Ranking the top 10 Kansas City Chiefs linebackers of all time

6. Sherrill Headrick

"“He has the highest threshold of pain of any man I’ve ever handled.” – Wayne Rudy, Former Chiefs Trainer"

Sherrill Headrick, long forgotten in the archives of Kansas City Chiefs history, had a circuitous path to football stardom.

The star high school player from Forth Worth, Texas played his college ball at Texas Christian University and ironically, at offensive guard. Poor grades brought his stateside career to a halt, which he’d continue the following season in Canada. After one season up north he eventually found himself amongst so many others who grew up in Texas in those days, the oil fields.

It was from here that Headrick’s career would begin to take shape. As one of the first players to ever sign with the Dallas Texans, Headrick would go on to star for the franchise. Over the next eight seasons he’d be considered one of the AFL’s best at middle linebacker, being voted to the equivalent of the Pro Bowl five times and the equivalent of the All Pro team four times.

Headrick was the definition of a football player. He gained the nickname”The Head” and “Psycho” for his toughness and rambunctious style of play. At 6’2″ and 240 pounds, he was considered small for his position, but this didn’t deter him from building a reputation as one of the hardest hitters in the league. He was known to play through gruesome injuries, even playing through a broken vertebrae he suffered before a game in 1960, and made throwing up before a game seem like a successful ritual.

A two-time AFL Champion, one-time Super Bowl runner up and Chiefs Hall of Famer, Headrick is an early and forgotten star of the AFL gridiron. Nonetheless, his accolades and championships leave no doubt he belongs on the list of greatest linebackers in Chiefs history.