February 27, 2024 • 45 mins
His small Ohio town didn’t offer football until the 9th grade. Because of that, Randy Gradishar fancied himself more as a basketball player because he’d spent far more time on the court than the gridiron. Thankfully college coaches didn’t feel the same way.
Randy was courted by a number of colleges, which caught him off guard because he had never planned on attending college. His parents couldn’t afford it and he figured he would start working after high school like everyone else he knew. Instead, Woody Hayes connected with Randy and as importantly, his father and off he went to Ohio State.
His success as a Buckeye caught the eye of NFL Scouts, so much so that he was the 14th overall pick by the Broncos in 1974. Being his unassuming self, Randy didn’t know he was a first rounder or even where Colorado was, he just knew he needed to get to Denver after head coach John Ralston called him.
His 10-year NFL career in Denver was spent immersed in the Orange Crush Defense, multiple Pro-Bowls, a Super Bowl appearance, NFL Defensive Player of the Year and much more. So much more that after 35 years of retirement from the game, he was finally voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024.
Randy was courted by a number of colleges, which caught him off guard because he had never planned on attending college. His parents couldn’t afford it and he figured he would start working after high school like everyone else he knew. Instead, Woody Hayes connected with Randy and as importantly, his father and off he went to Ohio State.
His success as a Buckeye caught the eye of NFL Scouts, so much so that he was the 14th overall pick by the Broncos in 1974. Being his unassuming self, Randy didn’t know he was a first rounder or even where Colorado was, he just knew he needed to get to Denver after head coach John Ralston called him.
His 10-year NFL career in Denver was spent immersed in the Orange Crush Defense, multiple Pro-Bowls, a Super Bowl appearance, NFL Defensive Player of the Year and much more. So much more that after 35 years of retirement from the game, he was finally voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
As soon as I hung up,I call mom and dad at home and
say, Mom and Dad, I'mgoing to Denver, Colorado, Denver Broncos.
I didn't say when I was draftedor anything, because I didn't even
know that I was in the firstround. And after coach Ralston said you
know you're coming to Denver Broncos,I had to go look on a map
to see where Colorado was. Welcometo Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired
(00:24):
a weekly podcast featuring conversations with professionalathletes and coaches who have experienced being cut,
traded, fired, and or they'reretired. I'm your host. Susy
Wargen, the guest for this episode, was never cut, traded, or
fired, just retired. He alsohappens to be going into the Pro Football
Hall of Fame in twenty twenty four, and it's an honor that is long
(00:46):
overdue. Randy Gratischar is a legendof a football player and person. I
get to see him at every Broncoshome game as he works for the NFL
as a uniform checker on the Broncossideline. Randy grew up in a small
town in Ohio and had zero aspirationsof doing anything but working after high school,
hard work like all the other bluecollar folks around him. But as
(01:07):
it turns out, he was prettygood at a sport that he didn't even
start playing until high school. Randywas recruited by a number of colleges,
opted for Ohio State, and whenthe Broncos drafted him in the first round,
he didn't know what that meant orwhere Denver, Colorado was even located.
Over the next ten years, Randyhelped build the infamous Orange Crush defense
and was part of the Broncos' firstSuper Bowl appearance. He racked up countless
(01:30):
accolades like seven time Pro Bowler andnineteen seventy eight NFL Defensive Player of the
Year. After retirement, Randy spentway too many years as a finalist for
the Hall of Fame and didn't getin until thirty five years after he retired.
