May 6, 2025 • 57 mins
Jeffrey Gorman is joined by legendary and longtime football coach Tom Moore for a dive into his career, which began in the 1960s and continues to this day with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Moore offers up stories from his 13-year tenure with the Colts, spent entirely with Peyton Manning behind center, and the 87-year-old dispenses a wealth of knowledge from his stops in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, Colts, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals and Buccaneers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Then should be played at high volumes.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, thanks for tuning into high volume. Guest number two
awaits and I call him an offensive savant. If you're
a fan of football, you're a fan of this man.
Coach Tom Moore has coached over five decades in the NFL.
Forty ninth year is coming up. He's still an offensive
assistant down in Tampa Bay. But what made him roll
was his years in Pittsburgh. Obviously with the greats like
(00:28):
Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swan, John Stallworth. He went over to Minnesota.
He had little cups of coffee here and there, and
then he found a home here in Indianapolis. What Tom
Moore and the offense led by Peyton Manning, Edrin James Tarret, Glenn,
Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Jeff Saturday. The list goes on
and on. What he did with that offense and what
he did prior as well in Detroit, setting records that
(00:50):
still stand today. This man is unlike any other who's
done it at a high level and one of the
greatest coaches in professional football. Was a huge part of
this franchise for thirteen years. I'm honored. This is a
guy I call a friend. But now I get a
chance to talk football and pick his brain a little bit.
I do hope you enjoy this. This is the one
and only the greatest of all time when it comes
(01:13):
to assistant coaches in the NFL. This is Tom Moorean. Well,
I'm excited to announce this guest, and I've been thinking
about how do I introduce this man. If you're a
football fan, you'll understand this is an offensive savant that
I'm talking about this game. If your children or your
grandchildren like this game of professional football, it's because of
(01:37):
guys like this. And he's a friend of mine. I've
known him for a lot of years. And again, one
of the finest football coaches in NFL history. He's a
member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame, among many
hall of fames that you're in. I welcome the floor again,
offensive savant. Welcome in, coach Tom Moore.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Thank you, glad to be here. It's privilege, Jack, oh, coach.
I'm very happy to be here and talk football.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I'll tell you what the privilege is all ours. I'm
gonna start with some of your quotes, if you don't
mind some of them. People have heard some of them.
They haven't and when they come to me. When you
were coaching here years ago, and you'd come to my
office on Monday mornings, you'd be in my doorway with
a cup of coffee and I'd say, good morning, coach,
could win yesterday, and I said what's up today? And
you would say, I just wanted to come down and
see what a jackass looks like on Monday morning. That
(02:27):
was one of them. And then the other one that
was a good one was Hey, did you comb your
hair today with a towel? Which I loved, so that
was an idea.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Towel.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Hey, some thing's never changed. But here we go some
of your all time quotes and then we'll get into
your coaching career and what you meant to this game
of professional football. One that hangs very highly. It's a
banner and it's in our equipment room here in Indianapolis,
and it's it's your quote with your name underneath it.
Don't major in the miners. Why is that important in
professional football?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, sometimes you get so mired down in small things
that have nothing to do with the outcome of the game,
with the preparation game. They're just small things. If you
get too tight up in those things that didn't leave
you enough time for the major stuff, and so just
take care of the major stuff and throw the minor
(03:22):
stuff away.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Players got that fighting time anyway. Yeah, players got that
message though they understood what you were talking about obviously.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, I hope so. Because it's you know, football, it's
a very simple game. It isn't easy explain that to me.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Please.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, it's still blocking and tackling. It's fundamentals that techniques.
It's teaching the players what to do and then how
to do it. And once you get those two things,
accompanies and that allows your team to play fast. And
you have to play fast, and you can only do
that if you know what to do and how to
(04:04):
do it. And you're going to get true team to
play faster than the opposition and hopefully eventually you break
their will.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Oh you've done that quite a bit obviously on some
defenses across the league. A great book if you're a
fan of the NFL, Tom wrote, if you're great at
what you do, you write books, and Tom Moore did
just that. The players coach fifty years, making the NFL's
best better, from Bradshaw to Manning to Brady and beyond
we'll get to those great quarterbacks. But some more quotes
of yours that I just wanted to go over. One
(04:34):
two three throw it away is obviously one that you've
preached to quarterbacks all throughout your career. Is that, I mean,
we're going to go over your career, but one two
three throw it away, meaning what it's a good pass
sometimes when you incomplete or throw the ball out out
of the end zone or throw it into the sidelines
incompletions are important, is my point?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yes, right, And the biggest thing you don't want to
do is take the sack because by NFL stats, over
the course of a long period of time, if you
get sacked in a particular drive, your chances of scoring
a touchdown in that drive is less than six percent. Okay,
(05:16):
that's very good. So you want to get rid of
the football, and there's there's nothing wrong with it, there's
nothing against it. Live to play another play, But don't
get yourself in second and twenty second and twenty five,
third and eighteen because those are tough to pick up
and then you end up punting and you never score
(05:38):
a touchdown. As long as you can stay in rhythm
and get the short completion. Sometimes you make the big
play with the short completion. You don't always have to
throw a downfield, but get a completion or throw it away.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Bruce arians was on last week. You talked about something
when it comes to a good quarterback, you're gonna find
out if you have a good courtquarterback and what he
does in two minutes non third down. How important are
those two third downs for the offense as well as
two minutes for the offense. Is that everything When you're
talking about an offensive game plan and be able to
you're going to have to score at those times. And
(06:15):
you've been blessed by having a couple of quarterbacks that
have been able to do that for you.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Well, it's credit. And the biggest thing with the quarterback,
there's three things that they're really separate quarterbacks, and number
one is their ability to recall or recollection of what
you saw or what you talked about. And then once
(06:43):
they recall it, then they got a process. Okay, he
talked about cover two. I see Cover two. Then you
gotta execute. So once you processed it, then you gotta
execute what it takes to defeat that particular coverage, that
particular in front and a quarterback gets about about one
(07:05):
point five seconds to get all that stuff done. So
the thing that separates a lot of quarterbacks is their
ability to process the information that they've been given and
then executing what needs to be done to have success.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, I'll tell you what. It started with you a
long time ago, and I want to start earlier in
your career. What kind of player were you University of
Minnesota or excuse me, University of Iowa. I beg your pardon,
I beg your pardon. University of Iowa. How were you
a couple of years up there? And that's when you
obviously you were an athlete and you got the bug
for football and possibly coaching after that. What was your
two years as a quarterback at Iowa? Like?
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Well, I went to the University of Iowa and back
to those days, it was one platudent football and there
were no restrictions on scholarships. You can bring in as
many as you wanted, and so freshmen were not elchible
at that particular time. And when I came in, I
(08:07):
think we had sixty eight freshmen and by the time
we were sophomorees I was down to thirty five and
eventually by the time we got the seniors, that was nine,
and they brought keep bringing in another group, and I
went there. I thought I was a lot better than
(08:28):
I actually was. I was. I was ordinary. I went
in that grade. I never started. I was never a
big star. I was a backup quarterback. Of course, because
of one platoon football, you had to play defense too,
quarterbacks for safeties, and there were no specialists in those days.
(08:52):
What you did you had to try out and you
had traveling squat and thirty eight men and guy that
could punt the bet he was your punter, and the
guy that could place kicked the best, he was your kicker. Well,
I was the kicker, So I did the field goals, kickoff,
section points, all that.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So you remember your coach, You remember your longest field goal.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, I don't remember the longest field goal, but I
do remember playing in Ohio State. It was my junior
year in Columbus, Ohio, and we had to coach for Savsski,
who's absolutely phenomenal person and coach, great coach, great man.
So it's coming near at the end of the game,
(09:40):
last two minutes, and we're down and we get the
ball down about I don't know twenty five yards line
or something like that. Anyway, I field goal wins the game.
So he grabbed me and he said, if I put
you in there, can you make it? I said, yeah,
I can make it. He said, we better or Hope says,
a plane going back city ain't going back with us?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Did you make the kick?
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Made the kick?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I love it?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
So I would say we could fly back to Iowa
City with the team. But but I need to kick
out all the psychology with kickers. And yeah, back in
nineteen fifty nine, that was a psychology.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Can you make it?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, you get a right back with someone else.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Hey, no pressure, Tom, no pressure on that.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Okay, from the backup, and we hit three people. We
won the national championship my sophomore year in fifty eight. Yeah,
we had an All American quarterback Randy Duncan. We had
a great team. We beat calling a Rose Bowl better
running back Bobby Jeter. He had ten carries for one
hundred and ninety two yards.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Okay, not bad day. Yeah, not bad day.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But back in back in the days when when I
grew up in the Midwest, the Rose Bowl was king.
I mean, as a young kid, you spent your whole life, man,
I could just get on a team to go to
Rose Bul because it's a Big Ten. You could only
go to one bowl game. Either win Rose Bowl, you
(11:14):
stayed home. And my senior year we went eight and
one titles Minnesota for the Big Ten championship. But they'd
never been and we had been, so they got to go.
So we're eight to one, number two in the nation,
staying at home. So it was it was a pretty
prestigious saying package days. Uh, to get into a bowl game?
(11:37):
And was there a kids dreaming a minute west?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Not bad game, I'll tell you what national championship and
four Super Bowls to boot and uh, you know, a
member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you've come
a long way from there. I want to go over
your career.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Is it true that you coach football overseas at some point?
You joined the army at some point for two years.
And my question with that is, did you I remember
talking to you about this back in the day. It
may have been Forrests, the gentleman you mentioned earlier. Did
you run a wing t offense overseas?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Yes? Yeah, back in the day, this was late fifties
sixty in my home you were going to go to militaris.
You were going to go to service. My dad said
that now you had naps, which you want to go?
You want to go Davy Army, Air Force Marines. But Tom,
(12:33):
you're going, Yeah, I'm going. That's the way it was.
So I went to ROTC and got my commission second lieutenant.
