The Whisperer Remembers ... Ken Swilling.

He was always the first one off the bus … on purpose. You see, the coaches wanted to send the other team and their fans a message, and in him, there was no better messenger. He stood 6’3 and carried 245 pounds of solid muscle. No big deal, you say … he’s a football player: he’s supposed to be big. But here’s the big deal … he was a safety and safeties aren’t supposed to be that big.

When the ball was snapped, every player on the offensive side of the ball urgently placed their heads on a swivel, knowing that as long as this mountain of a man, this physical marvel was on the field, their head was in jeopardy. He stuffed runs, ran down runners, stopped routes, and whenever a quarterback dared to throw in his vicinity, he plucked passes out of the air.

And that’s when the real show began.

This guy loved contact, and whereas some defenders make that most defenders look like fish out of water, lost balls in tall weeds when they get their hands on an errant ball, he, on the other hand, looked right at home. He wouldn’t bob and weave; no, he ran straight ahead, full steam, trampling anyone and anything in his path, hellbent on destruction by any means necessary.

An incredible specimen he was, so Whisperer Nation, let’s give him a well-deserved round of applause. There has never been another one like him, and we may never see another like him in this or any lifetime. With that … stand to your feet and recognize the greatness of former Georgia Tech safety, the incomparable … Ken Swilling.