Houston’s All-Time Team: George Webster 
George Webster
Position: Outside Linebacker
Team: Houston Oilers
Years: 1967-1972
Career: He played less than six seasons in Houston and the last one was almost 30 years ago. So how did George Webster make it onto our All-Time Team? Call him an impact player.
George played his college ball at Michigan State. In the mid-Sixties, the Spartans built a defense that would gain national attention. Huge Bubba Smith stuffed everything on the inside. Swift George Webster caught up with everything on the outside. The two men would have more in common during their pro careers.
It was their misfortune to graduate the year the AFL and NFL buried the hatchet and announced plans to merge. One of their first combined acts was to have one common player draft. This wasn’t an act of friendship. The two leagues had blown a lot of money in bidding wars for college talent. Now, with one combined draft, it was the football team that had all the chips at the negotiating table again.
Bubba Smith was the first player taken in the first AFL-NFL draft in 1967, going to Baltimore; George Webster was grabbed by the Oilers with the fifth overall pick. George didn’t look the part of a linebacker. He was almost 6’5″ and a svelte 220 lbs., he displayed exceptional speed for his position and enough muscle to put a jolt into his tackle. Back then, few players were given numbers in the nineties and the ones that did tended to be amazing physical specimens. The Oilers handed Webster #90.
While Bubba quickly established himself as a dominant player with the NFL Colts, Webster wasn’t a household name unless that household belonged to an Oiler opponent. But from the beginning, George was turning heads.
Wally Lemm returned to coach the Oilers in 1967 and he was handed a rookie crop that included Webster, longtime DB Zeke Moore and a ninth-round pick named Ken Houston. He molded a defensive unit that not only held opponents under 200 points for the season but scored eight times on their own. And they needed to since the offense had only one true weapon, FB Hoyle Granger. Webster started at left linebacker in his first AFL game and made 15 tackles. He’d get his first pro interception that year while the Oilers won the Eastern Division title. Averaging more than ten tackles a game, Webster was named AFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and was first-team All-AFL.
Houston’s fortunes tailed off during the last two AFL seasons but Webster did not. He picked off three more passes and was named All-Pro in 1968 and 1969. One of Webster’s specialties was to drift deep into the secondary and become an early version of the “nickel” back. The coverage often confused quarterbacks because he would be deeper downfield than linebackers were expected to be. When sportswriters were asked to vote for an All-Time AFL Team, Webster made the starting linebacker spot even though he’d only been in the league for three seasons. He was still making better than eight tackles a game.
The 1970 season would be a turning point in many ways. The Oilers were now part of the NFL and were entering a period of futility and frustration. Halfway through the season, George suffered a major knee injury. When he returned, he no longer had the incredible speed he had shown previously and was now vulnerable against the run. He re-injured the knee in 1971.
Like an addicted gambler, the Oilers were putting their faith in long shots and squandering the resources they already had. They traded away Ken Houston and Charlie Joiner, two who would someday be in the Hall of Fame. They sent packing many players who would have good NFL careers in other cities too. Ironically, one of the last deals around this time brought to Houston Webster’s old teammate Bubba Smith, himself a shell of his former greatness due to knee injuries.
Webster’s time to be traded came during the 1972 season. He was shipped to the Pittsburgh Steelers for WR Dave Smith. Smith didn’t last a year in Houston while Webster played infrequently behind All-Pros Andy Russell and Jack Ham. George spent his final three seasons with the New England Patriots.
For the brief years before his injuries, George Webster made an impact. He symbolized the tough-nosed and panther-quick defense the Oilers had during the waning years of the American Football League.
Houston Highlight: George’s rookie season of 1967 was also the first time the Oilers faced the Dallas Cowboys on the football field rather than in court. It was an exhibition game but it meant a lot more to those who were in Rice Stadium that evening. Webster drifted into pass coverage as Don Meredith completed a square-out to “Bullet” Bob Hayes, a former Olympic speedster. Hayes thought he had broken into the open field when he was grabbed from behind and tackled by, of all things, a linebacker. It was #90, George Webster. The Oilers lost the game but the play of the defense, which included some fierce and late hits on Meredith, showed Houston fans that the Oilers were able to play head-to-head with the best of the vaunted NFL.
George Webster 
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