George Trafton), posted a 12–1–3 record, and finished second in the NFL. Lyman remained with the Bears for the 1927 and 1928 seasons. He retired after the 1928 season but returned to the Bears in the fall of 1930. The 1930 Bears compiled a 9–4–1 and finished third in the NFL. Lyman was selected as a first-team All-Pro by Collyer's Eye magazine and the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Lyman again retired from playing football after the 1931 season. During his two retirements from the Bears, Lyman played semipro ball in Texas and worked in the ranching business. Lyman returned to the Bears in 1933. The 1933 Bears featured six future Pro Football Hall of Fame players (Lyman, Bronko Nagurski, Red Grange, George Musso, and George Trafton), posted a 10–2–1 record, and defeated the Giants in the 1933 NFL Championship Game. Lyman played his final year of professional football as a member of the 1934 Bears team that compiled a perfect 13–0 record in the regular season and won the NFL Western Division championship, but lost to the Giants in the 1934 NFL Championship Game. After the 1934 season, Lyman was selected as a first-team All-Pro by the United Press, Green Bay Press-Gazette, and Collyer's Eye. Bears' coach George Halas later observed that Lyman was "stronger and tougher during his last two seasons than when he first joined the team eight years earlier." Shifting on defense Lyman was a pioneer in the use of shifting maneuvers to disrupt the blocking assignments of offensive linemen. According to his biography at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, "the constant shifting by defensive players before each play in modern professional football can be traced back to Lyman, who regularly resorted to similar ploys. His sliding, shifting style of defensive line play confused his opponents and made him one of the most respected players of his time. Lyman explained that the idea of shifting was an instinctive move to fool a blocker. He had a unique ability to diagnose a play and many times he would make his move just as the ball was snapped." Steve Owen, who played with Lyman in 1925 and later served as coach of the Giants, recalled: "Link was the first lineman I ever saw who moved from the assigned defensive position before the ball was snapped. It was difficult to play against him because he would vary his moves and