Paul Letlow's Louisiana Sports Shorts

Cardia Jackson: Home Is Where the Heart Is

2011-08-28T11:02:00.008-05:00

Wrote this feature on ULM linebacker Cardia Jackson in 2009 for a magazine promoting Sun Belt Conference football. Apparently there wasn't much of a market for a Sun Belt football magazine and I was never paid for it -- guess I can do with it what I please now. Although I'd known Cardia since his high school days, I discovered a lot about him during this interview. Fast forward a couple of years and Jackson was on the Green Bay Packers roster when they won the Super Bowl, earning him a ring and a trip to the White House. He went back to training camp with the team in 2011.

The child was not even a year old, and already the rough-and-tumble game had his attention.
There on the porch, under his mother’s loving watch, Cardia Jackson kept his own eyes focused on the older children in the yard as they played. Sometimes his instincts would kick in, and before his mother knew it, young Cardia would blast through the screen in an effort to join the boys with the football.
“He kept the screen punched out,” said Carlette Boldes, whose son is now a dominant senior linebacker at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. “When he was a child, not even one, he’d see the big boys playing ball in the yard. We had a screened-in porch and he’d act like he was running after the ball. He always wanted to be with the big boys.”
Two decades later, Jackson’s priorities are the same. Mom and football are his passions.

“He was always a special child, a curious baby,” Boldes said. “I knew he would be something special. What, I didn’t know. But his grandmother always said he’d be a football player.”

n

The college experience usually takes a young person away from home, out of a comfortable nest and prepares them for an independent life.
To some extent, Jackson is following that vital arc of growth and maturation. Since finishing a decorated prep career at Wossman High School, he has continued his development as a football player at the university in his hometown of Monroe, La.
Jackson collected a whopping 127 tackles as a junior – the highest total at ULM since NFL safety Chris Harris made the same number in 2002 -- and ranked eighth nationally with 10.6 stops per game. A first-team All-Sun Belt Conference pick, Jackson added two interceptions, four sacks and eight tackles for losses during the campaign. He enjoyed monster individual games with 17 tackles (14 solo) at Tulane and 18 at Ole Miss.
“Cardia is a leader in the locker room and the weight room,” ULM linebacker Theo Smith III said. “He gets us hyped up before a game, and keeps us focused.”
“He kept us laughing,” said Demetrice Hopkins a longtime friend and high school teammate at Wossman. “But he gets serious too. He’s an all-around guy and a complete leader, on and off the field.”
Yet unlike your average student-athlete, Jackson still lives at home with his mother and younger sister. The product of a single-parent upbringing, Jackson made the decision to sign with nearby ULM four years ago to be near his mom. Her health problems, primarily diabetes, weighed heavily on his mind.
“My mother was strong at that time, but I knew that everything wasn’t going right,” Jackson said. “You can tell.”
At Wossman, Jackson was twice named all-state and finished as his school’s career leading tackler. The local newspaper honored Jackson after his senior campaign as the top defensive player in northeastern Louisiana. Schools like LSU and Auburn showed recruiting interest then, and he originally gave a verbal commitment to Louisiana Tech, which is just 30 minutes away in Ruston. But for a young man without a car and his priorities in order, even that was too far away.
“That’s what really made me change my mind,” Jackson said. “I thought about my little sister as the only other person at the house. I’m the father figure at the house. With me not having transportation from Louisiana Tech, if something happened, I didn’t know how I would get home. I made the choice to go to ULM, which is really right up the street. I could basically run there if I had to.”
His first two years at ULM, Jackson lived on campus. Now he’s back under the same roof, sleeping most nights in the same room that he lived in growing up.
“He stuck with them,” said Hopkins, who has known Jackson since sixth grade. “He could have gone anywhere, but he chose to be close to his family. That’s all he has.
“He stepped up and took responsibility. He became a man early. He had that before he got to college. The bond they’ve got is strong. He didn’t want to break that.”
Jackson admits he couldn’t concentrate on his responsibilities if he was depending on someone else to oversee his mother.
“Anytime you’re dealing with diabetes and all that, it’s pretty serious,” he said. “You could lose your life over that.”

n

At home, with family, Jackson is a gentle caregiver. He offers counsel to his sister and helps his mother take her medication.
“I’m there for her,” Jackson said. “My sister is the only other one there, a teen-ager, at 13. She doesn’t know what to do. I have to help her with her medicine, shoot insulin in her arm.”
Said Boldes: “He helps me with his sister and picks up my prescriptions. He makes sure I take my medication.”
On the football field, he’s a rugged beast who punishes the opposition. The game is his outlet.
“He’s a playmaker,” his teammate Smith said. “I think that’s what sets him apart from your average linebacker and will give him a chance to play at the next level.”
At Wossman, he once made 26 tackles in a single game. He wasn’t far off that pace last year when he had 17 tackles – 14 solo – at Tulane and another 18 at Ole Miss.
“It’s like this,” Jackson said. “I take all my problems that I have at home and take it out on the field and leave it on the field. Once I get off the field, I try to let the situation motivate me to keep going. It weighs on me sometimes. But I try to look at everything bad in my life and think that everything happens for a reason.”
Hopkins recognized early on how Jackson channeled his emotions into football.
“He takes out his frustrations on the field,” Hopkins said. “It helps him and motivates him to keep going. He’s kept a strong mind. He’s consistent, and that hasn’t changed.”

n
Jackson’s father Billy Cage had a short career playing football at ULM back in the day but he wasn’t around during Jackson’s formative years. Since entering college, Jackson said that he has developed a man-to-man relationship with Cage.
“It all starts at the household,” Jackson said. “My mother was a single parent, and some guys in the neighborhood don’t have a father figure to look up to – not even a bigger uncle or cousin to tell them right from wrong. All they have is their mother there. They’re males, so maybe she feels like she just has to let them go and see what’s happening in life on their own. That’s not the way it goes. That’s why they choose the path they do. They don’t have that father figure.”
Jackson chose to handle that role for his family.
“He’s real muscular and manly around the house,” Boldes said. “It doesn’t surprise me that he’s such a good leader in football. He’s a person who takes charge at home too.”
Jackson has a short list of people in his life who served as role models and mentors.
Growing up, he saw both sides of the coin. There were Wossman products like Pat Williams and Bradie James, who have parlayed their ability into careers in the NFL. Too many others squandered their gifts.
“The person who keeps me going is my mother,” Jackson said. “There are people around the neighborhood, some of the older guys who had the opportunity to play college ball and messed up and did something stupid. They keep me going too. Anytime I see them, hanging around the little corner store, they motivate me to keep going and pushing. You can’t let the struggle bring you down.”
Jackson averted tragedy in the summer leading into his freshman season at ULM. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Jackson was shot in the leg while out one night with friends. Miraculously, he suffered only a flesh wound and entered the program on schedule.
“I worry about him at school and on the field too,” Boldes said. “I’m concerned about him getting hurt. But he always tells me it will be OK.”
Even today, Jackson knows there are familiar faces that he must keep at arm’s length. They don’t always share his passion to succeed in life.
“I stay in a rough part of the neighborhood on the Southside,” Jackson said. “There are plenty of guys that I went to school with, played ball with, who are still in the neighborhood. They don’t want to do anything else but hang around the neighborhood. I visit with them. I communicate with them. But at the same time, I have to separate from them. When they want to go do something sometimes, I have to say no. With what I have at stake, I have to separate myself from the guys and be smart about my situation.”
Jackson wants to carry on the legacy of his hometown role models – James and Williams. He too wants to provide a positive influence on the youngsters from his community.
“I had a couple of guys ahead of me that I could look up to and follow their foot paths,” Jackson said. “I had Bradie James and Pat Williams. I looked up to those guys. They still come back to Monroe. I still holler at Pat Williams every now and then and he tells me what I have to do and what I have to continue to do to make it to the next level.
“I feel like if those two guys can do it, coming from the same area that I did, why can’t I? But you have to get your books first, then football second.”
This is the legacy that he’s carrying on too.
“I was at the rec playing basketball talking to some guys,” Jackson said. “I talked to them about their life and the direction that they’re going. I was telling them, ‘Everybody knows that you’re not scared. Everybody knows that you’re not a punk. But you’ve got to be smart about what you’re going through. You’ve got to walk away from it.’ If somebody pulls out a gun, do you want to fight them? Just walk away. ”

n

While Jackson is a known commodity to the ULM football family, he’s still something of a mystery to first-year defensive coordinator Troy Reffett.
Since joining the ULM staff from New Mexico, Reffett hasn’t seen Jackson on the field. A shoulder injury kept the star linebacker sidelined during spring drills, leaving his new coach waiting for a first-hand look.
Still, the tape doesn’t lie. Reffett expects a lot from Jackson as a potential playmaker in his 3-3-5 defensive scheme.
“I think he has a chance to be a great fit,” Reffett said. “I’ve watched him on film last year and he’s a big, physical player who runs well and has a good feel for it. Playing inside linebacker is inside linebacker. With what we plan on doing, it will give him an opportunity to make a lot of plays and do things to help this football team.”
Coaching changes have been part college experience for Jackson. Although head coach Charlie Weatherbie has been there for the duration, Jackson has played for four defensive coordinators and four linebacker coaches.
“It’s been kind of good for me in a way,” he said. “All of my linebacker coaches had different styles. You learn more, from the old guy to the new guy. Basically, you’ve just got to make plays. That’s what it all comes down to.”
During skull sessions with his 6-foot-2, 240-pound bruiser, Reffett found Jackson refreshingly knowledgeable about the game.
“He’s studious,” Reffett said. “He went through every meeting in spring ball. He was out at every single practice standing close to me. He had his script with him all during every practice. There are times, during the course of practice that he’s back in the back, actually on air going through the play. I think he understands what we’re trying to do. He can articulate and communicate the scheme and the calls and what he’s supposed to do within those. It’s just a matter of him actually physically going out there and doing it now. That’s where you hope that senior with his experience and ability, it will just flow naturally for him. It’s not uncommon during spring ball to limit the reps of some of your best players anyway. He didn’t get any. But we think he’ll get adjusted quickly and fit right in.”
With a college career unfinished, Jackson isn’t particularly reflective. ULM finished 4-8 in 2008 and hasn’t enjoyed a winning season since 1993.
His highlights are more personal, as he thinks back to teammates and memorable victories.
“I played with Kevin Payne, who is with the Bears right now,” Jackson said. “I’ll never forget the first game as a freshman, the first game he ever saw me play in. He said, ‘Man, continue to do what you’re doing and you’ll make it.’ He saw the drive that I have and the emotions, my feelings for the game. I’ll never forget it.”
Payne, who worked out with Jackson over the summer, recalled the promise he saw in the linebacker four years ago when they were college teammates.
“I knew when I first met Cardia as a freshman that he was special,” said Payne, who is entering his third year in the NFL this season with the Bears. “You couldn’t tell he was a freshman. He fit in well with the team.”
As a sophomore in 2007, Jackson was part of ULM’s milestone 21-14 victory at Alabama. The Warhawks finished that season 6-6, their best record since moving up to Division I-A in 1994.
“It was a big win,” Jackson said. “That was a good feeling after the game, to beat an SEC school. We went in as the underdogs. It was big for me. The coach was Nick Saban, who was LSU. I was recruited by his coaching staff and we had to prove a point.”
The off season has been one of change for ULM football. Weatherbie is in the final year of his contract and a number of assistants left the program. With so many new faces on the coaching staff, Jackson acknowledges both uncertainty and hope that he can finish his college tour on a positive note.
“I believe the defense now will add up my stats,” Jackson said. "We have more blitzes. With everybody roaming around, you never know who is coming. It’s going to benefit me. It’s going to be real fun. Everybody is up and moving around. You’re not being still, waiting on the offense to attack you. You attack the offense.”

n

Like the kid on the porch, Jackson kept his eye on the ball.
Coming up through the ranks at Wossman, Jackson aspired to become a great college football player, and he has remained on that path. All-conference honors and recognition followed the local acclaim he enjoyed as a prep star.
“It’s a feeling that you can’t explain when you’re out there on the field,” Jackson said. “When you it on, nobody can make you turn it off.”
When his senior year concludes, Jackson wants to play professionally.
“He’s a great athlete,” Payne said. “As he tries to go to the next level, he’s got all the potential and skills that scouts are looking for. I worked out with him in Monroe this summer, and he’s got great hips and feet. He looks like a prototype to play in the NFL. The best thing for him to do is stay focused and do the things that got him to where he is now.”
For Jackson, that source is motivation is the woman who now shares his dreams.
“I am very proud of him,” Boldes said. “I’m exceptionally proud that he went to ULM to stay close to home. It helped me a lot. I dream of him playing in the NFL too.”

