Exclusive with Former Steelers Running Back Henry Odom, 1983

First, can you let me know what you’ve been doing since your time in the NFL?

Well I went to work as a safety director in Charleston. But they wanted to send me overseas and I was worried it was too close to the war, so I started working after that as the athletic director for Little League here instead -for ages six through 13.

Was it hard adjusting to post-NFL life?

To be honest I didn’t like football at all. So no. I had a gift for sports and I played most of them pretty well.  But I didn’t like the physicality of football. I didn’t want to go to college to play football but that’s how I got to college – that’s where life landed me.

So, it wasn’t hard to adjust, I learned to play golf on my own. And the people in the town I live in helped. They loved the stories of my time playing football.

If you didn’t like to play, why did you and how did you succeed at it?

I only played one year of football in high school. I didn’t think about college. That Senior year I was tied with Herschel Walker in yards. The South Carolina State coach came to see me play and said he wanted me. I told him you may want me, but this game is not my forte’! I went to their Summer program and I left it four-to-five times, and each time they’d come and bring me back until I finally got used to it. I wasn’t used to being away from home. I had 14 people in my family.

When I went to college, the plan was to go to the Air Force. That was the main thing – my brother went to the Air Force. But if I was going to play I wasn’t going to be mediocre at it, I decided. When I first go the chance to play in college I was  a Sophomore and it was our homecoming game. My roommate was going to be MVP but then a lot of the running baks got hurt so the coach put me in. I played so well I was co-MVP of the game.

My next game I scored six touchdowns. I could have scored eight or nine but the coach said that was enough! By the end of the year I has scored 15 touchdowns in five games.

I was a redshirted player then. In my junior year I ended up being used more as a decoy. I felt left out and I think I got a bit rusty. The coach said after the season they wanted me to come back another year but I wanted to work out for teams and see if I could make it in the NFL. I figured if not I’d go into the service. But I ended up getting drafted, to my surprise. I was surprised to make the team. I had some good workouts so I guess they decided to take a shot with me. I had a team in Canada that offered me a chance to play before the draft, but I told them I wanted to wait and see what happened with the draft first.

Did anyone help you as a rookie to adjust to the NFL?

All of the vets helped. Franco, Stallworth and Blount did a great job with me. I loved hanging out with the older guys. They told me what I needed to look out for. They’d take me to clubs and showed me how to not get into trouble with women. To not fall for the glamour. I didn’t like lollygagging around with women during the season – it takes you away from the playbook.

You got a lot of time as a return man – was that something you had experience with in college?

I didn’t know anything about returns. But I was told that if I wanted to play I had to try out returning kicks and punts. Chuck Noll showed me how to judge the ball and told me to run where I wanted to run. I don’t think I ever got tackled before the 15 yard line. Normally you’d have left and right side returns, but our guys weren’t holding blocks so he basically just told me to run for my life!

Any fun stories you remember of your time in Pittsburgh?

I remember being in the hotel room the night before a game, just laughing and talking with the guys. Then Ron Johnson and I started wrestling and going at it. The next day he had two interceptions. So after that, he told me from now on the night before every game he was going to beat me down!

What happened after that first season n Pittsburgh?

They held on to me until the last cut, so I couldn’t go to another team. Denver showed interest then a team in Canada said they wanted me to play for them and flew me up, but they wanted me to play that same day and we didn’t have a contract yet. I wasn’t comfortable with their terms so I left and went back home. Then a new USFL team in Orlando was started and they asked me and really anyone else to come in and try out. I figured I’d go there and stay in shape until something else came up. I studied and got the system down. I saw all the other guys trying to prove themselves  – to show what they knew. But one mistake and they were on the bus or plane back home. So I stayed back in the crowd until I was sure I knew all I needed to know. Once I got the opportunity I became the starter. Denver told me they’d wait until that season in the USFL was over.  But nine games into the season Sam Mills fell on me as I was getting up. My arm was paralyzed after that. I went to doctors – to Columbus, Georgia for rehab, where a lot of the player went then. But they told me there was nothing I could do.

So, what then?

The league was about to fold. Coach DeHaven there had asked me to hep him coach the running backs since I knew the system so well, but I went back to South Carolina to see more doctors. There. they were able to make my arm work. They told me I wouldn’t be able to throw a football,  but it would be ok. It wouldn’t just hang there at my side.

What do you think to the game today and how its changed?

To me, football today is not really football any more. Young kids today don’t take pride in their work. Take the veteran offensive linemen. When we played we didn’t hit them below the knees. We didn’t cut them. But some guys today do it just to make the team. I think it’s wrong. You don’t hurt players to make a team.

Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades.  To order, just click on the book: