Speaker 1: Well, Pats from the Past podcast, Brian hits the road,
Speaker 1: Blank County, Alabama, and there could only be one reason
Speaker 1: we come on the road for that, and that's because
Speaker 1: we're joined by Patriots and Pro Football Hall of Famer
Speaker 1: John Hannah at his palatial two hundred and thirty plus acre.
Speaker 2: Cattle farm here in Alabama. John, thank you for your hospitality,
Speaker 2: and it's great to see us, so.
Speaker 3: Ran us for coming down.
Speaker 4: And after I get fIF feed you tonight, you're gonna
Speaker 4: find out another reason to couna blanca.
Speaker 2: Julie noted, love it, love it. So we're taking this
Speaker 2: podcast Pats from the Past podcast, talking to great John Hannah,
Speaker 2: Matt Smith, and Brian Morian. We're on this beautiful cattle farm. John,
Speaker 2: why don't you try to tell Patriot fans if you
Speaker 2: can a little bit about what it is that you're
Speaker 2: doing today.
Speaker 4: Well, basically, that's a calcaff operation, that's what they call it.
Speaker 4: And I've got actually two pieces of it.
Speaker 3: On the one farm down here.
Speaker 4: I got about sixty two head of Brangus cows. Brangus
Speaker 4: is a breed that is that are made up of
Speaker 4: basically three eighths Brahma bull and.
Speaker 3: Five eighths angus, and.
Speaker 4: The brahma does it's the only cow that kind of sweats,
Speaker 4: so it does real good in the South. So having
Speaker 4: you know, a little brahma in that English is good.
Speaker 3: And then what I do is I grow my replacement.
Speaker 4: Heifers there uh, and then bring them to this farm.
Speaker 4: And I got about ninety head of brangus cows, a
Speaker 4: few half bridges and three quarter bridges, but and I
Speaker 4: bring them to a horned herd bull and so you
Speaker 4: wind up with a three six stanints brahma and the
Speaker 4: rest is all Anglish between the herford and the angus.
Speaker 4: So the marveling's really good in the Mate and people
Speaker 4: like it, and there's a demand. Plus I saw a
Speaker 4: lot of replacement heifer's and that's been a very profitable
Speaker 4: source for me.
Speaker 2: So I'm old enough to remember and have a copy
Speaker 2: of the Sports Illustrated cover from nineteen eighty one with
Speaker 2: your picture that I think it's Paul Zimmermann who wrote
Speaker 2: the piece. It said the greatest offensive lineman of all
Speaker 2: time in nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 5: Which is on display at the pitch It's Hall of Fame,
Speaker 5: presented by RAYTHEWN Technology correct If.
Speaker 2: I told John Hannah back in nineteen eighty one, you'd
Speaker 2: be presiding over a two hundred and thirty plus acre
Speaker 2: farm with Brahma bulls and Cole's what would you have
Speaker 2: said to me back in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 4: One, same thing I'm playing now because back then, when
Speaker 4: Paul came down, I had a roughly about a two
Speaker 4: I had about one hundred and seventy three acres, and
Speaker 4: but I was raised in Santa Gratruda's cattle at the time,
Speaker 4: and Santa Gratrudas was like a short horn and uh
Speaker 4: Brahma mix, and you know, it was a good one,
Speaker 4: but they got they were a little wild at times.
Speaker 4: So I like the Brian Gus. It's a it's a
Speaker 4: more recent development. And I like the Brincus a whole
Speaker 4: lot better than I do the Girts.
Speaker 3: But it's a.
Speaker 4: I'm like I said, I'm glad I got I chased
Speaker 4: the dollar because it enabled me to chase my dream.
Speaker 2: So I was gonna say in Patriots fans, you're gonna
Speaker 2: see this later on in Patriots All Access and all
Speaker 2: of our video platforms. But I'm telling you here we
Speaker 2: have a smiling and a happy John hannay, this looks
Speaker 2: like this kind of life suits you.
Speaker 3: Actually it does it?
Speaker 2: Does?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: I'm a redneck and I finally admitted it to myself
Speaker 4: and everybody else. And I enjoyed being out here by myself,
Speaker 4: you know, and just you know, I'm looking out over
Speaker 4: there or people can't say where I'm looking, but I'm
Speaker 4: looking back over the shoulder here and I say, my
Speaker 4: cows out graves and stuff, and there's no more peaceful thing.
Speaker 3: In the world. Basically, what I do.
Speaker 4: I tell one of you guys, I said, you know,
Speaker 4: all I am is I'm a grass grower.
Speaker 3: That's all I do.
Speaker 4: I let my cows harvest it, let them turn that
Speaker 4: grass into protein, and that's all. And so I'm just
Speaker 4: a grass grower, that's all I am.
Speaker 5: Fair to say, John that you've lived you dream twice
Speaker 5: by going through the University of Alabama, playing in the NFL,
Speaker 5: being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and
Speaker 5: then adding this part of that as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that's I mean, let's face it, if
Speaker 4: I hadn't played in the NFL, I would have never
Speaker 4: been able to have this.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, football.
Speaker 4: Was no question a dream that I had from early on.
Speaker 4: I told everybody how I got in the football was
Speaker 4: when I was in the fourth grade. I was we
Speaker 4: were living in Canton, Georgia, and there was a two.
Speaker 3: Tiered playground outside the school.
Speaker 4: School was on top of the hill, and I was
Speaker 4: on the lower tier, and a few of my friends,
Speaker 4: uh started star and aiding me with the fatty fatty
Speaker 4: two by four can't get through the kitchen door. And
Speaker 4: that was kind of embarrassing. I kind of hurt my
Speaker 4: feelings and I went home and told Mom about it,
Speaker 4: and so Mom called dad, or unlike most parents today
Speaker 4: who would be blasting everybody, Dad called the guy that
Speaker 4: was coaching the sixth, seventh and eighth grade team who
Speaker 4: he had coached, and said, hey, I got my boys
Speaker 4: pretty good sized. I know he's just a fourth grader,
Speaker 4: but would you mind him coming out for the sixth
Speaker 4: seventh Dad got home, said John, He says, I know
Speaker 4: it's a way that you'll never be called fatty fatty
Speaker 4: two by four ever again. He said, but it's going
Speaker 4: to be hard and you have to do it, but
Speaker 4: you earned a respect to your class race. I said, well,
Speaker 4: what's that? He says, go out for football on the sixth,
Speaker 4: seventh and eighth grade team, and I'm want to play
Speaker 4: football anyway.
Speaker 3: I want to be like my dad. So I went
Speaker 3: out and made the team and actually got to start.
Speaker 4: And ever since then football meant a whole lot to me.
Speaker 4: And so playing in the NFL was a dream coming
Speaker 4: true because you know, it was.
Speaker 3: A way that I earned that.
Speaker 4: I felt that what I needed to earn respect from
Speaker 4: other people was something that I was that I would
Speaker 4: have blessed with with some ability and some talent, and
Speaker 4: I just hope I took advantage of it.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 5: So we were talking earlier and Matt mentioned it to
Speaker 5: you about Tom Brady being the greatest Patriot of all time. Yep,
Speaker 5: and I was part of an NFL Network top ten
Speaker 5: Patriots where number two is John Hannah unquestioned.
Speaker 2: He won't say it, but Brian and I will say it.
Speaker 3: Oh, there's no doubt.
