First, can you let readers know about your post-NFL life. What have you been doing since the NFL and how you got started?

Football seems like a million years ago now. I went into business for myself – I own a car wash – have for three years now and plan to open up three more in the next few years.

How hard was it for you to adjust to life after the NFL and how did you do so? What about your time it he NFL helped you?

Being a part of a team was the most important thing I’ve ever done. Playing organized sports, you learn how to lead and when to lead. From my experiences, I learned from the good and the bad. Learning from the bad is sometimes the most important part, too. People forget that.

The adjustment was extremely difficult. I wasn’t the person who loved football the most out of everyone I played with. There were guys that would play for free – I wasn’t one of those guys, so I can only imagine how hard it was for them. It is a difficult adjustment – no practices. Less income. It’s a difficult thing to do, and the league doesn’t do a good job helping players to make the transition. I know they do some things but there are a lot of improvements needed there.

You were drafted by the Steelers from a very small school (Lenoir-Rhyne University) in 1993. Were you surprised to be drafted? Hod did you find out you were drafted?

It actually goes back to before the draft. I played Division III ball but had a lot of friends who played in Division I. Those teams have days where scouts come in to see them workout. I had one friend who was a linebacker at N.C. State. He told me I should come down to their pro day workout. We went back and forth with the coach who said I couldn’t due to insurance liability issues, so I asked if I could go and just hand out highlight tapes. But on the pro day, my friend called around 2:00 and told me to just some down anyway. So I literally got off the couch and went down there and started running for them. Coach Cowher was there and saw me work out then.

Did he say anything to you then?

I actually went up and talked to him – I told him my cousin was Donald Evans who was on the team at the time. Later he sent a coach to watch me play and drafted me.

At the time, Eric Green, Adrian Cooper and Tim Jordan were also there. What did you learn from those guys and how helpful were they to your development?

It was a very deep roster then, yeah. One of the things people don’t know about Eric Green is how intelligent he was as a football player. He was physically imposing. But he showed me how to read defenses and react to defenses. I couldn’t do what he did physically, but i could do so mentally. I give him a lot of credit. He could have not helped me, but he did – a ton. He was just a good guy. He and I built a rapport.

Adrian Cooper – he was physically stronger than me too. All the tight ends had different strengths. Cooper was the best blocker. I was the best route runner, And Eric was the best combination of the two.

What was your biggest adjustment to the NFL – and what changes were asked of you to adjust to the NFL game from the college role you played?

You had to make adjustment on the fly in the NFL. In college, defenses would get set and that was it. In the NFL, it was like seeing ten defenses at once. They would shift a lot. That just didn’t happen in college. A freakin’ play could be over and you still wouldn’t know who you were supposed to have blocked.

That year was Bill Cowher’s second with the Steelers. What was your impression of him at the time and how were the players responding to the changes he implemented?

For me, as a new guy, it didn’t feel like he was new. He had a system – it was like he was an old-timer. It was all set and regimented – there was no feeling out period.

What was he like as a coach – was he the in-your-face coach some describe him as being, or more introspective?

Cowher was good at providing leadership to anyone that needed it. If you needed it he would yell at you. Or he would give you a cerebral talk and go over plays if that was needed. He was very chameleon-like. He was every coach to every play. Players are motivated differently, and he could do both at the drop of a hat. He was very chameleon-like.

How much did humor play a part in that and on the team in general – can you offer some examples of the hijinks or funny occurrences?

When I think about my time with the Steelers and football, humor never enters my head. It was always so intense. My experience…my perspective…I was a seventh round pick from a school with less than 2,000. I was always hustling. Maybe if you’re a first-round pick from Notre Dame it’s not a worry, but I was always having to prove myself.

After the ’94 season you went on to play for Jacksonville. What prompted that move and what did you find to be the biggest differences between the two teams then?

In ’95 Jacksonville was an expansion team. I was traded to them – going from a Super Bowl team to and expansion team that won two games was a miserable experience. And Coughlin, let’s just say he earned the reputation those first few years of not being a player’s coach… The only saving grace was the nice weather, being in Florida…

Is that experience what caused you to leave the game?

I just wanted to go back to school – to get my Masters and start my own business. I always wanted to start my own business and I knew I could make a good living. I wanted something stable where I wasn’t traveling all of the time and living in different states. Don’t get me wrong – it was fun at the time, but I wanted a more settled life. Football stopped being fun for me. When you get paid and you still don’t smile – when you pick up your paycheck and you’re still not happy, that’s when you know it’s time to do something else.

What do you think of the way the game has changed now?

I hardly ever watch games now. I haven’t watched a complete game since I left football – maybe I watch ten or fifteen minutes. I will watch college games I guess – I have friends who have kids that play so I watch those. But it always feels like work – I find myself studying the players and what the tight end should be doing on every play…

Some one just asked me recently if I wanted my eight-year old sone to play football. I said no – I’m glad he’s not. If he wanted to play…well, I’m not sure….I don’t know if I’d want him to play. He can get that experience of being on a team from other sports. But football is very…well…you put your body at risk playing football. I’d tell him to play basketball or baseball. But I wouldn’t put a football in his hand and say I wanted him to play.

Any last thoughts for readers?

I say with no reservation that I played for several teams, but nothing compared to playing professional football in Pittsburgh. Nothing touches Pittsburgh for football.

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