April 16, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Jeremiah Castille played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was on the last team coached by the legendary “Bear” Bryant. Here's Jeremiah—who went on to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Denver Broncos in the NFL—sharing how his coach not only improved his game, but also saved his life.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Jeremiah Castile played
college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was on
the last team coached by the legendary Bear Bryant. Castillo
was a pallbearer at Bryant's funeral on January twenty eighth,
nineteen eighty three. Let's take a listen to his story.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I was born in nineteen sixty one, Columbus, Georgia. My
father was a World War Two VET, number eight of
nine children. They had about a fourth grade education. I
was born in the project's government housing there at Elizabeth
Kenny Apartments. Then we moved to Phoenix City, Alabama. I
was probably three years old, so around nineteen sixty four
(00:52):
we moved, and none of my siblings graduated from high school.
The drugs, the alcohol, the what I saw at home.
Domestic violence was in my house. My mom and dad
fought so at school. That's how I solved my problems
with any of my classmakers was I'm not talking, We're
just gonna get right at it. And in my middle school,
(01:15):
during my seventh grade year, I got in a fight again.
I had already been suspended from school for fighting and
I had to take the note home to my mom
for my parents to sign, and it was a day
my mother was sober, so she signed it and she
(01:37):
was handing it back to me, she said, boy, I'm
so disappointed in you.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
The Lord used that to grip my heart.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
As a thirteen year old, it just gripped my heart.
I took her back to school, finished the year out
and really realized I needed to change.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
The little church.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It was Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, little church down the street.
They would do revival every summer. So I have no
interest in you going to church. Any of that hadn't
you know before that, But God drew me based on
I realized I needed to change, and I went. And
so when you came in, the mothers and fathers of
(02:23):
that church asked you where you saved, and I really
didn't know what that meant. They said you must not
be go sit on the front row. So they escorted
me to the front row and they called that the
mourner's bench, and the mothers and fathers of that church
the eldest they just prayed for those people that was
on that front row. And I would say about the
third day of that revival, the Lord saved me and
(02:46):
what it was as I heard the gospel, the good
news that God loved me and he demonstrated that love
through Jesus Christ on the Cross. The first time of
my life it was communicated to Jeremiah that he was loved.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I would say.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
My parents showed me that by providing a place to live, food,
pretty much those basic things, but never communicated verbally that
I was loved. And all the way up to that time,
my mom would get intoxicated and just get violent. So
(03:23):
one day I probably was ten, my mom had a
knife in her hand, kitchen knife, and I wanted to
go play basketball. She was intoxicated. We got an army
in it. Anyway, I ended up with a two inch
scar on my right arm and had to be taken
to the hospital stitches to put in my arm. So
(03:44):
I was dealing with a lot of rejection. So that
third day I heard the gospel and for the first time, Hey,
somebody loved Jeremiah. I tell people, I walked in that
church of Center, walked out of Saint. That was a
radical moment in my life. There wasn't a lightning and flash.
(04:05):
There was a powerful transformation in my heart, in my
inner mand. And the reason I can say that is
because the first person God gave me a love for
was my mother. Now, when God saved me, he gave
me a vision for my life that in the castile
house things could be different and that he could use me.
And so God gave me a vision to play football.
(04:27):
Football really came to be what I wanted to do
in the University of Alabama, probably my eighth grade year,
and so through athletics, I could get a scholarship, go
to school, get an education, get a job, make enough
money to be able to help my mother get sober,
and change the living conditions of my parents.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
And that vision disciplined me.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I grew up in a home where drugs and alcohol
were sold, but I've never smoked a marijuana cigarette, I've
never drank a beer. I've never been in toxic care.
That's the power of a dream. And the dream mattered
more than recreational fund that I could have with teenagers.
And so when the Lord save me, I just became
(05:12):
focused on that and I became an Alabama fan. Also
started watching the Coach Bryant Show, and the vision I'm
going to Alabama, I'm gonna go play football at Alabama.
I was five nine, one hundred and fifty five pounds.
It weren't a bunch of people knocking on the door.
I had a breakout year my senior year. I played
(05:34):
both ways, a plate running back, slot, receiver, and corner
and our team actually made it to the playoffs. We
got beat, but it gave schools a chance to look
at me. And I was just small, but I was
very athletic. I could run and jump and was strong.