Speaker 5: And I mean, arguably the greatest offensive all aligneman of
Speaker 5: all time in nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 2: It's still possible, still still hold.
Speaker 3: You today, Yes, So you know, I mean.
Speaker 5: Do you ever look back at that and reflect on
Speaker 5: the fact that that's where you that's your standing in
Speaker 5: professional football?
Speaker 3: No figure.
Speaker 4: I remember was a kid, I used to watch the
Speaker 4: Miss America contest and the gal that I thought was
Speaker 4: the prettiest and never won, So I kind of fail
Speaker 4: being named that.
Speaker 3: It's kind of like being in the beauty contest beauties
Speaker 3: and I the beholder.
Speaker 4: So you know, I'm I appreciate people thinking enough of
Speaker 4: me to say that now.
Speaker 3: I really do appreciate it. But do I think about it? No,
Speaker 3: not really.
Speaker 2: But but if that's the contest, it's not that company
Speaker 2: to be If if the only guy ahead of is
Speaker 2: Brady is it.
Speaker 4: It's not bad at all, my boy, I tell you
Speaker 4: he uh.
Speaker 3: He said a standard, no question about it.
Speaker 2: John. When did you was there time? I don't know
Speaker 2: if it was an AHA moment or something. You know
Speaker 2: at Alabama again, great school, perfect feeding ground for the
Speaker 2: National Football League? When did when did that come into
Speaker 2: focus to you that, hey, you know what, I think
Speaker 2: I might be able to play at the next level.
Speaker 4: When I was about uh ten or eleven, always in
Speaker 4: my mind wanted to be in the NFL.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be following my dad's steps. I want
Speaker 3: to play in.
Speaker 4: The NFL, and that was my goal all growing up.
Speaker 4: I wanted to be in the NFL, and you know,
Speaker 4: that was a target that I shot for, and so
Speaker 4: I didn't know if I could make it physically or
Speaker 4: talent wise, but in my heart I figured I.
Speaker 3: Could, and then you call it.
Speaker 4: Coach Bryant taught me some lessons when I was at Alabama, and.
Speaker 3: The biggest lesson he taught.
Speaker 4: Me at Alabama was that it's not always the guy
Speaker 4: with the talent that wins. It's the guy that with
Speaker 4: the most guts who'll stick it out and played hard
Speaker 4: all the way through the game. A lot of guys
Speaker 4: with talent that'll play tough a quarter or two, but
Speaker 4: he'll take some breaks.
Speaker 3: When he takes those breaks, that's the time to take
Speaker 3: care of him.
Speaker 4: And that was that was a huge lesson. That's what
Speaker 4: really kind of got me over the hunt. I always
Speaker 4: figured there's a lot of guys more talent in me
Speaker 4: than me in the NFL, but I could outwork most
Speaker 4: of them.
Speaker 2: Coach Bryant, I think I was reading some literature you
Speaker 2: know about this and you and he weren't very close.
Speaker 2: Is that a fair statement to make?
Speaker 3: In real that's real? Fair?
Speaker 2: Were you and him joined a little bit of war?
Speaker 2: Was it was it more fear both.
Speaker 3: I was in awe. I'm not thinking I was so
Speaker 3: in awe of.
Speaker 4: Him that I didn't want to be you know, I
Speaker 4: didn't want to be his buddy, and I don't think
Speaker 4: he wanted to be buddying for me either. But we
Speaker 4: there's two incidents that I remember that really. I mean,
Speaker 4: I respect Coach Bryant and think.
Speaker 3: A lot of it. I love his wife.
Speaker 4: His wife's the kind of one of the kindest ladies
Speaker 4: ever met in my life. But Coach Bryant, you know,
Speaker 4: we had a Saturday. Matter of fact, I think it
Speaker 4: was a week before the Southern col game that that
Speaker 4: we're talking about. That when they beat us a bed
Speaker 4: he sent ten guys to the hospital a heathtroke and dehydration.
Speaker 4: And the guys were leaving out of my freshman class,
Speaker 4: only four out of forty guys that signed scholarships, only
Speaker 4: fourteen of us made it.
Speaker 3: The guys are packing the bag and everything. He come
Speaker 3: and I had to quit.
Speaker 4: Luckily, I fell asleep before I can pack my car,
Speaker 4: and he came in next day wind out what he said, Well,
Speaker 4: boys shall learn a big lesson yesterday he said, you'll
Speaker 4: push yourself and push yourself. You think you're gonna die,
Speaker 4: but human body is an amazing machine. It'll always pass
Speaker 4: out for it does. And I remember that one. And
Speaker 4: then my senior year, we're about to go out and
Speaker 4: play Texas and the Cotton Bowl, and i'd been and
Speaker 4: we just got back from having a day off for
Speaker 4: Christmas with the family, and.
Speaker 3: Dad said, well, you on you getting the law of there.
Speaker 4: Why don't you ask coach Brian after the game if
Speaker 4: you'd arrange a meeting with you can find out who
Speaker 4: an attorney might represent.
Speaker 3: You said, So I'm walking to the meeting.
Speaker 4: Coach Bryant comes out of his office and I said,
Speaker 4: Coach Bryant, I do not want to talk to you
Speaker 4: about this now, but I would like to set up
Speaker 4: a meeting with you after this game if it would
Speaker 4: be all right to see if he might recommend somebody
Speaker 4: to represent me, because I think I might be in
Speaker 4: the NFL. Coach Bryant looked at man, excuse the language, shit, John,
Speaker 4: you ain't good enough. No damn lawyer, that was miss
Speaker 4: That was the last words Coach Bryant spoke to me
Speaker 4: at Alabama.
Speaker 3: So yeah, there's there's a little there's a little Well
Speaker 3: he was wrong.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he was or not, but it
Speaker 4: did it didn't didn't help my feelings though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, can you imagine that there's somebody that intimidated John Hannah.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think Joe Green would be on
Speaker 2: that list.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he might be.
Speaker 4: I think you gotta know Coach Bryant, and you gotta
Speaker 4: remember I was a nineteen twenty kid.
Speaker 2: That's a that's a big statement though to here, you know,
Speaker 2: that shows the respect I think that you probably.
Speaker 4: Oh I had, I had. I will say he had
Speaker 4: comed out. My uncle Bill was playing at Alabama. He
Speaker 4: coached my uncle Bill. Coach Bryant came and my uncle
Speaker 4: Bill went through that junction boy type camp at Alabama
Speaker 4: when he first came, when actually he actually built a
Speaker 4: fence around the practice field so that.
Speaker 3: The boys couldn't quit. So he said no.
Speaker 4: That was in Alabama, in Tuscalusia, And so I knew
Speaker 4: who he was. And he was tough man. He was
Speaker 4: a tough armbran and he wasn't no small guy. You know,
Speaker 4: he wasn't like Saving or Belichick. He's six four, you know,
Speaker 4: waited about two forty two fifty as strong, as a
Speaker 4: canyon ape. I mean, he'd grab you up by that faceman.
Speaker 4: That day when we went to the thing Goose Tree,
Speaker 4: our trainer came over and told us all to get
Speaker 4: our shoulder pads and helmets off, and so we took
Speaker 4: them off with sitting there and Coach Bryant looked over,
Speaker 4: saw us and his t shirts.
Speaker 3: Get those damn pads back on and get your back.
Speaker 4: And when I'm running out, as I run by him,
Speaker 4: he kicks me, and he knocks me about twenty yards
Speaker 4: in the.
