive team.
"I (told my wife the other day) all I did was jump on piles and Al hit a baseball and Gordie hit the puck skating. Neither did Howe. He was voted to the NFL all-league team ten times. They both carried themselves like the winners they were.Lucci and Kaline hung out occasionally during their playing days, and saw each other more often in retirement as members at Oakland Hills Country Club.
He was strong enough to power past a potential blocker to crumble a play.
He was as good as they came.
He joined a team that had won the 1952 NFL Championship and led the NFL in scoring defense.
I told him, I said if you were playing today they’d have to give you half the team. Schmidt tracked down a copy of the photo after it ran in the local paper, had his Detroit sports contemporaries autograph it, and for the past 60 or so years, it's hung in a frame somewhere in his house. "He told me the story one time of when he first got to $100,000 and I guess he batted .299 or whatever it was, it wasn’t like the year before," Lucci said.
56 is the only defensive player jersey to be retired by the Lions.
""I couldn’t hold a stick to either one of those in regards to ability," Schmidt said Monday.
However, Schmidt impressed in the pre-season and was included in the regular season roster.
Schmidt called Kaline "a class guy," too.The three posed for a picture, with Schmidt in front, Howe in the middle and Kaline in back. Schmidt was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the seventh round (85th overall pick) of the 1953 NFL Draft.
"Kaline made his major league debut in 1953 as an 18-year old, while Lucci played the 1965-73 seasons with the Lions.
Probably ran around with some of the other ones a little more than him.