Paul's Prickly People Of Sports

2011-06-19T10:04:00.010-05:00

Reporting sports in Louisiana is a rewarding endeavor. The state has always produced and attracted a lengthy list of the legends for our games. But not every encounter on the Bayou State sports beat goes smoothly. Frankly, some people you run across can be testy. Over a 20-year period, I can recall several memorable interviews or interactions that didn't go smoothly. Not every athlete listed here has Louisiana ties but did cross my path in a state of wrath.

--I'm from Richland Parish and live close to Rayville, which spawned the football career of Roosevelt Potts. While he's not a big name nationally, Potts was well known in northeastern Louisiana as a high school and college fullback. After starring at ULM, he went on to play pro ball in the NFL -- most notably with the Colts. While writing a fantasy football column sometime in the mid-1990s, I opined that drafting Potts might be tempting for homers but probably not a wise choice since he was losing carries to a young runner named Marshall Faulk. Coincidentally, I attempted to interview Potts in person within a day or two of the column's publication. I guess he'd seen it and recognized me because he was pissed. "I ain't talking to you," Potts said. "You the one that wrote that mess about me." At first I thought he was joking. He wasn't. He walked away grumbling and that was the end of it. So much for the hometown connection.

--Deion Sanders didn't disappoint during a stopover in Monroe, La. while promoting a rap album in 1994. This was during his heyday as a self-centered two-sport athlete, so naturally I wanted to talk sports with him. He wasn't having it though, insisting that this tour was about his music and nothing else. Except he wouldn't talk about his music either in an empty nightclub that afternoon. At least that's what one member of he entourage told me as he sat by himself at a table about 10 feet away. I did see his bodyguard approach a kid, the club owner's son who appeared to want nothing more than an autograph and a handshake. "Deion," the heavy said, "would like you to get him a pizza." Don't know if Deion got his pizza or not but that was all I could take. I left, returning to hear his act a few hours later. I could understand then why he declined to talk about his music. It stunk.

--Never much of a Marshall Faulk fan and that didn't change while watching him work the room at his own Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame induction a couple of summers back. This was more of an observation than personal interaction, but is certainly noteworthy. Traditionally after the ceremony in Natchitoches ends, you'll see inductees approached for photos or autographs. Even though he was being celebrated that night, Faulk wasn't interested in being a good sport. In fact, I saw him turn down an request from a fellow Hall of Famer. "He ain't signing nothing else," someone with him said while shielding Faulk. A class act, indeed.

The next few weren't so much hostile as momentarily tense. ...

--I think Charles Barkley was kidding when he threatened to kill me at a Dallas Mavericks game. I was there interviewing Phoenix Suns players and coaches for a Scotty Robertson feature. Robertson was a longtime NBA assistant with Louisiana ties. Anyway, I wanted to include Barkley's take. I found him in the locker room shaving his head. When I asked him if he had time for an interview before the game, he said, "Are you crazy? You don't talk to me when I'm shaving my head." I backed out and found someone tamer to talk to. I think it was point guard Kevin Johnson, who was reading the bible by his locker. Barkley did make himself available after the game and was great, so all was forgiven.

--I'd like to think Rod Carew is a nice guy but he seemed a little harsh when he ordered me away from the batting cage in Houston. I was there to see the Major League debut of pitcher Ben Sheets. Carew, then batting coach for the Brewers, was working with Sheets in the cage. I wanted a photo of Sheets taking his cuts on the day before his first start. Carew snarled that I needed to back up. Maybe he was just on edge trying to get something out of Sheets, who was eventually an All-Star but never did much damage at the plate.

--ULM center Wojciech Myrda was mild-mannered and quiet during most of his career. A transfer student from Poland, Myrda played locally at Ouachita Parish High School in Monroe, La., before signing with the college program in the same town. He enjoyed a distinguished career and established the NCAA record for blocked shots. Offensively though, he was never that aggressive and had a maddening habit of blowing finesse layups instead of dunking the ball. I wrote as much in a column that published on the same day that Myrda's team had a home game with Lamar. I didn't really rip him but I did write that he would probably never be much of an offensive threat and fans should enjoy him for what he was -- a one-dimensional defensive player. That night Myrda played with a passion that I had rarely seen. He attacked the basket and scored 27 points in a monster all-around game. Before relenting to a post-game interview, he reached in his pocket and pulled out the column clipped from the newspaper. He glared (down) at me and slowly wadded it into a ball before shortly answering a few questions. I suggested to Myrda that he hang it in his locker if that's what it took for him to dominate like he had. His college coach Mike Vining asked for another column just like it before the next game. To his credit, Myrda didn't hold a grudge.

2011-02-10T20:09:00.005-06:00

This is a story I wrote in 2006 as former Monroe (La.) Monarch outfielder Willard Brown was about to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Louisiana native was an interesting character by most accounts -- and one hell of a slugger.

Descriptions of late Negro League slugger Willard “Home Run” Brown create the image of a man who might fit right in with today’s high-maintenance athletes.
Brown, a Shreveport native who played for the Monroe Monarchs in the mid 1930s, would sometimes loaf when the crowds were light. He looked lackadaisical and nonchalant in the field and had a high opinion of his ability.
“Willard Brown knew he was a star,” esteemed author and Negro League baseball historian Phil Dixon said. “He had a quirky attitude. I interviewed Willard many times and Willard loved baseball.
“He was so graceful, he didn’t look like he was running hard but he was running fast. He was known for not sliding, but he told me he had a broken ankle one time playing with one of those southern teams. He told me he didn’t slide because he was afraid of hurting himself again.”
Despite his approach to the game, Brown produced Hall of Fame credentials. One of 39 candidates being considered for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame by a special selection committee this week (Summer, 2006), Brown had a lifetime .351 batting average.
Brown, who died in 1996, was also a player of social significance too. He broke into the major leagues in July 1947, a few months after Jackie Robinson. Brown was the first black man to hit a home run in the American League
“Willard Brown is a Hall of Famer, no doubt about it,” Dixon said. “Willard doesn’t get all his credit that he deserves.”
Part of Brown’s lack of recognition is his reputation. But according to a number of sources, he was a power hitter on par with Hall of Fame catcher Josh Gibson.
“He was underrated,” former Negro League and Chicago White Sox pitcher Connie Johnson told me in 2003, before his own death. “He could play ball but he just didn’t hustle.”
Dixon has conducted exhaustive research on Negro League statistics and believes Brown hit more than 500 home runs. Further, Dixon believes Brown actually hit more home runs than Gibson, whose feats have probably been exaggerated over time.
“He played a lot longer (than Gibson) and he was steady,” Dixon said.
Another late Negro League pitcher, Wilmer Fields, had tremendous respect for Brown.
“I tried to get a few fastballs by him and it doesn’t look like I succeeded much,” Fields said in a 2003 interview with me. “He could hit the ball.”
Fields, who was president of the NLBPA before his death, also advocated Brown’s Hall of Fame credentials.
“Brown should have been in before a lot of the rest of them,” Fields said. “He could hit the ball. I used to pitch to him and Josh Gibson was my catcher. He could hit with more power, but Brown was more well-rounded as a hitter.”
And yes, Fields confirmed Brown’s “reputation too. He once told an author that Brown would read Reader’s Digest in center field.
“That was his trouble,” Fields said. “He could run – but he was lazy.”
Author John Holway, who has written a number of books on the subject of Negro League baseball, also has significant background knowledge of Brown. An interview with Holway appears in Holway’s book, “Blackball Stars.”
“He had a Gibsonian year in 1946, when his homers extrapolated to about 100 per 550 at bats,” Holway told me in an e-mail two years ago. “His teammates say he was a hell of a player, but he didn’t put out until a big Sunday doubleheader; he loafed when the crowds were small.”

THE MONROE MONARCHS DAYS
Brown spent most of his career playing for the legendary Kansas City Monarchs. But his introduction to professional baseball came in Monroe with the local Monarchs.
“My first contract was in 1934 with Monroe, Louisiana” Brown told Holway in an interview published in the book Blackball Stars. “I was a shortstop and a pitcher then.”
Brown had Monroe teammates like young pitcher Hilton Smith, who was inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2001. Hitters like Ted Mayweather were also on the roster.
Although Monroe Monarchs players had a great setup at Casino Park and were treated well by team owner Fred Stovall, Brown bolted when the higher-profile Kansas City Monarchs offered him a better deal. Kansas City offered him him a $250 bonus with a monthly salary of $125, plus a dollar a day for meal money. Monroe was considered a minor Negro League team in those days.
“In 1935, the (Kansas City) Monarchs got me,” Brown told Holway. “J.L. Wilkinson owned the Monarchs and there was a great guy. A wonderful man, a wonderful an. He always got the best ball players. He got five of us from the Monroe Monarchs.”

MAKING HIS NAME
The Web site thediamondangle.com and others like it often refer to Brown as the greatest home run hitter not in the Hall of Fame.
According to thediamondangle.com, Brown “was black baseball's premier home run hitter in the western-based Negro American League. He led the NAL in dingers seven times, 1937, '38, '41, '42, '43, '47 and '48. Only Josh Gibson won more home run titles with nine crowns. Although known primarily for his power, Brown won three batting titles with outstanding averages of 371 in 1937, .356 in 1938 and .333 in 1941.”
Brown was known a hitter who could smash any pitch with his 30 inch, 40 ounce bat..
“He could hit the ball off the ground,” late pitcher Connie Johnson said.
“His hometown park was against him,” Holways said, “or he'd have been better.”

