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Editor’s note: Gators Wire recently interviewed former Florida and NFL great Trace Armstrong to discuss a variety of topics, ranging from his youth to the modern game of football. During our conversations, he provided a plethora of fascinating anecdotes that we will share with you in a multi-part series.
Be sure to check back each Wednesday in the coming months for future installments of “Talking with Trace.” The series is part of a partnership between our colleagues at Campus Lore and the NFLPA.
For the first article of our interview series with legendary Gators defensive end Trace Armstrong, we asked him who he considers as the greatest Florida football player of all time. Armstrong transferred from Arizona State to Florida for his senior season in 1988, after which he went on to a storied professional football career in the NFL.
Here is what he had to say about who the greatest Gator of all time is:
“That’s a great question. I had great admiration for (Pro Football Hall of Famer) Jack Youngblood, as a former player. He’s a D-lineman that I looked up to as a young player and the career he had in the league. So, Jack would definitely be up there.
“You know, it would be … I’d say outside of Jack, probably Tim Tebow. And not because of what Tim accomplished on the field. Tim, particularly as a young man, was one of those unique individuals where he had this outsized influence on others. So it was really neat to see him as a young player in a team setting and a team dynamic. And I’ll be honest, I had not seen or been around somebody like him at the college level ever before.
So those would be two. Jack for just his toughness and high level of play for so long and Tim for his ability to impact other people.”