By the way, flip around thatthirty five and you get the number
he wore in Orange and Blue.He's still very involved in the community up
(01:53):
and down the front range, andas you'll hear, just as humble and
unassuming as they come, ladies andgentlemen. Number fifteen, Randy gratishar Cut
Traded Fired Retired podcast with Susie Wargen, Randy gratischar It is so good to
have you in here. We've talkedabout this for a long time, but
(02:14):
I wanted to wait until it wasfor sure, for sure, for sure,
that you're going into the Pro FootballHall of Fame. Yeah, well
I'm for sure too now. SoI'm pretty excited about that. And finally
got the call, and I didn'tget to call. I got a call
from the Broncos and they said,well, Greg and Carry Penner want to
(02:35):
meet with you because they want tofind out more about why the Orange Crush
was so good. Oh, that'show they got you in. What was
I going to do? Say noto the owners? And so my wife
and I went. That was theThursday call, and we went in Friday
morning and then had the opportunity toshare with Greg and Carry about why we
(02:55):
thought we were so good, ofthe relationships, the talent, and all
those kinds of things. And soeventually Greg got up or said we need
to go to the other room.So my wife and I, Beth,
walked into the other room and thenall of a sudden, there's twenty five
to thirty different media people there wavingtheir microphones and I found out and then
(03:20):
I hugged Beth and I said,we finally made it. We finally made
it. So that was just veryvery exciting. And then turned to my
right and then I see a guynamed Tom Jackson and Billy Thompson, and
it was just great to have thembeing part of this and finally know that
I was going into the Pro FootballHall of Fame, which is just amazing
(03:44):
and how cool to be able tocelebrate that with a couple of your Orange
Crush teammates. And we're going totalk way more about that, but we
need the first rand to go wayback to your beginning. Okay, we're
going way way back, far toofar. You're born in Ohio and you
go to Champion High School letter infootball and basketball. And I'm going to
venture because most of my football playersthat I have in say I always wanted
(04:05):
to be a basketball player. Didyou want to be a basketball player more
than a football player or did youwant football more? You are very good
from a small community Warren, Youngstownare the bigger cities, and Champions a
little township right outside of Warren,Ohio. And so that's where Champion high
school was we didn't even have footballuntil I was in ninth grade, No
(04:28):
kidding, I wasn't even playing football. And then when you said football basketball,
I thought I was always better inbasketball, see, and then I
started playing football in ninth grade.And then after my junior year in basketball,
there were some college coaches scouts thatcame around and they said, ready,
we want you to go to ourschool, our university. And because
(04:51):
I call it a very sheltered communityin an environment that I grew up in,
my parents couldn't help. But allof a sudd sudden, it's like
going to college, going to auniversity. My high school basketball coach and
football coach actually mentored me over thatperiod of my last year there of saying,
Ray, you need to do thisbecause my parents they were depressing kids.
(05:15):
All they knew was how to work. And then my college wasn't on
your radar, was it? Oh? No? Honestly, I mean I
knew there was colleges out there,but again not even knowing that until my
junior year. You know, someguys came around and said, we come
to our school. Did you notknow you were good at that point?
(05:35):
Did you just kind of think youwere just playing. Yeah, I was
just playing. Wow. I havea mindset that I'll do the best I
can and never thought of if Iwas good or not. That's what made
you so good, Randy, Yeah, it really did. It's at that
blue collar attitude that comes from yourupbringing of you just and I've seen many
(05:56):
people say this. You brought yourlunch pail to work every day. You
just worked. That's what you knewhow to do, right, And I
learned that all. You know,the foundation of my life was from my
parents and growing up and then allof a sudden involved with athletics and football
and baseball and basketball when I wasin high school, then going on to
eventually choosing Ohio State. And thatwas an opportunity in itself. Oh yeah,
(06:21):
because I remember my dad having agrocery store and I had half a
day off of when I was asenior. I get a call from the
principal's office. I was working atmy dad's grocery store, and he said,
well, Woody Hayes is here.Can you come up and talk to
him and see him. I said, well, sure, I'll be right
there, and I hung up thephone and I looked at my dad and
(06:45):
said, who's Woody Hayes. That'sthe reality of my sheltered environment. Because
this going to school. I thoughtI might go to a mid American school
because I thought I was still betterin basketball, so I could play both
sorts at the Mint American school.And then all of a sudden, Woody
comes and I go up to theprincipal's office and we spend about an hour
(07:06):
and fifteen minutes talking. Eventually hesaid, well, Randy, what's your
dad do. I said, well, he owns a grocery store down the
street. He said, well,let's go see him, because he's always
excited in energy, and so Isaid, okay, we'll go to see
him. So we went drove downto the grocery store and we walked in
(07:28):
and it was an old fashioned grocerystore, produce counter, meat counters,
wooden floors and all that. Sowe walked back to the meat counter because
my dad was slicing bologney for acustomer and he had to finish doing that.