A CUP OF COFFEE
In July 1947, the St. Louis Browns were floundering through another season of major league baseball. In hopes of improving their fortunes, the Browns purchased the contracts of Hank Thompson and Willard Brown from the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs. Thompson and Brown became the first black teammates in the major leagues.
Brown, 36 at the time, lasted 21 games with the St. Louis Browns and was released after batting .179. He became the first black American Leaguer to hit a home run during his short stay with the last-place team.
Brown returned to the Negro League and batted .374 with 18 homers in 1948 and .317 in 1949. Brown also displayed his talents in Puerto Rico and in the Texas Leagues after it was integrated.
In Puerto Rico, he was known as “Ese Hombre” – The Man. He hit a record 27 home runs there in 115 at bats according to Holway. He was a successful minor league player in the Texas League from 1953 through 1956.
“He tore up the Texas League after integration,” Holway said. “Monte Irvin and Larry Doby played against him in the 1946 World Series. … Brown is also huge in Puerto Rico, where he holds the home run record, way ahead of second-place Reggie Jackson.”
According to thediamondangle.com, Brown’s career can be summed up by a 1943 editorial from Rollo Wilson in the Philadelphila Tribune: "After watching him for three years, I am ready to concede that Willard Brown of the Monarchs is one of the really great outfielders of the times and that he ranks with the best. In addition to being a long-ball hitter, he ranges far and fast afield and has a better than average throwing arm. I have seen no one except Babe Ruth hit a longer home run in Shibe Park than the smash Brown delivered there the other evening."

Stan Humphries

2010-05-30T15:54:00.003-05:00

The young quarterback tossed footballs through tires in his backyard and dreamed of being an NFL star.

This wasn’t a far-fetched notion for Shreveport native Stan Humphries. In northern Louisiana, the parade to pro football at the position had already started.

“They were all around at the time,” Humphries said. “Terry Bradshaw, Joe Ferguson, David Woodley were from that time in northern Louisiana. Right down the road, there was Bert Jones, James “Shack” Harris and Doug Williams. It was a period in time when there were a lot of quarterbacks coming out."

Humphries carried on that tradition. A star at Southwood, he led the former Northeast Louisiana University to the I-AA national title in 1987. He spent 10 seasons in the NFL, notably leading his San Diego Chargers to the Super Bowl.

“You’d hang out in the backyard and pretend you were one of those on a Sunday afternoon,” Humphries said. “Having a chance to be one of those guys – now to have a chance to have your name beside them – it’s unbelievable.”

Because he grew up surrounded by a quarterback legacy, Humphries said he’s never really wondered why north Louisiana has been so fertile. It was simply a way of life.

Even his quarterbacks coach in college, former Neville star Bob Lane, had played professional football in the USFL.

“I was lucky enough to go college in Monroe where they opened it up,” Humphries said. “They threw the ball. That’s why I was able to step into the next level.”

The role models weren’t just names on bubblegum cards for Humphries either.

“Joe Ferguson’s parents lived around the corner from my parents,” Humphries said. “He had come into town one summer to work out. I got invited to go work out with him one day – it was unbelievable.”

Still in high school, Humphries found himself playing pitch-and-catch with NFL players like Ferguson, Pat Tilley, MikeBarber, Larry Anderson and Roger Carr.

“All these unbelievable professional football players of this time,” Humphries said, “and I was out there throwing the football with them.”

Humphries created his own legacy, one of toughness and success. The Chargers won more than 60 percent of the games he started in a six-year stretch. He was capable of producing big numbers, but Humphries didn’t care about statistics.

Victories were his prime concern.

“It’s all about, to me, winning football games,” Humphries said. “It wasn’t about commercials and Pro Bowls. It was about winning football games – fighting with your buddies.”

Cult Heroes: Thomas Morstead and Chris Reis

2010-05-07T19:54:00.006-05:00

Missing from the 2010 offseason for the New Orleans Saints?

Well, actually being off. And honestly, why would you WANT to flip the switch after you win a Super Bowl -- particularly in a success-starved NFL region like the one New Orleans services.

Certainly, it's not unusual to see the megastars like MVP Drew Brees and Jeremy Shockey making high-profile appearances all the way up until training camp eve.

But witness the trickle-down effect too for the game's flashpoint cult heroes. Likeable guys like Thomas Morstead and Chris Reis, who came up on the business ends of the pivotal onside kick to start the second half of Super Bowl XVI, have taken the title to the people with a personal touch.

There's Morstead, shocking the world with the prescribed Holy Roller toward the unsuspecting Colts. There's Reis, the long-haired special teams ace, scrambling in the bottom of the pile and coming up with the ball. A few months ago, they were relatively anonymous role players.

Now these willing ambassadors are part of Saints lore.

"It's kind of an overnight sensation," Reis says on an April night while signing freebie autographs at Jaimie's Sports Cards of Louisiana in Monroe. "I went from a nobody to now; people recognize me. Because of my hair, they're making me on the street. It's humbling to be part of something so big, so great and so great for the city. It's been a blessing. Hopefully we can continue our winning ways."

It ain’t easy for a punter to show up on the highlight DVD. Yet who (dat) among us will ever forget the sight of Morstead jumping and signaling that Reis had recovered his onside offering.

"For me personally, my whole rookie season was special," Morstead says during a pause at the same Monroe event. "From getting drafted to positive moments where I helped influence the game, it was really a neat feeling for me."

Morstead's aunt and uncle, along with five cousins, actually live in Monroe. When visiting their home, he sometimes booms 60-yard punts down the street to the amazement of locals.

Keeping his leg under wraps back home in Texas, he blends in pretty well. Back in the Bayou State, it's another story. "It's crazy," Morstead says. "Whenever I come back ANYWHERE in Louisiana, everybody's still so high about it. It's been pretty cool. I was out in Monroe last night, and people were buying me drinks. It's pretty crazy."

At least Morstead was a recent draft pick with modest name recognition. Reis reminds you of Steve Gleason, another long-haired special teams demon from a few years back. Listed as a safety on the roster, the Georgia Tech product was originally signed by the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent in 2006. In 2007, he was toiling in NFL Europe for the Cologne Centurions.

Typically, only the diehards get this deep into roster recognition, but Super Bowls and super-charged moments change that. These days, folks line up to meet ‘em when given the chance.

"It's wonderful," Reis says. "You have fans coming up to you and saying 'Thank you.' These fans aren't looking for anything from us. They're just thankful that we were able to do something so great. We won, but it felt like we won for the city. To be able to give back to the fans is just awesome."

Says Morstead: "People are always trying to get stuff signed or take pictures. It doesn't get old. To me it doesn't. I think it's cool. These fans have been living and dying with this team. Well, they've dying for a long time. Living with them now, it's cool to be a part of it."

They get it. Morstead isn't too far removed from lean years of his own at SMU.

"I went 1-11 my junior year and 1-11 my senior year in college," Morstead says. "To go from that, -- to winning the Super Bowl?"

Believe me, we understand.

And thanks.

USFL'S demise helped Saints arrive

2010-03-14T15:27:00.008-05:00

This is a piece that I originally wrote in 2003 as part of a package remembering the birth of the USFL in the 1980s. This is one of the most rewarding projects I ever worked on, as I visited with former Saints legends like the late Sam Mills, Bobby Hebert and Jim Mora and gathered their memories about the defunct football league.

BACK IN THE USFL: No Mora excuses for Saints

USFL alumni like Coach Jim Mora, Sam Mills, Vaughan Johnson and Bobby Hebert led the Saints to their first playoffs in 1987.The death of the United States Football League in the mid-1980s breathed new life into the New Orleans Saints.

When the spring football league went belly up after the 1985 season, an unprecedented wave of players and coaches flooded the market. By plucking the right free agents from the pool and hiring the USFL's most successful coach in Jim Mora, the NFL's Saints in 1987 were able to reach the playoffs for the first time in their woeful history.

"We did great," Mora gushed 18 years later, as he remembered his early years in New Orleans. "Sam Mills, Vaughan Johnson, Chuck Commiskey, Antonio Gibson, Mel Gray, Bobby Hebert - my coaching staff who came with me from the Stars. We did good."In addition to players, Mora stocked his first Saints staff with former Stars coaches, such as Dom Capers, Jim Skipper, Carl Smith, Steve Sidwell, Vic Fangio, Joe Marciano and John Pease."We got a lot of coaches and players," Mills said. "There were a host of guys who were able to come over and contribute right away. It was a lot of fun."

MORA THE MINER

Sure, the NFL had deeper rosters than the USFL. But Mora knew that some of the star players he'd seen in the upstart league could compete with anyone.

"The USFL was better than people gave it credit for," Mora said. "There were a lot of terrific players in that league that went on and became really good players in the NFL."

The USFL was filled with golden nuggets of talent, and Mora proved to be an able prospector.

"They boosted the Saints. They propelled the Saints," said former USFL wide receiver Charles Smith, now head football coach at Wossman. "

All of a sudden, you get Jim Mora from the USFL and he comes in and brings success. He learned how to build a team from Carl Peterson. Jim Mora saw how you can develop a team. He saw these guys he coached against and knew they could play."As he built the Saints, Mora's wish list, for the most part, was fulfilled.

"We did pretty good from the USFL," Mora said. "I didn't want to bring in a bunch of USFL players because the current players would say, `Oh man, here's the USFL coach bringing in all these guys.'"I wanted to be sure we brought in good players who would fit in and the current players would respect."

Three years in USFL from 1983-85 helped Mora devise his blueprint for success while compiling a 41-12-1 overall record and a 7-1 postseason mark. A battle plan featuring rugged defense and ball control on offense helped his Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars win two of the USFL's three championships. When the league folded, the Saints hired Mora to change their fortunes.

"I knew that he would have success," said Mills, who played linebacker for Mora's Stars. "I saw him build a team in the USFL, and we had a darn good football team there."Mora said the Saints were on the verge of something when he arrived."When I went in there (New Orleans) in 1986, there was a really good nucleus of players there that Bum Phillips had acquired," Mora said. "Then we had a good draft with Dalton Hilliard, Rueben Mayes, Pat Swilling, all in the same draft. It would have been hard to screw that up."

SPRINGING INTO ACTION

Mora had one player that he had to bring with him from the USFL. But late Saints general manager and president Jim Finks needed convincing when Mora started talking up Mills.

"When I started talking about Sam, I'm talking about a 5-9 and a quarter linebacker, and Jim Finks wasn't real fired up about it," Mora said. "I had to convince him that Sam could play."

Slammin' Sam was accustomed to proving himself. The Toronto Argonauts and the Cleveland Browns cut him before he crashed pro ball with three years as an All-USFL star. He rewarded Mora's loyalty by earning five NFL Pro Bowl berths, including his first in 1987.

"I believed that he would get it done," Mills said. "I was just glad to be a part of it."

A chief USFL foil was already dressed in black and gold when Mora took the helm. Quarterback Bobby Hebert threw for 3,568 yards and 27 touchdowns while leading the Michigan Panthers to the first USFL championship in 1983, a 24-22 win over Mora's Stars. Hebert passed for 314 yards and three scores while earning MVP of that first title game.

"The fans (in Detroit) supported us more than the Lions because we brought them their first championship since 1958," Hebert said "Out of 28 NFL teams, we would have been 10 to 14. We definitely would have been in the top 14."

Mora's Baltimore Stars returned the favor in 1985 by topping Hebert's Oakland Invaders 28-24, in what was the USFL's final contest. Hebert threw for 3,811 yards and 30 touchdowns in his last USFL season before signing with the Saints.A Louisiana native who played college football at Northwestern State, Hebert proved himself worthy for the NFL with his USFL apprenticeship.

After playing sparingly under Bum Phillips in 1986 with New Orleans, he completed 164-of-294 attempts for 2,119 yards and 15 touchdowns in 1987 to lead the Saints to their first postseason.