Speaker 3: Front of him. And yeah, I was scared the death
Speaker 3: of the old man. I really was. I wasn't in all,
Speaker 3: I was scared period.
Speaker 5: Well, you needed representation. You go into the draft in
Speaker 5: nineteen seventy three. He's had three first round picks that year.
Speaker 5: The draft is certainly not then what it has become today. No,
Speaker 5: what do you remember about that whole process?
Speaker 4: I remember going to the Hula Bowl because I wanted
Speaker 4: to participate in track and I could go to that
Speaker 4: game without losing eligibility, and wanted to time me and
Speaker 4: do all this stuff. And I'm being a smart electy
Speaker 4: like I wasn't. I'd never been anywhere except you know,
Speaker 4: Alabama and Georgia. Now I wanted to say Hawaii, I
Speaker 4: got her. They wanted me to run sprints for them
Speaker 4: all the time. I said, you know what I got film.
Speaker 4: You go look at them film. If you like what
Speaker 4: I do, draft me. If you don't, I can't help you.
Speaker 4: I said, that's the best for indicator good, whether I'm
Speaker 4: good or not. And then Dick Steinberg give me a
Speaker 4: mental exam to see if I was could remember my plays, and.
Speaker 3: That I remember.
Speaker 4: And then the second thing I remember is the day
Speaker 4: of the draft, which was like in January.
Speaker 3: The end of January.
Speaker 4: Back then, I get a call from Fairbanks and he
Speaker 4: says John. And I knew who coach Fairbanks was because
Speaker 4: we'd played them my Oklahoma my sophomore year and then
Speaker 4: asked Blue White Bowl game.
Speaker 3: So I says, hey, coach, how you doing?
Speaker 4: He says good. He says, you know, I'm coaching with
Speaker 4: the Patriots now, and I just want to let you
Speaker 4: know you've been packed picked, you know, number four in
Speaker 4: the draft by the New England Patriots, and we'd like
Speaker 4: to get it you get you up here just soon
Speaker 4: as pot hospel, he says, But I need to get
Speaker 4: back to work now, and I said, well, coach, I
Speaker 4: appreciate it and I look forward to talking to you
Speaker 4: again on the phone. Look and says, where's the new
Speaker 4: England Patriots?
Speaker 3: Please? Still do that? Where are they? Where do they?
Speaker 3: Where is that?
Speaker 2: Do you have a globe or did you have an atlas?
Speaker 2: Did you have a map? What'd you do?
Speaker 4: I went and called some people up mastered until I
Speaker 4: finally found somebody new. But you got I mean at
Speaker 4: that time, Alabama, you know, we were is all college
Speaker 4: football still is primarily, but back then totally was the
Speaker 4: only pro teams we watched was where in.
Speaker 3: Alabama or an Auburn player played?
Speaker 4: So I knew the Giants because my dadd had played there,
Speaker 4: and Tucker Frederickson was there when I was growing up
Speaker 4: from Aulbourne, and I even though he was from Auburn,
Speaker 4: I enjoyed watching him play.
Speaker 2: Joe Willie Joe Willie.
Speaker 4: At the Jets, Leroy Jordan with Cowboys, Bart Starverard Green Bay,
Speaker 4: Ray Perkins at Baltimore and a few others. But that's
Speaker 4: about it, and you know the rest of it we
Speaker 4: didn't really care about.
Speaker 2: He said, your dream is to play in the NFL
Speaker 2: and gets drafted by we, I mean again for Patriot
Speaker 2: fans today that don't understand what the Patriots are like.
Speaker 2: Back in nineteen seventy three, I wanted to play in
Speaker 2: the NFL and he gets drafted by the Patriots. That
Speaker 2: weren't exactly the NFL at that point in time.
Speaker 4: No, it was when I remember the first exhibition game
Speaker 4: that we played in a home exhibition game. We're playing
Speaker 4: the Giants, and I was all fired up a little
Speaker 4: bit because I knew that the noseguard was all played
Speaker 4: at in Nebraska Rich Glover, and he for good ball
Speaker 4: player and real good ball player, quick as a cat.
Speaker 4: So anyway, I was a little nurse. But we were
Speaker 4: pulled into the stadium and there's actually more giant fans
Speaker 4: there than there was Patriots fans at our own stadium,
Speaker 4: and I thought that was that was kind of odd,
Speaker 4: and it was just it was very different back then.
Speaker 3: It was totally different. I was Chuck Fairbanks compared to.
Speaker 4: I've responded to Coach Fairbanks a lot better than I
Speaker 4: responded to Coach Bryan's methodology. To me, Fairbanks was the
Speaker 4: best head coach I ever played under. He had a
Speaker 4: great eye for talent, both player talent and coaching talent. Well,
Speaker 4: he ran in great assistant coaches. He was a great
Speaker 4: organizational skills, just an unbelievable organizational skills. And he was
Speaker 4: a man of integrity. And that's why you know he
Speaker 4: left the Patriots because he couldn't. The owners of that
Speaker 4: time didn't allow him to keep his promises to his players.
Speaker 4: And he said, if I can't, if I can't, my words,
Speaker 4: my bond. And I said, for example, when I went
Speaker 4: up Mayorn rookie year, he would call every rookie is
Speaker 4: what's your goals to be in here? I sat down
Speaker 4: in the chair and I said, well, coach said, I
Speaker 4: want want want a super Bowl. He said, everybody wants
Speaker 4: to wear the super Bowl. He says, what do you
Speaker 4: want personally? I said, well, I've always dreamed of trying
Speaker 4: to be the best office flyman or I can be
Speaker 4: in the league and you know, be the best. He said, well,
Speaker 4: what's it going to take to get there? I said, well,
Speaker 4: it's gonna be.
Speaker 3: Take a lot of work, hard work on my part.
Speaker 4: But I said, I need a coach who can show
Speaker 4: me the right techniques and can catch things when I'm
Speaker 4: doing them wrong and get me a cricket.
Speaker 3: He said, do you like your coach now? I said, yeah,
Speaker 3: Coach Red Miller is a great coach.
Speaker 4: He you know, he just sent four of his five
Speaker 4: offense wine of the Pro Bowl with the Cardinals, and
Speaker 4: Red was unbelievable.
Speaker 3: And so but a few years went by and I'm
Speaker 3: locked on his.
Speaker 4: Door and Red had gone to Denver, and I said, Coach,
Speaker 4: this guy that you've got now he's not doing a job.
Speaker 4: He said, okay, and that's all he said. Next year
Speaker 4: I come back. Jim Rango is sitting in his office
Speaker 4: line best offense grone coach. I thank god ever created
Speaker 4: unbelievable office coach.
Speaker 2: You can talk about the coaches Red Miller, Jim Ringo,
Speaker 2: Hank Bulla, Ray Perkins, you know guys, you.
Speaker 3: Know Coselves how about how about Heart?
Speaker 2: How about a guy by the name Ronnie Earhart. How
Speaker 2: about a guy named Ernie Adams.
Speaker 3: Ernie Adams.
Speaker 2: What was your thoughts about Ernie Adams back in those days?
Speaker 2: John Is, who just retired within the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: We're talking about one of the most unbelievable NFL careers
Speaker 2: that anybody's had, and nobody knows what he does or
Speaker 2: what he did. But he had his heat was not
Speaker 2: only with the Patriots on those great teams that you
Speaker 2: played with in the seventies, but his Belichick's right hand
Speaker 2: man for this dynastic run that has led happened for
Speaker 2: twenty years.