We went to forbidding and after graduation eight weeks and
I got shipped to Korea. And a bunch of us
were going to Korea. This was in nineteen sixty three,
(12:58):
and so we're going to create and then it's at
Tempo Air Force Base in Korea. They get you on
a bus and take it to your duty station. Okay,
get dropping guys off, dropping guys off. I was the
last guy that they dropped off. I was way way north,
a pretty close DMZ. Now, this was nineteen sixty three,
(13:22):
so the conflict had been over for ten years, but
we were an occupying force just to make sure nothing
happened similar to what they got there now. And so
we had a good to Officers Club three nights a
week because they wanted to get south of Berricks and
get us mingling with people. Because the guys get homesick, tough.
(13:47):
So I'm a tofsers club having an a don't beverage
with the colonel and we started talking. He said, how
do you look like it? I like it, but I'm
really a football coach, is that right? So we started talking.
I knew the general and the existing division sports officer
and football coach was going to rotate back in the
(14:09):
United States, so that position was open. So he got
me an interview, and so I interviewed and got the job.
We had a team and we played. We had four
teams in Korea, two teams in Japan, and two teams
in Oklahoma, and we played each other kind of have
(14:30):
a round robin thing, and then they had the bowl
game and the seventh tenth Division they won. We were
in second place, but they sent us to Okabo to
play in what they called the Sukiyaki Ball.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Sukiyak Ball.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
We played Kadina Air Force Base, and so I still
got fond memories. I still in communication and correspondence with
quite a few of the guys the wrong the team,
and it was a fun experience.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I'll tell you what. That's great for those soldiers that
look back at your career right now, and said, you know,
we used to get coached by that guy over in
Okinawa or that's incredible Tom.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
But then I came back and got stationed Fort Benning, Yeah,
and was a coach on the post team there, and
we had a good team.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
We what kind of offense were you running?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Wing ty?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Same huh?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Big thing that we had a highway But a lot
of the officers went to Officers Basic School at Fort Benning,
which I did too, and they pulled the horders and
captain there and we had a forty four man squad
and we had thirty eight guys that it started, uh
for two years or more in Division one football on
(15:51):
that team. And then you played a Service Championship and
we played Fort Eustace in what is now called the
Sittres Bowl in Orlando. Sure back in nineteen sixty four
that was the Missile Bowl where it was the Service
(16:11):
championship game.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Wow, so you're playing Okay, you're playing in a Missile
Bowl for that thing? You win that Bowl championship?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah you did, didn't you? Silly question? What it is?
I need to go over this thing because we have
so much to go over, but just a University of
Dayton as a running backs coach sixty five to sixty eight.
You go to Wake Forest in sixty nine as the
offensive coordinator, you go down to Atlanta to go out.
I guess at Georgia Tech maybe from seventy to seventy one.
(16:38):
You go up to University of Minnesota. You're the running
back coach there from seventy two to seventy three, and
then you go to the New York Stars. I want
to stop at the New York Stars because that was
a league for a while. You go coach in the
league and it bellies up and goes bankrupt. What are
you going to do after that?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Well, things were, and Chuck No put it very straightforward.
The grass is always greener around as a septic tank,
and the World Football League, that's what it was. But
I'm curious to go for it. So we're with the
(17:19):
New York Stars. Babe Brilly, who was a great All
American quarterback in Kentucky. He was the head coach, and
uh so, I moved everybody in New York out Long
Island and we played our games at Downing Stadium, which
is right underneath the Triborough Bridge. Yeah, if you've been
(17:41):
in New York city, and it was it was it was.
The lighting was so bad there that they couldn't even
tell by these games and the downing statements claimed to fame.
That's where Jesse Owens qualified for the nineteen thirty sixth Olympics.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, okay, that's how.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Long it city business. Anyway, in the in the middle
of the season, they picked us up and sent us
to Charlotte, and that's where we stopped getting paid. So
I went six months with do pay. Uh. We go
to Charlotte. Now this a couple of great stories. Houston
(18:23):
team man guy the name of John mcthusay, and we're
playing the game in midway to the first quarter. Why
referee stopped the game to Marshall's walk out and they
take the tusack right off the field because he was
gonna contact with the Oilers. We go to Shreatport and
(18:47):
play a game. We're now in Charlotte. We go to Shreeport.
We got two games left. We got Shreeport and we
got Memphis. Okay, And we go there and it's a
night game and I'm a new hotel lot about all
two o'clock, I guess the afternoon, and two guys come
up to me and ask me if I'm Babe brilliant,
(19:08):
and I says, dond some. Tom Moore said, well, you
guys got a problem. I said, what's the problem. Well,
I said, we're here to pick up your equipment because
you guys didn't pay your cleaning built back in New
York City. Oh no, we're here to confiscate all your equipment.
So I called Babe and Phil Baby bring it up.
He we've got a problem. So Babe was a pretty
(19:31):
good poltician. Babe talked to him into not serving us
the papers until the start of the second half. Okay,
so we played the game. We walked in after the
game and they got all these big boxes and greats
for the equipment. Players are throwing their stuff in the
boxes and we fly back to Charlotte without our equipment.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Low.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Now we go to J. C. Smith and borrow some
tennis shoes and Jim shorts till we can practice. And
somehow that paid the laundry bill. So we flew to
Memphis to play the last game, and they had a
plane flywer equipment up from Shreeport in Memphsips Memphis. And
(20:13):
then after that this season was over.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
The league was and the league. Belly don't gun some chips, okay,
So take me from there. You go from a belly
up World Football League if you will, you're without work.
How do you have the connection that Chuck Noll from
the Pittsburgh Steelers knows who you are, and not only
(20:36):
that hires you to his staff at that point of
your career? What was that connection? Coach?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Well, when we went to Dayton, I just got out
of the service and John McVay, excuse me, he got
the head coaching job at the University of Dayton. It's
Sir John McVay that later went on. It was the
GM for the forty nine and they won for Super Bowls.
(21:03):
So I just got out of the service. He was
looking for coaches. Way hired three people that he knew.
He hired George Purlis coaching at Saint Ambrose High School
in Detroit, and Jerry Hanlon who was coaching at Lakewood
Sat D's, and a guy who named Joey Glausky was
(21:25):
coaching Campton Central Catholic. So we joined the staff. So
I met George at that particular time, and this was
nineteen sixty five, so we kind of went off in
different directions in different ways and stuff. Well, George gets
hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers in seventy two, and so
(21:50):
my connection with George and I was studying and study
communication with him, and huh then he was working for Chuck.
Plus Chuck had gone to school at the University of Dayton. Oh,
he knew that. So it's interesting how things work out.
(22:14):
In January of seventy seven, I interviewed with the Buffalo Bills.
Jim Ringo was a head coach, and he didn't hire me.
I didn't have enough experience. A lot he does, he
does whatever, Okay, fine, So I'm mad, I'm disappointed. I'm upset.
(22:37):
Two weeks later, lion ol Taylor leaves and goes to
the Los Angeles RAMS. So that opens up the position
with Pittsford Steelers. So I don't get the Buffalo job,
but I'm available, so I get the Pittsburgh Steeler job.
Now the guy that got the Buffalo job, had he
not gotten that, he'd had probably gotten the Steeler job
(23:00):
because he was so So things have just worked out
for me. Somewhere along the line. There's a guardian angel
that's taken care of me.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Hell, you've done your part on that one coach. I mean, I.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Really believe that. You know, Bill Blunt called me about
three weeks ago and Mel and I became good friends.
Sara and Mel's son bought my book for him for Christmas,
so he dread the book and he called me and says,
(23:40):
you know, it's Tom. He said. The Lord works in
his serious ways. He says, I think the Lord didn't
want you to be a head coach. He says, because
when you're a head coach, you don't work with individuals
and people and stuff. And he said, I've read the
book and all the people you worked with it as
(24:03):
I think the Lord wanted you to be an assistant coach.
You could work with players.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
That explains it. Yeah, that explains it. I mean, I
personally think you'd be one hell of a NFL head
coach had it worked out that way. But you know,
teach your own. Hey, brother, you're still you're still a
member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So everything
worked out great. I mean to say that the Chuck
No years, You're surrounded by Bradshaw, you got Frank o'harris
(24:29):
behind him, you got Swan, you got Stoleworth, you got
a defense led by the mel Blunts, like you talked
about Donnie Shells, Jack Lambert, how much football offensively? Offensively
did your career go up from your time in Pittsburgh
because you guys moved the football down the field quite
a bit.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well. One of the things that helped me in the
interview well was Big Brilly had previously been with Pittsford Steelers.
That's you offense. We ran with the New York Stars,
so I knew the offense, okay, So that helped me
in my interview process. Then they they had won two
(25:13):
Super Bowls prior to me getting there, and the defense
was unbelievable, I mean really good, and a lot of
people think the seventies sixteen may have been better than
any of them. Bradshaw Gutter in seventies six and Mike
Krusick played four games, went four to oh, but the
(25:34):
defense only gave up three points.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
In over four games.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah. So, uh when I got there seventy seven, and
that was the year that they changed the rule for
defensive backs jamming the wide.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Receiver lion of scrummers are down the field.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah, the Milbronk rule, right, because get up and just
smothered guys. Yes, well they had to do something to
open up receivers. Well, that really I think propelled us
because Wan and Sowarths were great receivers. H and Bradshaw
was just coming on and really doing well. And it
(26:22):
opened up the passing game and we became a good
well running the team. We had to run game and
the passing game now. And you know, we won the
Super Bowls, the two Super Bowls. I was there. Why.
(26:43):
We scored a lot of points, made a lot of yards,
and I think we won one game thirty five thirty
one and the game I'm not sure, but we scored
over thirty five points.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
It was the first game that the Seders played. They
played it by He's in the first game for Super
Bowl halftime. Score was two to nothing. That was a
purple people Eaters and Steve Curtain and they Tarkington fumbled
I guess, and Elsie Greenwood fell on it and they
(27:19):
ended up winning the game I think sixteen to nine
or something like that. Well, you have the offense got
going and it's people, you know, you go back off
that those four Super Bowl teams. Yeah, there's ten players
(27:42):
in the Hall time five on offense, five on defense,
the owner of the owner's son, the head coach, Tony Dungey.
Uh you know it was part of that team eats
in their notes because of tamp and stuff like that.
(28:03):
But I mean, there's a lot a lot of guys
in that Hall of Fame, and when it gets down
to it, it's players. Players are the difference. And Chuck
Nomes was a great, great advocate of give the players everything,
(28:28):
given the credit, give then the speaking engagements, given endorsements.