"The Superdome was rocking from 1987 to 1992," Hebert said. "There wasn't a better place to play. It's a shame we couldn't finish the deal. There couldn't be a better city to win the Super Bowl in. it would be like Mardi Gras the whole offseason."

Mills and Vaughan Johnson formed half of the heralded linebacker unit known as the "Dome Patrol." Johnson was a USFL terror with the Jacksonville Bulls before his NFL reincarnation.

"I knew of Vaughan," Mills said, "but I didn't know that he was such a good athlete and such a good football player. I learned a lot of things from watching Vaughan. I learned a lot in man coverage watching Vaughan. I figured if a guy 250-something pounds could cover that good, there must be something I can learn."

Mills wasn't the only former Stars player to follow Mora. Commiskey started at offensive guard, and Gibson played safety for Mora in both leagues.

"They were both on our team in Philadelphia," Mora said. "They weren't great players, but they were good enough to come in and make us better with the Saints."

Running back Buford Jordan introduced himself to New Orleans football fans in 1984, when he ran for 1,276 yards with the USFL's Breakers. Jordan made the jump to the NFL, where he was a backup with the Saints. Gray was a splendid return man in New Orleans who ranked sixth in kickoff returns and seventh in punt return yardage in 1987. He went on to play in three Pro Bowls with the Detroit Lions.

FINALLY - A WINNER

Mora's melding of the two leagues proved fruitful in his second season. The Saints finished 12-3 in 1987, earning their first playoff berth in team history.New Orleans split its first two games before a players strike forced NFL teams to use replacement players. The Saints went 2-1 in replacement games, then suffered a 24-22 loss to the 49ers in the first game after the strike.

Mora erupted afterward with his famous "Could've, would've, should've" speech that challenged his Saints to rise up against the top teams.

"Could've, would've, should've is the difference in what I'm talking about," Mora said that day. "The good teams don't say could've. They get it done."

After losing to the 49ers, the Saints peeled off nine straight wins. After 20 years of futility, they clinched their first playoff berth with a 44-34 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Overall, the Saints ranked third in rushing and fourth in total defense while posting their first winning season.

"It was huge," Mill said. "When we first stepped in the city, we heard `Aints' and we heard about the paper bags. I remember my first game against Atlanta, we got blown out."But we knew we could be successful. When it happened, it happened in a big way. The whole state of Louisiana was so excited about their football team and a team they could be proud of. It was a team they could chant good things about."

Though the Minnesota Vikings thrashed the Saints 44-10 in the 1987 wild-card game, things had changed. New Orleans enjoyed seven straight non-losing seasons under Mora and went to the playoffs four times in his 10® years. Mora's 93-74 record in New Orleans established him as the franchise's winningest coach.

"Coach Mora came in and made the New Orleans Saints a legitimate team," said Louisiana native Gary Barbaro, a star safety with the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs and the USFL's New Jersey Generals. "He made them someone to contend with."

Steve "Dr. Death" Williams

2009-12-30T17:23:00.004-06:00

The wrestler Steve "Dr. Death" Williams died of throat cancer on Dec. 30, 2009. He was 49.
Primarily through his affiliation with Mid-South Wrestling, Williams was a familiar figure to Louisiana folks who followed the sport in the 1980s.

In 2007, I had the chance to meet Williams on a promotional stop in West Monroe. He was a fun interview and a nice guy -- despite his bruiser reputation.

Throat cancer left his voice raspy but strong. When he talked wrestling days of old, his eyes twinkled.

“Ask any well-named wrester about Dr. Death,” said Williams, who lived in the Shreveport area for about 25 years. “I was the toughest man in the business. I don’t think anybody could match up.”

During its heyday, Mid-South Wrestling drew legions of local fans to the Monroe Civic Center to see stars like Williams, Ernie Ladd and Ted DiBiase.

“People will never forget those guys,” Williams said. “We’re the ones who paved the way for these kids today. We went everywhere in our cars, slept in our cars and ate cans of tuna fish. We had to scrape.”

Diagnosed with cancer three years before our meeting, Williams at that time believed he was winning the greatest fight of his life.

“I didn’t work for two years,” Williams said. “Matter of fact, I died three times because of the situation. God spared my life.”

Williams chronicled his life and battle with cancer in a book – “How Dr. Death became Dr. Life.” He said he used his celebrity to share his testimony at churches and talk to cancer patients.

“I am so blessed,” Williams said. “I fought a tough opponent. That cancer was a tough situation.”

Then 47, Williams was still training wrestlers and helping develop the sport that made him an international figure. On the day of his appearance at an independent wrestling event, Williams went into the ring and thrashed an upstart -- to the delight of the small crowd.

“I think a lot of people are just happy to see that I’m alive,” Williams said. “I wanted to finish off 25 years with wrestling and retire. This is my 25th year. A lot of people have been asking me to come back out and entertain. Right now, I’m enjoying life.”

Williams, whose weight dropped from 290 to 206, had returned to the gym daily for two hours. The former Oklahma football and college wrestling star was closer to his playing weight of 275 when we visited.

“I feel great,” said Williams. “I tell people that I used to do it my way like old blue eyes – Frank Sinatra. I did it my way so many years. I was a Christian, but I kept backsliding. When I had cancer, I gave my life over to Christ.”

Everson Walls

2009-11-02T15:41:00.005-06:00

GRAMBLING -- Everson Walls isn't a man to forget where he's come from, just as he isn't a man to leave his friends behind.

Fittingly, he chose the bookstore at Grambling State University as the first stop on a tour to promote "A Gift For Ron: Friendship and Sacrifice On and Off the Gridiron." The new book, written with Kevin Blackistone, chronicles his decision to donate a kidney to former Dallas Cowboys teammate Ron Springs.

"Everything is coming back full circle," said Walls, who played for Eddie Robinson at Grambling before a 13-year NFL career. "Besides what I went through growing up in my family, this is where my personality was most formed. The foundation was laid at home, but I was able to perfect the person I became when I was here. Being with Coach Rob, the impressions he put on me, really helped all of this happen."

Robinson, the legendary molder of men, would be proud of Walls and his amazingly selfless act. Springs and Walls were teammates for just four years, but became pals for life after coming together in a sometimes divided Dallas Cowboys locker room.

"I thought that the Cowboys camaraderie was a very fragile piece," Walls said. "Very fragile. You had the players who wanted to be nice and loose, more like the Raiders. Then you had the coach and the organization that was totally the antithesis of that. That was always a struggle between management and players, a struggle that was really more difficult than it should have been.
"Consequently, when I went to New York, it was a little different. There was always a struggle between management and players. But the reason it was so different in New York was because of (Bill) Parcells was there. He was able to straddle that fence very effectively. Tom Landry did not feel like straddling the fence. He was going to do his job, he was a military man -- cut and dry. Tom made it work. He was a great guy and a great coach. He was a guy who could rally the troops with his knowledge and intelligence. But we were a team full of personalities. That's why there was always that clash."

After football, Springs and Walls became closer than ever. From that vantage point, Springs witnessed the ravages of diabetes on his pal. Beyond their experiences together, Walls and Springs shared a blood type. When a potential donor fell through, Walls stepped up and literally gave up a part of himself.

Initially, Walls and his friend shied away from the publicity that followed. But unable to hold it back, they chose to use that publicity to promote the cause. Together, they founded the Ron Springs and Everson Walls Gift for Life Foundation, which educates on the dangers of kidney disease and the need for organ donation.

"When we went through this kidney donation, all of a sudden, it became bigger than us," Walls said. "I remember Ron and I realized it at that point. After we had done it and people found out, it garnered so much attention. Immediately, Ron -- Mr. Business Man and I'm an opportunistic person as well -- we said, 'Let's go ahead and make lemonade out of these lemons.' Let's make this an impactful moment. We're still doing that."

The story took an unexpected turn in 2007 when Springs fell into a coma while undergoing elective surgery to remove a cyst from his arm. Springs remains alive, breathing on his own.

Walls soldiers forward, believing that his friend will someday recover. Their cause lives on.

"I don't believe that just because Ron is in a coma he doesn't know what's going on," Walls said in the book. "I believe that he thinks we've already spent too much time fretting over him and not enough time spreading the good word of the foundation."

Reggie Wayne

2009-10-28T16:55:00.005-05:00

FARMERVILLE -- Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne is a New Orleans native but he also takes pride in his family ties to North Louisiana.

Wayne spent many a summer in Marion with his grandparents, the late Luke and Ora Lee Wayne. His father Ralph Wayne also grew up in Marion before playing linebacker at Grambling in the 1960s.

“I do know that when we came up here, it was always great eating,” he said. “Something about grandmother’s cooking. It was a fun time. Everyone was always smiling.
“Our main thing was that we used to throw rocks every day.

From throwing rocks to catching the rock , Wayne blossomed into one of the NFL’s best wide receivers -- and a favorite target of quarterback Peyton Manning.

“I put a lot into my off-season workouts,” Wayne said. “I go out there and just try to be consistent. That’s what it is and how Peyton goes. If you’re there for him, he’ll continue to throw you the ball."

When returns to Union Parish, he's greeted by more good food, more smiles, and a surprising number of Colts fans who welcom him back.

“I’ve been to this area plenty of times to see my grandmother and grandfather,” Wayne said. “I was like, seven years old, traveling back here to see all my relatives. I feel like this is home as well. ”

Louisiana is a football hotbed and Wayne loves to spread the word.

“In the NFL, you get covered over with the state of Florida, the state of California and the state of Texas,” said Wayne, who prepped at John Ehret High School before playing college football at Miami. “But me and Peyton always tell everybody, ‘We’ve got a lot of guys from Louisiana. Don’t skimp on us.’ It’s exciting to have so many guys to play on the professional level to represent the state.”

Wayne said his father Ralph’s stories about Grambling always intensify when they return to the area. Ralph Wayne was a teammate of Grambling legends like James “Shack” Harris and Frank Lewis.

“Whenever I come up to North Louisiana, I get all the stories,” Wayne said. “Whenever I’m in New Orleans, you don’t get many. But as soon as we get around Farmerville and Marion, it’s like you pressed a button.”

