Mike Golic's Journey to the NFL: From Notre Dame to Philadelphia

SportsGrid

Watch Mike Golic's Journey to the NFL: From Notre Dame to Philadelphia - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00But let's go over everything and how it went down.

00:02You grew up in Ohio.

00:03How did you get to Notre Dame?

00:04Well, it's a four and a half hour drive.

00:06My brother, Bob, who's six years older than me,

00:08he went there in 75.

00:10So I kind of was brought up on it a little bit.

00:14When he went there, I was 12, and I got hooked on it.

00:16We'd go watch his games.

00:18So I was hooked on it.

00:20That was kind of where I wanted to go

00:22once the recruiting cycle started for me.

00:24And then we basically brainwashed all our kids

00:26to go there as well and play football with them.

00:28Great institution at that point.

00:30So you get drafted into the NFL.

00:31You wind up with the Houston Oilers.

00:33How was that?

00:34That was, it was, I was a 10th round pick.

00:36So it was a struggle to make the team.

00:38And for you young listeners out there,

00:40it used to be the Tennessee Titans,

00:43is the Houston Oilers.

00:44Make that connection there.

00:47I was there for two and a half, three years.

00:50Who was the coach there?

00:50It was Jerry Glanville.

00:52It was his first head coaching.

00:54And what he was known for is on away games,

00:57he would leave two tickets for Elvis.

00:59Did he ever show up though?

01:01Elvis did not.

01:01Were there impersonators showing up?

01:02Elvis did not show up in the house.

01:05But listen, I enjoyed it.

01:07I was a linebacker in college.

01:09And then all of a sudden went to the defensive line.

01:11I like devolved from an athlete to a non-athlete

01:14going down and putting my hand in the dirt.

01:16Now you find your way to Philadelphia, late 1980s.

01:19This is when football finally turned in Philadelphia.

01:221980, go to the Superbowl, some down years,

01:23Mary Campbell, you come in under Buddy Ryan.

01:25How did you find your way to Philadelphia

01:27and how did you think that fit was right away?

01:29Well, I got cut by the Houston Oilers

01:32after the strike.

01:34I was kind of real pro-union

01:36and they cut me after the strike ended.

01:39And I went and visited a couple of teams,

01:41but it was a Tuesday I got cut,

01:43Thursday I visited Philadelphia

01:46and fell in love with Buddy and his,

01:48obviously I knew about Buddy Ryan's defense from the Bears.

01:52And Buddy seemed to like me and they offered me a job

01:56on the spot.

01:57I got cut Tuesday, went there on Thursday

02:00and actually played in the game

02:01against the St. Louis Rams that Sunday.

02:04By the way, talking about that 1987 strike season,

02:06which was interesting,

02:07because Buddy always struck a nerve in Philadelphia

02:09being very pro-union and didn't want any of his players

02:12crossing that picket line at that point.

02:14And I always understood that once they came back

02:16pro-union, everybody was fine,

02:17but Buddy was very upset with the way

02:19some of the other teams handled that strike.

02:21Oh, listen, I was upset.

02:22I was a 10th round pick,

02:24not making comparatively other players a lot of money.

02:27I was walking the picket line,

02:28then all of a sudden the high paid quarterbacks

02:31and receivers and defensive players,

02:33the high paid ones were crossing the line.

02:35I'm like, what the hell is going on here?

02:37You're screwing us.

02:38So yeah, it obviously did not end well,

02:41reliving the past there,

02:42but Buddy, yeah, gave out like fake rings and such.

02:45Yeah, he really, really disapproved of the placement.

02:48Always like to stick it to Norman Brayman.

02:50I remember, I think Keith Jackson got a limo sent

02:51to the airport when he finally got paid.

02:53But I do want to talk to you about this.

02:54You played in one of the most iconic football games

02:56in Philadelphia history.

02:57Correct me if I'm wrong.

02:58The Fog Bowl.

02:58Fog Bowl.

02:59How was that?

03:00That was a playoff game.

03:01The Fog Bowl in Chicago was wild

03:03because the fog rolled in and we weren't sure what it was.

03:07We were like, is there a fire, is there smoke?

03:09But it didn't have that smoke, fire smell.

03:11It had no smell at all.

03:13Then all of a sudden we were engulfed in fog

03:17and the wild part about it,

03:18the ref would stand in the middle of the field

03:21and he would have his microphone

03:22to the officials in the booth.

03:25And he would say, oh, I can still see both goal posts.

03:29And we're looking at him going,

03:30what the hell are you looking at?

03:31You can't see 20 yards away.

03:34But there's no way they were going to postpone that game.

03:37Once they started, there's no way

03:38they were going to send everybody home.

03:40So basically whoever was leading

03:42when the fog rolled in was going to win.

03:44And unfortunately for us, the Bears were leading

03:46when the fog rolled in, but that was a wild game.

03:49I mean, so many good games there.

03:51Yeah.

03:52She lost this in the heartbreak watching the playoffs.

03:53She loses to the Chicago Bears.

03:54I think it was the next year.

03:55I want to say it was the Rams on the veteran stadium.

03:56And then lost.

03:57Yeah, they were tough all the way through,

03:59but certainly iconic.

04:00Just give me a quick anecdote

04:01because you played with Reggie White, Jerome Brown,

04:03Mike Pitts, Clyde Simmons,

04:05endless superstars on that line.

04:07How did you fit in with them?

04:08And how did you earn the respect and the trust of them?

04:11Just by being kind of the lunch pail guy.

04:13They were the great players, the great athletes.

04:15I was kind of the lunch pail guy

04:17that knew all the defense, that knew all the calls,

04:20kind of kept everybody lined up where they should

04:22and then watched them do exceptional things on the field.

04:27And the thing about it is this was before free agency.

04:30Correct.

04:31So they were all better friends to me than teammates.

04:34Gotcha.

04:35There was no movement then.

04:36So, I mean, listen, losing Mike Pitts and Jerome Brown

04:40and Reggie White and Wes Hopkins and Andre Waters

04:44was just devastating.

Category

Transcript

Recommended