A Closer Look at Football (sound)

[Music] [Music] w it's really strange because uh once the ball is hiked everything seems to leave your mind and then you just do what you're supposed to do and it just seems to come naturally [Music] I think you know pro football is a uh a beautiful uh dirty wonderful cold cruel game and the reason I say it like that because I think this is an opportunity for players uh you know to make great contacts in the outside uh have an opportunity to open many doors for them in business they have opportunity to make big salaries playing pro football but on the other hand you're really nothing but a commodity and as a commodity uh you're easily transferable from one place to another just by the transfer of a [Music] contract it's like most anything else when you find out that you know what you're doing it uh it becomes a great deal of fun and that's the way the game of football was intended to be he okay frco okay FR Franco Harris entered the world of professional football in 1972 with very basic Expectations by the end of his first season he had shed the label of rookie and became a premier running back and the pi Piper of [Applause] [Music] Pittsburgh you know like it's very strange uh saying that as you get into the Huddle and then you tend to concentrate on what the quarterback is calling and you break the Huddle and like you line up and uh if it's your play called you know like you be wondering you know uh you know like uh is the line going to make the right block you know is the quarterback going to get the ball and is he going to hand the ball off to you well you know is there going to be a hole there and we have a little running room once you have the ball you know U all the sound and you know like all the sights around you just seems to fade out [Music] you know it's a beautiful feeling being in the open field you know you bust through the line and you're in the open or you catch a pass and you're in the secondary you know uh right at this point this is when you really start to think Gold [Music] Line usually you know when you're in your open field this is a time when uh like all of a sudden you know there's that one big [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] raw at age 33 Nick bonti has labored 12 years years as a linebacker only in the last three has he been able to experience winning I think you know a ball player who plays full football really I've been 12 years now this is my 12th year really has to have some satisfying you know factors to look back at and no question behind my you know with mine is uh uh after playing Dallas in the uh the 72 Super Bowl and getting trounced by them I felt that uh you know just having been to the Super Bowl was a lot of fun but after reflecting in the off season as a loser as a loser in the in the Super Bowl I knew one thing that you know unless you're a winner in the Super Bowl you're absolutely nothing because uh there's only two things that happen I think there's a winner in a Super Bowl and there's a loser in a Super Bowl uh working right up to the Super Bowl I think everybody's even uh you have the two teams getting the same publicity the two teams are recognized exactly the same but then there comes the game and then after that ball game there's only one winner and one loser and then the winner is the one who gets all the accolades gets all the honors gets all the awards everything happens good for him but then there's the loser and that loser I believe in my own mind is put below the worst team in the NFL I remember that time uh Buffalo had a 1-3 record and I felt that the Dolphins were put below the Buffalo Bills and we had that whole offseason to reflect upon being a loser in a Super Bowl and then from that time on we you know all I thought about was just you know not only getting to the Super Super Bowl but winning the Super Bowl I remember what I think it was Cornell green said he was with the Dallas Cowboys after you know we got beaten the Super Bowl he said the thing that separated the Dolphins from the cowboys that particular day was that the dolphins all he thought about was getting to the Super Bowl and the Cowboys not only thought about getting to the Super Bowl but winning the Super Bowl so the following year you know that kept going through my mind and the first day that Shula talked to us in in the training camp he talked about was winning the Super Bowl not only getting to it but winning it now tell you there I think there's one sad thing that I think that goes through my mind as a ball player that is the fact that there isn't an opportunity for every ball player play in the NFL to get to the Super Bowl Because unless you get to the Super Bowl and unless you get to the big game the game that means everything MoneyWise and and award wise and recognition wise and I think you you you spent a lot of years in the NFL not really tasting a real satisfaction I'll tell you until I got the Super Bowl and until I won it knowing what winning was all about I really didn't know what satisfaction was and uh I think that has to be the epitome of [Music] satisfaction football has experienced many changes since John Brody made his professional debut 17 years ago now at the culmination of his career as a quarterback he can best reflect on the game uh there are certain areas that look at us as a commodity piece of meat uh you know management uh varies a whole lot about I think many of them think very highly as foot of football players as a as a group or they