John David Crow

2009-09-06T16:02:00.002-05:00

John David Crow always begins conversations with his former players the same way.
He issues an apology.
“Every time,” Crow said. “I hug their neck, shake their hand and apologize for treating them so rough.”
Crow served five seasons as a head football coach and athletics director at the former Northeast Louisiana University.
A country club atmosphere, it was not.
“He was a no-nonsense kind of fellow,” said Lou St. Amant, one of Crow’s football assistants. “That first year, we started out with 70 to 80 guys. We ended up with about 40.”
Crow was tough on his boys, and his coaches, which isn’t surprising considering his pedigree. Crow was one of Paul “Bear” Bryant’s stars at Texas A&M in the 1950s.
A rugged man with the rawhide manner of John Wayne, he was also Bryant’s only Heisman Trophy winner.
Naturally, Crow emulated his legendary college mentor when he took the NLU job in 1975. A native of Marion who lived briefly in Bastrop before his family moved to Springhill, Crow’s hardscrabble upbringing also steered his philosophy.
Crow’s way had its casualties – not every one can handle boot camp either. But those that do come away with a sense of accomplishment and pride that carries on.
“Every one of them, every one that I’ve seen, thanks me for what I did for them,” Crow said.
Crow produced a 20-34-1 record with two winning seasons during his era. But his legacy at what is now the University of Louisiana at Monroe extended beyond the white lines of the football field. In his dual role as athletics director, Crow used his celebrity to secure funding that finalized an impressive facilities upgrade on the campus in the late 1970s. Politicking in Baton Rouge, Crow fast tracked deals to build both the football and baseball stadiums.
“We were able to secure some more funds,” Crow said. “I was the fair-haired boy and that kind of stuff. We were able to build what I thought was a nice half a stadium. But that was the money we had and that’s what we did.
“I would have liked to have taken the plans and start over, but we didn’t have the time. Fortunately, we had money left over for the baseball stadium too.”
Crow’s arrival in Monroe created excitement when the school announced his hiring in December of 1975. The program had five consecutive losing seasons and was mired in mediocrity.
“He gave us credibility and we needed it bad at the time,” St. Amant said. “His whole tenure here had the buzz. He didn’t put up with a lot. You had to do it his way, or the highway was waiting for you.”
In announcing the decision to hire Crow, former school president Dwight Vines said that Bryant himself rated him as one of the top five potential coaches among all his former players.
“Over the years in investigating the character and ability of applicants for many positions, I do not recall ever having as near unanimous endorsements as I’ve had in talking to people about John David Crow,” Vines said. “He is the kind of man I would like my son to play under.”
But even Crow couldn’t work immediate miracles. HIs first two seasons produced records of 2-9.
“I took over a program that was not very successful,” Crow said. “We had a great basketball player, so the basketball program was fine. But football was having its problems.”
Crow made progress, and finally broke through in 1978 with a 6-4 record. Crow was coach of the year in Louisiana in 1978. Notably that year, ULM defeated rival Louisiana Tech (18-0) for the first time since 1970.
“Louisiana Tech was the barometer,” Crow said. “That was how you could tell where your program was and how we were doing. They were successful. That was our goal, to compete with Louisiana Tech.”
Crow’s best season was 1980, when the team finished 7-4 and again finished with a win over Tech.
“I’m pleased and very proud of what we did at northeast,” Crow said. “I think that President Vines was just an unbelievable president for an athletic program.”
Unfailingly modest about his accomplishments as a player, Crow to this day deflects conversations about his Heisman glory in college.
“I always try to make people understand,” Crow said. “I accepted that trophy on behalf of a coaching staff, the managers and trainers, the student body – everyone. That’s what it’s about. Football is a team sport.”
Still, the Heisman hardware made occasional appearances around the football complex in Monroe. Crow said he used it to motivate others, to show them what one could earn despite a humble beginning.
“I brought up to the office for a period of time,” Crow said. “But it was for an example of what you could do – even as a north Louisiana boy.”
Crow didn’t flaunt his Heisman, but his celebrity didn’t hurt as he worked to build the program’s profile in recruiting talent.
“I didn’t have to bring that up,” Crow said. “Fortunately, you people made that known. It was brought up. Certainly, I hope I took advantage of that to help my career, my family and people I was around.”
After his college career, Crow was a first-round NFL draft pick and played 11 years with the Cardinals and 49ers. He entered coaching as an assistant with Bryant at Alabama, followed by jobs with the Cleveland Browns and the San Diego Chargers. He left his job as offensive coordinator of the Chargers to come to Monroe.
“It was a great time,” said Crow, who is making a rare return to the campus for hall of fame activities this week. “A great experience.”
Crow resigned in 1981 to go into private business, and later returned to Texas A&M as an administrator – including a stint as athletics director. He still serves his alma mater today, primarily in fundraising.
His body of work at ULM carried on – the foundation he built paved the way for unprecedented and unmatched success in the 1980s – including a Division I-AA national championship in 1987 under Crow’s successor Pat Collins.

“No matter what I’ve ever received, I’ve always said that it’s not me, it’s the coaches and players and family around me,” Crow said. “I was fortunate enough to be the guy who had the reins and tried to get that horse back on track.”

Remembering NLU's run to the '87 I-AA title

2009-08-15T09:35:00.002-05:00

To simply focus on the final result of the 1987 season doesn't do justice to the Northeast Louisiana University football team of that era.
More than 20 years ago, NLU emerged from a 15-game season with 13 victories and a Division I-AA national championship. The Indians, as they were called then, beat Marshall 43-42 in a quirky indoor stadium called the Minidome in Pocatello, Idaho to finish the journey.
A national championship is sweet enough. But it's the way this team won so many of its games that made the Indians of that era larger than life.
Close calls and comebacks, high-scoring games and last-second heroics all added luster to the remarkable season.
"It was like a team of destiny," recalled Stan Humphries, the quarterback with the winning hand for NLU that year.
Humphries, who followed his collegiate triumphs with 10 years in the NFL, never forgot the camraderie of the college experience.

"I think the big thing was, we had a group of guys who loved to be around each other," he said.
Humphries said the way coach Pat Collins groomed high school products and kept them in the program created the tight-knit feeling.
"When you're around a group of guys for two or three years and you do everything together, it's like a family," Humphries said "I think that's the way that team was."

PEAKS AND VALLEYS
NLU was dominant through the first three games of 1987, using its new one-back, pro-style offense to bludgeon Louisiana Tech and Southwest Texas by identical 44-7 scores. Nicholls State went down 26-14.
"Things went really well those first three games," Humphries said, "and then we went into a lull."
"The Team of Destiny" needed its first miracle in Week Four with a "Hail Mary" pass from Humphries to Jackie Harris to beat Northwestern State 33-31 in Natchitoches. On the game's final play, Humphries tossed a 48-yard prayer that was tipped twice before Harris snagged the ball with a diving catch near the back of the end zone.
A week after escaping Northwestern, NLU endured a crushing 48-28 loss to Lamar, a team that would finish 3-8. The loss would also cost Humphries his starting job for three games as backup Walter Phythian came in and threw for 209 yards and ran for 102.
Phythian would start against defending I-AA champion Georgia Southern the next week and direct a 26-17 victory. Humphries never saw the field as NLU utilized four field goals by star kicker Teddy Garcia.
"We won that football game because Walt played — instead of me," Humphries said. "When you play that style of offense, you only get it a few times a game. Well, the way I played — and the way we played when I was quarterback — we threw the ball a lot. You have three and outs, and they get the ball back. With Walt playing, it was a whole different style of offense. We controlled the ball and we controlled the clock."
The Indians were humbled again the next week as Southwestern Louisiana won at Malone Stadium, 17-7. Humphries and Phythian alternated at quarterback, a plan that failed as NLU gained just 226 yards.
"We stunk it up," Collins said then as his team slipped to 5-2. "Sloppy wasn't the word for it. I don't know if there is a word for it."
The word was change.
The next week, Humphries was reinstated as NLU's starting quarterback and he passed for 388 yards and three TDs to maul McNeese 37-10.
The offense was back on track, and so was the team's championship chase.

TURNING THE CORNER
Week 9 brought a 34-24 win over Division I-A Southern Miss (which had a young quarterback named Brett Favre at the helm). NLU was the only I-AA school to beat a I-A team with a winning record that year as USM finished 6-5.
"I think the turning point in that season was when we beat Southern Miss," Humphries said. "When we beat them over there like that, it raised our eyelids a little bit if we could just stay on course."
NLU completed another piece of the puzzle in Week 10 by beating North Texas 24-23 in the "Southland Showdown." Humphries threw for 310 yards as NLU won a share of the Southland Conference title.
But by this time, it was clear NLU wasn't inclined to do things the easy way.
After leading 21-0, NLU faltered and allowed North Texas to storm back. A touchdown with 1:23 remaining narrowed the score to 24-23.
North Texas coach Corky Nelson decided to kick the extra point instead of trying for two and the win. Keith Chapman's kick hit the right upright and bounced back. Chapman, perfect on PAT's all season had missed and NLU had won.
"God was with us tonight," Collins said afterward. "That was one we don't practice every Thursday"
Even as a co-conference champion, NLU needed a Week 11 win over Arkansas State to assure a playoff berth. Arkansas State wasn't even in the Southland anymore after leaving in 1986. But because NLU couldn't schedule all three of the new teams in the Southland, the Arkansas State game was a designated conference game.
After falling behind 21-0 in the first half, NLU rallied to win 31-21. Humphries threw for 351 yards and a touchdown to open the door to the postseason.

HOME FOR THE PLAYOFFS
The first round brought a rematch with North Texas, but NLU took care of business. Linebacker Duke Marcus made 16 tackles as the defense delivered its best performance of the playoffs.
"I thought this game was a real challenge for the team because of the way the last one ended," Collins said "We had the impetus to play well, and we did."
A 33-32 quarterfinal win over Eastern Kentucky was harder on the heart. Humphries passed for 486 yards and gained 521 yards of total offense. Garcia, who missed two field goals earlier in the game, boomed a 48-yarder with 14 seconds remaining to win it for NLU. Collins called it the most exciting game he'd ever coached.
"I believe in these players, and they knew they'd win," Collins said, "no matter what it took to do it."
Think that was something? The Indians topped that with a double-overtime thriller the next week to advance to the championship game.
In the 44-41 semifinal win over Northern Iowa at Malone Stadium, NLU blew a 21-0 lead, then let Northern Iowa tie the game at 41-41 on a touchdown and two-point conversion.
In the first overtime, Northern Iowa lost a fumble at the NLU 3 while Garcia missed a potential game-winning field goal.
In the second overtime, Garcia found redemption with a 41-yard field goal. Northern Iowa's kicker missed his 38-yard attempt and NLU — despite giving up 547 yards — was headed to the title game.
"They were the best team today," Northern Iowa coach Darrell Mudra said. "NLU has a great quarterback and a great scheme. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they win the national championship."

POCATELLO, HERE THEY COME
The I-AA season concluded that year in the Minidome, home of Idaho State in Pocatello.
The Indians and the Thundering Herd from Marshall put on a show in a nationally-televised game that produced more than 1,000 yards. Humphries tossed three touchdowns and passed for 436 yards. His quarterback counterpart Tony Peterson threw for 474 yards.
NLU needed its own comeback this time after trailing by 14 points in the fourth quarter.
Humphries directed the game-winning drive and scored the go-ahead touchdown with 7:19 remaining. Garcia's PAT stood as the winning margin, thanks to a few big plays from a "Crunch Bunch" defense that had drawn criticism by allowing more than 400 yards per game through the playoffs.
The beleaguered unit, which gave up 576 yards in the championship, contributed a fumble recovery by Richard Green at the NLU 7 with three minutes left and a 14-yard sack by Troy Brown. Finally, safety Perry Harper intercepted a pass with 56 seconds remaining to seal the win.
"You can say it's vindication for us," NLU defensive tackle Claude Brumfield said after the game. "We protected that one-point lead."
Now 20 years later, the story of 1987 reads like an improbable movie script. But it's all true — and in retrospect —as amazing as it sounds.
"In my whole career, that was one of those times when football was a game and it was fun," Humphries said. "The atmosphere on Saturday — the people in the parking lot and tailgating. At the next level, it's a business. At that point, it was a game and you were excited to play."