So I can remember where I got my first letter
(05:56):
from the University of Alabama.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
My coach Wayne Trevor High School.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
He came in one morning in the cafeteria and he
dropped a letter on the table and it had University
of Alabama.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And I opened it up.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And it said that I was being recruited, and man,
I start yelling, screaming. I ran out the doors to
the school yard, yelling, I told you all of you know,
because I would tell.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
People I was going to Alabama.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So I came over in the fall of nineteen seventy
eight met coach Bryant.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Coach Jeff Rowsey.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Was the coach that recruited me, and he and I
would talk thirty years or later and so he told me.
He says, you know when you first met coach Brian
and he looked at you and you'd walked off. He said, Jeff,
you sure about him? He's mighty little, And Coach Rowsy said,
trust me, coach, he can play.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Well.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I'm a freshman in nineteen seventy nine and that team
is the returning National champions, and that team is loaded,
has got a lot of guys.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
That's gonna go on to play in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
So I come in as a freshman in August, and
that first week Coach Bryant made us scrimmage the varsity.
He sicked the dogs. Horst Man, I mean, that's been
the way.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So that first week you scrimmage the returning National champions.
I can remember like yesterday, and they ran this little
belly play and Steve Whitman was the fullback at that time.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
He hit it.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
This was one of these quick hitting plays and I
was backsacked tiny and next thing you know, it's just
me and Steve and Steve was about turn forty five
fifty pound full.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Back and I'm like, man, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And I was one of those guys. I wasn't afraid
of anything. So I just come up and laid all
one hundred and fifty five pounds on a pop and
it didn't bring him down.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
But I start riding till the posse got there.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
A couple of weeks later, I'm coming in after practice
and I got a pink sticky note on my locker.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And it said, Coach Bryant want to see you. Man.
I am scared as all get out. I'm like, what
have I done? You know? What have I done wrong?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Anyway, I go up Third Florida Coleman Colliseum in his office.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
And letting the nose was secretary. She says it.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Coach be with you in a minute, man, It was
a long minute. The door opens up, she says, you
can go on in. And when I walked in, Coach
Bryant was sitting behind his desk and he was smoking
those Chesterfield cigarettes they smoked and didn't have a filter on,
and he was just and he put it in the
ash train.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
He just murmured some words.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
He had that old Southern drawl, and I interpreted to
go sit on the couch. He had a black and
white check of the couch in his office. When you
sat down on it your bottom hit the floor because
he didn't have any legs on it.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
So you looking up at.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Him, and you've been listening to Jeremiah Castile tell one
heck of a story about his life. And by the way,
that scene of him being called into Bear Bryant's office,
and Bear is a big old man, like six', four
AND i can imagine this short guy's sitting in a
short couch and wondering what the heck is gonna happen.
Next when we come, back you'll find out what does
(09:25):
happen next here on Our american. Stories and we continue
with Our american stories And Jeremiah castile's. Story let's pick
up where he last left off In Coach Bear bryant's.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Office SO i sit down in the first Words Coach
bryant said to me was.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
You could play here at The university Of.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Alabama i'm, thinking, yeah, well my turn.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
COME i was Behind don.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
McNeil he was a great one six,' one two hundred
POUNDS prototype nfl cornerback gonna go in the first round
To The miami dolphins and play.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Ten years well That's who.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I'm Behind so, i'm, Thinking yeah i'll play with my.
Turncome coach his next, words were you could play.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
This Year.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And, i'm, Like Wow, coach BRYANT believe i could play?
This year there. Hasn't been probably the greatest words ever
been spoken to me Was that god.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Loved me those were the next GREATEST words i.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
TELL people i walked in, five nine walked out six
nine when he said you could play. This year so
what he was telling me was you're not gonna play.
Freshman football you're gonna play on.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
The varsity and BOY did. I.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Play YEAH so i had, some confidence But When coach bryant,
said that it took me to an.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Entire another level.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Of confidence it amazes me to this day how because
of that first initial meeting and then from there On
What coach, BRYANT said i took it as. The gospel.
EVERY word i hung on every word, he said and
it made me a. GREAT player i look BACK and
(11:29):
i look AT how i, you know THE numbers i
put up as, a CORNER how i dominated, the position,
you know averaging, five interceptions and, that's phenomenal especially as.