Speaker 4: He probably he had the respect and you know, we
Speaker 4: laughed with him and at him some, but I want
Speaker 4: to tell you what he knew, knew that everybody respected him.
Speaker 4: He probably was more knowledgeable about the.
Speaker 3: Game than anybody I ever met. And he studied.
Speaker 4: I mean, he worked his butt off and so he
Speaker 4: earned the respectable lot.
Speaker 3: And we knew on on on.
Speaker 4: Two on Wednesday mornings when we came in and got
Speaker 4: that scouting report, we knew we were going to know
Speaker 4: what was going on because he had he had built
Speaker 4: that scouting report and uh along with the assistant coaches,
Speaker 4: but he was the he was the guy that got
Speaker 4: it going.
Speaker 3: And I think.
Speaker 4: If anybody, if there's some sort of a hall of
Speaker 4: fame for what he's done, he needs to be in
Speaker 4: it because he's a silent hero.
Speaker 2: He really is high praise, high praise, unbelievable. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think kach Palchi would agree. Yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 2: You know, you talked a little bit John about the
Speaker 2: ownership situation. I don't want to, you know, reveal all
Speaker 2: that and everything like that. But in a way, when
Speaker 2: you see where the franchise is today and you see
Speaker 2: how it's run, what the Crafts have done, is there
Speaker 2: a bit of jealousy in your head that goes, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: why couldn't he you have owned the team when we played,
Speaker 2: and who knows what would have happened. Well, we know
Speaker 2: things would have been different, don't we.
Speaker 3: We do right?
Speaker 4: Ye, Well, there's two ways of an owner making money
Speaker 4: in the NFL.
Speaker 3: He can go in and he starts building.
Speaker 4: He'll spend a little money, he'll win a few games,
Speaker 4: and he starts selling season tickets back when I played.
Speaker 3: And all that stuff.
Speaker 4: And then as soon as the season tickets starts selling out,
Speaker 4: he cuts payroll.
Speaker 3: So that's one way of making money.
Speaker 4: There's another way of making money that's figuring out how
Speaker 4: do I make money by capitalizing on a championship team.
Speaker 3: And that is what the Crafts have done.
Speaker 4: And I would have given my left arm to play
Speaker 4: when the owner, when Bob Craft will on the team,
Speaker 4: it's my here. I think the world of Bob Craft
Speaker 4: he's and he's done a lot for us old guys too.
Speaker 4: And uh, you know, I truly he has my respect,
Speaker 4: a lot of my I mean really respected. And I
Speaker 4: just uh, and I always say in the NFL championships
Speaker 4: always start with the owner.
Speaker 3: Always.
Speaker 4: Uh, you look at anybody, the owner always is the
Speaker 4: building block. You got a bad owner, you'll never have
Speaker 4: a championship. You have a good grade owner, You're gonna
Speaker 4: have lots of championships. And Bob Craft's great owner.
Speaker 5: And he was sitting in the seats in nineteen seventy
Speaker 5: three on the metal benches.
Speaker 4: He's probably frustrated stadium. He's probably as mad as we work, right,
Speaker 4: you know. It's some of the stuff. I mean, can
Speaker 4: you believe trading Leon Gray away? And I mean, how
Speaker 4: stupid is that? You know, just because Leon and I
Speaker 4: were coming up from negotiations a year away and we
Speaker 4: were up at the same time, and so they traded
Speaker 4: him away so I could break us up, so I
Speaker 4: wouldn't have to negotiate with the two.
Speaker 3: So don't get me started. That's a that's a sore
Speaker 3: spot in my life.
Speaker 5: Well, I'll change the subject a little bit then to
Speaker 5: nineteen seventy six, and you guys have that outstanding regular season.
Speaker 5: You go to Pittsburgh beat the defending Super Bowl champions Steelers.
Speaker 5: You hand the Oakland Raiders their only loss of the season,
Speaker 5: and then get the rematch and they blew them out.
Speaker 5: You get the rematch with the Raiders in the playoffs,
Speaker 5: which we all know about the controversy surrounding that with
Speaker 5: the non holding call on Russ and the roughing.
Speaker 3: The Raiders wanted a new stadium.
Speaker 2: They still they still need a new stadium. They had
Speaker 2: to go to Vegas to get a stadium.
Speaker 3: I know. But you know what I'm saying, Yes, well.
Speaker 5: I mean so so how bitter was that because that
Speaker 5: was the year that everyone looks back on from that
Speaker 5: era as the team Oakland goes on to win the
Speaker 5: Super Bowl as the team that might have been the
Speaker 5: first world champion for.
Speaker 3: In New England had they not been some bad calls.
Speaker 3: Let's call it what it is. It was.
Speaker 4: It was, you know, it was a very similar scenario.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know it's I know, we say, uh
Speaker 4: that official all the way and he locked the door
Speaker 4: of his dressing room so we could get doing we're
Speaker 4: trying to kill him.
Speaker 3: But anyway, Uh, it was better.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: We knew we had a great team. Uh, and we
Speaker 3: and the people don't know this.
Speaker 4: The bad call, I guess Ray Hamilton was bad, but
Speaker 4: that would have never happened.
Speaker 3: The guy on the sideline banned.
Speaker 4: We were in slant nineteen and Slam had a kind
Speaker 4: of a he could have made the first down, but
Speaker 4: he saw the yard marker and he stepped out in
Speaker 4: front of the yard marker. But the guy that was
Speaker 4: holding the yard marker didn't have it stretched out. You
Speaker 4: see what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And so there's nobody knew that. But that was one
Speaker 3: of the things that hey, yeah, he was a yard
Speaker 3: not even a yard a foot shot.
Speaker 4: And if the guy had stretched out the change like
Speaker 4: he was supposed to have him, Sam would have seen it.
Speaker 3: He'd have gone ahead and got that extra foot. We'd
Speaker 3: eat the clock up.
Speaker 4: And that had never been that overtime that passed it
Speaker 4: interference call or anyway because or rough and faster call.
Speaker 5: Because on thirty nineteen, by the way, on a third
Speaker 5: and nineteen play, roughing the passage, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: Put you on the spot here. What was the better team, John,
Speaker 2: the seventy sixteen or the seventy eighteen.
Speaker 4: It's hard to say on that one either one of
Speaker 4: them would be basically the same team, only with a
Speaker 4: little more age, because you you know, seventy six you
Speaker 4: got Tim Fox, Mike Canes and we were a little younger.
Speaker 4: In seventy eight, uh, you know, Weaver gone then we
Speaker 4: had replaced him and some things like that.
Speaker 6: So I would it would it would be a tough call,
Speaker 6: and I it wouldn't to me.
Speaker 4: That whole group of guys that I played with from
Speaker 4: like seventy five, even in say seventy five, in seventy three, four,
Speaker 4: even in seventy four, we started getting good people. You know,
Speaker 4: we got Grogs and Nelly and all those guys coming
Speaker 4: in and there you got you know, we had Bam already,
Speaker 4: we had Geezer, Tony McGee, you know, Julius was there.
Speaker 4: I mean, just a good group of guys that enjoyed
Speaker 4: being together.
Speaker 3: And I loved that. That was the team I really loved.