Ken Stabler remembers his Saints years

2009-07-28T09:37:00.005-05:00

Former Alabama and NFL quarterback Ken Stabler didn’t spend his best years with the New Orleans Saints, but he has fond memories of his days there. Playing for the Saints as a backup in 1982-84, Stabler and coach Bum Phillips helped the woeful franchise reach the verge of the playoffs for the first time – only to fall short.

Letlow: What do you remember about your playing days with the New Orleans Saints?
Stabler: Oh, I had a great time. I was worn out when I got there. My best days were behind me as a player. But being with Bum was the most important thing. I played for him in Houston in ‘80 and ‘81. Bum retired and I retired. Bum got the New Orleans job and he called me and said, ‘Why don’t you come down here? We need a veteran backup player. You probably won’t play much. We’ll get some horses and go out to Jefferson Downs and the Fairgrounds and have a lot of fun with horses.’

I went and played with him and for the fans and city of New Orleans and had a great, great time. I lived on a golf course resort out in Metairie area and loved every minute.

But as a player, I was a backup. I was 35, 37 years old. My better days were behind me as a player.

Letlow: After playing most of your career with the Oakland Raiders, that was as close to home as you ever played professionally, right?
Stabler: I tried to get back closer to home. The trade with Houston, when (Dan) Pastorini went to Oakland and I went to the Oilers -- just getting back in the Southeast and Texas and Louisiana was fun. I didn’t have the same team around me and I wasn’t the same player myself.

New Orleans had gone through struggles forever. We came within a field goal of being a .500 football team. We finished 7-9, and the Rams beat us with a field goal. We would have been a .500 team and made the playoffs.

Letlow: What do you think about the Saints now?
Stabler: I watch the Saints. I watch pro football. That was such a neat story down there. I live in Mobile, and they have a lot of fans down there. You keep up with them and want to see them do good – for the franchise and the city. That team has a lot to do with people’s frame of mind.

Steve McNair's final game at Grambling State

2009-07-04T20:17:00.004-05:00

The death of retired NFL quarterback Steve McNair summoned personal memories for me.

Early in my career as a journalist, I had the chance to interview McNair one-on-one in the summer before his senior year at Alcorn State. We talked in a hotel lobby in Shreveport, a stop for McNair as part of the old Southwestern Athletic Conference tour. I remember his huge hands and a humble demeanor, even as we mulled his Heisman chances. A couple of months later, on Sept. 3, 1994, I had the privilege of watching McNair play at Grambling State in a game that became part of Eddie Robinson’s lore. In an amazing offensive display by both teams, Grambling prevailed 62-56. Robinson later called it one of the most memorable wins in his own career.

GRAMBLING -- Grambling State’s love-hate relationship with Steve “Air II” McNair came to a rollicking finish Saturday night at Robinson Stadium.

It couldn’t have ended any better for the Tigers in front of a home crowd of 25,347. Grambling quarterback Kendrick Nord out dueled McNair, passing for 485 yards and seven touchdowns as the Tigers held on for a 62-56 win over the Braves.

“I didn’t come here to compete with McNair,” Nord said. “I came to win.”

In terms of raw numbers, McNair had the upper hand. He completed 27-of-52 passes for 534 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 99 yards and another score. His 633 yards were 10 off the Division I-AA record for total offense. But in a change of fortunes for McNair, he couldn’t produce the magic that had made him 3-0 against Eddie Robinson during his college career.

“He’s just a great athlete,” Robinson said. “It’s a bittersweet win for us.” Known for his last-second heroics, McNair had one final shot at rallying his team to an unprecedented fourth consecutive victory over Grambling.

Trailing by six points with 1:39 left in the game, the senior quarterback moved his team from the Alcorn 37 to Grambling’s 11 and had two shots at the end zone. On third-and-10 with four seconds remaining, McNair’s pass went through the arms of receiver Percy Singleton.

“He hit the kid right in the numbers offensive coordinator Ricky Taylor said. “All he had to do was hang on. Then we kick the extra point and win the game.”

On the game’s final snap, McNair scrambled right and fired a bullet to fullback Tony Bullock in the right corner of the end zone, but freshman Christopher Singleton broke up the play as time expired. “Their defensive end got the jump up field and rushed us out of the pocket,” Taylor said. “He forced us to one side f the field and that cut down on our chances.”

Grambling took the lead for good with nine minutes left in the game. Nord capped a five-play, 65-yard drive with a 25-yard scoring pass to Curtis Ceasar. The two teams combined for 1,318 yards total offense, as Grambling rolled up 612 and Alcorn gained 706. Grambling wingback Tyronne Jones caught six passes for 157 yards and three touchdowns, and Ceasar had five catches for 144 yards and three touchdowns.

Turnovers were the biggest culprit for Alcorn. Grambling cornerback Akili Johnson intercepted two McNair passes and recovered a fumble by running back Harry Brown.

The game was billed as a matchup for the ages. The strapping young Heisman hopeful versus the legend played out in front of a braying crowd.

The Alcorn State quarterback was a consistent pain for Robinson in three prior meetings, whipping the Tigers in every fashion possible during his college career. In prior outings, McNair’s feats left Grambling slack-jawed, frustrated and crowing about next year.

But the game was for more than just bragging rights between bitter rivals. Forget for a moment that Alcorn coach Cardell Jones was trying to become the first to play Robinson four times and remain undefeated.

Also put aside the fact that the Braves could have joined Jackson State as the only schools to defeat Grambling four consecutive years. This was a meeting of two early favorites for the SWAC title.

With the win, Grambling moved to the forefront of what should be a great race. Alcorn is relegated to playing catch-up.

"Now every weekend, we’ve got to sit back and see what Grambling does,” said Alcorn’s Marcus Hinton, who caught nine passes for 184 yards. This hurts. But we did all we could and we left it on the field.”

The Monroe Monarchs

2009-06-29T14:48:00.005-05:00

Of all the sports topics I've studied, none captured my imagination like the Monroe (La.) Monarchs, a Negro Southern League baseball team that competed in the 1930s.

I discovered the team's existence while thumbing through a book on baseball stadiums (Green Cathedrals) in a store in 1992. The small entry on Casino Park, home of the Monarchs, sent me on a quest to learn more.

I soon found the team's second baseman, Augustus Saunders, living in Monroe. I couldn't wait to talk to him, but unfortunately my timing was bad. His wife passed away the week that I made first contact and he was in no mood to visit.

Eventually though, he welcomed me to his home and shared his amazing stories about the team's short, rich history.

"We had a team," Saunders began that hot summer day in his living room, "a good, black baseball team."

Imagine my surprise to discover that the Monarchs played the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the 1932 Negro League World Series and helped produce future Hall of Fame pitcher Hilton Smith and outfielder Willard Brown. The Crawfords beat the Monarchs, thanks to a loaded lineup that featured pitcher Satchel Paige and catcher Josh Gibson.

Saunders grew up in Whistler, Ala., and said he watched Paige pitch as a youngter in Mobile. He took pride in the one hit he collected off Paige in the World Series.

"Boy he could pitch," Saunders said. "He just looked like a big old bear standing up there. He was just a natural born baseball player."

Gibson hit a tape-measure home run in Game 5 at Casino Park. Saunders said the towering shot to left field was one of the longest he ever saw.

"He hit it out towards the tracks in left field," Saunders said. "There was a train on the track at the time and we always said the ball carried on the next town."

Years later, late Negro League legend Buck O'Neil told me in a phone interview that he played against the Monarchs at Casino Park in 1935. He vouched for the amazing teams that played in Monroe in those days.

"It was a very good team," said O'Neil, who was Hilton Smith's roommate with the Kansas City Monarchs. "You named some guys that were on that team like Hilton. Willard Brown was on that team. Ted Mayweather. Very good."

Owned by a white drilling company operator named Fred Stovall, the Monarchs played in Casino Park, which stood near what is now Carroll High School. The park is no longer in existence.

"It was down at the tail end of DeSiard," O'Neil said. "It was more like an amusement park. They had a dancehall and a swimming pool. It was one of the few swimming pools in the South for blacks."

O'Neil said Stovall's generosity with his players was legendary."He was just like J.L. Wilkinson in Kansas City," O'Neil said. "Stovall was the type of guy that when things got tough in the winter and his players needed some spare change to get by, he'd give it to them."

In an interview with Black Ball News in 1993, former Monroe Monarch Marlin Carter talked about playing for Stovall: "Fred Stovall was a very wealthy man. On his plantation he built a ballpark for his team. He also built a recreation center where the players relaxed when they weren't playing.Stovall spent a lot of money on his ball team. The players lived in houses on Stovall's plantation, and our meals were prepared by a cook the Stovalls employed. In 1932 he bought three brand-new Fords for the team to travel in. But, most importantly, we always got paid. All the way around, the Monarchs were a pretty classy operation."

Super Agent Albert Elias

2009-06-26T17:29:00.004-05:00

Sports agents get a bad rap sometimes, but I like the way that Monroe native Albert Elias handles his business. He tends to represent good character guys, which is smart if you think about it. Teams are more likely to take care of talented athletes who keep their nose clean. I know several of his clients and all fit a similar profile. I profiled Elias a couple of years ago, noting his string of clients who participated in the Super Bowl.

With his solid huddle of upstanding, blue-collar clients, sports agent Albert Elias isn’t a glamour seeker like some of his peers.
But this time of year -- at least in recent NFL seasons -- the Monroe native can be called a “super agent.”
Three players represented by the St. Frederick product – defensive end Jarvis Green, cornerback Randall Gay and Eric Alexander -- will play for the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl on Sunday. In fact, at least one of Elias’ clients has participated in four of the last six NFL finales. Last year it was former ULM star Chris Harris, with the Chicago Bears.
“Agents don’t get any extra money from it – nothing extra like that,” Elias said of his Super Bowl connection. “But the reason I’m an agent, the most important thing for me, is to see my client succeed.”
And what’s bigger than the Super Bowl?
“I know that 20 years from now, my guys will be able to help themselves by going to corporations and speaking and showing off their ring because of this process and the amazing season that they’ve had. I know that,” Elias said. “They don’t know that, because they’re caught up in the moment. But that’s something I can help them with when they’re done with football. That’s a feeling that makes it special.”
A former LSU student who graduated from Loyola University Law School in 1996, Elias has carved out a solid niche for himself as an agent over the past seven years. In addition to the aforementioned Patriots, he also negotiates for Harris, who plays for the Panthers, and ULM product Kevin Payne, now with the Bears. Ruston product Kyle Williams, a starter with the Buffalo Bills, is an Elias client. And he recently added NFL veteran Mark Roman, another LSU product, to the list of 12 active players that he represents.
“It’s not work for me,” Elias said. “They’ll call me at midnight sometimes, asking weird things they’d never ask another agent for. But they do it because they know I’ll take care of it. It’s like taking care of my little brothers. It’s fun.”
The Elias clan has deep business roots in Monroe – Elias’, a shoe and clothing store on Louisville Avenue is owned by his family.
He began his career in business at a consulting firm in Dallas, and the next three years he spent there helped him hone the negotiating skills he utilizes as an agent.
Elias, who owns Dallas-based EMG (Elias Management), has spent plenty of time working with the Patriots. The franchise emerged as modern dynasty during the same time frame that Elias has moved up in his profession.
“I’m a fan of the way they do business, and the way they treat their guys,” Elias said. “Coach Belichick treats the players like men and educates them – not just to be football players, but to be good people.”
Elias said the Patriots -- especially his guys -- have been motivated this season by the death of former LSU defensive lineman Marquise Hill. Elias also represented Hill, who drowned in Lake Ponchatrain in last year.
“Randall was Marquise’s roommate on the road,” Elias said. “Jarvis was Marquise’s mentor. In a weird and kind of friendly way, they were competitors. Now Jarvis wears Marquise’s shoulder pads in every game.”
Elias said Hill’s death has affected him too. He said they have remained close to Hill’s mother, fiancée’ and son.
“I think about him all the time,” Elias said. “He was such a dear friend to me. Marquise always wanted the people he loved in his life to be successful. He always put them first.”
Although Hill was a second-round draft selection in 2004, most of Elias’ clients are mid-to-late round picks. Green was a fourth-round pick in 2002, while Gay and Alexander entered the league as undrafted rookie free agents in 2004.
“My guys are genuine, humble, moral guys,” Elias said. “That’s what we go after. First you’ve got to be a good football player to make it in the NFL. But you’ve also got to be able to handle the pressures of the league. You’ve go to be humble, genuine and grounded. That’s why my guys are successful, whether they’re drafted or not.”
Elias said there’s a certain satisfaction that comes from being associated with players who overcome low expectations to enjoy productive careers in the NFL.
“You know what the odds are of making a roster as an undrafted free agent?” he said. “Much less being a part of a success like that. Randall will be a free agent after this year, and now he’s ranked as one of the top two or three corners who will hit the market.”
This is the third Super Bowl for Green and the second for Gay and Alexander. Elias said that he’ll attend the big game in Arizona, just as he always does when his clients are involved.
“This doesn’t get old for them,” Elias said. “What they’re experiencing this year is just amazing. I think they understand it, but they’ve got a job to do. They are the show in the whole country this week.”
And of course, the big show makes a nice platform for those players to boost their individual stock too. The agent in Elias wants them to seize that opportunity.
“Every team is watching,” Elias said. “Every team wants to be the New England Patriots. Every team wants their players. Every team wants to copycat them.
“What better exposure for a client trying to build his name -- and an agent to be able to build his client’s earning capacity -- than to be one of the players in that game.”

