First, what have you been up to since your time in the NFL?

I have some tough bosses – my kids sometimes let me golf!

I thought taking over my father’s funeral home was the last thing I’d do. My father tried to get me involved since I was six years old – he’d have me go down with him to Lima, Ohio to pick up hearses – that’s where they were at. But as soon as I discovered sports I did that year-round – football, basketball and track in high school and in the Summer I was in a basketball league. I did everything I could to get involved in sports and not get in the family business!

What happened after football?

I thought about getting my degree and had an offer to go into coaching. My position coach at Michigan State offered me a graduate assistant coaching job.

But back then, I had my dad and his friends in my ear all the time, talking to me about how family businesses die because the offspring don’t take it over. I had a sister but back then the funeral home business was a man-dominated business. My sister didn’t have the opportunity to take it over – it had to be a man.

Why stop playing football so early?

About six months after getting released by Pittsburgh I had an opportunity to sign with the Eagles. They wanted me out of college but didn’t want to draft me.

I’m not sure how much you know about my history. I had two knee operations in college – the first was botched. They cut the lateral instead of the medial ligament and it was like bone on bone because of it. The doctor then said the surgery was just so I could walk again – that my football career was over.

So I went back to the doctor after my year in Pittsburgh to look at the knee and he told me if I wanted to walk again when I was 40 I should stop playing. My father was there with me – I was just 25 then. He was in my ear all the way home and then he and my mother both talked me out of playing. I guess at that point I knew I was lucky to have the time I had in Pittsburgh as it was.

I was back in Pittsburgh actually in 2019 for the Super Bowl reunion. Saw most of the guys there. The last time I was there before that was in 2013 for LC’s funeral. I didn’t have a Hall of Fame career but I had a Hall of Fame experience!

You look at your career as somewhat fortunate then?

I realized a dream that I had as a baby – not many people get to do that. After what happened in college – I was All-Big 10 as a Freshman. The next year we were preparing for Ohio State in practice and for some reason the coach wanted to to practice live punt drills and I hyper-extended my knee. I should have sat out the season after that but I just missed one game. Then the surgeon botched the operation. So yes!

What made the Steelers draft you, do you think, and what made that first season work for you?

I worked out for George Perles two days before the draft and had an impressive workout.  My position coach thought I’d get drafted higher. After the Steelers drafted Valentine in round two I didn’t think they’d draft me. They didn’t need more help with two Hall of Fame linebackers and Winston and Toews and Cole backing those guys up!

Also – I played safety in college so I was just learning how to play linebacker.

What was that adjustment like?

As a defensive back, I don’t care what anyone says, your first instinct is to step backwards. As a linebacker it’s to step forwards – so that screwed me up for a while. And I had to do it against guys like Webster, Kolb, Brown, Moon Mullins…!

And I got off on the wrong foot with Woody Widenhofer too. After a great minicamp Noll had us all come in and lift weights for him. I never did leg squats because of my knee but I did power cleans a lot. So Noll had guys doing power cleans and set the bar at 225 for another guy who couldn’t do it. No one could do more than 185.  He saw me next and told them to lower the weight and I said no, keep it there. And I did it at 225 pounds.

After that he said to me “Now that I know you are strong and fast enough, we’ll see when you come back if you have enough heart.”

Well, I showered after that and Jim O’Brien, a reporter for the Post-Gazette stopped me and asked me a few questions. I told him that Noll just told me I was strong and fast enough! And that no one could cover guys like I could – no one was getting open against me in camp. I didn’t do it in a braggadocious way – I was just confident.

Well, the next day on the cover of the Post-Gazette was my picture, and the headline read “If  you dig Hollywood Henderson, you’ll love Tom Graves!” He took what I said the wrong way – out of context. I don’t think Woody liked that at all. He didn’t speak to me much after that.

What do you remember most of your time there?

Well, those guys in the locker room – I was watching many of them in junior high school. Greene, LC… Being there with them – my locker was between those two guys – and Franco and Rocky….all huge household names. And there I was with them on a daily basis.  You can’t put that feeling into crystal words.  But getting respect from those guys – that’s the biggest gratification I could ever get. They treated me well and I was the only rookie they really had hung out with them then.

What was that Super Bowl experience like for you?

Well, we couldn’t play in the Rose Bowl because we were on suspension. My roommate in college was Larry Bethea and he was drafted by Dallas round one and played in the Super Bowl before me. Going to Pasadena and playing in the Super Bowl was surreal.  I just wanted to pinch myself. It was like a dream. I never played in a game of that magnitude,

I never played for a team like that before. You could see teams on the other end of the field and the fear in their eyes.  I never saw that before. You could see other teams were scared and by the time they realized they could play some with us the game was over!

Bethea told me that when you played Pittsburgh you spent your Mondays in the training room – you got your ass knocked off! That may be my fondest memory – you knew you were the shit when you played for the Black and Gold. There was just one exception – the Houston Oilers. You never went to the club after an Oilers game – you went home and drank your liquor there. You needed to recover!

Anything else stand out?

The only team I ever played that quit on us was the Redskins. You could tell they wanted the game to end at halftime.

I also remember playing against Phil Simms when he was a rookie in New York during preseason. I think we won 10-3, and the only touchdown was an 86-yard interception I had for a touchdown.

You see people talk about how dominant New England had been – but we were dominant and physical. They never played like we did. And we had, what, 10 Hall of Fame guys, How many will they have? One? Two? You can’t head slap guys now because of the Steelers front four – they knocked guys’ teeth out. You can’t hit receivers within five yards because Blount was beating guys up!

Just to be able to say that, even for one year, I was on the best team of all time. That sums it up for me. And I have a little something I get to wear on my finger sometimes to show it too! That experience will never leave my mind. There were only 1,200 guys employed by the NFL and I was one of them.

Noll always said not to set your standards too high – no peaks or valleys.  That’s the lesson I have carried with me.

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