And then all of a sudden theystart talking, and then wood he
said I'll see you later. Afterhe left, I turned to my dad,
(07:49):
I said, Woody, he neveror coach hays I didn't call him
Woody back then. Coach Hayes nevermentioned my name, you know, he
was trying to recruit me or whatever. But it took me a number of
days to figure out he's recruiting theparents. Oh yeah, and so he's
recruiting the parents. And the conversationwas all about World War Two. My
(08:13):
dad was in World War two.What he was in World War interesting?
And they he was connecting with them, yeah, and they both were in
the Philippines. And so I learneda lot about my dad's standing there for
an hour and fifteen minutes at thegrocery store, learning about my dad's career
(08:33):
in the Philippines. Amazing. Whatother schools were looking at you, and
especially when you mentioned the basketball andI should mention that you're I think it
was your senior year. You werethe leading rebounder, you were the second
highest scorer, So you really werea very good basketball player along with being
a very accomplished football player. Yeah. Well that's why I felt better in
basketball, and then and the footballthing came along. Of course, there
(08:56):
was no offers in basketball, youknow, but uh, and I got
a lot of help from my highschool basketball coach and football coach was no
two different coaches, but they mentoredme. At the time, I didn't
know what mentoring meant, and butthey, you know, they said,
Randy, you really need to dothis, and got parents involved and all
(09:20):
that, and it was just agreat opportunity to all of a sudden adventure
getting all those offers, right,Yeah, And I got a couple other
offers from Again, I didn't knowanything about the Big Ten, and so
my high school basketball coach took meto like Penn State and Purdue. And
(09:41):
again, Penn State wasn't even inthe Big Ten at that time, so,
uh, Penn State and Purdue.And then I got a few offers
to go to Bowling Green or MiamiUniversity. But I never visited the Mid
American schools, and so then Idown to Ohio State and my high school
(10:03):
basketball coach took me down there,and all of a sudden, I'm in
a stadium with eighty six thousand people. I never experienced that before. Just
a great experience and the relationship Ihad with Woody Hazen. And again,
Woody was there for twenty eight yearsand influenced thousands of young men over twenty
(10:24):
eight years. He had a mottocalled pay Forward. He would pull in
every freshman. He would be talkingand then all of a sudden, he
would point at you. He said, Randy, you got to start paying
forward. I said, okay,okay, how do I do that?
He said, I'm going to showyou. And then for twenty eight years
he showed us. And I wasone of those guys that paying forward.
(10:48):
We got together at the facility everyFriday in the spring quarter. He would
take us to hospitals, nursing homes, high schools, middle schools and just
paying forward, trying to be aleader and show respect and volunteer and get
involved with your community. Obviously,that made an impact because you still do
(11:09):
it today. I know. Imean that's the football career is great,
and then after football, but thatpay forward and him influencing over twenty eight
years thousands of young athletes paying forwardas a real meaningful slogan. Absolutely a
lot of people know about that today. Yeah, and the fact that he
(11:31):
was a coach to that many studentathletes, but called you the best linebacker
he ever coached. That is sayingsomething, Randy. That's pretty impressive.
And there's a lot of people whohave said pretty incredible things about you throughout
the years. But that has tomean a lot with how much he means
to you. Well, when I'vefound that out after I was out here
with the Denver Broncos, I neverheard of another one of our players having
(11:56):
that kind of accolade. A hugecoach Woody Hayes, when he said that,
that was more than special. Oh, absolutely, So you become a
starter. You're a three year starterthere with the buck Eyes. Over your
three years, they have a recordof twenty five six and one, two
Big Ten championships. You win theRose Bowl in nineteen seventy four, you
(12:16):
set school records, your sixth andHeisman voting. I didn't know that until
I started doing some research. Mygoodness, and you're all academic, All
American in nineteen seventy three. Youwere also in a fraternity. So how
did Randy gradishar coming from a littlesmall town champion going to this massive stadium.