Bradie James

2009-06-22T08:18:00.003-05:00

From his own youth, Bradie James recalled the impact of his encounter with former NFL great Willie Roaf.

“I remember one year, Willie Roaf came in and he spoke at a banquet,” said James, a six-year linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys. “I’ll never forget half of the stuff that he said.”

For James, the chance to deliver that same feeling and influence to youngsters in his hometown keeps him coming back annually to put on a free football camp at his high school.

“We’ve got a lot of good talent,” James said during a break from the action at West Monroe High School. “We’ve got some eight-year-olds that will be some future NFL stars. We’ve got some 14, 15, 16-year olds, and those guys are looking like real talent.”

History says that James’ assessment is on the mark. The region has served as a pipeline for programs at the next level -- including his alma mater LSU.

“Northeast Louisiana always has a lot of talented guys who come out of this area,” James said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who always get scholarships. Hopefully, we’re doing something right here today that will help these guys in the future.”

James and NFL friends like Felix Jones, Flozell Adams and Marcus Spears, along with Eric Ogbogu of Under Armour fame and ex-LSU teammates like Rodney Reed and Marcus Yanez, provided hands-on coaching for the large turnout of boys. He also enlists help from guys like Kirk Frantom, the longtime West Monroe trainer.

“We just got done with minicamp,” James said. “For Felix, Flozell and Marcus Spears to come out is a good thing. A lot of guys haven’t even gotten any sleep. I wasn’t trying to get a whole bunch of people, but I like to bring different guys who will work. These guys are real good with the kids.”

Jones and Spears said they enjoy pitching in for a good cause.

“I love it,” Spears said. “I’ve been around some good ones (coaches). I kind of know the ends and outs of what to do and how to keep their attention. I know when to lay off a little bit and I know when to push them hard. It’s been fun.”

Said Jones: “This is a great opportunity to give back. I think this is a great thing he’s doing for these young kids coming up, especially since he’s from this area. This is a fantastic camp.”

Despite blazing temperatures on a June day in Louisiana, spirits ran high during the several hours the players spent with the kids. “I know these guys won’t forget it and they’ll cherish every moment of it,” James said. “I’m just trying to do something that will cause some kind of impact in their lives. I think we’re doing a good job.”

Now in its fourth year of existence, “The James Gang” camp has actually taken some of the celebrity shine off James in his hometown. Locals have grown accustomed to seeing him around this time of year.

“After a while, they just start hanging with me,” James said. “When they first meet me, they’re like ‘Man, can I get an autograph?’ “But after a while, they’re like ‘Man, you’re just like us.’ That’s a pretty good thing.”

More from Bradie James
On LSU baseball's run to the College World Series final: "It's time. They've been one of the best teams in college baseball. Hopefully they can bring it home. That's what happens when you get a new stadium. When you get a new stadium, it brings a whole bunch of luck. The Cowboys have a new stadium, so it's our turn."

On the 2009 Cowboys: "You never know until you put on pads. Anybody that tries to predict the NFL season, I'd call them a liar. You never know. So many things go on in an NFL season -- injuries, ups and downs. Right now, with everybody in place, we've got a chance to really compete for a championship."

Will Bradie miss T.O.?: "A little bit. But he's gone so we don't even talk about him."

Willie Roaf

2009-06-21T10:22:00.005-05:00

Willie Roaf enters the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame this week, with Canton, Ohio's Pro Football Hall of Fame not so far on the horizon.

I visited with Roaf a couple of years ago when he held his golf tournament in Shreveport. Imagine my surprise when legendary running back Barry Sanders made an appearance at the dinner the night before. Sanders arrived late, shuffling through the room dragging his own suitcase on wheels. Sanders, who shared an agent with Roaf, gave his buddy high praise. He's not alone.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Others have mulled Willie Roaf’s legacy for years.

The former Louisiana Tech and NFL offensive lineman was a Pro Bowl pick 11 times during his 13-year career. One of the greatest athletes to ever play for the New Orleans Saints, he’s a sure bet for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“He’ll get my vote,” said Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders. “To be good at that position, you’ve got to be tough. He’s not tough off the field -- but when the ball is snapped…”

Roaf, who retired as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, has been pondering his own place in football history lately.

“I feel like I have a good resume,” Roaf said. “I feel like I kept my nose clean and I played hard. My peers respected me a lot.”

Sanders, who employed the same agent as Roaf, always wanted to play on the same team as his friend. Ironically, his Detroit Lions traded the pick that went for Roaf to the Saints for Pat Swilling in 1993.

“You look at his body of work, you look at how he competed and really dominated his peers,” said Sanders. “He’s definitely a Hall of Famer.”

Respect for Roaf also runs deep back home too.

“He came from a small town and Louisiana Tech,” said Tech offensive line coach Petey Perot, who played in the NFL himself. “To do the things that he’s done, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s a Hall of Famer. And I think it will be on the first ballot.”

At 6-5, 320 pounds, Roaf had prototype size. But he also had the passion to compete at an elite level.

“Obviously, he was big and strong,” Sanders said. “But a lot of guys are big and strong that didn’t always feel like playing. Willie had that toughness about him when you snapped the ball. I think he loved the position that he played. You could see that in the results of all the guys that ran behind him.”

STILL A SAINT AT HEART
Roaf didn’t finish his career with the Saints, but he spent the first nine years of his NFL career in New Orleans.

He understands his place in team history. Roaf will be the first Pro Football Hall of Famer inductee who spent the bulk of his playing career with the Saints.

“It will be special for New Orleans fans,” Roaf said. “I’ll go into the Hall of Fame as a Saint. There are no Saints in the Hall of Fame, so it will be great.”

Roaf was the eighth overall pick out of Louisiana Tech in 1993. He started all 16 games at right tackle as a rookie before making seven consecutive Pro Bowls at the left side, a streak that was snapped in 2002 when he suffered a knee injury.

Although he has few personal ties to the Saints these days, Roaf noted that his relationship with the team is good. With that said, he’d like to see the organization do more to maintain its ties to former greats.

“You wish you could see more of the old guys who played there be embraced and go back there,” Roaf said. “I know Archie (Manning) lives there and is in that community. But the Ricky Jackson’s, the Wayne Martin’s, the Vaughn Johnson’s, they need to do more to bring those guys back to show the history of that team.”

Roaf cheered for his old team when the Saints made it all the way to the NFC Championship game.

“I was very excited to watch them play and happy they were playing good,” Roaf said. “The great thing about it is, it’s a great young team with a young nucleus. They’re going to be good for a long time.”

RETIRING AS A CHIEF
Roaf suffered a knee injury that made him expendable to the Saints in 2002. The Chiefs made a deal to get him and he continued playing at a high level as part of one of the most dominating lines in the league.

Players like quarterback Trent Green and running backs Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson became the darlings of fantasy football operating behind Roaf.

“After going to Kansas City, I was on some of the league’s top offenses for a four-year period,” Roaf said. “Being a part of that probably helps a little in becoming a Hall of Famer.”

Roaf missed six games in 2005 with a strained hamstring, which led him to mull his future in the game.

“There comes a point in time where you decide, ‘I’ve played a long time – do I want to continue?’” Roaf said. “I went through a couple of injuries. It was just a decision I had to make.”

His retirement caught some by surprise. After his announcement, there was speculation that he could eventually change his mind.

He didn’t

“It was tough to walk away from everything,” Roaf said. “It was the right time and you have to move forward from there.”

Roaf played in 189 NFL games, all starts.

“It’s unbelievable what he did and how he trained,” Perot said. “It’s amazing how far he came from where he was when he first got to Louisiana Tech.”

The inspiring story of Bob Love

2009-06-10T20:32:00.004-05:00

Spending 17 years as a sports writer had its perks. My favorite though, was meeting legendary athletes from my native northeastern Louisiana. Former NBA star Bob Love passed through his hometown of Bastrop a couple of years ago while promoting a documentary about his life. Re-reading this piece reminds me that I never actually saw the documentary. ...

Some of the memories sting Bob “Butterbean” Love as he retells his story, again and again.
Yet, this is what the former NBA star from Bastrop does now – recounts a remarkable journey filled with wonder and woe.
“I wouldn’t trade my life for anybody’s life in the world,” Love said. “I’ve had a wonderful life.”
Love kept beating his own long odds. From humble beginnings in northeastern Louisiana, he found NBA stardom in the 1970s.

After back surgery ended his career, he wasn’t supposed to walk normally again. He did.
Then, he overcame a severe speech impediment to earn a living as a motivational speaker.
Every setback the man ever faced, he refused to relent.

“All you have to have is a dream,” Love says during his big finish each time he addresses a crowd. “See, I’m living proof that dreams do come true.”

The story -- heartbreaking but even more inspiring -- was the subject of a one-hour documentary about his life -- Find Yourself A Dream - The Bob Love Story.

“I’ve seen a lot of documentaries,” Love said. “But nothing as heart-touching as this. We had the first showing with the Chicago Bulls about a month ago. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. It made me cry.”

HUMBLE BEGINNING
The son of a sharecropper who was born on a plantation in Delhi, Love moved to Bastrop when he was three.

“I remember a lot of hard-working people and some great athletes here,” Love said.
He rose from Morehouse High School in 1961, starred at Southern University and played 11 years in the NBA, primarily with the Chicago Bulls.

