Doug Betters—A Worthy Career

 By John Turney 

Not everyone who plays a decent amount of time in the NFL is worthy of the Hall of Fame and not even of the Hall of Very Good but they can still have a worthy career—one worthy of mentioning and praise. 

Doug Betters is one of those kinds of careers.

He had a big year in 1983, one in which he outpolled a wide field for the AP Defensive Player of the Year, though it was not consensus. Jack Lambert won the NEA Defensive Player of the Year Award. 

But the AP Award voting was interesting no less than 22 players garnered votes with Betters getting 19 to take the award.

Doug Betters, DE, Miami (19)

Randy White, DT, Dallas (15)

Dave Butz, DT, Washington (7)
Lawrence Taylor, OLB, N.Y. Giants (6)
Jack Lambert, ILB, Pittsburgh (5)

Chip Banks, OLB, Cleveland (5)

Mark Gastineau, DE, N.Y. Jets (4)

Mark Murphy, FS, Washington (3)

Fred Dean, DE, San Francisco (3)

A.J. Duhe, ILB, Miami (3)

Lance Mehl, OLB, N.Y. Jets (2)

Rod Martin, OLB, L.A. Raiders (2)

Randy Gradishar, ILB, Denver (1)

Howie Long, DE, L.A. Raiders (1)
Doug English, DT, Detroit (1)
Lee Roy Selmon, DE, Tampa Bay (1)
Dexter Manley, DE, Washington (1)
Ted Hendricks, OLB, L.A. Raiders (1)
Ronnie Lott, CB, San Francisco (1)
Raymond Clayborn, CB, New England (1)
Johnnie Poe, CB, New Orleans (1)
Matt Millen, ILB, L.A. Raiders (1)

Here are the stats for Betters in 1983—

And his career stats—

In addition to being the AP Defensive Player of the Year, Betters was a consensus All-Pro in a year where Mark Gastineau and Howie Long were playing great football and even though he had another excellent season in 1984 Betters got zero support for All-Pro. In fact, he got nothing in terms of honors in any other season.

However, he was not a one-year wonder, he was a good run defender in his early years, even moving right defensive AJ Duhe out of his right defensive end position in 1979. 

But his legacy will be that of a member of the Dolphins Killer B’s Defense and his 1983 DPOY hardware and his 1982 Super Bowl appearance but ultimate defeat to Washington. 

In 1998, Betters suffered a spinal cord injury while skiing in  Montana and now is involved with charities helping those with similar injuries. 

So, again, not everyone is going to be All-Everything, but many have interesting careers as solid football players and did their job. Betters did that. 

Well done.