Let them make as much money as they can. It's
their game. We're just kind of caretakers. And he said,
will you get in trouble and when your coach, if
you ever get into financial competition with your players, it
(28:54):
didn't work, and he taught you it's a player's game.
He also taught you when when you were at Pittsburgh,
assistant coaches were to be seen not heard. One guy
talked the head coach.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
How many were on the staff.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Six one three offense, three on defense, And I ended
up coaching wide receivers and tight ends in the passing game,
an offensive line coach and running back coach, and uh
(29:35):
in three on defense. And Chuck now was a special
teams coach.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
The head coach was a special teams coach.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, and that was true Luthy. But Grant was with Minnesota,
and I think coach Shutter was down Miami too. Most
STAPs were six man steps coach.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Now it's like thirty how many how many you coach
with now? Down in town, we've got We've got a
lot of them, twenty six a bunch of them. Well, hell,
this is what you're forty nine for you this twenty
twenty five season in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Forty nine, forty nine years. I remember when I first
got in, I thought, man, if I could just get five.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Years in, yeah, yeah, fully.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Vested for retirement, that'd really be cool. And so when
I got in, I was shooting for five. But you know,
I looked at coaching in the NFL. To me, I
don't believe in the title months. I'm not a big
entitledment guy. To me, it's a privileged coach in the NFL.
(30:41):
And the NFL has given me a life that I've
never had and anything else, because it's it's what I love,
it's what I enjoy, it's what I know, and it's
my life.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Hey, Chuck, Chuck, No, doesn't call the Star go under.
The World Football League goes under, and Chuck Nole doesn't
call you. What are you doing then, I mean, if
you're not. Luckily everything worked out, but what what direction
were you going to take?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I went back to Minnesota. The guy Minnesota hired me.
See Minnesota, I recruited Tony.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, Tony Dungee. I mean that's a great story in itself.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
He was there and the head coach at the University
of Minnesota hired me back. So I was served for
two more years, and he stayed for four or five
more years, So I'm sure it would have stayed at
tim I don't know, and you know, all this stuff happens,
and I don't know how it happened. Did you know
(31:44):
someone was looking out for me and didn't send me
to Buffalo and sent me to yeah, Pittsburgh because I
had gone to bufloor I had been there for about
two years.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yeah, right, right right? Who knows there?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, but I was at Pittsburgh for thirteen years. I
was with the Colts for thirteen years, Yes, you were.
Some of my fondest memories are with the Colts. I
love it.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
We have so many, so many great fond memories of
you here and so many to go over. I want
to I want to stay in Pittsburgh for a minute, though.
What does this mean to you? If you can get
to a sixty prevent slot hook and go sixty prevent
slot hook and go what is that? What's special about
that play for you?
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Well, in coaching, and Peyton was a champion and coaching
offensive football, you need to have answers answer situations. Okay,
they do this, what's our answer to counter what they're doing? Well,
(32:47):
we knew going into the Super Bowl game against the
Rams what Bud Carson was going to do defensively, Pine
Street wide outs on third down and what he was
going to do. He's going to single one wide receiver.
He was going to go short and long on the
other wide receiver, and then he was going to go
(33:10):
in and out on the slot. So the outside receivers
ran flag routes, the inside receiver ran an in post.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Okay, So that was slot hook and go and that
was Stalwarth, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Stalworth and then sure enough they were in the defense
and we hit two big uh passes against it. They
wasn't the Super Bowl for us?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Well, the seventy three yard are in the fourth the
Stalwarts sealed it, and that that sixty prevent hook and
go is something that you know, if memory serves, you
came up with that within two weeks of the Super
Bowl because of the Bud Carson defense if he bites.
I'm running this play and it's one of the famous
ones that you sealed. I mean, it's uh, that's the
sort of stuff did you write up. I'm not being
(34:00):
funny when I asked this. In your career, did you
ever write up plays in the dirt at some at
some point? I mean, I know, I know with Peyton
it was there's a story about whatever you did in
Buffalo do that. But we'll get to that one. But
but you never run plays in the dirt, even going
back to the Army days.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
It's just like those guys keep a paper nipse bedstand night. Yeah,
I knew when I woke up for night, I got
it right in up place, trust me.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
All Right, here we go, let's move on. Previously, I
could go all day with your career in Pittsburgh and
what you meant for that city, the championships, two time
Super Bowl champion, you go on to Minnesota, you coach
with Jerry Burns, you coach with Dennis Green, but you
got some offensive firepower there. And this is where people
are starting to recognize you Tom as an offensive savant.
Like I called you that. Wherever Tom Moore is, they
(34:56):
can they can push the football down the field. What
did you take from minnesot that you ended up taking
with you when you went to Detroit. Uh, those are
record setting years that you had in Detroit. But what
about the Minnesota years?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Well, it was I was there two years of Jerry
Burns and then he retired and Denny Green retained me,
and we had again we had good receivers. Uh had
Chris Carter, Anthony Carter, Hassan Jones, and Steve Jordan was
(35:32):
the premier tight end there he was. Yeah, you had
Wade Wilson, Rich Cannon the quarterbacks. And when Jinny took over,
he retained me, but he brought in basically a whole
new staff and Uh, he fired an offensive coordinator, made
(35:55):
Brian Billy Uh the offensive coordinator. And after two years,
I I just didn't have a good feeling. Yeah, I
felt like it was time to go. Uh. And I
knew Wayne Fonts. Wayne and I were together Dayton.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Also, and so he had opening in Detroit.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, I went to Detroit, and uh we had Johnny Mooreton, uh.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Hermitt Moore, Brett Perriman.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Pairman and Barry Sanders and uh so and and we
uh we didn't we didn't do a lot of stuff.
Fancy was basically give the ball to Berry and here
he used to tell me, if you ain't gonna block him,
get out of the way, make a mess.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
That's I mean, that's that's what we're gonna I gotta,
I gotta use that.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
And then we we had Scott Mitchell. We had a
I guess it was ninety six. In ninety six, we
live in the league until offense.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Oh gosh, it's I mean, I have that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Yeah. In ninety seven we had some injury problems and
so they let Wayne go and went in a different direction.
So I went to New Orleans Saints. I stayed there
for one year.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
You were with Ditka, right, yeah, his first year?
Speaker 1 (37:24):
All right, the thing opened up Indianapolis and uh you
know again, same old street. Why me, I don't know. Well,
I knew Bruce, and I think Bruce pushed me. I
knew Jim Moore, but not real Well, i'd met Bpoleon.
(37:49):
But it's interesting Jim Hersey remembered me because when they
brought Ted Marsh and Broad, No, Linda didn't finndy. I
think when they aired it, you know it was dead
March wrought it. They interviewed George Furlips and George, I guess, say,
(38:12):
ask you who is going to bring his offensive coordinator?
And he told him me. And so Jim ers Hey
remember that. Yeah, when I showed up to work, he said, well,
you finally got here.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
And the rest is history. Man, I'm going to go
on to the Indianapolis era, but just in Detroit again,
we joke about it. Scott Mitchell was a quarterback that
came over from Miami previous the previous year. He came
in as a backup. He had success. You guys signed
him the big money. But what you did with Barry Sanders,
(38:45):
Herman Moore, Brett Perriman, you know, a thousand yard rusher,
you had fifteen hundred yard receiver, you had four thousand
yards quarterback. You've done that twice, the only man to
do it in the NFL. You did it in Detroit
and you did it up here. But staying in Detroit
coaching a offense with that Barry Sanders behind you. But
you love to put it up in Detroit. You love
(39:06):
to chuck the football. How is that balance? You gotta?
You got a Hall of Famer in Barry Sanders behind you,
you got Herman Moore who's setting records, Brett Perriman and
Scott Mitchell. How do you run out proper offense with
all those stars?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Well, you got you got to mix, obviously, and you
got to get everybody involved. You can't. You got to
make them defend everything. If they defend the run, your
play action passes are going to open up. And of
course they got to defend you with Barry. Uh, if
they get two main men up in the box, that
(39:41):
means you're one on one outside and so gives you
an opportunity so one on one routes and those guys
can beat one on one coverage. And uh, A good
story about about those guys. They're all competitive. Yeah, we're
playing the last game. It is ninety six in Tampa,
(40:10):
and we get to the game. We got the game one.
That's all we have to do is kneel down. But
Herman Moore needs four completions to set the record. So
we go back in and I tell them Scott Mitchell,
I'm gonna call a pass every single down. I want
(40:32):
you to throw the ball to him every time until
he gets his four completions and then we'll flop on.
So we did, and he got four completions in the record.
Now we're down on the about the twelve yard line.
So I tell Scott Mitchell, I said, just kneel it,
(40:53):
kneel down. Well that was two minute warning. So Brett
Pearriman comes run up to me. He says, Tom downtown.
He says, I need twenty seven yards to have said
some kind of record. I said, b we're on tu
yard line. I can't get your twenty seven years. He said, well,
tell Scott to take a sack and then no, we're
(41:17):
not doing.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Not You got to get to win.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Oh man, I love it. I want to go up
into the Indianapolis because you you you talked about it
a little bit earlier. You served under Jim Mora and
but this is the decade of Bank's excellence is when
it starts. Bill Pollyan as a general manager, Jim Mercey
is a full owner. You're an offensive coordinator. Tony Dungee
is hired, and and you're looking coach at after Mora.
(41:42):
You're looking at guys like Edgar and James, Marvin Harrison
obviously Peyton coming in here. What was your thought early
in your career here in Indianapolis, especially when eighteen got here,
like what you could do with the pieces around him?
Your first thoughts?
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Well, first of all, let me say we had an
awfully good coaching staff. Howard Mudd was excellent, offensive line coach, excellent,
Gene Hughey was excellent running back coach. Jean coached a
lot of group running backs, and we had we had
(42:19):
a good coaching staff, and Jim Moore set the standard
as far as discipline and stuff that was there. And
then when Tony came in, Tony called me and asked
me about it. I said, Tony, come in Annapolis. I said,
the pieces are in place, everything's there. We got the quarterback,
(42:42):
we got the running back, we got the receivers, we
got Jim Mercy, we got Bill Polly, and our support
staff is excellent. As he was talking, I think to
Carolina or someone, I said, you ain't going to Carolina.
