HANGING IN THERE : Redskins’ Dave Butz, the Oldest Defender in NFL at 37, Weathers the Years

Lumbering around the Washington Redskins locker room, Dave Butz presents quite an eyeful.

The 6-foot-7, 311-pound veteran defensive tackle, the wearer of an eternal scowl, week after week and season after season decks himself out in a Redskins T-shirt, boxer shorts and a little boat captain’s hat.

The problem is, Butz is simply too big and too ornery for anyone to laugh at.

“He’s so big, he could get away with just about anything he wants to wear,” said teammate Curtis Jordan, the veteran free safety. “He could wear a dress and I don’t think anybody’s going to give him any problems.”

At 37 the oldest defensive player in the NFL, Butz weighed retirement before ending an eight-day holdout by agreeing to a two-year, $950,000 pact that likely will be the last contract of his career. Some Redskins insiders suggest that his holdout was less of a contract dispute than a way of sparing himself a week of monotonous practice heading into his 15th season.

Butz is something of an anachronism on the Redskins roster. He is a throwback to the Redskins of old -- the George Allen coaching era when beating Dallas was a moral imperative and presidents of the United States donated plays. In fact, he is the only player on the Redskins roster who can boast of hearing a George Allen pep talk.

Butz roomed with veteran kicker Mark Moseley during every training camp and during every season since he came to the Redskins from the St. Louis Cardinals in 1975. But the roomies were split when Moseley was released by the Redskins in the middle of last season.

Butz found himself in a strange situation upon flipping off the lights in his Dickinson College dormitory room for his first night at camp after the holdout.

“I said, ‘Good night, Mark,’ And nobody answered. There’s a lot of faces that go by,” said Butz. “Every time you meet someone and get to know them on your team, and then they leave the team, you lose a part of you.”

Butz has been the anchor of the Redskins defense against the run since his arrival more than a decade ago. The mammoth left tackle has earned his living by crushing ball-carriers foolish enough to run up the gut and squashing an occasional quarterback who dallies in the pocket.

The fact that he is not as swift afoot as he once was does not diminish his value.

“He’s stayed amazingly healthy all throughout his career and took pretty good care of himself,” said defensive line coach LaVern “Torgy” Torgeson. “He’s got a young body. I don’t know how long he can play, but I don’t see anything slowing him down this year.”

Coach Joe Gibbs added: “He looks good. I think he seems to still be excited about football and wants to play. That’s good for 37 -- that’s up a ways.”

Up a ways indeed. Being the oldest non-quarterback in the league (39-year-old Jim Plunkett is the oldest NFL player), Butz feels a special weight on his shoulders.

“There’s a lot of burden on me, everything considered,” said Butz. “I think people will probably be a little more critical of me than they have in the past, but I try not to let that bother me. There’s things that I have to accomplish. I’ve said it before -- you try to be better than the last year.”

“Eventually, I’m going to stub my toe and fall, but that time’s not yet arrived,” he added. “I came here to do my best and give them the best effort I can. It might take a little while to get up to a level that’s acceptable to them and also to me, but that’s pressure that comes with the territory.”

Butz is a man who rarely smiles in public and who has been criticized by some younger teammates for playing without much outward enthusiasm. Starting left end Charles Mann, for one, said Butz lacked the emotion of the players a decade younger.

“If one piston is misfiring or not as motivated or not pumped up, it’s definitely going to cause some uneasiness,” Mann told a reporter before Butz ended his holdout.

Butz countered, saying: “I’m more worried about what’s going to happen on the next play than where the next high-five’s coming from.”

Butz also was angry at Mann for spouting off to reporters.

“I’m not happy with what was said,” he said. “You play with a guy for a long time and you figure you have respect for each other. But sometimes people get caught up in what they’re saying and maybe not really believing it.”

Butz is a two-time Pro Bowler and has been one of the league’s steadiest performers since being picked by the St. Louis Cardinals in the fifth round of the 1973 draft out of Purdue.

Butz came to the Redskins as a true free agent in what is regarded as the largest compensation deal in NFL history. When the Redskins signed him on Aug. 5, 1975, they had to relinquish two first round and one second round draft pick, while also receiving fifth, sixth and 15th round picks. Butz has more than made up that price heading into his 13th season as a Redskin.

Among outsiders, Butz has a reputation as aloof and somewhat mean for angrily chasing unwanted interviewers out of the locker room. In fact, some reporters covering the team are afraid to approach him.

Jordan, the team’s defensive signal-caller, said Butz is simply misunderstood.

“He’s a real nice guy,” Jordan insists of the defensive lineman whose off-season hobby is carving wooden duck decoys. “That scowl is just him. He’s really a very pleasant guy and he’s very intelligent and he’s articulate. People think he is unapproachable, but he isn’t.”

“He has a lot of respect from everybody. I hate using these words, but it’s a leadership and experience thing.”

Butz wouldn’t say he’s a nice guy, although he has been known to apologize to quarterbacks after squashing them.

A personal plea from Gibbs and support from Butz’s wife Candy kept him around for at least another year.

“I found I was more prepared to retire than to come back,” Butz said. “I had verbalized it (retirement), but my wife said she didn’t want to be around me if I retired. She would probably come up to Reston (the family’s home in Virginia during the season) and leave me at home because she said, ‘I know you’re not ready to retire yet.”