You're able to be in a fraternity, have good studies, and be
(12:37):
a phenomenal football player all the sametime. Well, I didn't realize it
until after going through it, andit was like saying, here's what you
need to do. To be goodand what he was always more into education
than he was really into football.Makes a big difference. As he would
pull you in after every quarter,even to the guys that were or not
(13:00):
freshmen, and he would pull usin and go over our grades and saying,
you know, it's kind of likewhen you're going to graduate and you
need to do better in your grades. It was almost like a counselor yeah
wow, yeah, so he Imean, and most people don't even know
that, and they just know himas a coach, but great respect,
a great man and great coach youknow at Ohio State, and just having
(13:26):
that influence of the way he treatedus, and it certainly wasn't in a
bad way. I know a lotof people have a different attitude against what
he hates kind of thing what theyhave seen, but you know, from
an internal standpoint, it was allabout how could he make us better on
the field and off the field.The persona on the outside is perhaps different
(13:48):
than what you guys saw on theinside. Sure, yeah, and you
know, and I know the publicmay not understand that, but if you
talk to anybody who was Underwoody fortwenty eight years, you'd get the same
answer. I bet that's really neatall. Right, So you graduate then
in nineteen seventy four, what wasyour doing? I got a degree in
(14:09):
education education. So in nineteen seventyfour, you graduate, you go into
the draft, and the Broncos pickyou with the number fourteen pick. I
know you went to the Hula Bowl. Was there like a combine back there
or how did you How did theNFL kind of work you out and do
all that back in the early seventies. No, there was no combine.
There was no combine and no fortyyard time. Just keep changing, for
(14:31):
sure. I went to the HulaBowl. I really enjoyed that because both
scham Beeckler from Michigan was the coach. He coached the East team and somebody
else coached the West team. Afterthe game, as we were leaving,
we were there all week with coachHeim Beckler, and I finally went up
to him and made a point tohim. I said, coach, the
(14:54):
reason I went to Ohio State.Woody Hayes came and talked to me,
me, you just called me andso I, you know, try to
make fun of that, and helaughed. I wondered if Michigan also recruited
you. They did. Oh yeah, both. Yeah, he called me
what he showed up and what heshowed up we went to my dad's grocery
(15:15):
store. So that was something funand uh and you got to tell him
later. Yeah, right, that'sgreat. So you do the Hula Bowl
and then how does the NFL startto or how do teams find out about
you? And did you have anidea that the Broncos would draft you?
No, none of that. Andagain somebody goes back to my personality because
(15:35):
I never dreamed of wanting to goto the NFL, even though I was
Because I remember in my senior yearthere were some pro scouts that came around
at Ohio State and they were onthe sideline and a couple of them eventually
come up and said, hey,Randy, you're pretty good. You could
get draft in the NFL. AndI said that'd be great. So I
(15:58):
had no id. You're so unassuming. Yeah yeah, so no desire,
no dream to go in the NFL, And all of a sudden they said,
well, okay, I'll consider thatand seeing if I get drafted or
whatever. I remember even the call, I didn't even know what round I
was drafted. John Ralston called me, certainly, today's a different thing.
(16:22):
Yeah. And then eventually I hadto say, well, I got drafted
in the first round, but Ididn't know what that meant. Are you
that good? Just fourteenth overall pick? Yeah, fourteenth pick and all that.
And I found out I said,well, you know I'm going to
I got to go to Denver,Colorado. John Ralston called and he said,
Randy, you're coming to Denver,Colorado. Congratulations, and that kind
(16:45):
of conversation. As soon as Ihung up, I call mom and dad
at home and say, Mom andDad, I'm going to Denver, Colorado,
Denver Broncos. I didn't say whenI was drafted or anything because that
didn't concern me. And I didn'teven know that I was in the first
round. And so after that conversation, before I hung up, my dad
(17:06):
said, Randy, I was bornin Pueblo, so my father was born
in Pueblo. And after Coach Ralstonsaid you know you're coming to the Denver
Broncos, I had to go lookon a map to see where Colorado was,
and then all of a sudden,my dad says, Pueblo, Colorado.
