First, let us know what you’ve been doing with yourself since your time in the NFL?
Really, just raising my kids. I have two older daughters and a son – so just being a father.
How difficult was the post-NFL adjustment for you?
There are some gray areas. No bad thoughts or anything but I’m dealing with some concussion issues I can; get much into. My family keeps me going – I don’t have any big plans but I’m happy with my family life now.
I was born and raised in the inner city of Miami – it was one of the roughest neighborhoods in the country. I had two brothers who were in and out of jail and watched aunts and uncles shooting drugs. Literally watching them. I’m not trying to say it was brutal, but I saw things a kid shouldn’t have to see in my own family. Those things helped me to say I would mold myself into a better person than what I saw. I had cousins in the NFL Hall of Fame – it was a sports family. And in our neighborhood – that’s what you had- sports and family. There were good things there too – it takes a village to raise kids in that environment and I had that for me. I guess the bad stuff gets the glory when people talk about the inner city but there was good there too.
Stepping into your NFL career – how did you end up in Cleveland?
A lot of people don’t know but I started my career in New Orleans. I was an undrafted free agent. The draft was tough – I knew I was better than a lot of the guys that got drafted ahead of me. That was one of the toughest weekends of my life, besides my best friend getting murdered.
I didn’t play until ’98. Bobby April was my special teams coach and he called me “Hurricane Earl” – he said I was their special teams king. But I got a concussion in my third preseason game when I hit Ed McCaffrey. It’s the only concussion I remember because I wasn’t knocked out cold. I was nauseous and they had to watch me when I took a shower to make sure I didn’t pass out. I missed the next preseason game and the first three games of the season. We were going to play the Giants next but they had both tight ends get injured and needed to bring guys up from the practice squad so they had to release me to make room. It was strange because they released me on a Friday – you get paid if you’re on the roster after Tuesday. The coaches called me in and told me to bring my playbook – I thought they were going to talk to me about getting me more involved in the defense. But they released me and told me they wanted to try and pick me up on waivers.
But that didn’t happen obviously…
My agent was Drew Rosenhaus and he told me there were 12 teams that wanted me, but Cleveland got to choose first since they were an expansion team. I always wanted to play for Cleveland despite the fact I grew up in Miami. Cleveland and Dallas were my two favorite teams. I loved watching Cleveland play Denver in the playoffs and loved their white uniforms and the Dawg Pound! So by the grace of God I ended up playing for them. I know Minnesota really wanted me too – Dennis Green liked me after seeing me in our scrimmage against Minnesota.
Were you aware of the rivalry between Cleveland and Pittsburgh then?
I didn’t have to be told about it. I joke with my son and his friends – there’s so much going on with them and social media and video games, but I grew up a football head. I watched on Sundays when they had one game at one and one at four. I tried to stay up and watch the Monday Night games. As a young kid we’d take a bus and sneak into Miami Hurricane games. I watched football – a lot.
Were there guys you liked to match-up against?
Throughout my career I didn’t have a guy I really wanted to match up against. As a safety and not a corner I didn’t face a lot of guys that way. But every Steelers-Cleveland game was like a playoff game. We knew we had to bring our hard hats those games. They have a tradition and they abide by that blue-collar tradition that started way back in the 70’s. We knew it was going to be a battle.
I will say one thing – people thought Hines and I had a beef. He got fined one game for a blindside hit that knocked me out cold. Pagano said I was out before I hit the ground.
Evidently he stood over me and pointed at me. He said I said something about his mother which I would never do. The environment I grew up in – if you did that you were throwing hands. I didn’t do that. I wasn’t really a trash-talker. Now if someone trash-talked me I could give it back. In South Florida we were not like anywhere else. We could trash-talk anyone. But I realized that if you are playing at a high level trash-talking takes a lot of energy. I would if someone came up to me but I never did that with Hines – I would never have disrespected his mother. I don’t know where that came from.
Any memories stand out to you of your time in Cleveland and those Steelers games?
We had some good battles. The first time I played the Steelers was in Three Rivers – we were an expansion team and I remember we were getting ready to kick the winning field goal and our kicker, Phil Dawson was on the sideline kicking the ball into the net. Well I was watching the play clock and watching Phil and shot down and told Phil to get out there! Phil looked up at the clock and said “Oh shoot!” and ran out there and kicked the ball as the clock was running out and we won the game.
The next day I got called into Coach Palmer’s office. I thought he was going to talk to me about getting more involved in the defense – it was before the special teams meeting even started.
Like New Orleans again?
Ha yes! But he started railing into me. The media saw me run to Phil and asked me questions about it and I told them what happened. Well, Coach Palmer I guess felt like I was throwing him under the bus. I honestly think he had a short man complex. For some reason he didn’t like me. When Dwight Clark brought me in to Cleveland, I remember sitting on the training table while he talked to me about how he’d take care of me there and that I shouldn’t have to worry about anything there. I thought they really wanted me there!
Any other memories stand out?
I remember playing Pittsburgh on a Sunday Night in ’03 – I had a pick in that game. I remember waving bye bye to the fans and getting my picture taken with Anthony Herron and walking through the tunnels with Cleveland and Pittsburgh fans hanging over the tunnel.
And the playoff game was something. Up 17 points with three minutes left and losing.
What happened to you guys in that game?
We had a special defense created for that game – we called it the Ram defense. I’d signal to the players to run it by putting my hands to my helmet and raising my elbows so it looked like Rams horns. Foge Fazio – a great man – he was the defensive coordinator. The Steelers used to run a double post in the redzone – Hines in the slot and Burress would run the post behind him. They’d try to get the safety to jump on the inside route. Well, we knew that, and I was signaling over to Foge for us to run the Ram defense and he just threw his hands in the air and shook his head. I didn’t know what was going on. I went over to the sideline afterwards and asked him and he just shook his head. Well, I learned later that Butch Davis decided he was going to call the defensive plays. So that’s what happened.
Still – we could have won that game if Dennis Northcutt just catches that pass!
Oh – and I remember Randel El was talking so much trash in that game. He took a punt return to the house – right before the half I think. I told him that if he kept talking trash I would “F him up” Well, I damn near killed him on a seam route. I would have been fined today for the hit. I broke on the route and had a split second to decide whether to try and go for the interception or bang Randel El. So I just banged him. He got up surprisingly from the hit. I saw a replay of the game years later and if you listen to the audio you can hear me say “I told you I’d F you up!”
Any other thoughts on your time there?
There were two teams I didn’t like as a kid – Miami and Pittsburgh. But I had a lot of respect for the Steelers. Heck, I even rooted for the Steelers when they played Miami. But, the Browns are still my favorite team. I’ll always be a Cleveland Brown and Miami Hurricane!
Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades. To order, just click on the book:
