August 18, 2022 • 36 mins
Ron welcomes Hall of Fame NFL wide receiver and former Congressman Steve Largent to the show. Regarded as one of the greatest wide receivers of all time, Largent played all 14 of his NFL seasons with the Seattle Seahawks (1976-1989) and held all major NFL receiving records at the time of his retirement. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995. Following his football career, Largent was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Oklahoma's 1st congressional district in 1994 and served four terms, resigning in 2002.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Ron bar and this is today's edition of
Ron Barr's Sports Byeline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
Steve large enjoins us on Sports Byeline. Hall of Fame
wide receiver and of course also former congressman, played fourteen
years in the National Football League, all with the Seattle
Seahawks seven times he was a pro bowler. You know, Steve,
(00:20):
when I take a look at the success that you
have and then remember back that you were drafted by Houston,
betrayed immediately to Seattle because they thought you were too
small and too slow to make it in the pros,
I have to laugh. And it brings up the question,
do you find that maybe the pros in the NFL
tend to label players based on numbers rather than on
the complete person. Well, well, and I think, first of all,
(00:43):
I have to tell you that my career, even now
as I look back on it, I pinched myself just
to make sure it really happened. I came out of college,
had pretty good statistics as a college player, but I
think in everybody's mind I was a stretch to make
it in National Football League, and I was drafted in
the fourth round by the Oilers, and after six weeks
(01:05):
of training camp, they basically let me go. They they
basically fired me. And the bum Phillips I remember, was
the head coach down there at that time, and he said, Steve,
I'm gonna let you go now, uh, so you'll have
a chance to catch on with another team. Of course,
I thought he was just shooting, uh, you know, bull
at me. And and so I cried all the way home, um,
(01:28):
thinking about this lost opportunity. And I got a call
the next day from the Seahawks and uh, they said, uh,
we've traded for your rights and we want to give
you another chance if you'd like to continue to try
to pursue your quest to play in the National Football League.
And I said, great, I'm on my way. And I
packed a small Duffel bag and and uh, I took
(01:51):
a couple of pair of jeans and some T shirts
and and some tiv Is shues and that was about it.
Headed up to the Northwest, and UM, you know, the
rest is kind of history it uh. You know, I
think I think the NFL uh is maybe more so
today than even when I was a rookie. UH is
really into labeling players, uh and and making the connotation
(02:15):
that they can play or can't play based upon what
they can measure. And I just think that, at least
I know for my life, uh that they couldn't measure
the qualities or capabilities that I expressed as a player
on the team. Uh and uh I was close to
(02:36):
not ever making it in the National Football League. And
I think that maybe happens more often today than uh
it did even when I was a player, uh, just
because I think they they uh they go to every
imaginable uh resort to uh measure test time, uh uh
(03:00):
tape all kinds of statistics about players, and uh, you know,
I'm just I'm convinced that they missed some very good
players just because they're not quite tall enough, don't weigh enough,
or aren't quite fast enough. At Tulsa, you lead the
nation and TV catches your junior and senior years. And
I think about somebody life as Steve McNair when he
(03:21):
was coming out of college, they said, well, yeah, but
what kind of talent did he play against? Do you
think that that labeling being in a Tulsa and maybe
not a Big Ten or a Southeastern conference also might
affect the way the evaluation processes of players. I think
it does. I think it does today, and I think
it did even then. Uh. I think if if if
(03:45):
a certain scout or a team has a has a
certain type of prejudice towards a particular league or particular
size of player, uh, then it will be expressed regardless
of that they're looking at. And UM, you know, I don't.
I don't know that that happened. There's no way I
could prove that that happened in my case. But the
(04:08):
thing that I do know is that I was and
have been eternally grateful for the fact that the Seahawks
gave me a second chance, a chance to prove myself
that I was capable of playing in the league even
though I wasn't the fastest, tallest or heaviest wide receiver, uh,
and that I could compete with the best of them.
(04:29):
How much of the fact that Seattle was an expansion
franchise just starting out at that time do you think
factored into the fact that you got that opportunity, Steve,
I think it. I think it had a great deal
to do with it. You know, when I went to
the team, and that was after I went I made
it in time for the fifth preseason game. That we
played six preseason games and had fourteen regular season games
(04:50):
at that time since change. But I made it for
the fifth preseason game. I came in the middle of
that week and we played on a Friday night. I
believe that we played Let's see who we played that.
I think we played, UH the San Diego Chargers, if
I'm not mistaken, in the very first game I ever played.
And the thing that was fortunate for me was that
(05:15):
the offensive court and not the offensive quay of the
quarterback and receivers coach UH was Jerry Rome. And Jerry
Rome was my quarterback and receivers coach at the University
of Tulsa for three years at the University of Tulsa,
and he had installed our our passing scheme with the Seahawks.
So when we lined up and and the play was called,
(05:38):
I knew exactly what to do. I knew exactly where
to line up, I knew exactly how deep to run
my routes because I had been running these same plays
UH for three years at the University of Tulsa, and that,
more than anything else, was a huge advantage coming to
a team that was complete with players that you know.
I mean, every every player when I first reported to
(05:58):
their camp had their names still taped on their helmets
because the coaches and this was veterans and rookies, because
the coaches were still familiarizing themselves with the talent that
they had acquired as a new as a new UH franchise.
What were those early years really like, both from a
players standpoint franchise standpoint. You're up in the Northwest, so
(06:18):
they've got an NFL franchise, Well, what were those days like, Steve?
You know what? We we had the absolute best time
as players. Uh. We were playing for a team that
was in Seattle, the first time they ever had an
NFL team in the in the city. The city was
ready begging for this team to be there. Uh. You know,
(06:40):
we we had an incredible fan support. UH. That's the
one thing about Seattle that has been true from day
one is that the fans in Seattle have always supported
that team and just done so enthusiastically and uh fervently. Uh.
And it's always been appreciated too, But it was it was.
It was a great, great experience for me as a
(07:03):
rookie that year, UH to play on this new franchise.
So it was essentially a rookie franchise as well. Uh,
learning about the city, learning about the people, learning about
the game of football and how you played at the
next level. Uh, it was a lot of learning going
on in my head, but it was it was It
(07:24):
was also a tremendous experience. How did Jack Ptera fit
into that? Because I always got the sense of knowing
him he was more like a drill sergeant. Was that
the right coach at the right time for that franchise?
You know, I'm not sure if if you could say
he was the right coach at the right time, but
he definitely had a drill sergeant mindset he had. He
had come from uh playing as are not playing, but
(07:47):
as an assistant coach for Bud Grant in Minnesota. So
that's where you know, we came out wearing the all
black shoes and and uh, you know, no frills kind
of uniforms and no frills type of practices. Uh. He
worked us to death. We worked very hard as a
as a new franchise and and uh he definitely put
(08:09):
his imper mater on that team and on us as players, uh,
and very much ran that team in sort of a
chauvinistic sort of way. Uh. And you know, I enjoyed
playing for Jack. I thought he was a very cordial,
very intelligent type of coach and um uh So you
(08:30):
know I enjoyed it. A lot of people didn't, but
I thought he did a good job. If you had
to put a name or a label on that group,
I mean in those early days, those first one too
three four years, what would you put on him? Well,
it was it was basically a revolving door a group
of athletes. As we had a revolving door in our
locker room from week to week. I mean literally we
(08:51):
would change four or five players almost every single week
of the season. We would lose players that would be hurt,
or we would find other players that we thought could
improve us as a team, uh as they were released
from the teams that they were on. So it really
was a revolving door, uh in our locker room, with
(09:12):
new players in and out of that locker room almost
every single day. But I would tell you the core
group of the team, uh, and that was primarily we
we had a strong's group of veteran players who had
come from winning programs of other teams as well as
our rookies that we had on the team that year. Uh,
they really formed the backbone of the team. And those
(09:35):
are guys that didn't come or go. They were there
and really provided the leadership and the personality of the team.
Guys like Norm Evans and Mike Curtis and Sherman Smith
and Dave Brown and Jim Zorn and uh, you know
Ron Howard, a lot of guys that uh, UM were
just really really first of all, great people and U
(09:58):
had great influence so of uh their teammates and the
community they lived in. Steve Largent, the Hall of Fame
wide receiver and former congressman. Also we'll talk about his
political career as well. We'll talk more about those early
years of the Seattle Seahawks and the quarterbacks that he
played with, jim's Orne and Dave Craig. We do that
as we continue across the country and around the world.
(10:19):
We've got you on America's sports talk show Sports Byeline.
You're listening to Ron Bars Sports Byline USA podcast. Steve
Largen has joined us here on Sports Byline. The wide receiver,
former congressman fourteen years in the NFL, and I might
also point out that he led the Seattle Seahawks and
receiving twelve straight years. If my memory serves me correct, Steve,
(10:41):
those early years, you all had summer training camp over
in eastern Washington, right, we did at Eny Washington, Cheney, Washington. Now,
I know that to be out in the middle of nowhere,
I know how hot it gets out there. I mean,
you all must have thought you were in boot camp.
We literally were in the middle of a weak field. Uh.
They call it the Poluse country. Uh and it it
(11:03):
is exactly that. It was hot, it was dry. But
we were there to play football, and we were we
were very serious and uh we we we took our
game seriously and and we we wanted to improve every
single year. And we tried to do that. And not
only that, we had a coach that uh used to
like to drive us into the ground. We worked very hard.
We never had water on the practice field, if you remember, so,
(11:27):
there was no no getting a drink of water in
between drills. It was you know, you were out there
and uh and and you worked very very hard. The
other thing, too, is is that usually in the National
Football League, if you're a wide receiver, you are labeled
either as a possession receiver or a speed guy. I've
(11:47):
often wondered it's a little bit like closers as compared
to starters in baseball. Did you have to change your
your almost your personality and your ego to some degree
to accept what your role was going to be in
the NFL steep Well, it's interesting, you know, Uh today,
if you have a possession receiver, you're talking about a
guy that's going to catch, you know, fourty or fifty
(12:08):
or sixty balls a year, and he's gonna average about
ten yards a catch. That would be a great average
for a possession type receiver. And yet over the course
of my career, and I played fourteen years in the
National Football League, Uh, my my average for over that
that fourteen year period of time, I averaged sixteen yards
per catch, and that that would be up there with uh,
(12:32):
you know, the speed burners, and I certainly was no
speed burners. So uh, it's a bit of a uh misnomer,
I guess to say that a a possession receiver can
also be a receiver that can get you, you know,
twenty yards on a catch. Uh. And you know, I
(12:54):
just enjoyed playing in the system that we had with
the Seahawks and and uh uh uh you know I I,
like I said, my my my career was a storybook
and and I still pinched myself to make sure it
really happened. I think you'll appreciate this comment. Keenan McCardell
was with us and I was asking him about what
all great wide receivers have, and here's what he told me.
(13:16):
We do the really the little things. You know. You
go out and every day and make sure everything's perfect.
Everything has to be perfect from like Jerry used to say,
from his uniform on up to his game. You know,
if he feels perfect in his uniform, he he knows
he has to be perfect on the field. He feels
perfect on the field, and it makes it easy, I mean,
(13:38):
you know, and you always have to have to be
a leader, you know, and I think every one of
those guys that you mentioned are leaders. One of the
nicest evenings I ever had, Steve was spending a night,
uh just talking with Jerry Rice and Tim Brown, both
of them just outstanding players, but also outstanding people as well.
And when I came away with uh, is in talking
(14:00):
to them is the detail orientation that they had. They
also both watched an awful lot of film. Are those
other things that are consistent with the great wide receivers
in your mind? Well, I mean you mentioned Tim and Jerry,
both of whom are friends of mine, and uh, I'm
great admires of both of their games. They were great,
great wide receivers. And you know, the thing that that
(14:22):
was said in the interview that you just ran is
so true is that the guys that are great players
are not great players by accident. That they actually, uh
put a great deal of time and effort and thought
into their games. And you know, the football is not
a game that you just go out and you turn
(14:42):
the lights on and turn the lights off. It takes
some time. You've gotta study, you've gotta prepare, and I'm
talking about preparation off the field as well as on
the field. And the guys that are really great players
are guys that are willing to put in that kind
of effort, uh, you know, so that they can be
at their absolute best. And I was laughing about Keeno
McCardell's uh comment about Jerry Rice wanting everything perfect. I
(15:06):
was exactly the same way. Uh, you know, I had
to have you know, everything from my helmet to my
shoes had to be just right. Um, sweat bands, everything,
uh had to be just just perfect when I went
out to play a game, because you know, I was
I was going out there to play the perfect game,
and I wanted to look the part, and so uh,
(15:29):
you know I, I just think that's really true of
the guys that really separate themselves from everybody else. And
that's not easy to do in the National Football League,
because there's everybody's a good player when you play in
the National Football League. But to set yourself at a
level above uh, it takes. Uh. It takes exceptional effort. Uh,
it takes an exceptional mindset, uh and um, it takes
(15:52):
a lot of hard work. One of the things that
I've always found interesting over my years of observing sports
and talking to the great athletes. Steve and I remember
Michael Jorge and I having a conversation and I asked
him about the fear of failure and what it's, you know,
as a motivation, and he said that that is a
great motivation for most athletes. They do not want to fail,
and that the great athletes truly like matchups that challenged them.
(16:15):
Did you find it to be the same way with
you and who were those defensive backs players that you
played against that that really challenged you and that you
look forward to going up against. Well, I would tell
you that the fear of failure was maybe the most motivating,
um cause of action in my life, and that that
that came as a result of, you know, growing up
(16:37):
in a family who's you know, my dad left my
mom when I was six years old. Uh, my mom remarried.
My stepfather was an alcoholic, and so that created a
whole uh different set of issues in our family, and
so there was kind of some insecurity that was built
up in my life, and as a result of that,
(16:57):
this fear of failure, uh was really resonating in my life. Uh.
And so when I went out to play, I was
out there not just to go out there and compete
as an athlete, but uh, you know, feeling as if
the way of the world was on my back and
I had to carry it and if I didn't that
you know that that I really was no good and
(17:17):
that's not a good That's not a good way to
to uh perform as an as an athlete. And I
know that now, but that is the reason that that
I feel like that that I was so motivated as
a player, was that fear of failure. But you asked
about some of the great players that I've played against.
(17:38):
Um defensive backs to come to mind right away, and
they both happened to play for the same team, the
Los Angeles Raiders at that time, and that would be
Mike Haynes and Lester Hayes. Uh. Those guys were great,
great players. And another one that comes to mind is
Louis Wright who played for the Denver Broncos, another great player.
And then San Diego Chargers had a cornerback named Gil
(17:59):
Bird later under my career that was a great player
still coaching in the National Football Like I believe in St.
Louis and Uh, he was also just a guy that
would just really thump you every chance he got. But
you know that I had, I had a number of
great matchups over the course of my career. I will
(18:20):
tell you somebody else that I know, and I don't
think you lament to leave him off the list, but
he'll be joining you in the Hall of Fame. And
that was Darryl Green with the Washington Redskins. And I
had Darrel here on the show. You're Gonna love this.