Of course, I didn't know wherethat was, but still have cousins
(17:27):
down there. Oh my god.And when they were little kids, Grandpa
and Grandma, they moved to northeastOhio, Warren, Youngstown, Ohio.
That was big steel mill cities backthen. And my grandfather worked at the
CF and I Steel mill down inPueblo. That's why they the time.
You know, I look back onthat and remember that as clear as the
(17:49):
sky is, and so it's reallyfun fun in order to be able to
rehash this and let people know,oh, yeah, absolutely that there was
kind of a world tie from thevery beginning. So you come out to
Denver, what's that like? Becausenow you've gone small town to big Ohio
state and now you're in the NFL. Did you just assume you were gonna
(18:11):
leave college and go work as ateacher and that was going to be it?
Yeah? I mean, and thatwas the Woody Hayes thing. He
said. He never talked about theNFL. Wow. I mean, he
didn't say, Randy, you're goodenough to go to the NFL. And
it was always about getting a degree, coming back if you couldn't get it
in four years, and come backand get that because you were offered to
(18:34):
do that. So that's why hewas so wanting to have his guys being
graduated and having a degree then goingoff into real life into some kind of
business or career that each and everyone of us were able to do.
So wow. So instead you gointo a career, a ten year career
in the NFL, and you becomepart of one of the most iconic defenses
(18:57):
with the Orange Crush defense. Imean, you come here and then soon
you join the likes of all theseincredible you mentioned a couple of the teammates
earlier with BT and Tom Jackson andSteve Foley ends up being there. Louis
Wright, I mean, you havethis incredible orange crush defense that you know
a few years after you you comehere, you end up going to the
(19:17):
Super Bowl. But what was thattransition like from Ohio State to the Denver
Broncos. And Red Miller is yourcoach or was he not? John Rawls,
John oh Johnson, Ralston drafted allof us guys from seventy to Lyle
Alzado, Barney Chavis, Reuben Carter, myself, Tommy Jackson, Rizzo,
Swenson, Billy Thompson, Louis right, Billy Thompson was the old only holdover
(19:42):
from the lou Saban air Okay,and then then seventy seven Red came and
I remember talking to Tommy on thesideline. They said, Tommy, we're
twelve and two. You know,the Broncos certainly haven't ever done that because
they always lost more games than theywon. And so all of us sudden,
we're twelve and two. Then weplay the Steel Curtain guys at the
(20:03):
first Divisional playoff at Old Mile Highand we beat them, and Ken Stabler
and John Madden come in with theOakland Raiders and we beat them, and
all of a sudden, we're goingto Super Bowl twelve. First time ever
playoffs and going to a super Bowl. And always remember how crazy Colorado went
(20:25):
for, you know, having thatopportunity to do that. That was really
cool. And that was in NewOrleans. Yeah, super Dome in New
Orleans. C Fully, I thinktold me the funny story about that,
about how you guys stayed at somecrap hotel somewhere right at the airport,
but the Cowboys got to stay insome plush place and you had a horrible
(20:45):
training facility. Yeah, I rememberthat. It was like it's kind of
like you're saying, well, isthis what the super Bowl's like? And
they you think of what's happened overthe years, and I even go back
to, well, I was insuper Bowl twelve. I just came from
super Bowl fifty eight and was beinginducted into the Hall of Fame. I
(21:06):
have to use a calculator in orderto see how many years difference it is
from super Bowl twelve super Bowl fiftyeight. So yeah, I've had a
lot of fun with being selected.Oh absolutely, yeah, no, really
cool. And then to go tothat Super Bowl, I mean the town
went crazy. As you said,everybody's wearing I had. I wish I
could find my Orange Crush T shirtbecause I had an Orange Crush T shirt.
(21:30):
I just you know, it waseverything to everybody, and even though
it wasn't a victorious super Bowl,it still meant the world that, OHI
were there, and the defense waswhat it was, and Craig Morton was
our quarterback and everything was great.Everybody loved Red. Talk a little bit
about Joe Collier and how he helpedwith that defense, and he was just
such an iconic part of putting allthose guys together as well. Even though
(21:52):
Ralston was the one who drafted him. Yeah, a lot of great credit
goes to Joe Collier. I meanhe I say he invented the four defense.