This is Applis is the place to be right now,
because we got the people and and and Bill Poleon,
(43:09):
and you know he he's built a lot of teams.
He took to Winn't paid Blue Bombers to Great Cup.
He took Buffalo of four super Bowls. He took Carolina
to the Super Bowl be where he left. And so
he knows what he's doing. He knows how to organize,
(43:32):
he knows how to staff a team, and so he
did a fantastic job. And we had a good offensive line.
As I say, they were well coach, And I make
mention of it in my book in the playoff game
(43:54):
where we beat the Patriots to go to the first
Super Bowl. Uh, we run money in hass third and
four or five or something like that. They thought the
whole world that we're going to pass and we just
ran a simple dive. But the whole thing, and I
referenced it, it was the block of the century, was Jeff.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Saraity on Vince Wolfork.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yeah, it took the noseguard and just collapsed him. And
I mean there was a figure enough you and I
could run to it. And so it was a combination
of everything. Jeff sarity is speech before the Super Bowl
game was excellent, and we just we had good people.
(44:45):
And every place I've been where we won, we always
had one or two players to take ownership of a team.
When I was at Pittsford, Joke Green's team, he took ownership.
And this is how you do it at Pittsford. Well,
(45:06):
that same thing was true at in the Depolis. Never
was Peyton Uh jeff On of offense actually on defense,
Gary Brackett Uh was the leader and took ownership. And
and when you get guys to take ownership, then you
(45:28):
got to make sure you got followers and people would
follow them. And and that's that's how you went. As
I said, simple game, It ain't easy. Uh. You gotta
have the breaks, you gotta stay healthy, and and then
you get into a situation where I don't know, we
(45:49):
we played the soup Bolts, rainstorm whatever, and dominant Rhades
is a hero.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
I mean that's how it goes. Coach, I just when
it comes to you and your offensive mindset and Peyton Manning,
how much how much of you had to serve as
a psychologist, if you will, more so than a coach
when you're coaching the greats. We'll get to Brady we
got a Super Bowl to go over down here in Tampa.
(46:18):
But like with those sort of guys, you have to
be their friend. They have to trust you at the
same time, but both of those guys want to be coached,
so you have to put yourself in that position. How
far how much of a fine line is that when
you're talking about the absolute greats to play the game?
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Well, John Elway had a quote, and I think it's true.
To be great, you're going to be good every day.
And that was Peyton. Peyton was good every day. Peyton
wouldn't allow himself to have a bad day, and he counted,
(46:59):
he haunted on us, and it was our responsibility to
have answers, and everything was answers. Hey, Tomas, they do this,
what do we do? They do this? Where do we go?
So he made you a better coach because of that,
and he made he made everybody in the building better
(47:21):
because they knew how hard he worked and how committed
he was to the whole process. And you get to
a point where you don't want to let Peyton down
because you know the effort he's put into it. So
(47:42):
that's the big thing is making sure you give him
the answers. And I remember one time we played Baltimore
in a playoff game and I think it was a
fifteen to nine game.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
They had three tiggles, we had ray Lewis.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
After the game, he said, tough game, but he said
the problem. He said, every time we did something, Peyton
had an answer for it. Well, as a coach, that
makes you feel good because you gave him a chance.
And then you got someone special like Peyton, and he's special,
(48:26):
so you do you give him, You teach him and
train him and go through everything, but give him the
opportunity to make decisions out on the field. It's about players,
ain't about coaches, and it's not about Tom Moore. And
I say this, if I had not allowed Peyton to
(48:50):
do all the things that he did, and they have
all the freedom and liberty, they would have arrested me
for malpractice.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Right. You got to You've got to let these thoroughbreds run,
is what you're That's what I'm here.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
I mean, they got him run and he's a throwbread.
Now you got to train them, yeah, and you got
to teach him, and you got to give them the
weapons so they can do it. But what did you
do then let them go. Let him do it.
Speaker 2 (49:18):
You coached Brady and you coach not many can say
that if coach Brady the Super Bowl championship, have coached
Peyton to a Super Bowl championship? Did when you coach Brady?
Were you guys talking a lot? Did he ask a
lot of questions about eighteen Did he ask a lot
of questions about your offense in Indianapolis? How he can
do that, how he can copy that? Are some of
the plays that you took to your Super Bowl championship?
(49:41):
Did you take those to Tampa Bay? Give them to
Tom Brady if you will. But I want to know
the respect that those two had for each other. Obviously
you were an interim between them. You were the guy
in the middle. Both of those quarterbacks talk so highly
of each other. Did they steal from each other?
Speaker 1 (49:58):
I wouldn't say so. Say they had. You know, at
New England, they had their their set up, their philosophy,
their base that they worked with. It was different than ours.
I don't know that the town necessarily had the freedom
that Peyton had. And you know, by the time he
(50:23):
came here, you know, he've been in the league eighteen
twenty years. By the time he came here, and a
lot a lot of the offense. Of course, the offense
at that particular time was Bruce's offense, which you know,
Bruce had his own particular philosophy what he wanted done
(50:47):
and stuff. And actually, you know, Clyde Christenson was the
quarterback coach. I just made suggestions or help. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't that very instrumental or vital in the success
that we had here. And he'd been coached for twenty years.
(51:08):
I mean, Brady, he's going to kind of do what
he does well.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
If I talk to Tom Brady, if I talked to Bruce Arians,
which I have, if I talked to Baker Mayfield, They're
all going to say that bs.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
Tom.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
I'm sorry, but they're all going to say that's BS.
Because you're putting him in a position to succeed. That's
what it is. You're still doing that now, still on
the offensive staff at Tampa Bay. After a great run.
When you get your hands on Brady, if you had
your hands on Manning at that point, now you get
your hands on arguably the greatest of all time, does
your coaching philosophy change at all because you've got a
(51:42):
guy that's had major, major success, not only that, a
guy you've been trying to whoop for a lot of
weekends in your NFL career. How is that coaching somebody
like that? When a Tom Brady at the goat of
all of his career, if you will at quarterback, does
your coaching change at all?
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Now? Now, I got you've got to have a philosophy
that you believe in. And my philosophy is you win
with players. But after you with players, you've got to
teach them what to do and how to do it.
(52:21):
And that's never going to change. I've never been a
big gimmick coach. I think you take gimmicks and all
you do is you be bad people worse, you never
be good people. Every now and then you may upset them,
but you don't when with gimmicks. You don't. When tricking
people and stuff, you win sound fundamentals and techniques. And
(52:46):
it's every year and learning us from Chuck and Chuck
you see, treat them like men and coach them like rookies. Yeah,
and don't assume anything. And when I was at Indianapolis,
it was so basic. The first staff training camp for
(53:07):
thirteen years, the first hour of the first practice was
walking through and teaching everybody how to block and tackle by.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
The numbers, the fundamentals every year.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
And he said, treat them like men and coach them
like rookies, and start from the beginning. And he had
a thing and I believe this and I can. We
can relate each other on this. He used to say,
motivation is teaching someone how to do something that they
(53:41):
don't know how to do, and then when they're asked
to do it, they have success. They're motivated. So you're
a golfer. You don't know how to get out of
a sand trap, and somebody teaches the ard to get
out of a sand trap. Your eyes get this big.
Your motivating. Well, that's what motivation is. Teaching these guys
(54:05):
so that they can have success when they're asked to
do something. And when I went to Pittsburgh, the first
guy that came sim was Lynn Swan and he says, Tom,
he said, John star Wart, I can catch football. But
he said, we're in this further long haul. You can
(54:27):
make a lot of money. And back in those days
it was a lot of money. It's nothing now, but
it was then. And we want to play for a
long time, So teach us what we don't know so
we can be good and stay in the league for
a long time. I said, well, don't you know? He said, well,
we need to work on reading coverages and testing routes,
(54:50):
getting open, stuff like that. So I said, okay, So
that's what we worked for. He said, if we can
catch a football, yeah, teach us out get open, teaches
how to read coverages, and so that's that's what we did.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
And it seems it seems like you've carried that mantra
with you through everywhere you've been, I mean, every stop
that you've had along the way, the same sort of
m I was going to ask, what's the secret to
longevity and being at the top of your game, which
you've absolutely done for five decades? Now, what if there
is a secret, Tom? What is it? As we say goodbye,
what is the secret to Tom Moore's success?
Speaker 1 (55:31):
Making the best bettor.
Speaker 2 (55:35):
Well, you have a way of doing that.
Speaker 1 (55:37):
That's my job, that's what you're paid to do. Make
the best better, and that's a coach, and in the
NFL that's your job, make the best better.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
Wow. I could go on and on for a long
time with you, for a long time and go over
particular seasons. I love golfing with you, I love talking
football with you, and I miss you and we miss
you up here in Indianapolis and on behalf of everybody
that's in this building right now. Brother, you are thought
of like a god around here and still to this day,
one of the football gods of Indianapolis and the era
(56:11):
of greatness, and you're right at the forefront. I just
want to say thank you for that and thanks for
all you do because everyone's a fan of this game
and you're one of the foundational members that built it.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
I loved my said in Annapolis. We had great success,
and make sure that simply gratitude to mister Say and
Pete Board because they're really great people. Everybody the support
staff that it was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (56:42):
Wow. I'll tell you what, I don't think we're going
to play it this year unless we meet in the
super Bowl, and at that point I hope we wax you.
But up until then, my friend, up until then, best
of luck with Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
You are one of a kind. As I called you
early on in this interview, you're an offensive savant. There's
only a few of yous that walk this earth, and
it's a privilege to know you and call you a friend.
(57:03):
I appreciate everything that you did for us today to
kind of glance over your career and I'm indebted to
you for that. And like I said, if if you're
a fan of this game, it's this man you want
to thank. Thank you Tom Moore, Thank you very much,
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (57:16):
Glad to be on.
Speaker 2 (57:17):
Your show, and we'll do it again. Thanks for watching.
This has been high volume. One of the greats to
ever do it. That's Tom Moore, coach down in Tampa
right now. It's coached over five decades in the NFL
and again member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
We are honored to have you more coming up in
the weeks to come. Appreciate you, coach more. We'll talk
to you down the road.
Speaker 1 (57:36):
Should be played at high volume.
Then should be played at high volumes.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, thanks for tuning into high volume. Guest number two
awaits and I call him an offensive savant. If you're
a fan of football, you're a fan of this man.
Coach Tom Moore has coached over five decades in the NFL.
Forty ninth year is coming up. He's still an offensive
assistant down in Tampa Bay. But what made him roll
was his years in Pittsburgh. Obviously with the greats like
(00:28):
Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swan, John Stallworth. He went over to Minnesota.
He had little cups of coffee here and there, and
then he found a home here in Indianapolis. What Tom
Moore and the offense led by Peyton Manning, Edrin James Tarret, Glenn,
Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Jeff Saturday. The list goes on
and on. What he did with that offense and what
he did prior as well in Detroit, setting records that
(00:50):
still stand today. This man is unlike any other who's
done it at a high level and one of the
greatest coaches in professional football. Was a huge part of
this franchise for thirteen years. I'm honored. This is a
guy I call a friend. But now I get a
chance to talk football and pick his brain a little bit.
I do hope you enjoy this. This is the one
and only the greatest of all time when it comes
(01:13):
to assistant coaches in the NFL. This is Tom Moorean. Well,
I'm excited to announce this guest, and I've been thinking
about how do I introduce this man. If you're a
football fan, you'll understand this is an offensive savant that
I'm talking about this game. If your children or your
grandchildren like this game of professional football, it's because of
(01:37):
guys like this. And he's a friend of mine. I've
known him for a lot of years. And again, one
of the finest football coaches in NFL history. He's a
member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame, among many
hall of fames that you're in. I welcome the floor again,
offensive savant. Welcome in, coach Tom Moore.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Thank you, glad to be here. It's privilege, Jack, oh, coach.
I'm very happy to be here and talk football.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I'll tell you what the privilege is all ours. I'm
gonna start with some of your quotes, if you don't
mind some of them. People have heard some of them.
They haven't and when they come to me. When you
were coaching here years ago, and you'd come to my
office on Monday mornings, you'd be in my doorway with
a cup of coffee and I'd say, good morning, coach,
could win yesterday, and I said what's up today? And
you would say, I just wanted to come down and
see what a jackass looks like on Monday morning. That
(02:27):
was one of them. And then the other one that
was a good one was Hey, did you comb your
hair today with a towel? Which I loved, so that
was an idea.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Towel.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Hey, some thing's never changed. But here we go some
of your all time quotes and then we'll get into
your coaching career and what you meant to this game
of professional football. One that hangs very highly. It's a
banner and it's in our equipment room here in Indianapolis,
and it's it's your quote with your name underneath it.
Don't major in the miners. Why is that important in
professional football?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, sometimes you get so mired down in small things
that have nothing to do with the outcome of the game,
with the preparation game. They're just small things. If you
get too tight up in those things that didn't leave
you enough time for the major stuff, and so just
take care of the major stuff and throw the minor
(03:22):
stuff away.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Players got that fighting time anyway. Yeah, players got that
message though they understood what you were talking about obviously.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, I hope so. Because it's you know, football, it's
a very simple game. It isn't easy explain that to me.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Please.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, it's still blocking and tackling. It's fundamentals that techniques.
It's teaching the players what to do and then how
to do it. And once you get those two things,
accompanies and that allows your team to play fast. And
you have to play fast, and you can only do
that if you know what to do and how to
(04:04):
do it. And you're going to get true team to
play faster than the opposition and hopefully eventually you break
their will.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Oh you've done that quite a bit obviously on some
defenses across the league. A great book if you're a
fan of the NFL, Tom wrote, if you're great at
what you do, you write books, and Tom Moore did
just that. The players coach fifty years, making the NFL's
best better, from Bradshaw to Manning to Brady and beyond
we'll get to those great quarterbacks. But some more quotes
of yours that I just wanted to go over. One
(04:34):
two three throw it away is obviously one that you've
preached to quarterbacks all throughout your career. Is that, I mean,
we're going to go over your career, but one two
three throw it away, meaning what it's a good pass
sometimes when you incomplete or throw the ball out out
of the end zone or throw it into the sidelines
incompletions are important, is my point?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yes, right, And the biggest thing you don't want to
do is take the sack because by NFL stats, over
the course of a long period of time, if you
get sacked in a particular drive, your chances of scoring
a touchdown in that drive is less than six percent. Okay,
(05:16):
that's very good. So you want to get rid of
the football, and there's there's nothing wrong with it, there's
nothing against it. Live to play another play, But don't
get yourself in second and twenty second and twenty five,
third and eighteen because those are tough to pick up
and then you end up punting and you never score
(05:38):
a touchdown. As long as you can stay in rhythm
and get the short completion. Sometimes you make the big
play with the short completion. You don't always have to
throw a downfield, but get a completion or throw it away.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Bruce arians was on last week. You talked about something
when it comes to a good quarterback, you're gonna find
out if you have a good courtquarterback and what he
does in two minutes non third down. How important are
those two third downs for the offense as well as
two minutes for the offense. Is that everything When you're
talking about an offensive game plan and be able to
you're going to have to score at those times. And
(06:15):
you've been blessed by having a couple of quarterbacks that
have been able to do that for you.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Well, it's credit. And the biggest thing with the quarterback,
there's three things that they're really separate quarterbacks, and number
one is their ability to recall or recollection of what
you saw or what you talked about. And then once
(06:43):
they recall it, then they got a process. Okay, he
talked about cover two. I see Cover two. Then you
gotta execute. So once you processed it, then you gotta
execute what it takes to defeat that particular coverage, that
particular in front and a quarterback gets about about one
(07:05):
point five seconds to get all that stuff done. So
the thing that separates a lot of quarterbacks is their
ability to process the information that they've been given and
then executing what needs to be done to have success.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, I'll tell you what. It started with you a
long time ago, and I want to start earlier in
your career. What kind of player were you University of
Minnesota or excuse me, University of Iowa. I beg your pardon,
I beg your pardon. University of Iowa. How were you
a couple of years up there? And that's when you
obviously you were an athlete and you got the bug
for football and possibly coaching after that. What was your
two years as a quarterback at Iowa? Like?
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Well, I went to the University of Iowa and back
to those days, it was one platudent football and there
were no restrictions on scholarships. You can bring in as
many as you wanted, and so freshmen were not elchible
at that particular time. And when I came in, I
(08:07):
think we had sixty eight freshmen and by the time
we were sophomorees I was down to thirty five and
eventually by the time we got the seniors, that was nine,
and they brought keep bringing in another group, and I
went there. I thought I was a lot better than
(08:28):
I actually was. I was. I was ordinary. I went
in that grade. I never started. I was never a
big star. I was a backup quarterback. Of course, because
of one platoon football, you had to play defense too,
quarterbacks for safeties, and there were no specialists in those days.
(08:52):
What you did you had to try out and you
had traveling squat and thirty eight men and guy that
could punt the bet he was your punter, and the
guy that could place kicked the best, he was your kicker. Well,
I was the kicker, So I did the field goals, kickoff,
section points, all that.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So you remember your coach, You remember your longest field goal.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, I don't remember the longest field goal, but I
do remember playing in Ohio State. It was my junior
year in Columbus, Ohio, and we had to coach for Savsski,
who's absolutely phenomenal person and coach, great coach, great man.
So it's coming near at the end of the game,
(09:40):
last two minutes, and we're down and we get the
ball down about I don't know twenty five yards line
or something like that. Anyway, I field goal wins the game.
So he grabbed me and he said, if I put
you in there, can you make it? I said, yeah,
I can make it. He said, we better or Hope says,
a plane going back city ain't going back with us?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Did you make the kick?
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Made the kick?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I love it?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
So I would say we could fly back to Iowa
City with the team. But but I need to kick
out all the psychology with kickers. And yeah, back in
nineteen fifty nine, that was a psychology.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Can you make it?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, you get a right back with someone else.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Hey, no pressure, Tom, no pressure on that.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Okay, from the backup, and we hit three people. We
won the national championship my sophomore year in fifty eight. Yeah,
we had an All American quarterback Randy Duncan. We had
a great team. We beat calling a Rose Bowl better
running back Bobby Jeter. He had ten carries for one
hundred and ninety two yards.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Okay, not bad day. Yeah, not bad day.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But back in back in the days when when I
grew up in the Midwest, the Rose Bowl was king.
I mean, as a young kid, you spent your whole life, man,
I could just get on a team to go to
Rose Bul because it's a Big Ten. You could only
go to one bowl game. Either win Rose Bowl, you
(11:14):
stayed home. And my senior year we went eight and
one titles Minnesota for the Big Ten championship. But they'd
never been and we had been, so they got to go.
So we're eight to one, number two in the nation,
staying at home. So it was it was a pretty
prestigious saying package days. Uh, to get into a bowl game?
(11:37):
And was there a kids dreaming a minute west?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Not bad game, I'll tell you what national championship and
four Super Bowls to boot and uh, you know, a
member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you've come
a long way from there. I want to go over
your career.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Is it true that you coach football overseas at some point?
You joined the army at some point for two years.
And my question with that is, did you I remember
talking to you about this back in the day. It
may have been Forrests, the gentleman you mentioned earlier. Did
you run a wing t offense overseas?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Yes? Yeah, back in the day, this was late fifties
sixty in my home you were going to go to militaris.
You were going to go to service. My dad said
that now you had naps, which you want to go?
You want to go Davy Army, Air Force Marines. But Tom,
(12:33):
you're going, Yeah, I'm going. That's the way it was.
So I went to ROTC and got my commission second lieutenant.
We went to forbidding and after graduation eight weeks and
I got shipped to Korea. And a bunch of us
were going to Korea. This was in nineteen sixty three,
(12:58):
and so we're going to create and then it's at
Tempo Air Force Base in Korea. They get you on
a bus and take it to your duty station. Okay,
get dropping guys off, dropping guys off. I was the
last guy that they dropped off. I was way way north,
a pretty close DMZ. Now, this was nineteen sixty three,
(13:22):
so the conflict had been over for ten years, but
we were an occupying force just to make sure nothing
happened similar to what they got there now. And so
we had a good to Officers Club three nights a
week because they wanted to get south of Berricks and
get us mingling with people. Because the guys get homesick, tough.