I asked him about playing cornerback in the NFL. I
think the defensive back. You know, they try to compare
it to quarterback in different positions. It's it's probably one
(18:43):
of the toughest positions at least the way I've played
it over the years of all sports, you know, and
not knocking basketball. Those guys run all day in baseball,
they do it. But and Lyneman do their job on
football and running back. So I'll tell you what, when
you play corner it's like, you know, everybody's against you.
People would prefer, you know, somebody catch a great pass
(19:06):
on your end zone and do a dance and see
you knock it down. You know, it's kind of all
you know. So it's a mentally tough job and obviously
a physically tough job because I'm I'm just a hairing
the five ft nine and about five, so I'm normally outsized.
I'm never outspeed it. Uh, you know, nobody can outrun
(19:28):
me necessarily at why I receiver, but normally they're a
lot bigger than I am. And the other thing is,
guess what they know where they're going. He was something special,
wasn't I tell you what? Darryl Green was in a
class by himself. He really was. He still is. I mean,
he's a he's a great guy and it was a
(19:49):
great NFL football player. Did you play against him? I
did several times. In fact, I think eight was no,
I take that back. The last game I played in
my career was against the Washington Redskins in the Kingdom
and they thumped us bad. But yeah, I played against
Darryl Green several times. What is it that they are
(20:10):
all the great defensive backs do consistently in covering wide receivers? Well,
I think I think number one is that, um, they
they all um have kind of a hidden quality about them.
And it has to do with the way they prepare
to play the game and then the way they end
up playing the game. Uh. And it's a professionalism. The
(20:33):
way they conduct themselves on the field is I have
seen has been very professional. It's the guys that get
out there and start running their mouths and and all
that kind of stuff. Those are the guys that you know,
they're not very good. Uh, they're insecure, they don't they can't.
They can talk a good game, but they can't play
a good game. But the guys that are good that
(20:54):
let their actions speak for themselves. They don't have to
say anything. They let their actions speak for themselves. And
that's that's what really separated guys like Mike Haines and
and uh Darryl Green and Lester Hayes and other guys
like that. Uh. They came to play on Sunday, and
you knew that they were going to show up every
(21:15):
every Sunday that they had to. Steve Largen has joined
us the Hall of Fame wide receiver fourteen years in
the NFL, all with the Seattle Seahawks, and at the
time of his retirement, Steve held six major NFL receiving records,
most receptions, consecutive games with a reception, receiving yards, t
D receptions, seasons with fifty and more receptions, and one
(21:36):
thousand yards seasons, all records in the NFL at that
particular time. We continue with more of you and Sports Byeline.
You're listening to Ron Bars Sports Byline USA podcast. Steve
Largen has joined us here on Sports Byline. Let me
ask you about the quarterbacks that you mentioned a little
bit earlier, Jim's Dorn and Dave Craig. I've always been
(21:56):
interested in the chemistry relationship between wide receiver and quarterback
and how it comes about. Does it come about naturally
or is it a mechanical Steve, Well, you know, I
don't think it's mechanical, but neither do I think it's natural. Um.
I think the relationship that I had with both of
the quarterbacks that I played with the majority of my career,
(22:19):
UH were relationships um that you know, I had to
work at. Uh. Not that those guys weren't great guys,
and they they were, and they are great guys. And
Jim's Oren's my best friend today and Dave Craig is
a very good friend as well. But you have to
work at those kind of friendships and relationships, UH to
(22:42):
ensure that they grow and that that that you're communicating,
particularly as a wide receiver communicated with your quarterback. You
heard Darryl Green talk about that you know, receivers at
least know where they're going and what they're trying to
accomplish and defensive back trying to react to that. But
it takes some work to get your patterns down and
get the timing with the quarterback down and be able
(23:04):
to catch the ball consistently and I had two quarterbacks
in Jim and Dave, who both were willing to stay
out on the field as long as it took to
get these routes UH down pat and believe me, I
would stay out there all day and they would too,
And we worked and worked and worked and worked. We
worked in the offseason, we worked during the regular season
(23:27):
until we got it right. And that was the thing
that really helped me separate myself from defensive backs for sure.
UH is just the willingness to work until I got
it right, until I was confident that I could run
the route the way I wanted to run it and
catch the ball when it was thrown to me. One
of those little nuances in the relationship between quarterback and
(23:49):
wide receiver, Steve, I've always believed his trust, and what
I mean by that is trust that one you're not
going to get hung out to dry with a high
pass when you're going across the middle, and the other
trust going the opposite direction, is that when the quarterback
throws the ball on the deep out pattern and puts
it in the air before you even make your cut,
that it's going to be in the area that you're
supposed to go in Can you talk a little bit
(24:10):
about that development between quarterback and wide receiver and trust? Yeah,
I think I think it's I think it has a
lot to do with trust. I think it has a
lot to do with faith. Uh, just believing in your
teammate that he's going to do what he's supposed to
do if you do what you're supposed to do, and
that that kind of trust, that kind of faith that
you develop uh in a quarterback receiver relationship is so
(24:32):
vitally important. Uh. And that's why, you know, I felt
like it was so important for us to work as
hard as we could on the practice field so that
when the game came, we knew exactly what one another
was going to do. And we got to the point,
uh that we could read one another even in impromptu
situations when you're when your protection breaks down, your quarterback
(24:52):
starts to scramble, and your receivers are kind of breaking
off their routes and they're moving and trying to get open. Uh.
Even in those situations, we had such good, uh non
verbal communication with one another that we would instinctively know
what the other was gonna do when he was going
to throw the ball, where I was going to be
when he threw the ball. And Uh, that kind of instinct,
(25:15):
that kind of reaction can only be developed as you
developed the kind of faith and trust that you've talked about.
Correct me if I'm wrong about this. Wasn't Jim's or
a left hander he was. Jim was left and Dave
was right. That's what I thought. And I asked that
because catching the ball from each Kenny Stabler was a
left handed quarterback as well, and I understand the spiral
(25:35):
is totally different as well. What adjustments did you have
to make between the two quarterbacks? Then? Well, really, the
they threw different kinds of balls, but that that goes
well beyond whether they're right hand or left hand. But
a left hander's ball will always tail to the left
on long balls. Uh, Typically the short balls, when you're
throwing a you know, a short out or even an
(25:57):
eighteen yard out or come back route or a crossing route,
that's not gonna make that much difference. But when you're
throwing the ball deep down the field, that's when you'll
really notice a difference. Where a right hander's ball will
tail to the right and a left hander's ball tails
to the left. So when I was running a route
and I was on the left side and running deeper.
I would always try to give myself another yard or
(26:19):
two on the left side because I knew Gym's ball
would would tend to fade to the outside, and I
wanted to be in a position where I I still
had room to catch it and being bound. So I'd
always give myself a little lecture room on the left side,
and just the opposite for Dave, if I was running
around on the right side, I'd give myself a little
more room on the right side because his ball tended
(26:39):
a tail to the right. But other than that, uh,
they're really I don't think you can really tell that
much difference between the left hand or right hander who
throw the ball right. When your career was over with
on the football field, you decided to go in a
different direction, and that was a political direction. What drove
you in that direction? Well, actually I didn't decide to
do that. When I got out of foot ball, I
(27:00):
moved back to Oklahoma. I was raising my four children,
and my wife and I were quite happy living and
working in Oklahoma, and she kind of whispered in my
ear about five years after I retired, it's about ninety four.
She goes, you know, I think she said, I wonder
if we're supposed to use the platform you had as
(27:21):
a professional athlete and to use it to uh for
some higher, better purpose. And UH I said, well, you know,
like what kind of purpose are you think? And she goes,
I'm thinking, like, you know, to running for political office,
and uh, I I really didn't know how to answer
that question, but you know, I had nodded my head
and smile and kind of gone down the road. But
(27:43):
about we had a situation in Oklahoma where we had
a member of Congress who was going to run for
an open Senate seat and leave his congressional seat, and
it happened to be in the congressional district that we
lived in. And my wife said, you know, maybe this
is the time to consider running for this political office.
