NFL's meanest man? Ed Sprinkle's family tries to debunk myth
Withers admittedly was 2 years old when Sprinkle retired from the NFL after 12 seasons (1944-55) with the Chicago Bears, so she recalls little, if anything, about his playing days. She spent decades, though, listening to him tell stories about what it was like to play at a time when clotheslines and chop blocks were legal and hard helmets and facemasks were years away.