Nitschke: What I Did In The 1968 Offseason

After seeing the reunited, remaining Monkees perform in downtown Milwaukee last night, your Packerville, U.S.A. editor was reminded of the small role Ray Nitschke played in their 1968 film Head. From Turner Classic Movies: “The remarkable thing about Head is how well it holds up today despite being mired in the counterculture of the sixties. Some of the satirical jabs and anti-war rhetoric are as timely as ever (including) the scene where a deranged football player (Green Bay Packers' middle linebacker Ray Nitschke, above) repeatedly tackles Peter Tork in a foxhole while chanting, "We're number one, we're number one!"

You would have this same look on your face if you were in a foxhole with Nitschke, and he was repeatedly smashing you up against the side. 

Tork used no visible stunt double, and Nitschke was nailing him pretty good. 

The surprised Tork doesn’t know quite what to make of this situation, but he knows he needs to get out of there. 

Again and again, Nitschke pummels him into the dirt. 

After one too many hits, Tork decides to get the heck out of there. 

A seething Nitschke sizes Tork up for another hit. 

But Tork evades the mad linebacker and jumps out of the foxhole. 

Meanwhile, Nitschke piles his head into the side of the foxhole. 

Angry, he takes his helmet off and throws it at Tork. 

An unhappy Nitschke now that “the game is over.”


Enjoy the whole film, or check out the scene described above. It begins at about 11:48.