First, you’ve been bust since your time n the NFL. Tell me a bit about some of the things you’e bee involved in and how you got involved in them?
Well, I’m he head coach at Pinecrest Academy in Georgia. It’s a private school – Single A. And I’m having fun watching my kids grow. I have a daughter in college and a son in high school. It’s been busy and fun being a coach and a dad.
As a coach, anyone influence the way you’ve approached coaching? How so?
I always knew I wanted to coach. I was offered to stay on after year 12 with the Falcons as a coach but I felt I had more time left playing. And Cowher asked me if I wanted to coach after year 13 but I wanted to play still. Of course, that didn’t happen either. The idea of coaching kept pulling me back though.
As far as influences, Dan Reeves and his attention to detail. Cowher and his expectation of excellence. Pete Carroll when he was the defensive coordinator of the Jets – I’d watch him for his loving approach to the game and players. Dan Quinn was from the Carroll coaching tree too. I looked at all of their identities as coaches and how they motivated teams each day and tried to incorporate into my personality as a coach.
Now, you’d be hard-pressed to find a high school team in the area or state that does things the way we do them and the way we go about our business. I preach quality versus quantity in practice. I think the players enjoy it and play hard.
You also got involved in some other activities after the NFL – including NASCAR and various charities.
NASCAR really fell into my lap. I wish it would have taken off but NASCAR is a 24/7, 3654 day business and my children were young. I couldn’t put in the time and sacrifice for that business. I learned a lot about the business of fundraising, marketing – those types of things. I gained a business sense and respect for NASCAR. It’s not just cars going around on a track. That stigma left me. It’s also not just an all white fan base. There are many minorities that watch NASCAR. I wish the cameras would focus on those fans more. NASCAR has evolved. It still has a way to go but it has evolved.
And my charity work – that’s second nature to me. If you have a heart for people you go do. My family does so many things people don’t know about over the years. Now my focus has been on ALS. We’re going into our seventh year for our golf tournament for ALS and have poker tournaments to raise funds and awareness. ALS is dear to my heart because so many of my fraternity brothers in the NFL have passed away due to ALS. That could be me some day. I know if I got ALS I would want to prolong my life and help my family be as comfortable as possible if that happened to me. I don’t think it will fortunately.
Stepping back – let’s talk about your football career and how you came to play for Pittsburgh after so many years elsewhere.
I was released my twelfth year in the NFL and still wanted to play. There was some interest out there, and Pittsburgh called me. I had a relationship with Jerome, Gandy, Hines, Kordell… I worked out for them and ran some routes and I guess they were impressed enough.
Coach Cowher said they were going to send me the playbook. I asked them if that meant they were signing me and said it was late in the offseason and they wanted me to be ready. But the writing was on the wall that would sign me.
It was a wonderful experience. It was a storied fanbase and organization and I got to meet so many of my childhood heroes like Franco, Swann, Stallworth, Bradshaw…It was so cool – like a dream. And we had a chance to win the division – we were one game short of the championship game, so I got to finish on a high note.
Antwaan Randel El in an interview with him talked about you as a mentor and showing him how to run precise routes. Was it tough being a mentor while still wanting more playing time?
Well, you want balance of course. You want to play but you also want to help the team be successful. Everyone wants to play. But I wanted to help my team win games. I wanted to win a Super Bowl. Plaxico, Hines, Antwaan would all ask me things. How to run routes, that kind of thing. I remember Hines asked me before a game versus Tennessee how I would run a certain route and I told him. The first play he ran the route he scored a touchdown.
It’s about earning their trust. Plaxico would pull up a chair next to me in the meeting room and ask me questions, and I’d show him and Antwaan how to slow things down and see things first.
The thing with me and the men in the meeting room is we were all competitive. On one-on-ones or seven-on-sevens, we’d compete with each other on who won the better routes and compare and judge each other.
Who won most of the time?
Ha – I won most of them! They guys would watch me and say “Wow!” That’s how you become great as a football team. You have to have a lead dog in the meeting room that everybody follows and have competition. That’s how teams win.
Any good stories of your time in Pittsburgh?
One day before a Jets preseason game Hines was looking at me. I used to put holy oil on my hands, feet and head before a game and say prayers to God for guidance – to help me stay injury-free. That game I got in on a two-minute drill and caught four passes for 80 or more yards in less than a minute-and-a-half. After the game, Hines asked me what that was that I was putting on myself.
So, the first game of the season, Hines walks by me as I put oil on myself and he put his hands out, so I put some oil on him and we said prayers, and he had a great game. The next week Plaxico came by and did it as well.
So after that, Hines and Plaxico would come by in the locker and we’d all say prayers and put the oil on. It’s a feel-good story. A great bonding thing. The two guys trusted me.
Where was Randel El in all of this – I know he was a pretty spiritual guy as well.
Randel El had a different level of spirituality then. He had his thing. The other two guys I think had to be led more strongly, spiritually.
You were there for a year – what happened after that season?
Well, I don’t know what story you may have heard, but Pittsburgh said that we didn’t agree to contract terms. My thing is, there were no terms. I got a call from the wide receivers coach {Kenny Jackson} that they wanted me back as the fifth receiver. I was like, what? I was the 3B last year, now they want me as the fifth receiver? After 13 years in the league you get it. I told him I know they wanted me to come back and mentor the young guys and then they’d probably release me near the end of camp. I got that, but I told them if they wanted me to come in and help those guys they’d need to give me a guaranteed contract. The next thing I heard was that Mathis was not coming back because we didn’t agree to terms. I don’t have any ill feelings towards the team. I get it’s a business.
How hard was that adjustment to post-NFL life?
It was really difficult. After 13 years in the league, I still thought I had more football left. I didn’t play much in some of my seasons in the NFL – I probably played nine years of actual football. The Broncos called me but nothing happened with that. I kept training but after a year of being out of football, I figured no one would want a 34 year old who was out of the league for a year.
The first two years out of the league were tough. I started a mobile marketing company but that wasn’t fulfilling. NASCAR wasn’t a real passion. In 2011 I got the offensive coordinator job at Savannah State and was there for two years. Then I got the head coaching job here at Pinecrest.
Any thoughts about the way the game has changed since you played?
You have to understand the guys before me, and the guys before them, they all say the league has changed. You can’t compare today with the past. The league evolves. It’s become more fun for fans – more commercialized and more focus on passing yards and touchdowns.
I think the defense will be more pronounced again. It’s a circle. Now it will become about defense. It keeps evolving.
And comparing guys of today to the past is unfair. You can only compare guys from the same era. Football has changed. Take my position – wide receiver. You can’t touch receivers now within five yards of the line of scrimmage – you can’t even blow on them. It was run heavy in my era. If you passed over 30 times then it was too much. Now, if you pass less than 30 times it’s not enough. You just can’t compare guys from different eras.
Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades. To order, just click on the book:
