Sport: A Man's Game

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If need be, Huff can do the job with brute force alone. Item: after San Francisco's Hugh McElhenny took a screen pass and set out behind two 250-lb. blockers, Huff knocked all three out of bounds with one grizzly-like shove. Item: Huff can handle the Browns' Brown better than any linebacker in the league; in the playoff game for the Eastern Conference championship last year, Huff held the greatest back in football to a total of 8 yds. rushing. Their jousts, now the most famous in the sport, started in college when Huff was at West Virginia and Brown was at Syracuse. In one game, Brown gave Huff a scar across the bridge of his nose and four shattered teeth. Says Huff: "You've got to hit him straight-on below the hips and with all the power you've got, or he'll knock you over and run right up your face —he really will."

Blind-Side Day. By nature, Sam Huff is a friendly sort with the widest smile in football. But he has no trouble working up a cold-eyed mean streak as game time approaches; by the kickoff, he hates everyone on the other side of the scrimmage line. "You play as hard and vicious as you can," says Huff. "You've got more chance to get hurt when you're loafin'. If you're going all out and you hit a guy, you hurt him instead of him hurting you. One day, Bob St. Clair of the Forty-Niners blind-sided me when I was standing there by a pile-up and like to cut me in half. When that happened, I figured if I was on top of the pile I wouldn't make such a big target."

Sam makes no bones about the fact that the opposing quarterback is his prime target. "You rap that quarterback every chance you get. He's the brains of the outfit. If you knock him out clean and hard on the first play of the game, that's an accomplishment. For that matter, we try to hurt everybody. We hit each other as hard as we can. This is a man's game."

Recalls the Forty-Niners' Guard Bruce Bosley, a friend from college days at West Virginia: "Sam came to visit me before a game—that's the way he is—and he gave me a big smile and said, 'We're going to beat you guys until you can't stand. We got it worked for Rosey to kick hell out of you.' I got a little concussion in that game, and after it was over, I said to Smilin' Sam, 'If I'd been in there long enough to hit you, you'd still be on the field.' We're real good friends, Sam and I."