(13:47):
So I'm a tofsers club having an a don't beverage
with the colonel and we started talking. He said, how
do you look like it? I like it, but I'm
really a football coach, is that right? So we started talking.
I knew the general and the existing division sports officer
and football coach was going to rotate back in the
(14:09):
United States, so that position was open. So he got
me an interview, and so I interviewed and got the job.
We had a team and we played. We had four
teams in Korea, two teams in Japan, and two teams
in Oklahoma, and we played each other kind of have
(14:30):
a round robin thing, and then they had the bowl
game and the seventh tenth Division they won. We were
in second place, but they sent us to Okabo to
play in what they called the Sukiyaki Ball.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Sukiyak Ball.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
We played Kadina Air Force Base, and so I still
got fond memories. I still in communication and correspondence with
quite a few of the guys the wrong the team,
and it was a fun experience.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I'll tell you what. That's great for those soldiers that
look back at your career right now, and said, you know,
we used to get coached by that guy over in
Okinawa or that's incredible Tom.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
But then I came back and got stationed Fort Benning, Yeah,
and was a coach on the post team there, and
we had a good team.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
We what kind of offense were you running?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Wing ty?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Same huh?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Big thing that we had a highway But a lot
of the officers went to Officers Basic School at Fort Benning,
which I did too, and they pulled the horders and
captain there and we had a forty four man squad
and we had thirty eight guys that it started, uh
for two years or more in Division one football on
(15:51):
that team. And then you played a Service Championship and
we played Fort Eustace in what is now called the
Sittres Bowl in Orlando. Sure back in nineteen sixty four
that was the Missile Bowl where it was the Service
(16:11):
championship game.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Wow, so you're playing Okay, you're playing in a Missile
Bowl for that thing? You win that Bowl championship?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah you did, didn't you? Silly question? What it is?
I need to go over this thing because we have
so much to go over, but just a University of
Dayton as a running backs coach sixty five to sixty eight.
You go to Wake Forest in sixty nine as the
offensive coordinator, you go down to Atlanta to go out.
I guess at Georgia Tech maybe from seventy to seventy one.
(16:38):
You go up to University of Minnesota. You're the running
back coach there from seventy two to seventy three, and
then you go to the New York Stars. I want
to stop at the New York Stars because that was
a league for a while. You go coach in the
league and it bellies up and goes bankrupt. What are
you going to do after that?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Well, things were, and Chuck No put it very straightforward.
The grass is always greener around as a septic tank,
and the World Football League, that's what it was. But
I'm curious to go for it. So we're with the
(17:19):
New York Stars. Babe Brilly, who was a great All
American quarterback in Kentucky. He was the head coach, and
uh so, I moved everybody in New York out Long
Island and we played our games at Downing Stadium, which
is right underneath the Triborough Bridge. Yeah, if you've been
(17:41):
in New York city, and it was it was it was.
The lighting was so bad there that they couldn't even
tell by these games and the downing statements claimed to fame.
That's where Jesse Owens qualified for the nineteen thirty sixth Olympics.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, okay, that's how.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Long it city business. Anyway, in the in the middle
of the season, they picked us up and sent us
to Charlotte, and that's where we stopped getting paid. So
I went six months with do pay. Uh. We go
to Charlotte. Now this a couple of great stories. Houston
(18:23):
team man guy the name of John mcthusay, and we're
playing the game in midway to the first quarter. Why
referee stopped the game to Marshall's walk out and they
take the tusack right off the field because he was
gonna contact with the Oilers. We go to Shreatport and
(18:47):
play a game. We're now in Charlotte. We go to Shreeport.
We got two games left. We got Shreeport and we
got Memphis. Okay, And we go there and it's a
night game and I'm a new hotel lot about all
two o'clock, I guess the afternoon, and two guys come
up to me and ask me if I'm Babe brilliant,
(19:08):
and I says, dond some. Tom Moore said, well, you
guys got a problem. I said, what's the problem. Well,
I said, we're here to pick up your equipment because
you guys didn't pay your cleaning built back in New
York City. Oh no, we're here to confiscate all your equipment.
So I called Babe and Phil Baby bring it up.
He we've got a problem. So Babe was a pretty
(19:31):
good poltician. Babe talked to him into not serving us
the papers until the start of the second half. Okay,
so we played the game. We walked in after the
game and they got all these big boxes and greats
for the equipment. Players are throwing their stuff in the
boxes and we fly back to Charlotte without our equipment.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Low.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Now we go to J. C. Smith and borrow some
tennis shoes and Jim shorts till we can practice. And
somehow that paid the laundry bill. So we flew to
Memphis to play the last game, and they had a
plane flywer equipment up from Shreeport in Memphsips Memphis. And
(20:13):
then after that this season was over.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
The league was and the league. Belly don't gun some chips, okay,
So take me from there. You go from a belly
up World Football League if you will, you're without work.
How do you have the connection that Chuck Noll from
the Pittsburgh Steelers knows who you are, and not only
(20:36):
that hires you to his staff at that point of
your career? What was that connection? Coach?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Well, when we went to Dayton, I just got out
of the service and John McVay, excuse me, he got
the head coaching job at the University of Dayton. It's
Sir John McVay that later went on. It was the
GM for the forty nine and they won for Super Bowls.
(21:03):
So I just got out of the service. He was
looking for coaches. Way hired three people that he knew.
He hired George Purlis coaching at Saint Ambrose High School
in Detroit, and Jerry Hanlon who was coaching at Lakewood
Sat D's, and a guy who named Joey Glausky was
(21:25):
coaching Campton Central Catholic. So we joined the staff. So
I met George at that particular time, and this was
nineteen sixty five, so we kind of went off in
different directions in different ways and stuff. Well, George gets
hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers in seventy two, and so
(21:50):
my connection with George and I was studying and study
communication with him, and huh then he was working for Chuck.
Plus Chuck had gone to school at the University of Dayton. Oh,
he knew that. So it's interesting how things work out.
(22:14):
In January of seventy seven, I interviewed with the Buffalo Bills.
Jim Ringo was a head coach, and he didn't hire me.
I didn't have enough experience. A lot he does, he
does whatever, Okay, fine, So I'm mad, I'm disappointed. I'm upset.
(22:37):
Two weeks later, lion ol Taylor leaves and goes to
the Los Angeles RAMS. So that opens up the position
with Pittsford Steelers. So I don't get the Buffalo job,
but I'm available, so I get the Pittsburgh Steeler job.
Now the guy that got the Buffalo job, had he
not gotten that, he'd had probably gotten the Steeler job
(23:00):
because he was so So things have just worked out
for me. Somewhere along the line. There's a guardian angel
that's taken care of me.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Hell, you've done your part on that one coach. I mean, I.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Really believe that. You know, Bill Blunt called me about
three weeks ago and Mel and I became good friends.
Sara and Mel's son bought my book for him for Christmas,
so he dread the book and he called me and says,
(23:40):
you know, it's Tom. He said. The Lord works in
his serious ways. He says, I think the Lord didn't
want you to be a head coach. He says, because
when you're a head coach, you don't work with individuals
and people and stuff. And he said, I've read the
book and all the people you worked with it as
(24:03):
I think the Lord wanted you to be an assistant coach.
You could work with players.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
That explains it. Yeah, that explains it. I mean, I
personally think you'd be one hell of a NFL head
coach had it worked out that way. But you know,
teach your own. Hey, brother, you're still you're still a
member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So everything
worked out great. I mean to say that the Chuck
No years, You're surrounded by Bradshaw, you got Frank o'harris
(24:29):
behind him, you got Swan, you got Stoleworth, you got
a defense led by the mel Blunts, like you talked
about Donnie Shells, Jack Lambert, how much football offensively? Offensively
did your career go up from your time in Pittsburgh
because you guys moved the football down the field quite
a bit.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well. One of the things that helped me in the
interview well was Big Brilly had previously been with Pittsford Steelers.
That's you offense. We ran with the New York Stars,
so I knew the offense, okay, So that helped me
in my interview process. Then they they had won two
(25:13):
Super Bowls prior to me getting there, and the defense
was unbelievable, I mean really good, and a lot of
people think the seventies sixteen may have been better than
any of them. Bradshaw Gutter in seventies six and Mike
Krusick played four games, went four to oh, but the
(25:34):
defense only gave up three points.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
In over four games.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah. So, uh when I got there seventy seven, and
that was the year that they changed the rule for
defensive backs jamming the wide.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Receiver lion of scrummers are down the field.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah, the Milbronk rule, right, because get up and just
smothered guys. Yes, well they had to do something to
open up receivers. Well, that really I think propelled us
because Wan and Sowarths were great receivers. H and Bradshaw
was just coming on and really doing well. And it
(26:22):
opened up the passing game and we became a good
well running the team. We had to run game and
the passing game now. And you know, we won the
Super Bowls, the two Super Bowls. I was there. Why.
(26:43):
We scored a lot of points, made a lot of yards,
and I think we won one game thirty five thirty
one and the game I'm not sure, but we scored
over thirty five points.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
It was the first game that the Seders played. They
played it by He's in the first game for Super
Bowl halftime. Score was two to nothing. That was a
purple people Eaters and Steve Curtain and they Tarkington fumbled
I guess, and Elsie Greenwood fell on it and they
(27:19):
ended up winning the game I think sixteen to nine
or something like that. Well, you have the offense got
going and it's people, you know, you go back off
that those four Super Bowl teams. Yeah, there's ten players
(27:42):
in the Hall time five on offense, five on defense,
the owner of the owner's son, the head coach, Tony Dungey.
Uh you know it was part of that team eats
in their notes because of tamp and stuff like that.
(28:03):
But I mean, there's a lot a lot of guys
in that Hall of Fame, and when it gets down
to it, it's players. Players are the difference. And Chuck
Nomes was a great, great advocate of give the players everything,
(28:28):
given the credit, give then the speaking engagements, given endorsements.