And so why did everything I could to talk my
(28:05):
way out of this, but it just wasn't meant to be.
And and so I threw my hat, my name in
the hat, and uh ended up in a six way primary,
and in Oklahoma you have to win with plus one
vote to avoid a runoff, And in that initial um
campaign for the primary, I actually won without a runoff,
(28:26):
and uh, I ended up getting in the general election,
and and I was on my way, and I didn't
quite know where I was going, but I knew what
I was going to do, and uh so it was.
I would say today that my experience serving the United
States Congress for nearly eight years was one of the
greatest experience I've ever had in my life. I learned
(28:48):
more about our country. I learned more about our founding
fathers and the founding documents of this country. Uh and
uh and and how the government operates than I ever
would have by reading any book, are watching any movie. Uh.
And it was a tremendous, tremendous, fulfilling experience for me
to serve our country in that way. Steve, were you
(29:09):
ever concerned about the fact that you would be looked
upon as a jock and not taken seriously as a congressman?
You know, I think, uh, I wasn't really worried about that. There.
I think there were a number of people that remembered
my football playing days, obviously, and UH like to talk
about that and and and that was fine. But I
(29:32):
knew I was there representing the first Congressional District of Oklahoma,
and I was there to, uh to be a voice
for the people that I represented and be a vote
for the people that I represented in the first congressional district.
And that's what I did, because I don't think you
wanted to be typecasted in any way. You had another
congressman from Oklahoma also, there was a football player, pretty
good one at Oklahoma, Congressman Watts of Chorus, and I
(29:54):
have got to had a chance to talk with him,
and he was always concerned about that that people, you know,
might vote him because of name recognition and what he
did in football, not on the issues. Well, you know
what my feeling was, I didn't care why they voted
for me. I wanted them to vote for me, and
then I was going to go and represent the people,
uh that had voted for me. So you know, I
(30:16):
guess I had a little bit different take on it. Uh.
But the thing that I tried to do and all
the campaigns that I ran, was to to make sure
people understood who I was and what I stood for
and how I was going to vote. Because I wasn't
going to take a poll or ask, you know, what
should I do on this one. I was going to
vote the way my heart and my head said I
needed to vote, and that's why it was important to
(30:38):
me to make sure people knew who I was and
what I believed and what I stood for before the election,
and then to give them an opportunity to vote for me.
If that's reflected, if my the way I was going
to vote reflected the way they felt the majority of
the time, It's interesting, Steve. I was born in Washington,
d C. My grandfather was the curate of the Smithsonian
Air and Space Museum, and I started my career at
(30:59):
the Washington Post, so I have a lot of connection
to Washington, d C. So I can ask this question
of you. And talking to Senator McCain here on Sports Byeline,
I said to him, I said, John, he's a big
boxing fan, and that was why he was on a
national sports show. But I said, John, I said, knowing
how outspoken you were about things, how did a guy
like you even exist in Washington? He said, Well, I'm
not the prettiest girl in town, and I don't get
(31:21):
invited to a lot of dances. So I'm gonna ask
you the same thing. Being as a sportsman as honest
as you were, how did you deal with being in
a political world that is not as sportsman like sometimes
well and it's unfortunately it's not. But I would tell
you that, you know, I never, um, I guess I
(31:44):
was just not the type of politician that believed in
in uh you know, using dirty tactics or uh talking
badly about my opponent or anything like that. I never.
I never campaigned uh on what my opponent was or isn't.
I didn't even talk about my opponent. I talked about
what I believed in and what I wanted to do
(32:05):
as a member of Congress. And uh, yeah, I left
all the dirt and all that stuff somebody else to
play in that that field. But um so I you
know I and that's the way I did it in
Congress as well as I. I just tried to attack
issues and not people. Uh and uh I always felt
like that that that worked for me. It's interesting when
(32:26):
I look at politics today, it's usually more perception and
is reality. I don't know that today's a voter is
articulate or intelligent enough to take at the look at
the issues or break them down, or if they get
so much information, they don't know what's truth and what
is not truth. Was that hard for you to deal
with that since you were a straight talking athlete as
well as a politician. Yeah, it is. Uh. You know,
(32:48):
they talk about spin machines in Washington. That's so they
that's what they refer to. And essentially it's it's just
having the ability to uh obscure the truth is really
what it is. And and I didn't do that. I didn't.
I didn't think I had needed to and I didn't. Uh.
That just didn't come naturally to me. And UH, I
just believe in in in in speaking the truth and
(33:12):
uh and kind of letting it fall wherever it fell.
But you know, there there's a lot of the spinning
that goes on in Washington, maybe more so today than
even when I was in politics, and UH, and that
it can be disheartening at times. But I can tell
you that I truly believe what I'm about to tell
you is that I believe has many problems that we
(33:34):
have within our system of government. It clearly is the
best form of government that's ever been created in the world.
And uh, and I am a great respecter of it.
You know what's interesting is I've been in Iraq, and
I've been in Afghanistan. And the one thing I still find,
no matter what the politics of the situation, is that
people still admire the lifestyle that we have in the
(33:55):
political system that they we do have. I think you're
absolutely right about that. After having gone after the governorship
in the state of Oklahoma not successful, are you turned
off in any way about politics or will we see
Steve Largen again in a political office? You think, well,
I'm not turned off with politics. I still believe in it.
I still believe in the people that are running our country.
(34:19):
But I'm I think I've I've served my time, if
you will. I never got into politics thinking that it
was gonna be a lifelong career for me. I got
into serve for some period of time, and losing the
governor's race, as you mentioned in two thousand two, was
a great exit strategy for me. Uh and uh and
(34:40):
and I've I'm willing to accept that I don't I
don't need politics. Uh And I feel like that I've
served my time. We only got ninety seconds left. But
when you look back on your playing career, what memories
do you have? Oh, gosh, I have so many great memories.
I think if I were to think of one game,
uh in my career at would be when we beat
(35:01):
the Dolphins in the Divisional championship game in Miami. Uh.
Dan Marino was a rookie quarterback, thrown to his two
rokie wide receivers, Duper and Clayton and uh we went
down there and and and they had the best record
in the NFC that year, and we were the we
were the team in the wild card that won the
wild card game. We went down to beat them, and
it put us into the a f C Championship game
(35:23):
against the Raiders, which we ended up losing. But that
game we we won against Miami, I think really stands
out of all the games that I played in Seattle.
And if I remember correctly, wasn't that a very rainy
day that you guys played on down there? It was?
It actually was. And we came out before the game
and saw that it was raining, and we said, hey,
this is this is our kind of weather. Uh. And
(35:44):
so we went out and we've we played a great game.
Kurt Warner had a great game. And Uh, I didn't
catch a pass in the game till the fourth quarter,
and I caught two passes after we had fallen behind
caught two passes, the last one put us down to
the one yard line. Kurt scored the next play. But
it was, it was, it was really a fun game.
In about fifteen seconds twenty seconds, you know, we're heard
(36:06):
worldwide on the American Forces Network. I'm sure you'd like
to send a shout out to the troops, Steve. Oh, absolutely.
I just can't say that these guys, how much they're
hard work and dedication and loyalty to our country means
to me. And uh, just let them know that I,
for one, and really respect and admire the hard work
(36:27):
and a tough job that they're doing overseas. Right now, Steve,
I want to thank you. Please come back and visit
with me again on Sports Byeline. I'd love to do it.