A three-time All-Star, Love’s retired jersey number 10 hangs in the rafters alongside Michael Jordan’s and Scottie Pippen’s. He ranks behind Jordan and Pippen on the Bulls' all-time scoring list with 12,623 points.

“I was the first player to ever score 2,000 points for the Chicago Bulls,” Love said. “I led the Bulls in scoring seven straight years. Michael Jordan didn’t break that, but he tied me.

“Michael got most of my records, except my free record. I’m a better free throw shooter than him.”

Overall, Love averaged 17.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game as a pro and scored a total of 13,895 points including stints with four other teams.

Today, Love’s job as community relations director for the Bulls takes him all over the world where he shares his powerful story.

“The gift of speech is the most wonderful gift in the world,” Love said.

Love said his upbringing helped him become a success.

“I went to school to get an education,” Love said. “I didn’t know anything about being in the pros. I wanted to make my grandmother proud of me and get a good job afterward.”

A burning feeling of insecurity pushed him to outwork the competition. He said he didn’t even have a girlfriend until his senior year at Southern, preferring to spend date nights in the gym.

“I really didn’t want anybody to take my place,” Love said. “All my friends were out there courting. I was either on basketball court or in the football stadium, running up the stairs.”

STARTING OVER
But when his career ended in 1977 after a second back operation, the doctor told him he’d never walk normally again.

At this point when he needed support, his wife left him and took everything.

“One day, I walked into my house and everything was gone,” Love said. “My money, my car, my trophies, my all-star rings. Everything material thing was gone.”

On the floor was a note from his wife that ripped his soul.

“The note basically said that she didn’t want to be married to a guy who couldn’t talk,” Love said. “She definitely didn’t want to be married to a guy who was going to be crippled the rest of his life. That may have been the lowest point in my life. I was scared and I was broke. I could hardly walk.”

Love hit his knees that night and prayed for the strength and courage to begin his journey back.
The next day, he said he walked a mile, up and down the hills of Seattle. He continued this routine each day to strengthen his back, dismissing the words of a doctor who told him that he’d need a cane the rest of his life.

“The doctor didn’t know the willpower that I had,” Love said. “He didn’t know that every night, I got on my knees and prayed.”

Call it a miracle. After a month, he could walk without that cane or crutches.

For years, Love struggled to keep steady employment. In the early 1980s, Love applied for a job at Nordstrom’s in downtown Seattle. But his status as an educated man and former pro basketball player meant nothing.

“Despite the fact that I had a college education and had accomplished everything in the world of sports, I couldn’t talk,” Love said. “I had to start off washing dishes and busing tables at $4.45 an hour.”

The experience was embarrassing and humiliating for Love, who was occasionally recognized as a former NBA player.

“I could always hear them whispering about me,” Love said. “’Man, that’s Bob Love. That guy used to be a great basketball player.’”

Rather than quit in shame, this was the fuel that Love used to drive forward.

“I took all those stares and whispers and became the best busboy and dishwasher in the world,” Love chuckled. “No one was going to keep me from my goals. I worked that job six straight months and didn’t take one day off.”

So impressed were his employers in his upbeat attitude that they offered to get him speech therapy.

Finally he was able to take on his stuttering problem, and eventually exorcise his greatest demon.

“For 47, 48 years of my life, I stuttered,” Love said. “I couldn’t say one single word. People laughed at me and told me what I couldn’t do.

“But you know what I do for a living now? I talk.”

Saints kicker Morten Andersen

2009-05-20T12:23:00.004-05:00

Morten Andersen -- despite kicking in (shudder) Atlanta, New York, Kansas City and Minnesota --- is still a member of the New Orleans Saints at heart.

This week Andersen learned that his old team will induct him into the Saints Hall of Fame. The Pro Football Hall of Fame could also have a spot for Mort in a few years.

I caught up with Andersen not long ago and asked him questions on a variety of topics.

On his desire to finish his career where it started with the Saints before retirement: "I just wanted to do a ceremonial thing, but there was no precedent for it. It wasn't that big a deal, but I thought it could have been fun for the fans and everybody.

His most special memory with the Saints: "Just the years we had. The Bum Phillips years were great, with John Mecom. Then of course, with Jim Finks coming in with Jim Mora and turning the program around, winning games and going to the playoffs. New Year's Eve against the Rams, having to kick a field goal to go into the playoffs for the first time. That was special. There were a lot of highlights, so it's tough to mention one. But the relationships that you create and you forge in a long career, those are the things that you appreciate now."

On sleeping with the enemy, otherwise known as his years kicking for the Falcons: "I was pretty fortunate. Fans weren't too rough on me. They might not have forgiven, but they understand that it was a business decision. My hand was forced by the Saints back in the day. It was just a matter of me finding employment really. It just happened to be a rival, so that made it a little more intense. But it all worked out."

On the Dome Patrol, the team's legendary linebacking crew: "The Dome Patrol was special. That was a big part of our success in the late '80s and early '90s. We ran the ball pretty well back then and we kicked a lot of field goals. We stopped the run and we sacked quarterbacks. That's why we had success back then."

The late, great Ernie Ladd

2009-05-13T17:38:00.005-05:00

I was fortunate enough to meet and visit with the late Ernie Ladd on several occasions in the 1990s and early 2000s. The gentle giant from Grambling was a pro football star first, but that was before my time.

My friends and I were introduced to Ladd as a wrestling villain. Before I actually knew the man, I'm sure I booed him -- lustily.

Yet upon his death in March of 2007, I was moved to write a tribute to the Big Cat of wrestling fame.

Wrestling went haywire sometime in the late 1980s and I lost interest. But there was a time when my Saturday nights were reserved for Mid-South Wrestling.

I’m sure many of you shared those same experiences and can recite all the names with ease. Junkyard Dog, Ted DiBiase, Paul Orndorff – and of course Ernie Ladd, who passed away on Sunday after a lengthy bout with cancer.

I didn’t meet Ladd in person until I began writing about sports for a living.
Still, I felt like I already knew the “Big Cat” -- the gruff TV personality I’d grown up watching on Mid-South.

Ladd started wrestling in the early 1960s while he was still playing football and starred in several territories over the years. He’s one of a handful of wrestlers to be inducted into both the WWE and WCW Halls of Fame.

Before retiring in 1986, Ladd spent five or six years in Cowboy Bill Watts’ Mid-South region. As a wrestler and later the manager of The Wild Samoans -- Afa and Sika -- Ladd was one of Mid-South’s most memorable characters.

When Packers quarterback Brett Favre came to Monroe for the first Doug Pederson golf tournament in 2003, even he was awestruck to meet Ladd.

“I remember Big Cat Ernie Ladd as a `rassler,' " Favre said. "As I was sitting here, I was thinking, `That's the Big Cat.' My dad had us watching rasslin' every week."

I interviewed Ladd about a number of topics over the years. But my favorite conversation took place two years ago.

That day, we talked strictly his second career. An all-time great at Grambling and in pro football, Ladd was proud of his wrestling fame.

“In terms of the wrestling industry, Mid-South was the premier wresting organization as far as I was concerned,” Ladd told me. “I thought they worked hard at bringing the best talent they could to Mid-South. The guys really gave the fans their money’s worth.

“You couldn’t put just any type of garbage in the ring for Mid-South,” Ladd added. “You better be an athlete and you better be hustling – every way you know how to give a performance of athletics.”

The wrestler’s of Ladd’s era were both famous and accessible. You could see them locally at the Monroe Civic Center, and in similar venues across the South.

“Stars were created in Mid-South,” said Ladd, a five-time Mid-South North American champion. “Mid-South gave you an opportunity to be a star if you had talent.”

I asked Ladd to tell me about the late Junkyard Dog, who died in a car crash years ago.

“I’ll never forget when Junkyard Dog first came to wrestle at Mid-South – Sylvester Ritter,” Ladd said. “They fired him and told him to go off and get experience. Boy, he was mad, mad, mad with Mid-South for a long time. When he came back, they gave him that record – ‘Another One Bites the Dust – and he came back with that big black strong body. The rest is history.”

Ladd said that Mid-South’s marketing strategy was unique at the time.

“They brought young, good looking talent in like Paul Orndorff, Don Diamond or Magnum T.A.,” Ladd said. “A lot of the old organizations kept old guys around forever and ever. The old hard-looking guys, nobody wanted to go to the arena to flirt with them.”

Ladd was never one of the pretty boys.

“You had your brutes,” Ladd said. “Like Ernie Ladd and Leroy Brown, guys like that. They wanted to see them get in there and compete against the good-looking guys.”

The self-proclaimed “King of Wrestling” feuded with the likes of Andre the Giant, Orndorff, Ray Candy and JYD during his long career. I asked Ladd what it was like to play the role of the big, bad villain

“You must have been looking at the black and white television,” Ladd roared with a laugh. “Guys like Junkyard Dog were the bad guys.”

The man was 6-9 and weighed more than 300 pounds, so I didn't object.

They say wrestling is an act, and I know the heel thing was for Ladd.

He was one of the good guys.

Saints running back Pierre Thomas

2009-05-12T08:58:00.003-05:00

Don't doubt Pierre Thomas.

The Saints have kicked the tires on their PT cruiser, but now appear willing to take him on a longer trip. New Orleans cut Deuce McAllister this offseason and didn't select a running back in the recent NFL draft. Although a flurry of free-agent pickups are in the backfield mix for 2009 -- along with Reggie Bush, Thomas is confident that a breakout campaign as a featured runner is on the road ahead.

"What was going through my head through the whole draft and seeing that they didn't pick a running back was, they believe in me," Thomas said during a post-draft stop in Monroe, La. "They have a lot of faith in me. Hopefully, they give me that time to show it this year. I believe that's going to happen. It's going to be my time to show them what I can do."

Thomas, who appears to be sturdier than his listed 215 pounds, ran for 625 yards, scored nine rushing touchdowns and averaged 4.8 yards on his 129 carries. He caught 31 balls for 284 yards and three more scores.

"I tried showing them last year," Thomas said. "They put me in the game a lot more. But it's really my time to show them what I can do this season."

Short-yardage misfires plagued the Saints' offense and frustrated fans in 2008. Again, Thomas said he's willing and able to claim the tough yards.

"They say the want a big back," Thomas said, "but I can be that big back for them. I can also be that agility guy too. I can catch the ball out of the backfield and do some of the same things that Reggie does. He's a little quicker than me, but I can do the same things that he does. I'm a different kind of back. I'm agile, but I have the power also."

Thomas learned plenty from the classy McAllister the past two years.

"He was my mentor," Thomas said. "He helped me out from the beginning. Just watching film on him, that's how I got my game a lot better. His films from '04, '05, '06 -- watching his vision and how he attacks holes -- and how he has patience also at the line -- when he sees the hole he hits it. That's what I love about Deuce. He's a great person and a teacher. I look up to him."

Despite his rising profile, the former Illinois back knows that he can't take anything for granted. He earned his NFL roster spot as an undrafted free agent, and knows there are always newcomers lurking to take his job. The Saints tried to trade up to draft Ohio State's Beanie Wells and brought in rookie free agent signees like Wisconsin's P.J. Hill and Herb Donaldson of Western Illinois.

"I'll wouldn't trade it for anything," Thomas said of his path to this point in a budding NFL career. "I'll take this road any day."