Let them make as much money as they can. It's
their game. We're just kind of caretakers. And he said,
will you get in trouble and when your coach, if
you ever get into financial competition with your players, it
(28:54):
didn't work, and he taught you it's a player's game.
He also taught you when when you were at Pittsburgh,
assistant coaches were to be seen not heard. One guy
talked the head coach.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
How many were on the staff.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Six one three offense, three on defense, And I ended
up coaching wide receivers and tight ends in the passing game,
an offensive line coach and running back coach, and uh
(29:35):
in three on defense. And Chuck now was a special
teams coach.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
The head coach was a special teams coach.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, and that was true Luthy. But Grant was with Minnesota,
and I think coach Shutter was down Miami too. Most
STAPs were six man steps coach.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Now it's like thirty how many how many you coach
with now? Down in town, we've got We've got a
lot of them, twenty six a bunch of them. Well, hell,
this is what you're forty nine for you this twenty
twenty five season in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Forty nine, forty nine years. I remember when I first
got in, I thought, man, if I could just get five.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Years in, yeah, yeah, fully.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Vested for retirement, that'd really be cool. And so when
I got in, I was shooting for five. But you know,
I looked at coaching in the NFL. To me, I
don't believe in the title months. I'm not a big
entitledment guy. To me, it's a privileged coach in the NFL.
(30:41):
And the NFL has given me a life that I've
never had and anything else, because it's it's what I love,
it's what I enjoy, it's what I know, and it's
my life.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Hey, Chuck, Chuck, No, doesn't call the Star go under.
The World Football League goes under, and Chuck Nole doesn't
call you. What are you doing then, I mean, if
you're not. Luckily everything worked out, but what what direction
were you going to take?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I went back to Minnesota. The guy Minnesota hired me.
See Minnesota, I recruited Tony.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, Tony Dungee. I mean that's a great story in itself.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
He was there and the head coach at the University
of Minnesota hired me back. So I was served for
two more years, and he stayed for four or five
more years, So I'm sure it would have stayed at
tim I don't know, and you know, all this stuff happens,
and I don't know how it happened. Did you know
(31:44):
someone was looking out for me and didn't send me
to Buffalo and sent me to yeah, Pittsburgh because I
had gone to bufloor I had been there for about
two years.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yeah, right, right right? Who knows there?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, but I was at Pittsburgh for thirteen years. I
was with the Colts for thirteen years, Yes, you were.
Some of my fondest memories are with the Colts. I
love it.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
We have so many, so many great fond memories of
you here and so many to go over. I want
to I want to stay in Pittsburgh for a minute, though.
What does this mean to you? If you can get
to a sixty prevent slot hook and go sixty prevent
slot hook and go what is that? What's special about
that play for you?
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Well, in coaching, and Peyton was a champion and coaching
offensive football, you need to have answers answer situations. Okay,
they do this, what's our answer to counter what they're doing? Well,
(32:47):
we knew going into the Super Bowl game against the
Rams what Bud Carson was going to do defensively, Pine
Street wide outs on third down and what he was
going to do. He's going to single one wide receiver.
He was going to go short and long on the
other wide receiver, and then he was going to go
(33:10):
in and out on the slot. So the outside receivers
ran flag routes, the inside receiver ran an in post.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Okay, So that was slot hook and go and that
was Stalwarth, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Stalworth and then sure enough they were in the defense
and we hit two big uh passes against it. They
wasn't the Super Bowl for us?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Well, the seventy three yard are in the fourth the
Stalwarts sealed it, and that that sixty prevent hook and
go is something that you know, if memory serves, you
came up with that within two weeks of the Super
Bowl because of the Bud Carson defense if he bites.
I'm running this play and it's one of the famous
ones that you sealed. I mean, it's uh, that's the
sort of stuff did you write up. I'm not being
(34:00):
funny when I asked this. In your career, did you
ever write up plays in the dirt at some at
some point? I mean, I know, I know with Peyton
it was there's a story about whatever you did in
Buffalo do that. But we'll get to that one. But
but you never run plays in the dirt, even going
back to the Army days.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
It's just like those guys keep a paper nipse bedstand night. Yeah,
I knew when I woke up for night, I got
it right in up place, trust me.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
All Right, here we go, let's move on. Previously, I
could go all day with your career in Pittsburgh and
what you meant for that city, the championships, two time
Super Bowl champion, you go on to Minnesota, you coach
with Jerry Burns, you coach with Dennis Green, but you
got some offensive firepower there. And this is where people
are starting to recognize you Tom as an offensive savant.
Like I called you that. Wherever Tom Moore is, they
(34:56):
can they can push the football down the field. What
did you take from minnesot that you ended up taking
with you when you went to Detroit. Uh, those are
record setting years that you had in Detroit. But what
about the Minnesota years?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Well, it was I was there two years of Jerry
Burns and then he retired and Denny Green retained me,
and we had again we had good receivers. Uh had
Chris Carter, Anthony Carter, Hassan Jones, and Steve Jordan was
(35:32):
the premier tight end there he was. Yeah, you had
Wade Wilson, Rich Cannon the quarterbacks. And when Jinny took over,
he retained me, but he brought in basically a whole
new staff and Uh, he fired an offensive coordinator, made
(35:55):
Brian Billy Uh the offensive coordinator. And after two years,
I I just didn't have a good feeling. Yeah, I
felt like it was time to go. Uh. And I
knew Wayne Fonts. Wayne and I were together Dayton.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Also, and so he had opening in Detroit.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, I went to Detroit, and uh we had Johnny Mooreton, uh.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Hermitt Moore, Brett Perriman.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Pairman and Barry Sanders and uh so and and we
uh we didn't we didn't do a lot of stuff.
Fancy was basically give the ball to Berry and here
he used to tell me, if you ain't gonna block him,
get out of the way, make a mess.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
That's I mean, that's that's what we're gonna I gotta,
I gotta use that.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
And then we we had Scott Mitchell. We had a
I guess it was ninety six. In ninety six, we
live in the league until offense.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Oh gosh, it's I mean, I have that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Yeah. In ninety seven we had some injury problems and
so they let Wayne go and went in a different direction.
So I went to New Orleans Saints. I stayed there
for one year.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
You were with Ditka, right, yeah, his first year?
Speaker 1 (37:24):
All right, the thing opened up Indianapolis and uh you
know again, same old street. Why me, I don't know. Well,
I knew Bruce, and I think Bruce pushed me. I
knew Jim Moore, but not real Well, i'd met Bpoleon.
(37:49):
But it's interesting Jim Hersey remembered me because when they
brought Ted Marsh and Broad, No, Linda didn't finndy. I
think when they aired it, you know it was dead
March wrought it. They interviewed George Furlips and George, I guess, say,
(38:12):
ask you who is going to bring his offensive coordinator?
And he told him me. And so Jim ers Hey
remember that. Yeah, when I showed up to work, he said, well,
you finally got here.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
And the rest is history. Man, I'm going to go
on to the Indianapolis era, but just in Detroit again,
we joke about it. Scott Mitchell was a quarterback that
came over from Miami previous the previous year. He came
in as a backup. He had success. You guys signed
him the big money. But what you did with Barry Sanders,
(38:45):
Herman Moore, Brett Perriman, you know, a thousand yard rusher,
you had fifteen hundred yard receiver, you had four thousand
yards quarterback. You've done that twice, the only man to
do it in the NFL. You did it in Detroit
and you did it up here. But staying in Detroit
coaching a offense with that Barry Sanders behind you. But
you love to put it up in Detroit. You love
(39:06):
to chuck the football. How is that balance? You gotta?
You got a Hall of Famer in Barry Sanders behind you,
you got Herman Moore who's setting records, Brett Perriman and
Scott Mitchell. How do you run out proper offense with
all those stars?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Well, you got you got to mix, obviously, and you
got to get everybody involved. You can't. You got to
make them defend everything. If they defend the run, your
play action passes are going to open up. And of
course they got to defend you with Barry. Uh, if
they get two main men up in the box, that
(39:41):
means you're one on one outside and so gives you
an opportunity so one on one routes and those guys
can beat one on one coverage. And uh, A good
story about about those guys. They're all competitive. Yeah, we're
playing the last game. It is ninety six in Tampa,
(40:10):
and we get to the game. We got the game one.
That's all we have to do is kneel down. But
Herman Moore needs four completions to set the record. So
we go back in and I tell them Scott Mitchell,
I'm gonna call a pass every single down. I want
(40:32):
you to throw the ball to him every time until
he gets his four completions and then we'll flop on.
So we did, and he got four completions in the record.
Now we're down on the about the twelve yard line.
So I tell Scott Mitchell, I said, just kneel it,
(40:53):
kneel down. Well that was two minute warning. So Brett
Pearriman comes run up to me. He says, Tom downtown.
He says, I need twenty seven yards to have said
some kind of record. I said, b we're on tu
yard line. I can't get your twenty seven years. He said, well,
tell Scott to take a sack and then no, we're
(41:17):
not doing.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Not You got to get to win.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Oh man, I love it. I want to go up
into the Indianapolis because you you you talked about it
a little bit earlier. You served under Jim Mora and
but this is the decade of Bank's excellence is when
it starts. Bill Pollyan as a general manager, Jim Mercey
is a full owner. You're an offensive coordinator. Tony Dungee
is hired, and and you're looking coach at after Mora.
(41:42):
You're looking at guys like Edgar and James, Marvin Harrison
obviously Peyton coming in here. What was your thought early
in your career here in Indianapolis, especially when eighteen got here,
like what you could do with the pieces around him?
Your first thoughts?
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Well, first of all, let me say we had an
awfully good coaching staff. Howard Mudd was excellent, offensive line coach, excellent,
Gene Hughey was excellent running back coach. Jean coached a
lot of group running backs, and we had we had
(42:19):
a good coaching staff, and Jim Moore set the standard
as far as discipline and stuff that was there. And
then when Tony came in, Tony called me and asked
me about it. I said, Tony, come in Annapolis. I said,
the pieces are in place, everything's there. We got the quarterback,
(42:42):
we got the running back, we got the receivers, we
got Jim Mercy, we got Bill Polly, and our support
staff is excellent. As he was talking, I think to
Carolina or someone, I said, you ain't going to Carolina.