Speaker 4: From that, you know, up until Myers came, I really
Speaker 4: enjoyed playing football with the Patriots.
Speaker 3: You know you referenced earlier White Chucks Fairbanks last.
Speaker 5: Well, it was at the end of that season when
Speaker 5: the Solvents suspended him for the final game of the season,
Speaker 5: learning and he had taken a college job, and reinstated
Speaker 5: him for the playoff game, first home playoff game in
Speaker 5: Patriot's history, in fact, at Solvent Stadium against the Houston Oilis.
Speaker 3: How did that whole thing work itself out?
Speaker 4: Was that?
Speaker 5: Was that the loss of your coach that week and
Speaker 5: the reinstatement was that a major distraction.
Speaker 3: Had big time. It was a big time distraction.
Speaker 4: And you know, and the funny thing is, the players
Speaker 4: knew that Fairbanks was leaving, you know, flying would the
Speaker 4: guy from Continental Airline be at the meetings at the
Speaker 4: players meetings ever Monday, you know, after they did the
Speaker 4: Daryl what they did, so we knew he was leaving.
Speaker 4: We'd already we already figured that out. So it didn't
Speaker 4: bother us. You know, we were just gonna go ahead it.
Speaker 4: But you know, they overreacted as usual, you know, they
Speaker 4: had that chip on her shoulder show. But they they
Speaker 4: assured you had to run a good thing.
Speaker 2: I tell you what. Total kind had a more positive note.
Speaker 2: All records are made to be broken, yep, But that
Speaker 2: seventy eighteen had a record that last very very long time.
Speaker 2: It wasn't until just two years ago when the Ravens
Speaker 2: beat it. Most rushing yards by a team that stood
Speaker 2: for a long time was there. It's got to be
Speaker 2: a sense of pride for me.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you one record they didn't break. You want
Speaker 3: to tell you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they didn't have a We did not have a
Speaker 4: back with over one thousand yards.
Speaker 3: You can.
Speaker 2: Grogan had five.
Speaker 3: Hundred, that's right. So they did it. They did it
Speaker 3: with a running back.
Speaker 4: Well, we had good running backs, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 4: but we had an offensive line and I don't think
Speaker 4: they've ever been a run a running game offensive line
Speaker 4: like we had.
Speaker 3: We could come off the ball. Now, let me tell
Speaker 3: you what we could come off the ball.
Speaker 4: And there's only really there's only that starting team, the
Speaker 4: starting guys. You know, there's only two of us left.
Speaker 2: So it was Pete in the middle, No, you and
Speaker 2: Leon on the left side, Lean.
Speaker 3: Died, Sam Adams.
Speaker 4: And Shelby Jordan on the right. And so Shelby and
Speaker 4: I have only two a lot of that five guys.
Speaker 3: Now, he came in and played a lot, but Lank
Speaker 3: was the starter.
Speaker 5: And then you know you had Grogan run that offense obviously, and.
Speaker 4: The toughest guy and the most mistreated quarterback in NFL history.
Speaker 3: So I was just gonna ask you that. So I
Speaker 3: always felt growing up.
Speaker 5: Now this is more in the eighties than the seventies,
Speaker 5: but that he was They were always trying to replace
Speaker 5: Steve Grogan. But I know you have such an affinity
Speaker 5: for him. So tell me your impressions of Steve Grogan
Speaker 5: as a quarterback and as a teammate.
Speaker 4: When you go into a huddle, everybody has his eye
Speaker 4: on the court and your feed off of it. You
Speaker 4: look in his eyes and you see what he's thinking,
Speaker 4: and he's faling is going and when you you when
Speaker 4: you looked into Goge's eyes, you could just suck the
Speaker 4: energy and the confidence out of him, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean? And if that was what was going and
Speaker 4: tougher in a pine knot, Uh, he'd hold that ball
Speaker 4: and I got mad at him a few times for holding,
Speaker 4: but he had hold of that extra half or a
Speaker 4: second or so to get that receiver make that extra
Speaker 4: move that he needed to get open. And he didn't
Speaker 4: mind taking the hit, you know. And I don't I
Speaker 4: feel that you were talking about that Pittsburgh game when
Speaker 4: we came from behind and beat him down in Pittsburgh,
Speaker 4: and uh we were down there and uh Dwight White,
Speaker 4: uh you know, we went for the first down and
Speaker 4: Dwight White got up and spit on him.
Speaker 3: And Leah and I were uh there.
Speaker 4: And and uh, grogoes he's he makes them trying to
Speaker 4: get spit in his mouth, but he's got cotton mouth,
Speaker 4: get it, so he just makes the sound pooh, and
Speaker 4: Dwight you know, comes after him, and before he can
Speaker 4: get to him, Manley I stepped in the middle and
Speaker 4: make sure he couldn't touch it. But I think Krogs,
Speaker 4: who's uh, he was one tough on bro. Let me
Speaker 4: tell you their other quarterbacks probably they had were more
Speaker 4: gifted talent wise, but there was nobody that was more
Speaker 4: of a winner than he was.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about two other teammates. Steeley Morgan.
Speaker 3: Why he's not in the Hall of Fame beats the
Speaker 3: smart out of me. That guy.
Speaker 4: They got all these TV commentators in there, they can't.
Speaker 4: Their numbers are half of what Sanley's are, and why
Speaker 4: he's not. Sandy was probably the greatest receiver of his era,
Speaker 4: and he just did not get the credit he deserved.
Speaker 3: I don't know why. I can't understand it. Russ francis
Speaker 3: more talent than any human I ever saw.
Speaker 2: You know, he's different, different cat, right, different.
Speaker 4: Cat he You know, we were talking about people a
Speaker 4: little while ago who played off of talent. He was
Speaker 4: one of those guys. He never understood that you got
Speaker 4: to pay a price for true greatness, you know, and
Speaker 4: kind of he they would have never known who Gronsky was.
Speaker 4: I if if Russ had really played the way he could,
Speaker 4: he I've never seen a more gifted athlete than him.
Speaker 3: Did you know during training camp he used to fly
Speaker 3: to Martha's Vinia's lunch. Oh yeah, story, Oh yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean he was crazy.
Speaker 4: I got mad at him. We're out in California for
Speaker 4: a week. We played the Raiders, then we would go
Speaker 4: down place, either La or San Diego, one of them.
Speaker 4: We were at Stanford and he's walking around coming to practice.
Speaker 4: He's injured and he's got on flip flops. I was
Speaker 4: so I yelled at him, but you know, he just
Speaker 4: he didn't care. That was just Russ, you know, And
Speaker 4: I I finally figured it out. You know, I ain't
Speaker 4: going to change him, but boy was when he wanted
Speaker 4: to suit it up. There was nobody that was better
Speaker 4: than him.
Speaker 2: Eighty five comes along and you talked about, you know,
Speaker 2: different coaches, everything, and Raymond Berry comes along in eighty
Speaker 2: four and maybe sort of writes that ship with the
Speaker 2: talent that was on. You know, now you've got guys
Speaker 2: like tipp who's on that.
Speaker 3: Team, Donnie Blackman, Yeah, and you go on that run at.
Speaker 2: Eighty five, John, the first time the Patriots get to
Speaker 2: a super Bowl? Can you remember what the region was
Speaker 2: like with all those road playoff wins and going to
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl and the T shirts with Burry the
Speaker 2: Bears and everything. How magical was that run for you
Speaker 2: at that point in time in your career.