Steve Large and the Hall of Fame wide receiver deservedly so,
and former congressman as well. We'll take a quick break
as we continue with more of you and America's sports
talk show. You have been listening to Ron Barr's Sports
Byline US, a podcast on the eight Side Network.
Hi, I'm Ron bar and this is today's edition of
Ron Barr's Sports Byeline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
Steve large enjoins us on Sports Byeline. Hall of Fame
wide receiver and of course also former congressman, played fourteen
years in the National Football League, all with the Seattle
Seahawks seven times he was a pro bowler. You know, Steve,
(00:20):
when I take a look at the success that you
have and then remember back that you were drafted by Houston,
betrayed immediately to Seattle because they thought you were too
small and too slow to make it in the pros,
I have to laugh. And it brings up the question,
do you find that maybe the pros in the NFL
tend to label players based on numbers rather than on
the complete person. Well, well, and I think, first of all,
(00:43):
I have to tell you that my career, even now
as I look back on it, I pinched myself just
to make sure it really happened. I came out of college,
had pretty good statistics as a college player, but I
think in everybody's mind I was a stretch to make
it in National Football League, and I was drafted in
the fourth round by the Oilers, and after six weeks
(01:05):
of training camp, they basically let me go. They they
basically fired me. And the bum Phillips I remember, was
the head coach down there at that time, and he said, Steve,
I'm gonna let you go now, uh, so you'll have
a chance to catch on with another team. Of course,
I thought he was just shooting, uh, you know, bull
at me. And and so I cried all the way home, um,
(01:28):
thinking about this lost opportunity. And I got a call
the next day from the Seahawks and uh, they said, uh,
we've traded for your rights and we want to give
you another chance if you'd like to continue to try
to pursue your quest to play in the National Football League.
And I said, great, I'm on my way. And I
packed a small Duffel bag and and uh, I took
(01:51):
a couple of pair of jeans and some T shirts
and and some tiv Is shues and that was about it.
Headed up to the Northwest, and UM, you know, the
rest is kind of history it uh. You know, I
think I think the NFL uh is maybe more so
today than even when I was a rookie. UH is
really into labeling players, uh and and making the connotation
(02:15):
that they can play or can't play based upon what
they can measure. And I just think that, at least
I know for my life, uh that they couldn't measure
the qualities or capabilities that I expressed as a player
on the team. Uh and uh I was close to
(02:36):
not ever making it in the National Football League. And
I think that maybe happens more often today than uh
it did even when I was a player, uh, just
because I think they they uh they go to every
imaginable uh resort to uh measure test time, uh uh
(03:00):
tape all kinds of statistics about players, and uh, you know,
I'm just I'm convinced that they missed some very good
players just because they're not quite tall enough, don't weigh enough,
or aren't quite fast enough. At Tulsa, you lead the
nation and TV catches your junior and senior years. And
I think about somebody life as Steve McNair when he
(03:21):
was coming out of college, they said, well, yeah, but
what kind of talent did he play against? Do you
think that that labeling being in a Tulsa and maybe
not a Big Ten or a Southeastern conference also might
affect the way the evaluation processes of players. I think
it does. I think it does today, and I think
it did even then. Uh. I think if if if
(03:45):
a certain scout or a team has a has a
certain type of prejudice towards a particular league or particular
size of player, uh, then it will be expressed regardless
of that they're looking at. And UM, you know, I don't.
I don't know that that happened. There's no way I
could prove that that happened in my case. But the
(04:08):
thing that I do know is that I was and
have been eternally grateful for the fact that the Seahawks
gave me a second chance, a chance to prove myself
that I was capable of playing in the league even
though I wasn't the fastest, tallest or heaviest wide receiver, uh,
and that I could compete with the best of them.
(04:29):
How much of the fact that Seattle was an expansion
franchise just starting out at that time do you think
factored into the fact that you got that opportunity, Steve,
I think it. I think it had a great deal
to do with it. You know, when I went to
the team, and that was after I went I made
it in time for the fifth preseason game. That we
played six preseason games and had fourteen regular season games
(04:50):
at that time since change. But I made it for
the fifth preseason game. I came in the middle of
that week and we played on a Friday night. I
believe that we played Let's see who we played that.
I think we played, UH the San Diego Chargers, if
I'm not mistaken, in the very first game I ever played.
And the thing that was fortunate for me was that
(05:15):
the offensive court and not the offensive quay of the
quarterback and receivers coach UH was Jerry Rome. And Jerry
Rome was my quarterback and receivers coach at the University
of Tulsa for three years at the University of Tulsa,
and he had installed our our passing scheme with the Seahawks.
So when we lined up and and the play was called,
(05:38):
I knew exactly what to do. I knew exactly where
to line up, I knew exactly how deep to run
my routes because I had been running these same plays
UH for three years at the University of Tulsa, and that,
more than anything else, was a huge advantage coming to
a team that was complete with players that you know.
I mean, every every player when I first reported to
(05:58):
their camp had their names still taped on their helmets
because the coaches and this was veterans and rookies, because
the coaches were still familiarizing themselves with the talent that
they had acquired as a new as a new UH franchise.
What were those early years really like, both from a
players standpoint franchise standpoint. You're up in the Northwest, so
(06:18):
they've got an NFL franchise, Well, what were those days like, Steve?
You know what? We we had the absolute best time
as players. Uh. We were playing for a team that
was in Seattle, the first time they ever had an
NFL team in the in the city. The city was
ready begging for this team to be there. Uh. You know,
(06:40):
we we had an incredible fan support. UH. That's the
one thing about Seattle that has been true from day
one is that the fans in Seattle have always supported
that team and just done so enthusiastically and uh fervently. Uh.
And it's always been appreciated too, But it was it was.
It was a great, great experience for me as a
(07:03):
rookie that year, UH to play on this new franchise.
So it was essentially a rookie franchise as well. Uh,
learning about the city, learning about the people, learning about
the game of football and how you played at the
next level. Uh, it was a lot of learning going
on in my head, but it was it was It
(07:24):
was also a tremendous experience. How did Jack Ptera fit
into that? Because I always got the sense of knowing
him he was more like a drill sergeant. Was that
the right coach at the right time for that franchise?
You know, I'm not sure if if you could say
he was the right coach at the right time, but
he definitely had a drill sergeant mindset he had. He
had come from uh playing as are not playing, but
(07:47):
as an assistant coach for Bud Grant in Minnesota. So
that's where you know, we came out wearing the all
black shoes and and uh, you know, no frills kind
of uniforms and no frills type of practices. Uh. He
worked us to death. We worked very hard as a
as a new franchise and and uh he definitely put
(08:09):
his imper mater on that team and on us as players, uh,
and very much ran that team in sort of a
chauvinistic sort of way. Uh. And you know, I enjoyed
playing for Jack. I thought he was a very cordial,
very intelligent type of coach and um uh So you
(08:30):
know I enjoyed it. A lot of people didn't, but
I thought he did a good job. If you had
to put a name or a label on that group,
I mean in those early days, those first one too
three four years, what would you put on him? Well,
it was it was basically a revolving door a group
of athletes. As we had a revolving door in our
locker room from week to week. I mean literally we
(08:51):
would change four or five players almost every single week
of the season. We would lose players that would be hurt,
or we would find other players that we thought could
improve us as a team, uh as they were released
from the teams that they were on. So it really
was a revolving door, uh in our locker room, with
(09:12):
new players in and out of that locker room almost
every single day. But I would tell you the core
group of the team, uh, and that was primarily we
we had a strong's group of veteran players who had
come from winning programs of other teams as well as
our rookies that we had on the team that year. Uh,
they really formed the backbone of the team. And those
(09:35):
are guys that didn't come or go. They were there
and really provided the leadership and the personality of the team.
