The Graduating Class of 1981

By John Turney 

Joe Greene by Merv Corning; Alan Page by Joe Isom

In the past few months, NFL stars Aaron Donald, Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox announced their retirements, and they won't be the last. More will bow out or learn they're no longer needed, making 2023 their last season. Donald and Kelce are Hall of Famers waiting to happen. So are Tom Brady and J.J. Watt, who retired a year ago. With four first-ballot cinches bowing out in successive years, that got me wondering.

What's the best class of pros to retire from the NFL?

Certainly, 1973 is one. That's when Johnny Unitas and Dick Butkus retired. But I wonder if there's a deeper class of retirees than the one that left following the 1981 season. Not only were there all-time greats; there was a litany of significant players, too.

Start with Joe Greene and Alan Page. Two of the top five defensive tackles in the history of the game exited the NFL after 1981. Then throw in first-ballot Hall of Famer Jim Langer, the first of the great interior offensive linemen to be enshrined from the Dolphins' dynasty of the early 1970s. It was also Gene Upshaw's final season. Hall-of-Famers Curly Culp and Claude Humphrey called it quits, as well.

But the line doesn't end with Gold Jackets.

Star safeties Bill Thompson and Charlie Waters were part of the 1981 departing class. Thompson's career began in 1969; Waters in 1970. Both were All-Pros and played in Super Bowls, with Waters earning two rings.

Rich Saul (five Pro Bowls) and D.D. Lewis (14 seasons, two rings) exited, too.  Edge rushers L.C. Greenwood, Fred Dryer, Cedrick Hardman and Coy Bacon all played their last NFL downs in 1981, though Hardman and Bacon are asterisked. Both were lured to the USFL.

That's a lot of combined sacks and Pro Bowls.

In 1981 Jerry Sherk's knees finally gave out after 12 seasons and four Pro Bowls. John Matuszak's back gave out on him, too, but in the 1982 Raiders' camp. So he also walked away. Steelers' right tackle Jon Kolb (four rings) left after 1981. So did Randy Rasmussen (15 years), Conrad Dobler (10 years, three Pro Bowls) and Carl Mauck, who played 13 years. I'll throw in Joe Federspiel and Brad Dusek, too. They weren't perennial Pro Bowl choices, but they were good players.

Then there were outstanding skill players, such as Calvin Hill, Lawrence McCutcheon, Ron Jessie, and Raymond Chester. Those four ... as well as others ... put up numbers. With so many stars whose careers ended in 1981, it's a wonder there weren't at least four first-ballot choices in the Class of 1987.

There should've been.

Greene, Upshaw and Langer all made it on their first tries, but Page did not ... and that makes no sense. One of the best defensive players ever, he was unfairly punished for the Vikings' Super Bowl failures (he was on all four losers). Nevertheless, he was enshrined one year later in the Class of 1988.

Had voters then had the ethos of those who followed (and put less emphasis on Super Bowl losses, with the treatment of the 1990s' Buffalo Bills vs. the 1970s' Vikings an example), the Class of 1987 would've been the only one in Hall-of-Fame history with four first-ballot inductees.

I admit that the top of this list may not match the Brady-Watt or Unitas-Butkus combination ... or even the 2010 entry of Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith ... for star power, but I doubt there's been one year with more accomplished players who retired.

I know, 11 other Hall-of-Fame classes included three first-ballot inductees, including 2018, 2019 and 2021. But, in my book, Alan Page, was a first-ballot choice, and the NFL's graduating class of 1981 was the best ever.