A corner you could see it. As safety twenty one
interceptions as. A corner oh back when it was three
yards and a cloud.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Of dust.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Per se they just ran the ball majority. Of TIME
and i look at THAT and, i think what was it? About,
me well it was. My Mindset coach brian TOLD me i,
could play and the way we were taught to play
was with a spirit. Of excellence you don't give, up,
ANYTHING man, i mean you don't give up. Any points,
(12:11):
you know that year probably one of the greatest Defenses
that alabama ever fielded in all the years they've had a,
football program because that team gave up less than a touchdown.
A game that nineteen seventy, nine year they had. Five
SHUTOUTS so i was just taught and coached to play
the game with the spirit. Of, excellence really the word,
(12:32):
Is Dominate so i'm upset if a guy catches an outroute.
On me so THAT'S how i, was COACHED and i
played in. THAT manner i took, that on, that philosophy
and after, FOUR years i Was In all american and
had tied the record in interceptions regular season. With sixteen
we wanted my. Freshman year that Was coach brian's last
(12:56):
national championship. Nineteen eighty we had a. Great team should have,
warned again and we came, up short just for like
some of, the leadership. The guys we, had talent but
guys just really didn't have the character that the seventy
to nine.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Team had that's the best way for me to.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Put it we had, the ability but we just didn't have.
THE character i did a blog back in. Twenty twelve
a friend of mine that played, with me he was younger.
Than me, He, SAID hey i think, Twenty Twelve coach
brian would have been one hundred.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Years old so, he, said hey won't you think.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
About some of The Things coach bryant did for you
and right Down and i'll talk. About it and SO
when i look, AT it i go all way back
to that, First, meeting jeremiah you could. Play Here coach
bryant took ten minutes and he invested.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
In me, from there he.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Influenced me so when he SAID something i believed that,
changed me that. IMPACTED me i saw that in, my academics, my,
athletics spiritually all THOSE areas i. Was involved and so
that influence was there in all. Three Areas coach bryant
come in on some meetings, and men y'all need to
(14:07):
go to. Church tomorrow he tell you where, to go
he tell, You go so he. Influenced me from there
an inspiration came how to.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Live Life coach.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Bryant lived you knew he was passionate about what he.
Was doing my senior year, eighty two this time of
the year we had. Spring ball so one day we.
Go down we get, our baskets gonna. Change clothes get
look at. Our tenterary anytime that our ITINERARY had s
and s, on it you start praying because it meant stretch.
(14:40):
And scrimmage that's all on. Our itinerary you praying because,
you knew oh, my goodness there's no time limit on.
This Thing And coach bryant was going to have your
body and your soul. That day, so anyway, that day
so we changed we and busses. Pull up, everybody like
(15:02):
what were getting on these? Buses for we don't we
scrimmage right here at? The complex and we started asking the.
Assistant coaches don't they, Don't, know well you mean you
don't know you're an. Assistant coach no, nobody Knew But
coach brian and the. Bus drippers no assistant coaches. Didn't
know he took us Over To Tuscaloos County. High school
(15:22):
we get off, The Buses coach brian, Walks up sir calls,
everybody up and, he says first thing. You say, he
said all you coaches go sit up in. The stands
he put all the coaches in. The Stands coach briant coached,
the offense, the defense and the special teams by himself
made all. The substitutions you didn't come out of the
(15:42):
scrimmage unless he called.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Your name.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
We started at. Four o'clock the first group didn't get
through the ten that night lights. Came on so what
that six? Hours LATER literally i got seven eight games
of scrimmage plays in in that.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
One, scrimmage yeah, With.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That i'm talking about some guys got that many without
before they ever got a break out of.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
The scrimmage and the next group got through about eleven.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That night so, FOR me I call i'm in the
fourth quarter of life now in, MY sixties i saw
a man at, sixty eight sixty nine years of age
tell his staff go sit up in. THE stands i
still have a passion and a drive and an enthusiasm
For what god called me. To do and so that
(16:39):
is imprinted, in me not just in. My mind and
so for you to known me as, a player, back
then as, A person i was known as a.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
QUIET leader i just didn't.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Talk much and so right before the captains get ready
to go out, This game i've got a strong prompting
in my gut to get up and. Say Something but
i'm SCARED because i got To Ask. Coach Briant so
i'm struggling with. This thing but THE longer, i waited
it got To where, i'm, Like man i'm gonna. THROW
(17:14):
up i don't get. THIS out i don't even know what.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
It is it's.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Totally IMPROMPTU so i put my hand up. Real Slow,
COACH bryant, I, said COACH can i? Say something he
had on his Big old. Parker hat come up over
that on. That jacket he, Just nodded and when, he said,
you know nod gave me, a permission it. JUST flowed
(17:42):
i started With Thanking. Coach briant it's. A coach i
just want to thank you for everything you've done.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
For me.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
So, YOU know i came here four years ago as
an eighteen year, old boy But tonight i'm gonna leave
as a twenty one year. OLD man i want to
personally thank you for everything you've done. For him the
coach ain't no way we're gonna lose this. Game tonight
SO if i got to play this sucker, by, myself
man we're. Gonna win and that thing was like it
like it was. A match it lit when it got
our guys. Fired UP what i love about THAT when i, look,
(18:12):
back is, you know twenty some, Days Later coach brian,
passes AWAY and i just Believe the lord prompted me
that in front of, MY peers i would tell my
coach thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
For what he'd done.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
For me probably every player in there should have stood up.