would look at us all as individuals but uh when we're out there I'm sure that the crowds look at uh look at football players as uh a machine you know uh rather than a group of 40 individuals uh and the one thing that I think it's important for players to understand is they all are beings you know and it gets tested out there pretty well and to be able to maintain uh yourself as a being uh as one develops as an athlete he's often looked upon as a as a commodity by certain areas and I think it uh it helps one develop himself and understand a little better what he is and what his priorities are in life and uh it's definitely going to affect everyone uh being in the National Football League for a period of time because it's a wonderful place to take a look at at who you are and it you can you get the feeling sometimes as if you're in a [Music] fishbowl e [Music] I certainly uh wouldn't go out there and play for nothing anymore uh it is my business and to some degree you have to you know you get paid according to what you produce and I'd hate to think that uh you know if uh I wasn't getting paid anything I certainly wouldn't put the the effort and and probably wouldn't have the same interest and nor would I have the same involvement in it so it probably wouldn't be any as much fun anymore either because you know it's it's just kind of a devotion of all your efforts into this one purpose and it's it's your job and there can be a whole lot of satisfaction in your job I mean I don't consider it work I consider it involvement and something that I really enjoy doing and I'm lucky that way but I I think that I would definitely show up very seldom uh and only then for games if I wasn't getting paid it's our business this is how we make our livelihood but I don't think anybody in their right mind would would step on a football field and and take the abuse that he takes and take the physical punishment that he takes and take the injuries and take the blood and the sweat and really and and the tears if you want to go go into it uh just for the for the sake of making dollars I think there has something else has to go into it and this is the really want to play the game really to have something deep down inside you say I love football I want to play football I really enjoy playing football because you just can't do it for dollars you can't be motivated enough to go out and take all the emotional and physical strain of a Sunday afternoon strictly for dollars it's just not worth it somebody said you know like to be a football player you know I guess it's that thing where still you have to act like a little kid you know like you still have to have something that children's play in you [Music] [Applause] [Music] here I was in elementary school wanted to play football but my mom wouldn't give me permission so uh yeah go to my father and uh you know like I expain to him that I want to play football and you know him having that sense of athletic also you know signed the paper for me but that was real funny you know when I look back because when when my brother was a freshman in high school and a sophomore in high school my mom wouldn't let him play football she just said it was too violent and like she thought that uh he would get hurt so he couldn't play [Music] you have so many things to think about that the physical contact part sure they're much bigger but uh if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing you don't uh it all hurts the same depending on how they hit you [Music] that really isn't the the part that a quarterback pays M much attention to is the is the physical part you have to be able to take a lick but uh and if you can't you won't play long [Applause] get up Bry get [Music] out I think injuries are a part of the game I think you know are freely accepted by the players who play in the game uh I can honestly say you know not a reflect back in 12 years I've been in a league that I never think about injuries I never think about getting hurt uh I never think that when I go on a football field I'm going to be injured uh I never think to protect myself on a field [Applause] wait him up J [Applause] [Music] there something different between a hurt and injured you know like like when you're hurt you know uh you know like I think it's something you know that you know you know like like you can play with and it's uh something you know to be expected but uh you know when somebody really tries to injure you and uh put you at the ball game you know like that's what I uh you know really call it very very cheap un fortunately I don't think we have too much of that I never heard anybody you know say I'm going to try and go out and and put this guy off of the season I hate this guy I'm going to try and rack his knee up I've never heard anything like that I think this is a figment of the writer's imagination I think there's a figment of the Public's imagination that the the ball players are trying to go out MIM each other one thing that the public has to keep in mind is the fact that uh we respect uh the other player across the line because we know he's doing one thing he's trying to earn a living [Applause] we know that he has a family we know that this is the way he's making his dollars right now so by trying you know by trying to intentionally hurt him we're really taking a guy's livelihood away so I think there is more of a a fraternity that says no we're not going to take cheap shots at a guy on a field we're not going to take cheap shots at a back who is