Speaker 3: It was great. It was It was really good.
Speaker 4: And you know, I don't there was the difference though,
Speaker 4: between that team and the teams of the seventies was
Speaker 4: we had a great Now I'm not saying we didn't
Speaker 4: have a good defense when in the seventies, Please don't
Speaker 4: get this wrong, but there was not a better set
Speaker 4: of bookends in the whole NFL than black Men and
Speaker 4: Andre Tippett. I mean, they were unbelievable pass rushes and
Speaker 4: if you ever get shot them both.
Speaker 3: That quarterback was going down, so we had that.
Speaker 4: He still had an La, We still had the you know, Jerius,
Speaker 4: we had the great We had all the great ones,
Speaker 4: and we had even better talent on defense. Our offense
Speaker 4: was not quite as good. You know, we had some
Speaker 4: good players, but they weren't they weren't the same caliber
Speaker 4: Sam Cunningham, Andy Johnson, and unfortunately they decided not to
Speaker 4: start Steve that game, which I think was a very
Speaker 4: big disappointment to a lot of the offensive players. I
Speaker 4: think when we heard he had been cleared to play,
Speaker 4: there was an excitement about Grogue starting amongst the team,
Speaker 4: and when we found out he wasn't going to start,
Speaker 4: I think there was a real letdown. But that was
Speaker 4: it was really fun. I mean, let's face it, we
Speaker 4: got a little revenge on the Raiders, were able to
Speaker 4: beat them out in the Colissem and uh beat the Jets,
Speaker 4: So it was you know, we were the first Wall
Speaker 4: Card team to do that. So you know, there's things
Speaker 4: that we did when I was there that uh were
Speaker 4: we take pride in.
Speaker 3: You know, you know, I.
Speaker 4: Enjoyed being around with Bam and Shelby, and when we
Speaker 4: come back to the Hall of Fame and stuff, and
Speaker 4: we talked old school, and you know, we take a
Speaker 4: lot of pride in the fact that, you know, we
Speaker 4: weren't able to cap it off, but we got the
Speaker 4: ball rolling. We got the ball rolling, and finally the
Speaker 4: the ownership changed the right way, and uh, you know,
Speaker 4: we're very proud of the team.
Speaker 5: The final win of that three road wind playoff streak
Speaker 5: was in Miami, where you had lost eighteen consecutive games
Speaker 5: dating back to.
Speaker 3: Before you were a Patriot.
Speaker 5: Was there ever some sort of mental block with that
Speaker 5: or did you just feel like we can win there?
Speaker 3: It's just circumstances. Losses.
Speaker 4: Well, you've got to remember to when did we play them?
Speaker 4: Most time December, you know, because the ownership wanted to
Speaker 4: have a Christmas vacation in Miami. Well, we've been practicing
Speaker 4: in twenty degree weather for three or four weeks, and
Speaker 4: we go.
Speaker 3: Down there and play in ninety.
Speaker 4: Degree weather and by the time the game's over, I mean,
Speaker 4: you can't. I mean you should have seen what the
Speaker 4: airplane was like on the way out. Oh, everybody's laying out.
Speaker 3: On them four cramping and hurting and everything else. Well,
Speaker 3: you know, so we knew we could beat them down
Speaker 3: there and when.
Speaker 4: And what was really fun about that game? In reality, Yeah,
Speaker 4: we threw some passes, but we've primarily beat them with
Speaker 4: the run. And that was That was sweet, antiquities, that
Speaker 4: was a sweet That was really sweet.
Speaker 2: Did you think realistically you guys had a chance against
Speaker 2: the Beers.
Speaker 3: If we kept it on the ground.
Speaker 4: I didn't think we could with an air attack, especially
Speaker 4: with the quarterback we had. And I knew we might
Speaker 4: fool them at the beginning, but it wouldn't be a
Speaker 4: consistent So I had hoped we would go back to
Speaker 4: a more of a rock'm soccam type game, which is
Speaker 4: what got us there.
Speaker 3: So I knew. I didn't say we couldn't. I knew
Speaker 3: it would be we'd have to play our best game.
Speaker 2: And there are people John who believed that that that team,
Speaker 2: that eighty five Beers team is in the conversation for
Speaker 2: the greatest single season team.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know.
Speaker 2: That team was stacked. So there's no shame in that.
Speaker 2: You know, you guys certainly didn't play well and that
Speaker 2: had to sting.
Speaker 3: Oh we played awful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And there's a lot of stuff going on, you know,
Speaker 4: with the newspapers.
Speaker 2: And after the game and all that.
Speaker 4: And well for us before the game because the players
Speaker 4: knew what was fixing to come.
Speaker 2: Ye, And what we're talking about is and we won't
Speaker 2: spend a lot of time on it, but you know,
Speaker 2: there was some drug issues with that team that came
Speaker 2: to light after the super Bowl and really kind of
Speaker 2: put a damper on what we talked about was a
Speaker 2: magical time. So you just were did you have it
Speaker 2: in your mind? John, at that point in time, I was,
Speaker 2: I knew I was going to retire. What was did
Speaker 2: you know that that was going to.
Speaker 3: Be there for you there?
Speaker 4: I knew I'd played the whole last part of the season.
Speaker 4: I'd torn both rotator cuffs and my shoulders and my
Speaker 4: knee was giving me a lot of problems, you know,
Speaker 4: I had.
Speaker 3: I had a lot of injuries that year. And when.
Speaker 4: Bert Z Aarians came as the orthopedic surgeon uh first year,
Speaker 4: I said, bert.
Speaker 3: I want you to make me one promise.
Speaker 4: He says, if you ever see anything on me that
Speaker 4: will ever that will cripple me and keep me from
Speaker 4: playing from my with my kids from then on, he says,
Speaker 4: I want you to let me know. So Anyway, I
Speaker 4: had both shoulders done and I was recovering from them.
Speaker 4: And then two weeks later I went in and they
Speaker 4: cut on my knee and uh Bert called me into
Speaker 4: his office and they talked to you. I said, okay,
Speaker 4: he said, John, you're your femurs went off. He said, Uh,
Speaker 4: you've got basically you've got a groove.
Speaker 3: And it's it's basically hanging in that groove and you
Speaker 3: have no.
Speaker 4: Cart lets left whatsoever. He says, So it's your bone
Speaker 4: on bone. And I said, well, are you referring to
Speaker 4: our conversation er. He says, yeah, yeah. He says, if
Speaker 4: you keep going, you'll be just let baby or I said,
Speaker 4: well that's what I made up my mind. And you
Speaker 4: know what's funny is when I originally heard it.
Speaker 3: It was against Chicago, uh.
Speaker 2: The regular season game that you when you played them
Speaker 2: in the in the.
Speaker 3: Ring, no back.
Speaker 4: This was my second or third year of the leg
Speaker 4: and they hit me below with me I forgot to
Speaker 4: be lower than the lowest and hey high perched it
Speaker 4: on my knee and tore the posse recruision and uh
Speaker 4: the doctor at that time said, oh, it's just a strain, okay.
Speaker 4: So I kept playing, it wasn't getting better. Kept it
Speaker 4: wasn't getting better. So finally about February I called my
Speaker 4: brother Charlie, who was playing with Tampa. So I had
Speaker 4: to be seventy six. So anyway, I said, turn if
Speaker 4: y'all got to get orthopedic guy and I said, yeah,
Speaker 4: he's really good. I said, can you say up a
Speaker 4: meeting with me?