This is Applis is the place to be right now,
because we got the people and and and Bill Poleon,
(43:09):
and you know he he's built a lot of teams.
He took to Winn't paid Blue Bombers to Great Cup.
He took Buffalo of four super Bowls. He took Carolina
to the Super Bowl be where he left. And so
he knows what he's doing. He knows how to organize,
(43:32):
he knows how to staff a team, and so he
did a fantastic job. And we had a good offensive line.
As I say, they were well coach, And I make
mention of it in my book in the playoff game
(43:54):
where we beat the Patriots to go to the first
Super Bowl. Uh, we run money in hass third and
four or five or something like that. They thought the
whole world that we're going to pass and we just
ran a simple dive. But the whole thing, and I
referenced it, it was the block of the century, was Jeff.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Saraity on Vince Wolfork.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yeah, it took the noseguard and just collapsed him. And
I mean there was a figure enough you and I
could run to it. And so it was a combination
of everything. Jeff sarity is speech before the Super Bowl
game was excellent, and we just we had good people.
(44:45):
And every place I've been where we won, we always
had one or two players to take ownership of a team.
When I was at Pittsford, Joke Green's team, he took ownership.
And this is how you do it at Pittsford. Well,
(45:06):
that same thing was true at in the Depolis. Never
was Peyton Uh jeff On of offense actually on defense,
Gary Brackett Uh was the leader and took ownership. And
and when you get guys to take ownership, then you
(45:28):
got to make sure you got followers and people would
follow them. And and that's that's how you went. As
I said, simple game, It ain't easy. Uh. You gotta
have the breaks, you gotta stay healthy, and and then
you get into a situation where I don't know, we
(45:49):
we played the soup Bolts, rainstorm whatever, and dominant Rhades
is a hero.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
I mean that's how it goes. Coach, I just when
it comes to you and your offensive mindset and Peyton Manning,
how much how much of you had to serve as
a psychologist, if you will, more so than a coach
when you're coaching the greats. We'll get to Brady we
got a Super Bowl to go over down here in Tampa.
(46:18):
But like with those sort of guys, you have to
be their friend. They have to trust you at the
same time, but both of those guys want to be coached,
so you have to put yourself in that position. How
far how much of a fine line is that when
you're talking about the absolute greats to play the game?
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Well, John Elway had a quote, and I think it's true.
To be great, you're going to be good every day.
And that was Peyton. Peyton was good every day. Peyton
wouldn't allow himself to have a bad day, and he counted,
(46:59):
he haunted on us, and it was our responsibility to
have answers, and everything was answers. Hey, Tomas, they do this,
what do we do? They do this? Where do we go?
So he made you a better coach because of that,
and he made he made everybody in the building better
(47:21):
because they knew how hard he worked and how committed
he was to the whole process. And you get to
a point where you don't want to let Peyton down
because you know the effort he's put into it. So
(47:42):
that's the big thing is making sure you give him
the answers. And I remember one time we played Baltimore
in a playoff game and I think it was a
fifteen to nine game.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
They had three tiggles, we had ray Lewis.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
After the game, he said, tough game, but he said
the problem. He said, every time we did something, Peyton
had an answer for it. Well, as a coach, that
makes you feel good because you gave him a chance.
And then you got someone special like Peyton, and he's special,
(48:26):
so you do you give him, You teach him and
train him and go through everything, but give him the
opportunity to make decisions out on the field. It's about players,
ain't about coaches, and it's not about Tom Moore. And
I say this, if I had not allowed Peyton to
(48:50):
do all the things that he did, and they have
all the freedom and liberty, they would have arrested me
for malpractice.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Right. You got to You've got to let these thoroughbreds run,
is what you're That's what I'm here.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
I mean, they got him run and he's a throwbread.
Now you got to train them, yeah, and you got
to teach him, and you got to give them the
weapons so they can do it. But what did you
do then let them go. Let him do it.
Speaker 2 (49:18):
You coached Brady and you coach not many can say
that if coach Brady the Super Bowl championship, have coached
Peyton to a Super Bowl championship? Did when you coach Brady?
Were you guys talking a lot? Did he ask a
lot of questions about eighteen Did he ask a lot
of questions about your offense in Indianapolis? How he can
do that, how he can copy that? Are some of
the plays that you took to your Super Bowl championship?
(49:41):
Did you take those to Tampa Bay? Give them to
Tom Brady if you will. But I want to know
the respect that those two had for each other. Obviously
you were an interim between them. You were the guy
in the middle. Both of those quarterbacks talk so highly
of each other. Did they steal from each other?
Speaker 1 (49:58):
I wouldn't say so. Say they had. You know, at
New England, they had their their set up, their philosophy,
their base that they worked with. It was different than ours.
I don't know that the town necessarily had the freedom
that Peyton had. And you know, by the time he
(50:23):
came here, you know, he've been in the league eighteen
twenty years. By the time he came here, and a
lot a lot of the offense. Of course, the offense
at that particular time was Bruce's offense, which you know,
Bruce had his own particular philosophy what he wanted done
(50:47):
and stuff. And actually, you know, Clyde Christenson was the
quarterback coach. I just made suggestions or help. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't that very instrumental or vital in the success
that we had here. And he'd been coached for twenty years.
(51:08):
I mean, Brady, he's going to kind of do what
he does well.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
If I talk to Tom Brady, if I talked to Bruce Arians,
which I have, if I talked to Baker Mayfield, They're
all going to say that bs.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
Tom.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
I'm sorry, but they're all going to say that's BS.
Because you're putting him in a position to succeed. That's
what it is. You're still doing that now, still on
the offensive staff at Tampa Bay. After a great run.
When you get your hands on Brady, if you had
your hands on Manning at that point, now you get
your hands on arguably the greatest of all time, does
your coaching philosophy change at all because you've got a
(51:42):
guy that's had major, major success, not only that, a
guy you've been trying to whoop for a lot of
weekends in your NFL career. How is that coaching somebody
like that? When a Tom Brady at the goat of
all of his career, if you will at quarterback, does
your coaching change at all?
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Now? Now, I got you've got to have a philosophy
that you believe in. And my philosophy is you win
with players. But after you with players, you've got to
teach them what to do and how to do it.
(52:21):
And that's never going to change. I've never been a
big gimmick coach. I think you take gimmicks and all
you do is you be bad people worse, you never
be good people. Every now and then you may upset them,
but you don't when with gimmicks. You don't. When tricking
people and stuff, you win sound fundamentals and techniques. And
(52:46):
it's every year and learning us from Chuck and Chuck
you see, treat them like men and coach them like rookies. Yeah,
and don't assume anything. And when I was at Indianapolis,
it was so basic. The first staff training camp for
(53:07):
thirteen years, the first hour of the first practice was
walking through and teaching everybody how to block and tackle by.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
The numbers, the fundamentals every year.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
And he said, treat them like men and coach them
like rookies, and start from the beginning. And he had
a thing and I believe this and I can. We
can relate each other on this. He used to say,
motivation is teaching someone how to do something that they
(53:41):
don't know how to do, and then when they're asked
to do it, they have success. They're motivated. So you're
a golfer. You don't know how to get out of
a sand trap, and somebody teaches the ard to get
out of a sand trap. Your eyes get this big.
Your motivating. Well, that's what motivation is. Teaching these guys
(54:05):
so that they can have success when they're asked to
do something. And when I went to Pittsburgh, the first
guy that came sim was Lynn Swan and he says, Tom,
he said, John star Wart, I can catch football. But
he said, we're in this further long haul. You can
(54:27):
make a lot of money. And back in those days
it was a lot of money. It's nothing now, but
it was then. And we want to play for a
long time, So teach us what we don't know so
we can be good and stay in the league for
a long time. I said, well, don't you know? He said, well,
we need to work on reading coverages and testing routes,
(54:50):
getting open, stuff like that. So I said, okay, So
that's what we worked for. He said, if we can
catch a football, yeah, teach us out get open, teaches
how to read coverages, and so that's that's what we did.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
And it seems it seems like you've carried that mantra
with you through everywhere you've been, I mean, every stop
that you've had along the way, the same sort of
m I was going to ask, what's the secret to
longevity and being at the top of your game, which
you've absolutely done for five decades? Now, what if there
is a secret, Tom? What is it? As we say goodbye,
what is the secret to Tom Moore's success?
Speaker 1 (55:31):
Making the best bettor.
Speaker 2 (55:35):
Well, you have a way of doing that.
Speaker 1 (55:37):
That's my job, that's what you're paid to do. Make
the best better, and that's a coach, and in the
NFL that's your job, make the best better.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
Wow. I could go on and on for a long
time with you, for a long time and go over
particular seasons. I love golfing with you, I love talking
football with you, and I miss you and we miss
you up here in Indianapolis and on behalf of everybody
that's in this building right now. Brother, you are thought
of like a god around here and still to this day,
one of the football gods of Indianapolis and the era
(56:11):
of greatness, and you're right at the forefront. I just
want to say thank you for that and thanks for
all you do because everyone's a fan of this game
and you're one of the foundational members that built it.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
I loved my said in Annapolis. We had great success,
and make sure that simply gratitude to mister Say and
Pete Board because they're really great people. Everybody the support
staff that it was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (56:42):
Wow. I'll tell you what, I don't think we're going
to play it this year unless we meet in the
super Bowl, and at that point I hope we wax you.
But up until then, my friend, up until then, best
of luck with Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
You are one of a kind. As I called you
early on in this interview, you're an offensive savant. There's
only a few of yous that walk this earth, and
it's a privilege to know you and call you a friend.
(57:03):
I appreciate everything that you did for us today to
kind of glance over your career and I'm indebted to
you for that. And like I said, if if you're
a fan of this game, it's this man you want
to thank. Thank you Tom Moore, Thank you very much,
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (57:16):
Glad to be on.
Speaker 2 (57:17):
Your show, and we'll do it again. Thanks for watching.
This has been high volume. One of the greats to
ever do it. That's Tom Moore, coach down in Tampa
right now. It's coached over five decades in the NFL
and again member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
We are honored to have you more coming up in
the weeks to come. Appreciate you, coach more. We'll talk
to you down the road.
Speaker 1 (57:36):
Should be played at high volume.
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