Guys like Norm Evans and Mike Curtis and Sherman Smith
and Dave Brown and Jim Zorn and uh, you know
Ron Howard, a lot of guys that uh, UM were
just really really first of all, great people and U
(09:58):
had great influence so of uh their teammates and the
community they lived in. Steve Largent, the Hall of Fame
wide receiver and former congressman. Also we'll talk about his
political career as well. We'll talk more about those early
years of the Seattle Seahawks and the quarterbacks that he
played with, jim's Orne and Dave Craig. We do that
as we continue across the country and around the world.
(10:19):
We've got you on America's sports talk show Sports Byeline.
You're listening to Ron Bars Sports Byline USA podcast. Steve
Largen has joined us here on Sports Byline. The wide receiver,
former congressman fourteen years in the NFL, and I might
also point out that he led the Seattle Seahawks and
receiving twelve straight years. If my memory serves me correct, Steve,
(10:41):
those early years, you all had summer training camp over
in eastern Washington, right, we did at Eny Washington, Cheney, Washington. Now,
I know that to be out in the middle of nowhere,
I know how hot it gets out there. I mean,
you all must have thought you were in boot camp.
We literally were in the middle of a weak field. Uh.
They call it the Poluse country. Uh and it it
(11:03):
is exactly that. It was hot, it was dry. But
we were there to play football, and we were we
were very serious and uh we we we took our
game seriously and and we we wanted to improve every
single year. And we tried to do that. And not
only that, we had a coach that uh used to
like to drive us into the ground. We worked very hard.
We never had water on the practice field, if you remember, so,
(11:27):
there was no no getting a drink of water in
between drills. It was you know, you were out there
and uh and and you worked very very hard. The
other thing, too, is is that usually in the National
Football League, if you're a wide receiver, you are labeled
either as a possession receiver or a speed guy. I've
(11:47):
often wondered it's a little bit like closers as compared
to starters in baseball. Did you have to change your
your almost your personality and your ego to some degree
to accept what your role was going to be in
the NFL steep Well, it's interesting, you know, Uh today,
if you have a possession receiver, you're talking about a
guy that's going to catch, you know, fourty or fifty
(12:08):
or sixty balls a year, and he's gonna average about
ten yards a catch. That would be a great average
for a possession type receiver. And yet over the course
of my career, and I played fourteen years in the
National Football League, Uh, my my average for over that
that fourteen year period of time, I averaged sixteen yards
per catch, and that that would be up there with uh,
(12:32):
you know, the speed burners, and I certainly was no
speed burners. So uh, it's a bit of a uh misnomer,
I guess to say that a a possession receiver can
also be a receiver that can get you, you know,
twenty yards on a catch. Uh. And you know, I
(12:54):
just enjoyed playing in the system that we had with
the Seahawks and and uh uh uh you know I I,
like I said, my my my career was a storybook
and and I still pinched myself to make sure it
really happened. I think you'll appreciate this comment. Keenan McCardell
was with us and I was asking him about what
all great wide receivers have, and here's what he told me.
(13:16):
We do the really the little things. You know. You
go out and every day and make sure everything's perfect.
Everything has to be perfect from like Jerry used to say,
from his uniform on up to his game. You know,
if he feels perfect in his uniform, he he knows
he has to be perfect on the field. He feels
perfect on the field, and it makes it easy, I mean,
(13:38):
you know, and you always have to have to be
a leader, you know, and I think every one of
those guys that you mentioned are leaders. One of the
nicest evenings I ever had, Steve was spending a night,
uh just talking with Jerry Rice and Tim Brown, both
of them just outstanding players, but also outstanding people as well.
And when I came away with uh, is in talking
(14:00):
to them is the detail orientation that they had. They
also both watched an awful lot of film. Are those
other things that are consistent with the great wide receivers
in your mind? Well, I mean you mentioned Tim and Jerry,
both of whom are friends of mine, and uh, I'm
great admires of both of their games. They were great,
great wide receivers. And you know, the thing that that
(14:22):
was said in the interview that you just ran is
so true is that the guys that are great players
are not great players by accident. That they actually, uh
put a great deal of time and effort and thought
into their games. And you know, the football is not
a game that you just go out and you turn
(14:42):
the lights on and turn the lights off. It takes
some time. You've gotta study, you've gotta prepare, and I'm
talking about preparation off the field as well as on
the field. And the guys that are really great players
are guys that are willing to put in that kind
of effort, uh, you know, so that they can be
at their absolute best. And I was laughing about Keeno
McCardell's uh comment about Jerry Rice wanting everything perfect. I
(15:06):
was exactly the same way. Uh, you know, I had
to have you know, everything from my helmet to my
shoes had to be just right. Um, sweat bands, everything,
uh had to be just just perfect when I went
out to play a game, because you know, I was
I was going out there to play the perfect game,
and I wanted to look the part, and so uh,
(15:29):
you know I, I just think that's really true of
the guys that really separate themselves from everybody else. And
that's not easy to do in the National Football League,
because there's everybody's a good player when you play in
the National Football League. But to set yourself at a
level above uh, it takes. Uh. It takes exceptional effort. Uh,
it takes an exceptional mindset, uh and um, it takes
(15:52):
a lot of hard work. One of the things that
I've always found interesting over my years of observing sports
and talking to the great athletes. Steve and I remember
Michael Jorge and I having a conversation and I asked
him about the fear of failure and what it's, you know,
as a motivation, and he said that that is a
great motivation for most athletes. They do not want to fail,
and that the great athletes truly like matchups that challenged them.
(16:15):
Did you find it to be the same way with
you and who were those defensive backs players that you
played against that that really challenged you and that you
look forward to going up against. Well, I would tell
you that the fear of failure was maybe the most motivating,
um cause of action in my life, and that that
that came as a result of, you know, growing up
(16:37):
in a family who's you know, my dad left my
mom when I was six years old. Uh, my mom remarried.
My stepfather was an alcoholic, and so that created a
whole uh different set of issues in our family, and
so there was kind of some insecurity that was built
up in my life, and as a result of that,
(16:57):
this fear of failure, uh was really resonating in my life. Uh.
And so when I went out to play, I was
out there not just to go out there and compete
as an athlete, but uh, you know, feeling as if
the way of the world was on my back and
I had to carry it and if I didn't that
you know that that I really was no good and
(17:17):
that's not a good That's not a good way to
to uh perform as an as an athlete. And I
know that now, but that is the reason that that
I feel like that that I was so motivated as
a player, was that fear of failure. But you asked
about some of the great players that I've played against.
(17:38):
Um defensive backs to come to mind right away, and
they both happened to play for the same team, the
Los Angeles Raiders at that time, and that would be
Mike Haynes and Lester Hayes. Uh. Those guys were great,
great players. And another one that comes to mind is
Louis Wright who played for the Denver Broncos, another great player.
And then San Diego Chargers had a cornerback named Gil
(17:59):
Bird later under my career that was a great player
still coaching in the National Football Like I believe in St.
Louis and Uh, he was also just a guy that
would just really thump you every chance he got. But
you know that I had, I had a number of
great matchups over the course of my career. I will
(18:20):
tell you somebody else that I know, and I don't
think you lament to leave him off the list, but
he'll be joining you in the Hall of Fame. And
that was Darryl Green with the Washington Redskins. And I
had Darrel here on the show. You're Gonna love this.
I asked him about playing cornerback in the NFL. I
think the defensive back. You know, they try to compare
it to quarterback in different positions. It's it's probably one
(18:43):
of the toughest positions at least the way I've played
it over the years of all sports, you know, and
not knocking basketball. Those guys run all day in baseball,
they do it. But and Lyneman do their job on
football and running back. So I'll tell you what, when
you play corner it's like, you know, everybody's against you.