Speaker 3: So I went there. So I went down too, and
Speaker 3: he said, well, John, if.
Speaker 4: Right now, the only way we can repair that is
Speaker 4: to rewrap the hamstring to the front of the lower leg.
Speaker 4: And he says it's only successful fifcent time. He says,
Speaker 4: if we'd have caught it when it first happened, we
Speaker 4: could have tied the posture or crushe back together.
Speaker 3: And it had been fine.
Speaker 4: But the way it is, you're just going to have
Speaker 4: to keep your legs strong and just play as long
Speaker 4: as you can.
Speaker 3: So basically, the.
Speaker 4: Orthopedic surgeon prior to Bert's ears shortened my career.
Speaker 2: And yet you still played nine years on a bad knee.
Speaker 3: Played nine years on a bad knick. See how when
Speaker 3: you did you retire? What did you miss? The locker room?
Speaker 3: Not feeling a part of the team. It was. It
Speaker 3: was it.
Speaker 4: I don't know what it's like for current players, but
Speaker 4: it was devastating. I mean I didn't know what I
Speaker 4: was worth, didn't know who I was because I'd always
Speaker 4: been caught up as you know, that's the only identity
Speaker 4: I could really hang my hat on it. And I
Speaker 4: went through a hard time for about two or three years,
Speaker 4: I mean real did some things I wasn't very proud of, uh,
Speaker 4: just and embarrassed my family. And it.
Speaker 3: Was a hard time. It was. And I don't know
Speaker 3: if they could get that drawn into.
Speaker 4: It nowadays or not, but you know, when you get
Speaker 4: sucked into it like I got sucked into it, I
Speaker 4: mean it was. It was everything to me. And when
Speaker 4: it when I didn't have it anymore, it was it was.
Speaker 4: It was awful, the worst, the worst time in my life.
Speaker 2: What do you remember what helped turn that around or
Speaker 2: get you on the road to where you were going
Speaker 2: back and that you did feel proud about yourself?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: Two things, Uh, First is you know my faith getting
Speaker 4: back to that That was probably you know, my faith
Speaker 4: in and Jesus and in God. The second thing was
Speaker 4: a Vietnam vet And he finally telling me, said, John,
Speaker 4: you know, one of the biggest issues you're facing is
Speaker 4: ye're a year like a war veteran, you're addicted to
Speaker 4: the most powerful drug known to man.
Speaker 3: I said, what, I don't take drugs. He says, adrenaline.
Speaker 3: And he's right.
Speaker 4: I mean, that was a heck of a fix man.
Speaker 4: You know, Adrenaline is the best drug in the world.
Speaker 4: I'd love to take a shot of adrenaline. Uh, and
Speaker 4: you know it's not bad for you, and it's not
Speaker 4: you know, And he was right. And I realized that,
Speaker 4: you know that I was I had, I had an addiction.
Speaker 4: I was used to going out every Sunday and boy,
Speaker 4: you just get that feeling, you know, that that surge
Speaker 4: you know, coming through the tunnel and that you know,
Speaker 4: the war, you're one on one combat and stuff and shop. Man,
Speaker 4: it was I can and I can go back to it.
Speaker 4: I mean, I just sitting here now, I can still
Speaker 4: feel the the sinds. It's kind of like I see
Speaker 4: it's both over.
Speaker 3: You know. What's funny.
Speaker 4: What's funny is my dad was when my dad was
Speaker 4: about my age, when he was seventy i'd retired me
Speaker 4: might have been seventy five, and we're watching and i'd retire.
Speaker 4: And we're in front of a TV set watching an
Speaker 4: NFL game. I'm watching this guy play and I'm watching
Speaker 4: I said, God, I can do better, I.
Speaker 3: Said, Dad.
Speaker 4: When you watch these games today, he said, you never
Speaker 4: feel like you can go out there and be better
Speaker 4: than those guys that are playing out He says, well,
Speaker 4: I'm pretty old now, John, but probably two or three
Speaker 4: plays I could be as good as.
Speaker 3: They was not better.
Speaker 4: And I guess I'm the same boy. You know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. You still got that inside you where you
Speaker 4: know I'm not as big as them, and I'm not
Speaker 4: probably as talented as them. But they never been hit
Speaker 4: as hard as I could hit them, and they hadn't
Speaker 4: they had a defensive line in the NFL days, been
Speaker 4: hit like like we could hit them. And I'd like
Speaker 4: to see how they'd react when somebody with their helmet
Speaker 4: in their mouth.
Speaker 2: But I want to ask you, is who's the defensive
Speaker 2: lineman when they did hit back that you realized, Oh okay,
Speaker 2: now I gotta I gotta ratchet up here a little bit.
Speaker 2: Who's the toughest guy that you were called?
Speaker 4: You know, you don't do you don't The two guys
Speaker 4: I always said this there. I mean, there's guys that
Speaker 4: were great pass rushers, and there's guys that were great
Speaker 4: run guys.
Speaker 3: The best all the two best.
Speaker 4: All around guys I ever played against was Howie Long
Speaker 4: and Jim Cleco. Jim Clecko, he you got guy or
Speaker 4: how he the one they never ever quit. I mean,
Speaker 4: you knew you were in for an all day sucker
Speaker 4: the minute you walked out on that field, and.
Speaker 3: They just you know, there are a lot of guys
Speaker 3: that were great, but you knew they.
Speaker 4: Were going to take a vacation every now and then,
Speaker 4: and uh but they would never they never took a vacation.
Speaker 3: Don't blame it. So you had to play ever play
Speaker 3: I had to. They were, they were. They have my respect.
Speaker 2: How long I would I could see him being in
Speaker 2: the conversation Joe Clecko, I would. I wouldn't have guessed him.
Speaker 2: So that's an interesting one.
Speaker 3: Joe Clicko, to me, was as good a defensive lineman.
Speaker 4: You've got to remember, he played defensive end, he played
Speaker 4: nose tackle, and he played tackle three different total, different positions,
Speaker 4: played all three, went to the Pro Bowl in all three.
Speaker 4: Never got the credit that guy was as strong as
Speaker 4: a canyon. Nape had great leverage, never quit. He was
Speaker 4: He was a great ballplayer, great ball player.
Speaker 3: John help me.
Speaker 5: Of course, you have your gold jacket that the NFL
Speaker 5: does there one of the greatest players of all time
Speaker 5: and you're on that list.
Speaker 3: How meaningful was that for you? On that hundred players?
Speaker 3: A lot? It was?
Speaker 4: It was really good. I enjoyed it. You know, whether
Speaker 4: it was deserved or not, I don't know. Again, but
Speaker 4: to be counted in the group with the men that
Speaker 4: were there, like you know, wife Stevenson or.
Speaker 3: Artshell or all those guys.
Speaker 4: There's just there was an honor. I mean, those those were,
Speaker 4: you know, not only my adversaries, but they were my heroes.
Speaker 4: And you know, I don't know how they'd studied films now,
Speaker 4: but I always tried to watch films of offensive linemen
Speaker 4: that I respected and what they did against, you know,
Speaker 4: the guys I was playing with. And to be with
Speaker 4: those guys who I thought were so great, meant a
Speaker 4: lot to me. To be able to be with them.
