First off, what’s life been like since your time in the NFL?
After football I got jobs in the Gulf of Mexico in the oil business. Then when I was in Brownwood, Texas I got a call from a friend – an oilman named Danny Davis. He was friends with Robert Duvall – the actor – and told me he needed my help. Duvall was coming in and needed someone to take them around Texas to learn about the lifestyle for an upcoming movie called Tender Mercies he was doing.
I said “OK” and drove out to meet him at the airport. I saw this short, bald-headed guy come out and knew I had seen that guy before!
I picked him up in my truck – it had a bucket of beer in the back. Duvall told me later he thought he got in the wrong truck and was a dead man!
What did you do with Duvall over that time?
I drank enough then to fill the Missouri River! Not something I do now at my age!
We went to some joints – we spent two weeks together and he ended up winning an Academy Award for the movie. When he won he had me come to the awards ceremony – he put me in a limo with Wilford Brimley – I felt very important!
Wilford and me went wearing Stetson hats. He was a pretty good actor and did his own stunts too.
Duvall also paid for my ticket to see the Mike Tyson-Bonecrusher Smith fight. It cost $1,500 and lasted 23 seconds! The first time Smith was hit he ran away from Tyson. I would have too!
What did you do after that?
I worked in the Middle East – I spent 15 years there managing their desalination plants. It was interesting – boring, but easy. No one there knew what I was doing – I didn’t either!
How did you get the job?
There was a full-page ad in the Houston paper. I applied and out of 132 applicants they selected me!
You have to eat don’t you? I accidentally fell into a lot of it. After the Bush shock and awe they were all pretty mad at me there. It was 27 million to one – I was outnumbered! I hung it up after that!
Any other fun moments you remember with Duvall?
I remember one night we were in New York City. I was staying in his apartment – he bought it from Caruso – the opera singer. We ended up having a snowball fight with Robert DeNiro, Matt Dillon, Duvall and me! I sent them running! They didn’t know I was a former pitcher in high school!
They were all good friends of Duvall. He and DeNiro spent most of the time there talking about movies and I just sat in a corner drinking beverages!
I also took Duvall to some Black joints in the Bayou. I told him he should change his jacket – the people there may be offended by his Members Only jacket. When we got there a great big guy with muscles stopped us and asked us what Members Only means. I grabbed his arm and told him he was with me – he just grinned and said “OK. Come on in.” I thought we were dead after that!
Talking football – what brought you to Pittsburgh after Houston that 1969 season?
My old college coach from Baylor was the offensive coordinator there for Chuck Noll. I thought I was in good shape there until the last exhibition game when two New York Giant linebackers broke my collarbone.
I was an AFL reject. Kent Nix and I became friends. That last exhibition game I was in for a quarter and caught four passes before I was injured. I was leading the team in receptions during the exhibition season too.
Who were some of the guys you got close to there? Any good memories of that time?
John Henderson and Roy Jefferson. We got along good. It was so hot in Latrobe – we burned up there. I made the last cut before that injury.
We didn’t have that much fun then – the coaches there – not one had a sense of humor! Noll was a rookie coach – and I had two strikes against me as an AFL guy. And they said I ran like I had a trunk on my back because I was slow for a wide receiver.
We had an exhibition game in Montreal – I remember telling Roy not to go out that night – they were double-checking every room. Well he went out and got caught, and they sent him back home. But when a few of us receivers got hurt so they brought him back and he had a good season for Pittsburgh.
What were you like as a player – you had to have some fun right?
Back then coaches had snitches that would tell the coaches what the players were doing.
When I was with Houston we’d scrimmage then have the weekend off. I was looking for a rattlesnake all during camp. I drove out – I was going to meet some other players and see a Willie Nelson performance when I finally saw an old rattler in front of me. I had a snake catcher and picked it up and put it in my trunk and slammed the lid. I told some of the players to come over and check something out that I found. I didn’t think the snake could get out of the snake catcher. But when I opened the trunk there was a pissed off rattlesnake! I think it took two days to find the guys – they ran away so far I couldn’t even see them!
After that I caught the snake and put it back in the catcher. I thought to myself “Who is the most skittish player on the team? The quarterback of course!”
So, I took the snake into Pete Beathard’s room – he was the quarterback for Houston. I trapped it between two beds – it was curled up there when Beathard came in and saw it. He jumped out an open window and got grass burns when he saw it! Later on the coaches said that if they ever caught the guy who did it he’d never play a down of football again!
No wonder Beathard never threw me the ball! I don’t know why I did stuff like that then. I was just an idiot then!
What do you think of the NFL today?
It’s changed a lot to help players not to get broken into pieces. Back then it was open season on receivers – clotheslining and crackback clocks were all legal. It was tough – you put your life in your own hands when you went over the middle and got hit by a linebacker.
But Pittsburgh – people treated you well there. There was a bar near the Rooneys’ headquarters – players never had to buy a drink. I guess they liked their football players for some reason!