First, can you let me know what you’ve been doing since your time in the NFL?
Well, I’m semi-retired but work with NFL Legends – working with former players to help them with benefits, going back to school and to get connected with their former teams. We have the Legends Lounge at the Super Bowl, combine and draft too to meet and work with players and visit with teams on their alumni days. Each of us have a few teams to work with.
I also started a food distribution business locally here in Maryland and Virginia. We get crabs from Virginia and shrimp from North Carolina – ribs and chicken too. It’s a local thing.
How hard was the post-NFL adjustment for you – especially having stayed close to the game through your work with NFL Legends?
You always have to believe that whether you were drafted or made the team already, that there’s much more to life than just being a football player. I always had interest in other things. Football was my job – I had to give it my best and study the game and keep my body intact. But I knew I would have more days living after I played than I would days I played.
I stayed humble – a lot of people didn’t even know I played. I was proud of my career but that was a different period of my life. There’s more to life than when I played football.
On some Sundays after I retired, I didn’t watch football. I played for 19 years including 12 in the pros. I just wanted some time to decompress and spend with my family and my kids, who were smaller then, and do things with them.
I tried some things after I retired too – started a trucking company, mortgage work, real estate – I always tried to figure out something to do. And I’m now looking to delve into cyber security.
As a guy who lived near powerhouse DeMatha High School where you went to high school, how did DeMatha help prepare you for football and life?
DeMatha always had this aura of excellence. When I first got there I didn’t think it was the right fit for me – I came from a public school and going to an all boys school like DeMatha – I didn’t want to go. My father was convinced to send me though from the father of another football player there – Mike Anderson.
My first year and Sophomore year I wanted to leave. They didn’t let you cut corners there – they were very long days and I commuted a long way – from Ft. Washington – it was like a job. I’d get home late and still have to eat and do homework.
But – it prepared me for college. I was ready for the grind because of my experience at DeMatha,
Who were some of your mentors as a young player?
I played with Aeneas Williams and he helped me a lot. I also played with Deion Sanders, Darrell Green, Dale Carter…a lot of good players. My biggest mentor I’d say was my first coach – Mel Phillips – who played in the pros – for San Francisco. He taught me how to play.
What made you decide to sign with the Steelers as a free agent in ’97?
I always appreciated their history and what they stood for. We did go to a championship game. We almost got to a Super Bowl. I wanted to be a part of that tradition and was proud to be a part of that, even for one year. Everywhere we went there were Terrible Towels flying and more Steelers fans than the fans of the teams we were playing.
Bill Cowher was a player’s coach – he looked you in the eye when he talked to you and had the respect of the players he coached. I just wanted to be a part of that.
Anyone help show you the ropes – the city and the “Steelers way of doing things”?
I got to play with Lake, Perry, Flowers, Chad Scott, Woolford… Donnell came in the league the same year I did so he and I got close. He and I got tight – we both joined the team the same year and knew each other as rookies so we bonded. I didn’t do a lot of going out – we hung out a bit but I didn’t do a lot except play.
The whole season was a thrill – getting to the AFC championship – that was only the second time I got that close. It was a good year – the fans were great and playing for Cowher and a great group of guys on that defense – it was something.
Any thoughts on how the NFL has changed over the years?
They put a lot of things in place to protect players. There’s less practice time and much less contact now in practice. You’d see guys lose their careers in practice and in camp before they got to play a game.
We sometimes talk about it being a country club now in camp. Some say it’s a good thing and some say it’s a bad thing. Now players aren’t used to the kind of contact you see in games – but they don’t get hurt getting ready for games as much either, So it goes both ways.
And now, you can have a great college career and play for three of four years in the NFL and be set for life financially. Before that you had to play a long time to get to that point.
But, there are less guys getting an opportunity to play now. Now it’s a major feat just getting invited to camp. Agents have to have a good relationship with GMs and teams to get guys in to camp a lot of the time.
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