That night he said, thank. You coach god just. Prompted
me and after, THE game i was on the standing
up there on the stage where he was getting The
trophy liberty BO tro i was standing NEXT to i
was GETTING the mvp trophy and announcer was just congratulating
(18:48):
him on his CAREER and i was standing next to
him and, he, said oh my career was and he
put his arm. Around me it was great because men
Like this and That's how i'll always remember my last in.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Encounter With. Coach bryant and we'd Like to thank.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Eighteen nineteen News For this story eighteen nineteen is a
multimedia company for the State. Of Alabama jeremiah castile doing
what almost anybody who Played For bear, bryant did which
is talk About how bear turned him from a boy
into a man with, high standards primarily a spirit. Of
(19:29):
excellence and as he, put it he wanted to dominate
the other team dominance and THAT'S how i, was coached,
He SAID and i played that way and those words,
of encouragement because that's what great coaches. Will do they'll
hold you, to standards they'll take it to the mats
if there are those moments where they build. You up
there are those moments where they get a vision for
(19:50):
you even you. Don't have and this Was Perhaps bear bryant's.
Greatest talent you can tell That Without, bear Bryant Without,
jesus christ these are the two most important beings in,
his Life and Christ's First bear bryant a. Close second
the Story Of jeremiah castile and in, the end Stories
About bear, bryant too And. The lord here On Our
(20:14):
american stories
And we continue with our American stories. Jeremiah Castile played
college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was on
the last team coached by the legendary Bear Bryant. Castillo
was a pallbearer at Bryant's funeral on January twenty eighth,
nineteen eighty three. Let's take a listen to his story.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I was born in nineteen sixty one, Columbus, Georgia. My
father was a World War Two VET, number eight of
nine children. They had about a fourth grade education. I
was born in the project's government housing there at Elizabeth
Kenny Apartments. Then we moved to Phoenix City, Alabama. I
was probably three years old, so around nineteen sixty four
(00:52):
we moved, and none of my siblings graduated from high school.
The drugs, the alcohol, the what I saw at home.
Domestic violence was in my house. My mom and dad
fought so at school. That's how I solved my problems
with any of my classmakers was I'm not talking, We're
just gonna get right at it. And in my middle school,
(01:15):
during my seventh grade year, I got in a fight again.
I had already been suspended from school for fighting and
I had to take the note home to my mom
for my parents to sign, and it was a day
my mother was sober, so she signed it and she
(01:37):
was handing it back to me, she said, boy, I'm
so disappointed in you.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
The Lord used that to grip my heart.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
As a thirteen year old, it just gripped my heart.
I took her back to school, finished the year out
and really realized I needed to change.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
The little church.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It was Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, little church down the street.
They would do revival every summer. So I have no
interest in you going to church. Any of that hadn't
you know before that, But God drew me based on
I realized I needed to change, and I went. And
so when you came in, the mothers and fathers of
(02:23):
that church asked you where you saved, and I really
didn't know what that meant. They said you must not
be go sit on the front row. So they escorted
me to the front row and they called that the
mourner's bench, and the mothers and fathers of that church
the eldest they just prayed for those people that was
on that front row. And I would say about the
third day of that revival, the Lord saved me and
(02:46):
what it was as I heard the gospel, the good
news that God loved me and he demonstrated that love
through Jesus Christ on the Cross. The first time of
my life it was communicated to Jeremiah that he was loved.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I would say.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
My parents showed me that by providing a place to live, food,
pretty much those basic things, but never communicated verbally that
I was loved. And all the way up to that time,
my mom would get intoxicated and just get violent. So
(03:23):
one day I probably was ten, my mom had a
knife in her hand, kitchen knife, and I wanted to
go play basketball. She was intoxicated. We got an army
in it. Anyway, I ended up with a two inch
scar on my right arm and had to be taken
to the hospital stitches to put in my arm. So
(03:44):
I was dealing with a lot of rejection. So that
third day I heard the gospel and for the first time, Hey,
somebody loved Jeremiah. I tell people, I walked in that
church of Center, walked out of Saint. That was a
radical moment in my life. There wasn't a lightning and flash.