People would prefer, you know, somebody catch a great pass
(19:06):
on your end zone and do a dance and see
you knock it down. You know, it's kind of all
you know. So it's a mentally tough job and obviously
a physically tough job because I'm I'm just a hairing
the five ft nine and about five, so I'm normally outsized.
I'm never outspeed it. Uh, you know, nobody can outrun
(19:28):
me necessarily at why I receiver, but normally they're a
lot bigger than I am. And the other thing is,
guess what they know where they're going. He was something special,
wasn't I tell you what? Darryl Green was in a
class by himself. He really was. He still is. I mean,
he's a he's a great guy and it was a
(19:49):
great NFL football player. Did you play against him? I
did several times. In fact, I think eight was no,
I take that back. The last game I played in
my career was against the Washington Redskins in the Kingdom
and they thumped us bad. But yeah, I played against
Darryl Green several times. What is it that they are
(20:10):
all the great defensive backs do consistently in covering wide receivers? Well,
I think I think number one is that, um, they
they all um have kind of a hidden quality about them.
And it has to do with the way they prepare
to play the game and then the way they end
up playing the game. Uh. And it's a professionalism. The
(20:33):
way they conduct themselves on the field is I have
seen has been very professional. It's the guys that get
out there and start running their mouths and and all
that kind of stuff. Those are the guys that you know,
they're not very good. Uh, they're insecure, they don't they can't.
They can talk a good game, but they can't play
a good game. But the guys that are good that
(20:54):
let their actions speak for themselves. They don't have to
say anything. They let their actions speak for themselves. And
that's that's what really separated guys like Mike Haines and
and uh Darryl Green and Lester Hayes and other guys
like that. Uh. They came to play on Sunday, and
you knew that they were going to show up every
(21:15):
every Sunday that they had to. Steve Largen has joined
us the Hall of Fame wide receiver fourteen years in
the NFL, all with the Seattle Seahawks, and at the
time of his retirement, Steve held six major NFL receiving records,
most receptions, consecutive games with a reception, receiving yards, t
D receptions, seasons with fifty and more receptions, and one
(21:36):
thousand yards seasons, all records in the NFL at that
particular time. We continue with more of you and Sports Byeline.
You're listening to Ron Bars Sports Byline USA podcast. Steve
Largen has joined us here on Sports Byline. Let me
ask you about the quarterbacks that you mentioned a little
bit earlier, Jim's Dorn and Dave Craig. I've always been
(21:56):
interested in the chemistry relationship between wide receiver and quarterback
and how it comes about. Does it come about naturally
or is it a mechanical Steve, Well, you know, I
don't think it's mechanical, but neither do I think it's natural. Um.
I think the relationship that I had with both of
the quarterbacks that I played with the majority of my career,
(22:19):
UH were relationships um that you know, I had to
work at. Uh. Not that those guys weren't great guys,
and they they were, and they are great guys. And
Jim's Oren's my best friend today and Dave Craig is
a very good friend as well. But you have to
work at those kind of friendships and relationships, UH to
(22:42):
ensure that they grow and that that that you're communicating,
particularly as a wide receiver communicated with your quarterback. You
heard Darryl Green talk about that you know, receivers at
least know where they're going and what they're trying to
accomplish and defensive back trying to react to that. But
it takes some work to get your patterns down and
get the timing with the quarterback down and be able
(23:04):
to catch the ball consistently and I had two quarterbacks
in Jim and Dave, who both were willing to stay
out on the field as long as it took to
get these routes UH down pat and believe me, I
would stay out there all day and they would too,
And we worked and worked and worked and worked. We
worked in the offseason, we worked during the regular season
(23:27):
until we got it right. And that was the thing
that really helped me separate myself from defensive backs for sure.
UH is just the willingness to work until I got
it right, until I was confident that I could run
the route the way I wanted to run it and
catch the ball when it was thrown to me. One
of those little nuances in the relationship between quarterback and
(23:49):
wide receiver, Steve, I've always believed his trust, and what
I mean by that is trust that one you're not
going to get hung out to dry with a high
pass when you're going across the middle, and the other
trust going the opposite direction, is that when the quarterback
throws the ball on the deep out pattern and puts
it in the air before you even make your cut,
that it's going to be in the area that you're
supposed to go in Can you talk a little bit
(24:10):
about that development between quarterback and wide receiver and trust? Yeah,
I think I think it's I think it has a
lot to do with trust. I think it has a
lot to do with faith. Uh, just believing in your
teammate that he's going to do what he's supposed to
do if you do what you're supposed to do, and
that that kind of trust, that kind of faith that
you develop uh in a quarterback receiver relationship is so
(24:32):
vitally important. Uh. And that's why, you know, I felt
like it was so important for us to work as
hard as we could on the practice field so that
when the game came, we knew exactly what one another
was going to do. And we got to the point,
uh that we could read one another even in impromptu
situations when you're when your protection breaks down, your quarterback
(24:52):
starts to scramble, and your receivers are kind of breaking
off their routes and they're moving and trying to get open. Uh.
Even in those situations, we had such good, uh non
verbal communication with one another that we would instinctively know
what the other was gonna do when he was going
to throw the ball, where I was going to be
when he threw the ball. And Uh, that kind of instinct,
(25:15):
that kind of reaction can only be developed as you
developed the kind of faith and trust that you've talked about.
Correct me if I'm wrong about this. Wasn't Jim's or
a left hander he was. Jim was left and Dave
was right. That's what I thought. And I asked that
because catching the ball from each Kenny Stabler was a
left handed quarterback as well, and I understand the spiral
(25:35):
is totally different as well. What adjustments did you have
to make between the two quarterbacks? Then? Well, really, the
they threw different kinds of balls, but that that goes
well beyond whether they're right hand or left hand. But
a left hander's ball will always tail to the left
on long balls. Uh, Typically the short balls, when you're
throwing a you know, a short out or even an
(25:57):
eighteen yard out or come back route or a crossing route,
that's not gonna make that much difference. But when you're
throwing the ball deep down the field, that's when you'll
really notice a difference. Where a right hander's ball will
tail to the right and a left hander's ball tails
to the left. So when I was running a route
and I was on the left side and running deeper.
I would always try to give myself another yard or
(26:19):
two on the left side because I knew Gym's ball
would would tend to fade to the outside, and I
wanted to be in a position where I I still
had room to catch it and being bound. So I'd
always give myself a little lecture room on the left side,
and just the opposite for Dave, if I was running
around on the right side, I'd give myself a little
more room on the right side because his ball tended
(26:39):
a tail to the right. But other than that, uh,
they're really I don't think you can really tell that
much difference between the left hand or right hander who
throw the ball right. When your career was over with
on the football field, you decided to go in a
different direction, and that was a political direction. What drove
you in that direction? Well, actually I didn't decide to
do that. When I got out of foot ball, I
(27:00):
moved back to Oklahoma. I was raising my four children,
and my wife and I were quite happy living and
working in Oklahoma, and she kind of whispered in my
ear about five years after I retired, it's about ninety four.
She goes, you know, I think she said, I wonder
if we're supposed to use the platform you had as
(27:21):
a professional athlete and to use it to uh for
some higher, better purpose. And UH I said, well, you know,
like what kind of purpose are you think? And she goes,
I'm thinking, like, you know, to running for political office,
and uh, I I really didn't know how to answer
that question, but you know, I had nodded my head
and smile and kind of gone down the road. But
(27:43):
about we had a situation in Oklahoma where we had
a member of Congress who was going to run for
an open Senate seat and leave his congressional seat, and
it happened to be in the congressional district that we
lived in. And my wife said, you know, maybe this
is the time to consider running for this political office.
