Super Bowl Sunday, Dan Hampton Day at Danshamptons

Super Bowl Sunday in the Hamptons means a day of celebrations, to which we’d like to add one more. Since the first Super Bowl kickoff more than four decades ago, no East Ender has earned a Super Bowl ring, and none has a chance to do it this year (not even one of our New York teams has a chance, for that matter). But Danshamptons.com thinks it is the perfect day to recognize Dan Hampton in our little part of the football-loving world.

Dan Hampton sounds like the perfect player for us to concoct out of thin air. But in this case, truth is better than fiction. During a stellar 1979-1990 career as a defensive tackle with the Chicago Bears, Dan Hampton earned multiple Pro Bowl honors, the nickname “Danimal,” and a ring in Super Bowl XX—although he did not participate in the 1985 Bears‘ famous (infamous?) “Super Bowl Shuffle” with such fellow Chicago superstars as Walter Payton, Jim McMahon and William “The Refrigerator” Perry. He was elected to the Football Hall of Fame in 2002, but a bust in Canton, Ohio doesn’t deliver quite the recognition we think his name deserves. Here’s to you, Dan Hampton!