(04:05):
There was a powerful transformation in my heart, in my
inner mand. And the reason I can say that is
because the first person God gave me a love for
was my mother. Now, when God saved me, he gave
me a vision for my life that in the castile
house things could be different and that he could use me.
And so God gave me a vision to play football.
(04:27):
Football really came to be what I wanted to do
in the University of Alabama, probably my eighth grade year,
and so through athletics, I could get a scholarship, go
to school, get an education, get a job, make enough
money to be able to help my mother get sober,
and change the living conditions of my parents.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
And that vision disciplined me.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I grew up in a home where drugs and alcohol
were sold, but I've never smoked a marijuana cigarette, I've
never drank a beer. I've never been in toxic care.
That's the power of a dream. And the dream mattered
more than recreational fund that I could have with teenagers.
And so when the Lord save me, I just became
(05:12):
focused on that and I became an Alabama fan. Also
started watching the Coach Bryant Show, and the vision I'm
going to Alabama, I'm gonna go play football at Alabama.
I was five nine, one hundred and fifty five pounds.
It weren't a bunch of people knocking on the door.
I had a breakout year my senior year. I played
(05:34):
both ways, a plate running back, slot, receiver, and corner
and our team actually made it to the playoffs. We
got beat, but it gave schools a chance to look
at me. And I was just small, but I was
very athletic. I could run and jump and was strong.
So I can remember where I got my first letter
(05:56):
from the University of Alabama.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
My coach Wayne Trevor High School.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
He came in one morning in the cafeteria and he
dropped a letter on the table and it had University
of Alabama.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And I opened it up.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And it said that I was being recruited, and man,
I start yelling, screaming. I ran out the doors to
the school yard, yelling, I told you all of you know,
because I would tell.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
People I was going to Alabama.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So I came over in the fall of nineteen seventy
eight met coach Bryant.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Coach Jeff Rowsey.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Was the coach that recruited me, and he and I
would talk thirty years or later and so he told me.
He says, you know when you first met coach Brian
and he looked at you and you'd walked off. He said, Jeff,
you sure about him? He's mighty little, And Coach Rowsy said,
trust me, coach, he can play.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Well.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I'm a freshman in nineteen seventy nine and that team
is the returning National champions, and that team is loaded,
has got a lot of guys.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
That's gonna go on to play in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
So I come in as a freshman in August, and
that first week Coach Bryant made us scrimmage the varsity.
He sicked the dogs. Horst Man, I mean, that's been
the way.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So that first week you scrimmage the returning National champions.
I can remember like yesterday, and they ran this little
belly play and Steve Whitman was the fullback at that time.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
He hit it.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
This was one of these quick hitting plays and I
was backsacked tiny and next thing you know, it's just
me and Steve and Steve was about turn forty five
fifty pound full.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Back and I'm like, man, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And I was one of those guys. I wasn't afraid
of anything. So I just come up and laid all
one hundred and fifty five pounds on a pop and
it didn't bring him down.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
But I start riding till the posse got there.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
A couple of weeks later, I'm coming in after practice
and I got a pink sticky note on my locker.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And it said, Coach Bryant want to see you. Man.
I am scared as all get out. I'm like, what
have I done? You know? What have I done wrong?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Anyway, I go up Third Florida Coleman Colliseum in his office.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
And letting the nose was secretary. She says it.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Coach be with you in a minute, man, It was
a long minute. The door opens up, she says, you
can go on in. And when I walked in, Coach
Bryant was sitting behind his desk and he was smoking
those Chesterfield cigarettes they smoked and didn't have a filter on,
and he was just and he put it in the
ash train.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
He just murmured some words.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
He had that old Southern drawl, and I interpreted to
go sit on the couch. He had a black and
white check of the couch in his office. When you
sat down on it your bottom hit the floor because
he didn't have any legs on it.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
So you looking up at.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Him, and you've been listening to Jeremiah Castile tell one
heck of a story about his life. And by the way,
that scene of him being called into Bear Bryant's office,
and Bear is a big old man, like six', four
AND i can imagine this short guy's sitting in a
short couch and wondering what the heck is gonna happen.