already on the ground we're not going to take cheap shots at a quarterback who is who is down on the [Applause] ground mid [Music] I think when a ball player gets hurt I think it's from a most times a legitimate hit a violent hit could be a forearm but it's a forearm and in the cause of [Applause] [Music] action I think if you have a rash of little injuries might be a spraying toe or it might be a bruised thigh it might be a a cut on a hand or or like this cut on your elbow that you get from the poly Turf uh one thing that that you do get inside you just get so tired of getting these little nitpick and injuries that if you get one more little nitpicking injury you're just about ready to go through the wall and it's not a knee injury it's not a major injury it's just these little things that just nag you and nag you nag you you know you had many funny moments and uh one just happened to me recently you know uh with uh 30 seconds ago you know that you only have one more play you know and and like I was hoping that uh you know like the ref wouldn't let us run that play at all but he said run one more play so uh you know uh here I was thinking you know wow maybe it should be a quarterback sneak and he can just fall down you know so like the ref came back to hudle and he said run one play and cover yourself up you know so right away you know watch out cuz I last played a game you know people tend to do a lot of strange things so we went in a huddle and you know I was just saying to myself quarterback sneak fall the ball and he called my number I think people have the illusion uh in a huddle that uh everything that goes on in the Huddle is is really technical that everybody is is having a lot of inputs the defensive backs are telling you I like this coverage the defense line saying I like this alignment and linebackers are saying this is what I like to be lined up in well it really doesn't happen that way uh all is happened usually the course of a game is everybody's so tired and and winded and uh you're in a for a drive like we're playing in Kansas City uh I was so tired in the first quarter this was two years ago that I could barely catch my breath so all I did is you know I get the signal from the sideline to give the defense and we get in a huddle I like this Zone Zone over Zone and that's it the Huddle's broken and we can go up to the line and that's the extent of what a huddle is really like you know the funny thing is the big mystery in football is what goes on in a huddle and if there if you could be a mouse in some tackle shoulder pads for about uh five plays you would no long you would walk off the field in disinterest because it's really kind of you know things such as don't step on my shoes uh don't spit on my knee uh there's really very little that goes on and and a lot of the great plays that have happened that have been related to great thought have come out some like in Minnesota the scores 10 to 7 one year and we're third down and two yards to go on their two yd line we haven't won a title before it's the biggest play we've ever had the biggest single play I went to call a play Force blue is up talking to the referee counting the house or something I don't know uh Cunningham and Willard are in the background having a fight uh dick Witcher telling Ted quck that if he doesn't quit giving us that Penn State cheer he's going to knock him on his Fanny and we don't have time to even call a play and finally Woody Peoples would stand there and said just get up the line and run the ball over me 88 four 88 [Applause] 88 in there and we did and we scored and after the game they said how did you think of that you haven't called a quarterback sneak in 12 years of playing pro football and I said oh well you know it was it just looked like the thing to do oh you know there's things that happen on the on a football field all the time uh I'm lying down Sunday with uh Forest blue and I'm on my fanny and the ball goes over somebody's head and Forest says oh Christ well he says that and I said well I can't throw it from my and uh Cass looks over to me and says I wish you wouldn't talk like that he says we'll protect you much better if you just cut all that junk out I said Forest I was answering I mean I Cass I'm answering forest and what's the problem oh I just wish you wouldn't say that stuff well oh you know that's all you know I don't print that [Laughter] they still running [Music] [Music] you know I think if if there's one area where athletes uh Rebel or or are reluctant to answer it's in it's in areas where people relate to certain people uh the winner is good and the loser is bad and I don't think athletes ever related to that basically I think they relate to the fact that both teams are real good especially on a professional level and they can never understand a fan not understanding that is that hey both these teams are comprised of 40 outstanding football players and so there's a winner and a loser but it doesn't mean that one is good and the other is bad and I think most of them you know understand throughout the league with one another that hey one of us is going to get beat and it doesn't make us bad it's kind of uh the other end it's it kind of ties with our whole society is that if you're not the winner you're bad or you're wrong and I think uh the players in large the makeup of the players in this league are guys who are comprised of a whole bunch of winners and there was one guy who wins it all but the others are also winners [Music] w the