Speaker 2: You mentioned not being on a team and the lots
Speaker 2: of camaraderie and not being in the locker room. You're
Speaker 2: on a team where you can't get cut from it.
Speaker 2: You're in the Pro Football Hall of Fame six years ago.
Speaker 2: I remember being with you in the Holy Land when
Speaker 2: Robert Kraft took you eighteen or so other members of
Speaker 2: the Hall of Fame. That experience of being able to
Speaker 2: see guys like Joe Green and people like that, that
Speaker 2: must have you know, again, it's a club you can't
Speaker 2: get cut from, you know, being around those people in
Speaker 2: that in that special place. John, What what was that
Speaker 2: like for you?
Speaker 4: It's better now that it was then. And a funny
Speaker 4: story about that. When I got inducted. You know, my
Speaker 4: dad had played in the NFL, so he could. At
Speaker 4: that time, your dad couldn't induct you. It was somebody
Speaker 4: had to be in the NFL affiliate. Well, my dad
Speaker 4: had played, so he could induct me. So he was
Speaker 4: giving this introduction for me, and I'm listening, and I
Speaker 4: think it's Buck Gus and Buck Buchanan behind me and
Speaker 4: my rookie year. I played against Bud and he ate
Speaker 4: my lunch. I mean ate my lunch. He was a
Speaker 4: total shipwreck. He embarrassed me so bad. So but anyway
Speaker 4: I hear him talking, he says, you're playing from that boy,
Speaker 4: Buckersa's yeah, but he was young when I played it.
Speaker 4: But buck says, yeah, me too. He sure must have
Speaker 4: got better since I played him. Anyway, that's my memory,
Speaker 4: and that's kind of the way it is, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. So it's a it's a good good
Speaker 4: and the guys there, ninety percent.
Speaker 3: Of them don't have that huge ego.
Speaker 4: They're just part of a club and just brothers, and
Speaker 4: it's I always try to go back every year if
Speaker 4: I can, and I look forward to saying all those
Speaker 4: guys been with him.
Speaker 5: Well matter year I called John tell him in our
Speaker 5: induction ceremonies in Foxborough, and depending on the time of
Speaker 5: the year, he can't come because he's delivering calves. I
Speaker 5: hope you get the same adrenaline rust from delivering calves
Speaker 5: you got from.
Speaker 3: Plain and the NFL. You know when I when when
Speaker 3: you you know, if what's fun, you don't get the
Speaker 3: same rush, but.
Speaker 4: You know there's a there's a sense of accomplishment, you know,
Speaker 4: I've always being an athlete. I think there's two things
Speaker 4: a point farmer and trade. First of all, both my
Speaker 4: grandparents were people.
Speaker 3: Of the land. You know, my mom's family were dairy farmers.
Speaker 4: Uh. My dad grew up as a farmer and his
Speaker 4: business basically we built and equipped chicken houses and stuff
Speaker 4: like that. So I was ram farms all my life,
Speaker 4: and so I enjoyed. I enjoyed being out and being
Speaker 4: an athlete. I was always outside. I enjoy outside. I
Speaker 4: enjoy work, getting with my hands. I enjoy physical labor.
Speaker 4: You know, I get a headache when I use my
Speaker 4: brain see too much because it's too little to work out.
Speaker 3: So it's I enjoy working with my hands.
Speaker 4: And I and as you you know, it takes a
Speaker 4: long time, but you know, slowly and surely. I mean,
Speaker 4: like I said, you know, I got a few red
Speaker 4: cows out there, but there's only six or seven now,
Speaker 4: and there's eighty three blackings. And I raised every one
Speaker 4: of them blackings. And then I've got down here, I've
Speaker 4: got all of about seven or eight now, I registered rangus.
Speaker 4: It takes time, but it's building and I'm growing. And
Speaker 4: you know, good Lord Willing before, I mean, Moses didn't
Speaker 4: get started. Let's face it, till he is eighty, right,
Speaker 4: So the way I look at it, I got ten
Speaker 4: more years just to get started. And I'm hoping that
Speaker 4: then I'll have the farm set up and doing right.
Speaker 4: And today I missed the interview. I'm I'm hoping that
Speaker 4: they're having a hearing today on the meat packers any
Speaker 4: trust violations and fair trade and stuff, because there's four
Speaker 4: companies that basically control eighty five per cent in the
Speaker 4: market and the beef producer is making the lowest percentage
Speaker 4: of the total beef dollar. Ever, people don't understand that
Speaker 4: the beef, the guy that raises the feeder cattles getting
Speaker 4: a dollar twenty two dollars twenty three and they're getting
Speaker 4: one hundred and twenty two hundredweight, whereas the packers are
Speaker 4: getting like around three hundred one hundred weight, and they're
Speaker 4: making all the money and they control the prices, and
Speaker 4: if they don't can't get the cows, they'll just import it,
Speaker 4: you know, and people can't tell whether it's made in
Speaker 4: the USA or not because they all they've got to
Speaker 4: do is bring it in from Nambibia or from Brazil
Speaker 4: and stamp it, you know, packaged in the USA, but
Speaker 4: it's not raised in the United States.
Speaker 3: It's packaged.
Speaker 4: And we're trying to get a mandatory a country of
Speaker 4: original labeling where it's born, raised, and processed in the
Speaker 4: United States, and you know, having much more transparency because
Speaker 4: they do a lot of sweetheart formula deals with their
Speaker 4: other corporate partners, and we want to see what they're
Speaker 4: getting paid and seeing how bad they're screwings. So hopefully
Speaker 4: the Congress will do something. And it's kind of it's
Speaker 4: kind of like playing in the NFL. When I played,
Speaker 4: there ain't no free agency anymore, and we need to
Speaker 4: We need to get some free agency in the in
Speaker 4: the beef industry. And that's what I was telling you earlier.
Speaker 4: I met before y' all came down there. I met
Speaker 4: with a boy who built a processing plant and he's
Speaker 4: competing with them, and he's selling to restaurants and individuals
Speaker 4: and things like that, and he's looking for beef. And
Speaker 4: I'd love to be able to market and sell to
Speaker 4: him and direct. And you know, the more people we
Speaker 4: get out that, the more market less these people be.
Speaker 4: Tomorrow night, when you all eat that beef at I
Speaker 4: Raise versus what you've been eating in that store, chef,
Speaker 4: you're gonna slap yourself.
Speaker 3: Say, this is beef. I didn't know beef could taste
Speaker 3: like this. What's that other stuff I've been eating. It's
Speaker 3: foreign slime, that's all it is.
Speaker 2: I tell you what, if I were the meatpackers, I
Speaker 2: think I'd feel like a defensive lineman as I see
Speaker 2: a little I see some determination in John's face, and
Speaker 2: it looks like he's getting into a three point stance
Speaker 2: and he's gonna fire off the ball and knock the
Speaker 2: meat packers off the ball.
Speaker 4: I'm not I can't pay the politicians like they like
Speaker 4: the packers can, but I am upset about it.
Speaker 3: I really am.
Speaker 4: I don't mind anybody making money, but when they do
Speaker 4: it illegally, that's wrong.
Speaker 2: Our guest on Pats from the Past is John Hannah,
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame guard soon to be Hall of Fame
Speaker 2: cattle rancher. Greatly appreciate your hospitality, your time. Thanks live
Speaker 2: in Blunt County.
Speaker 3: Yeah, love Blunt Canning. Thank you for downloading this podcast.
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