Next when we come, back you'll find out what does
(09:25):
happen next here on Our american. Stories and we continue
with Our american stories And Jeremiah castile's. Story let's pick
up where he last left off In Coach Bear bryant's.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Office SO i sit down in the first Words Coach
bryant said to me was.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
You could play here at The university Of.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Alabama i'm, thinking, yeah, well my turn.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
COME i was Behind don.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
McNeil he was a great one six,' one two hundred
POUNDS prototype nfl cornerback gonna go in the first round
To The miami dolphins and play.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Ten years well That's who.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I'm Behind so, i'm, Thinking yeah i'll play with my.
Turncome coach his next, words were you could play.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
This Year.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And, i'm, Like Wow, coach BRYANT believe i could play?
This year there. Hasn't been probably the greatest words ever
been spoken to me Was that god.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Loved me those were the next GREATEST words i.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
TELL people i walked in, five nine walked out six
nine when he said you could play. This year so
what he was telling me was you're not gonna play.
Freshman football you're gonna play on.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
The varsity and BOY did. I.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Play YEAH so i had, some confidence But When coach bryant,
said that it took me to an.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Entire another level.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Of confidence it amazes me to this day how because
of that first initial meeting and then from there On
What coach, BRYANT said i took it as. The gospel.
EVERY word i hung on every word, he said and
it made me a. GREAT player i look BACK and
(11:29):
i look AT how i, you know THE numbers i
put up as, a CORNER how i dominated, the position,
you know averaging, five interceptions and, that's phenomenal especially as.
A corner you could see it. As safety twenty one
interceptions as. A corner oh back when it was three
yards and a cloud.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Of dust.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Per se they just ran the ball majority. Of TIME
and i look at THAT and, i think what was it? About,
me well it was. My Mindset coach brian TOLD me i,
could play and the way we were taught to play
was with a spirit. Of excellence you don't give, up,
ANYTHING man, i mean you don't give up. Any points,
(12:11):
you know that year probably one of the greatest Defenses
that alabama ever fielded in all the years they've had a,
football program because that team gave up less than a touchdown.
A game that nineteen seventy, nine year they had. Five
SHUTOUTS so i was just taught and coached to play
the game with the spirit. Of, excellence really the word,
(12:32):
Is Dominate so i'm upset if a guy catches an outroute.
On me so THAT'S how i, was COACHED and i
played in. THAT manner i took, that on, that philosophy
and after, FOUR years i Was In all american and
had tied the record in interceptions regular season. With sixteen
we wanted my. Freshman year that Was coach brian's last
(12:56):
national championship. Nineteen eighty we had a. Great team should have,
warned again and we came, up short just for like
some of, the leadership. The guys we, had talent but
guys just really didn't have the character that the seventy
to nine.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Team had that's the best way for me to.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Put it we had, the ability but we just didn't have.
THE character i did a blog back in. Twenty twelve
a friend of mine that played, with me he was younger.
Than me, He, SAID hey i think, Twenty Twelve coach
brian would have been one hundred.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Years old so, he, said hey won't you think.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
About some of The Things coach bryant did for you
and right Down and i'll talk. About it and SO
when i look, AT it i go all way back
to that, First, meeting jeremiah you could. Play Here coach
bryant took ten minutes and he invested.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
In me, from there he.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Influenced me so when he SAID something i believed that,
changed me that. IMPACTED me i saw that in, my academics, my,
athletics spiritually all THOSE areas i. Was involved and so
that influence was there in all. Three Areas coach bryant
come in on some meetings, and men y'all need to
(14:07):
go to. Church tomorrow he tell you where, to go
he tell, You go so he. Influenced me from there
an inspiration came how to.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Live Life coach.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Bryant lived you knew he was passionate about what he.
Was doing my senior year, eighty two this time of
the year we had. Spring ball so one day we.
Go down we get, our baskets gonna. Change clothes get
look at. Our tenterary anytime that our ITINERARY had s
and s, on it you start praying because it meant stretch.