And so why did everything I could to talk my
(28:05):
way out of this, but it just wasn't meant to be.
And and so I threw my hat, my name in
the hat, and uh ended up in a six way primary,
and in Oklahoma you have to win with plus one
vote to avoid a runoff, And in that initial um
campaign for the primary, I actually won without a runoff,
(28:26):
and uh, I ended up getting in the general election,
and and I was on my way, and I didn't
quite know where I was going, but I knew what
I was going to do, and uh so it was.
I would say today that my experience serving the United
States Congress for nearly eight years was one of the
greatest experience I've ever had in my life. I learned
(28:48):
more about our country. I learned more about our founding
fathers and the founding documents of this country. Uh and
uh and and how the government operates than I ever
would have by reading any book, are watching any movie. Uh.
And it was a tremendous, tremendous, fulfilling experience for me
to serve our country in that way. Steve, were you
(29:09):
ever concerned about the fact that you would be looked
upon as a jock and not taken seriously as a congressman?
You know, I think, uh, I wasn't really worried about that. There.
I think there were a number of people that remembered
my football playing days, obviously, and UH like to talk
about that and and and that was fine. But I
(29:32):
knew I was there representing the first Congressional District of Oklahoma,
and I was there to, uh to be a voice
for the people that I represented and be a vote
for the people that I represented in the first congressional district.
And that's what I did, because I don't think you
wanted to be typecasted in any way. You had another
congressman from Oklahoma also, there was a football player, pretty
good one at Oklahoma, Congressman Watts of Chorus, and I
(29:54):
have got to had a chance to talk with him,
and he was always concerned about that that people, you know,
might vote him because of name recognition and what he
did in football, not on the issues. Well, you know
what my feeling was, I didn't care why they voted
for me. I wanted them to vote for me, and
then I was going to go and represent the people,
uh that had voted for me. So you know, I
(30:16):
guess I had a little bit different take on it. Uh.
But the thing that I tried to do and all
the campaigns that I ran, was to to make sure
people understood who I was and what I stood for
and how I was going to vote. Because I wasn't
going to take a poll or ask, you know, what
should I do on this one. I was going to
vote the way my heart and my head said I
needed to vote, and that's why it was important to
(30:38):
me to make sure people knew who I was and
what I believed and what I stood for before the election,
and then to give them an opportunity to vote for me.
If that's reflected, if my the way I was going
to vote reflected the way they felt the majority of
the time, It's interesting, Steve. I was born in Washington,
d C. My grandfather was the curate of the Smithsonian
Air and Space Museum, and I started my career at
(30:59):
the Washington Post, so I have a lot of connection
to Washington, d C. So I can ask this question
of you. And talking to Senator McCain here on Sports Byeline,
I said to him, I said, John, he's a big
boxing fan, and that was why he was on a
national sports show. But I said, John, I said, knowing
how outspoken you were about things, how did a guy
like you even exist in Washington? He said, Well, I'm
not the prettiest girl in town, and I don't get
(31:21):
invited to a lot of dances. So I'm gonna ask
you the same thing. Being as a sportsman as honest
as you were, how did you deal with being in
a political world that is not as sportsman like sometimes
well and it's unfortunately it's not. But I would tell
you that, you know, I never, um, I guess I
(31:44):
was just not the type of politician that believed in
in uh you know, using dirty tactics or uh talking
badly about my opponent or anything like that. I never.
I never campaigned uh on what my opponent was or isn't.
I didn't even talk about my opponent. I talked about
what I believed in and what I wanted to do
(32:05):
as a member of Congress. And uh, yeah, I left
all the dirt and all that stuff somebody else to
play in that that field. But um so I you
know I and that's the way I did it in
Congress as well as I. I just tried to attack
issues and not people. Uh and uh I always felt
like that that that worked for me. It's interesting when
(32:26):
I look at politics today, it's usually more perception and
is reality. I don't know that today's a voter is
articulate or intelligent enough to take at the look at
the issues or break them down, or if they get
so much information, they don't know what's truth and what
is not truth. Was that hard for you to deal
with that since you were a straight talking athlete as
well as a politician. Yeah, it is. Uh. You know,
(32:48):
they talk about spin machines in Washington. That's so they
that's what they refer to. And essentially it's it's just
having the ability to uh obscure the truth is really
what it is. And and I didn't do that. I didn't.
I didn't think I had needed to and I didn't. Uh.
That just didn't come naturally to me. And UH, I
just believe in in in in speaking the truth and
(33:12):
uh and kind of letting it fall wherever it fell.
But you know, there there's a lot of the spinning
that goes on in Washington, maybe more so today than
even when I was in politics, and UH, and that
it can be disheartening at times. But I can tell
you that I truly believe what I'm about to tell
you is that I believe has many problems that we
(33:34):
have within our system of government. It clearly is the
best form of government that's ever been created in the world.
And uh, and I am a great respecter of it.
You know what's interesting is I've been in Iraq, and
I've been in Afghanistan. And the one thing I still find,
no matter what the politics of the situation, is that
people still admire the lifestyle that we have in the
(33:55):
political system that they we do have. I think you're
absolutely right about that. After having gone after the governorship
in the state of Oklahoma not successful, are you turned
off in any way about politics or will we see
Steve Largen again in a political office? You think, well,
I'm not turned off with politics. I still believe in it.
I still believe in the people that are running our country.
(34:19):
But I'm I think I've I've served my time, if
you will. I never got into politics thinking that it
was gonna be a lifelong career for me. I got
into serve for some period of time, and losing the
governor's race, as you mentioned in two thousand two, was
a great exit strategy for me. Uh and uh and
(34:40):
and I've I'm willing to accept that I don't I
don't need politics. Uh And I feel like that I've
served my time. We only got ninety seconds left. But
when you look back on your playing career, what memories
do you have? Oh, gosh, I have so many great memories.
I think if I were to think of one game,
uh in my career at would be when we beat
(35:01):
the Dolphins in the Divisional championship game in Miami. Uh.
Dan Marino was a rookie quarterback, thrown to his two
rokie wide receivers, Duper and Clayton and uh we went
down there and and and they had the best record
in the NFC that year, and we were the we
were the team in the wild card that won the
wild card game. We went down to beat them, and
it put us into the a f C Championship game
(35:23):
against the Raiders, which we ended up losing. But that
game we we won against Miami, I think really stands
out of all the games that I played in Seattle.
And if I remember correctly, wasn't that a very rainy
day that you guys played on down there? It was?
It actually was. And we came out before the game
and saw that it was raining, and we said, hey,
this is this is our kind of weather. Uh. And
(35:44):
so we went out and we've we played a great game.
Kurt Warner had a great game. And Uh, I didn't
catch a pass in the game till the fourth quarter,
and I caught two passes after we had fallen behind
caught two passes, the last one put us down to
the one yard line. Kurt scored the next play. But
it was, it was, it was really a fun game.
In about fifteen seconds twenty seconds, you know, we're heard
(36:06):
worldwide on the American Forces Network. I'm sure you'd like
to send a shout out to the troops, Steve. Oh, absolutely.
I just can't say that these guys, how much they're
hard work and dedication and loyalty to our country means
to me. And uh, just let them know that I,
for one, and really respect and admire the hard work
(36:27):
and a tough job that they're doing overseas. Right now, Steve,
I want to thank you. Please come back and visit
with me again on Sports Byeline. I'd love to do it.
Steve Large and the Hall of Fame wide receiver deservedly so,
and former congressman as well. We'll take a quick break
as we continue with more of you and America's sports
talk show. You have been listening to Ron Barr's Sports
Byline US, a podcast on the eight Side Network.
Host
Ron Barr
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