NFL career
Following his collegiate career, Buffone was selected by the Chicago Bears in the fourth round of the 1966 NFL draft and the eighth round of the American Football League Draft by the San Diego Chargers. Buffone went on to play 15 seasons at linebacker for the Bears, retiring in 1980 as the all-time leader in games played for the legendary organization.
In his professional career, Buffone gathered more than 1,200 tackles, going over the 100-tackle mark in seven seasons. He also had the honor of serving as defensive captain for eight seasons, beginning in 1972. Buffone retired with 24 career interceptions to lead all Bear linebackers. The first two pickoffs of his career came off future Hall of Famers Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas. His retirement from football also signaled the end of an era for the Bears as he was the last active Bear to have played for George Halas.
Buffone and his family resided in Chicago, and he was heavily involved in Chicago sports and broadcasting. Doug was one of the founders of the Arena Football League, starting the Chicago Bruisers franchise, which played in ArenaBowl II. He appeared on some Bruisers radio and TV broadcasts with Les Grobstein, and was involved in the United States Football League with the Chicago Blitz. He provided broadcast color commentary for the first NFL game (featuring the Bears and the Dallas Cowboys) in Europe.
Buffone co-hosted "Chicago NFL Live" on "The Score" WSCR 670 AM, and the Bears' postgame show with Ed O'Bradovich, as well as 14 seasons of The Doug Buffone Show on Fox Sports Net Chicago. Buffone was the star of a popular segment of the Mully and Hanley show on WCSR on Fridays during the football season. He played the part of the humorous character "Big Doug", a bookie and collector. Other shows with which Buffone include The Neal Anderson Show for WBBM-AM, and The Mike Ditka Show for WSCR-AM. On "The Score", Buffone also co-hosted shows with Mike North (The Wise Guys) and Norm Van Lier (The Bear and The Bull), in addition to other hosts.
In May 2009, Buffone and his longtime Bears post-game partner Ed O'Bradovich left WSCR-AM and joined Chicago Sports Webio. However, in June 2009, the founder of Chicago Sports Webio was charged with operating a Ponzi scheme, and the site was shut down. [1] Buffone and O'Bradovich re-signed with the Score in late August 2009.
Buffone was an entrepreneur, and part owner of several Chicago-area businesses, including "Gibson's Steak House", one of the most popular nightspots in Chicago's Rush Street area, and Digital One, a video production and streaming video company in the Chicago suburbs. Digital One is the creator of ClickStreamTV, an online video platform product that was designed for small to medium-sized businesses. [2] Also, Buffone had a blog on his website where he posted his opinions on sports. [3]
Buffone began broadcasting Chicago Rush Arena Football League games for Comcast SportsNet and WGN in 2010.
Buffone was inducted into the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
John Constantine Unitas was an American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Baltimore Colts. Nicknamed "Johnny U" and "the Golden Arm", Unitas was considered the prototype of the modern era marquee quarterback and is regarded as one of the greatest NFL players of all time.
The Chicago Bruisers were a professional arena football team based in Rosemont, Illinois. They were founded in 1987 as a charter member of the Arena Football League (AFL). They played their home games at Rosemont Horizon.
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Edward O'Bradovich is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). He was selected by the Chicago Bears in the seventh round of the 1962 NFL draft. In 2019 he was selected as one of the 100 greatest Bears of All-Time. He attended Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois and the University of Illinois.
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George Leo Connor was an American football player for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) from 1948 to 1955. He played offensive tackle on offense, and on defense was recognized as one of the sport's first linebackers. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and of the College Football Hall of Fame. He attended both the College of the Holy Cross and the University of Notre Dame. He won the first Outland Trophy as the best college lineman in 1946. Sportswriter Grantland Rice once observed Connor was "the closest thing to a Greek God since Apollo".
Mike North is an American radio sports personality, formerly working for Clear Channel Communications as a cohost with Andy Furman on Fox Sports Daybreak Mon-Friday from 5am-8am CST on their Fox Sports Radio subsidiary, until this program was cancelled in September 2016. North writes a column, The Rebel Inside, twice a week for the Daily Herald and does videos three days a week for their web site about current sports topics. He was the co-host of the Monsters in the Morning with Dan Jiggetts on Comcast SportsNet Chicago in 2009 and was a sports talk radio show host at WSCR "The Score 670" in Chicago from 1992 to 2008 along with Doug Buffone. He was also the color man for the Chicago Rush AFL team for two seasons alongside Tom Dore. He was the co-host of Monsters and Money in the Morning on WBBM-TV CBS 2 Chicago until its cancellation in 2010.
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