(14:40):
And scrimmage that's all on. Our itinerary you praying because,
you knew oh, my goodness there's no time limit on.
This Thing And coach bryant was going to have your
body and your soul. That day, so anyway, that day
so we changed we and busses. Pull up, everybody like
(15:02):
what were getting on these? Buses for we don't we
scrimmage right here at? The complex and we started asking the.
Assistant coaches don't they, Don't, know well you mean you
don't know you're an. Assistant coach no, nobody Knew But
coach brian and the. Bus drippers no assistant coaches. Didn't
know he took us Over To Tuscaloos County. High school
(15:22):
we get off, The Buses coach brian, Walks up sir calls,
everybody up and, he says first thing. You say, he
said all you coaches go sit up in. The stands
he put all the coaches in. The Stands coach briant coached,
the offense, the defense and the special teams by himself
made all. The substitutions you didn't come out of the
(15:42):
scrimmage unless he called.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Your name.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
We started at. Four o'clock the first group didn't get
through the ten that night lights. Came on so what
that six? Hours LATER literally i got seven eight games
of scrimmage plays in in that.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
One, scrimmage yeah, With.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That i'm talking about some guys got that many without
before they ever got a break out of.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
The scrimmage and the next group got through about eleven.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That night so, FOR me I call i'm in the
fourth quarter of life now in, MY sixties i saw
a man at, sixty eight sixty nine years of age
tell his staff go sit up in. THE stands i
still have a passion and a drive and an enthusiasm
For what god called me. To do and so that
(16:39):
is imprinted, in me not just in. My mind and
so for you to known me as, a player, back
then as, A person i was known as a.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
QUIET leader i just didn't.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Talk much and so right before the captains get ready
to go out, This game i've got a strong prompting
in my gut to get up and. Say Something but
i'm SCARED because i got To Ask. Coach Briant so
i'm struggling with. This thing but THE longer, i waited
it got To where, i'm, Like man i'm gonna. THROW
(17:14):
up i don't get. THIS out i don't even know what.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
It is it's.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Totally IMPROMPTU so i put my hand up. Real Slow,
COACH bryant, I, said COACH can i? Say something he
had on his Big old. Parker hat come up over
that on. That jacket he, Just nodded and when, he said,
you know nod gave me, a permission it. JUST flowed
(17:42):
i started With Thanking. Coach briant it's. A coach i
just want to thank you for everything you've done.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
For me.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
So, YOU know i came here four years ago as
an eighteen year, old boy But tonight i'm gonna leave
as a twenty one year. OLD man i want to
personally thank you for everything you've done. For him the
coach ain't no way we're gonna lose this. Game tonight
SO if i got to play this sucker, by, myself
man we're. Gonna win and that thing was like it
like it was. A match it lit when it got
our guys. Fired UP what i love about THAT when i, look,
(18:12):
back is, you know twenty some, Days Later coach brian,
passes AWAY and i just Believe the lord prompted me
that in front of, MY peers i would tell my
coach thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
For what he'd done.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
For me probably every player in there should have stood up.
That night he said, thank. You coach god just. Prompted
me and after, THE game i was on the standing
up there on the stage where he was getting The
trophy liberty BO tro i was standing NEXT to i
was GETTING the mvp trophy and announcer was just congratulating
(18:48):
him on his CAREER and i was standing next to
him and, he, said oh my career was and he
put his arm. Around me it was great because men
Like this and That's how i'll always remember my last in.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Encounter With. Coach bryant and we'd Like to thank.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Eighteen nineteen News For this story eighteen nineteen is a
multimedia company for the State. Of Alabama jeremiah castile doing
what almost anybody who Played For bear, bryant did which
is talk About how bear turned him from a boy
into a man with, high standards primarily a spirit. Of
(19:29):
excellence and as he, put it he wanted to dominate
the other team dominance and THAT'S how i, was coached,
He SAID and i played that way and those words,
of encouragement because that's what great coaches. Will do they'll
hold you, to standards they'll take it to the mats
if there are those moments where they build. You up
there are those moments where they get a vision for
(19:50):
you even you. Don't have and this Was Perhaps bear bryant's.
Greatest talent you can tell That Without, bear Bryant Without,
jesus christ these are the two most important beings in,
his Life and Christ's First bear bryant a. Close second
the Story Of jeremiah castile and in, the end Stories
About bear, bryant too And. The lord here On Our
(20:14):
american stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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