I come from Ohio State. Wewere lined up on that defense very
similar, and so I already kindof knew, you know, some of
the reactions and blocking and those kindsof things. And then when I came
(22:12):
to Denver, it was very veryfamiliar with for me. And they switched
at one point from the four tothree to the three four right and would
you middle to inside? And Inever played the four to three. I
never played over the middle. Sookay, in college, would he called
it the Oklahoma defense? You hadtwo outside linebackers and two inside. But
(22:34):
and then coming out to thirty fourdefense, I think Joe's kind of got
that started, I think in seventyfour or five, and then all of
a sudden we got very good.And I talked to some older guys that
I played against and played with.They could never figure out the blocking and
what we were doing in order tomake that thirty four defense. And then
(22:56):
the New York Giants and Harry Carsonand Lawrence tail Or, you know,
they're playing the thirty four defense.And so I take some credit because I
just got into the Hall of Fame. You should take credit. You never
have and you should take credit.Randy. Yeah, everything. And the
giants are Harry Carson and Lawrence Taylor. They're already into the Pro Football Hall
(23:18):
of Fame. So I just wantedthem to know that I take a lot
of credit for them for their success. What do you think, Randy,
made you different? Because there isand you know, it's been a lot
of years that people have talked aboutyou for the Hall of Fame. You've
had so many different people weigh inon your style of play and what you
(23:40):
did. You weren't flashy, youweren't lt, you weren't those guys that
like you. Weren't the big headline, which probably then maybe hurt you down
the road for trying to get inbecause people didn't know your name as much.
I mean, it took forever forBroncos to get in the Hall of
Fame because people just didn't know ourteam that well. But it doesn't mean
we didn't have Hall of Fame worthyplayers. So what was it about you
that made you different and made youplay the way that you did? And
(24:03):
now finally you're being recognized for that, well, you know, it goes
back to a lot of credit ofparents, but also my coaches over the
years, and then coaches with theDenver Broncos, Joe Collier, Murral Moore,
Stan Jones, Bob Gamboled and justhaving the opportunity to play ten years
(24:23):
and again getting recognized as the OrangeCrush. And I guess I need to
publicly say we made the Orange Crushdistributor a lot of money all the time,
and people don't even know may Dn F and Lazarus and some of
those retail stores selling the sodas andselling the shirts and all that. So
(24:45):
it's just a real blessing to beable to know that, you know,
the Orange Crush defense was in myera and I finished in eighty three,
and that's when Kubiak and the Elwayand Mecklenburg were rookies and the Orange Crush.
And I take a lot of creditfor that because I taught him everything
they knew and so finally they gotinto Super Bowls and finally they start winning
(25:10):
super Bowls. So Bronco history certainlygoes back to a lot of that for
the Orange Crush. You were theelder veteran that taught them everything. Yeah,
well maybe they took a little bitof I remember even Tom Jackson when
we were in the huddle, Imean telling me, you know, he
was always yelling and screaming at theopponents, and a lot of times he
(25:33):
wouldn't even get the call because he'sstill yapping and saying stuff and I'm going
to get you. And then hecomes back to me, he said,
you never made the call, andhe blames me for his yapping all the
time, even on the field andeven sometimes in practice he's talking and talking
and I'm trying to make a callfor our defense. And so it was
(25:55):
just funny. And the relationship wehave and still with some of the guys,
it's just been great. Yeah,you guys are all very close,
which is really neat to see.So Tommy was a talker. Did you
get into trash talking very much?No? No, no, I'm just
like I am today kind of thing. And you know, once in a
while, when I was playing againstopponents, particularly in the NFL, you
(26:18):
know, somebody held me or blockedme or illegally or whatever. I would
just go over and to them say, please don't do that again, you
know, and if you do,I'm going to get you. So I
didn't have those bad blocks for mefor sure, right, Yeah, they
were afraid that you would actually getthem. Yeah, absolutely all right.
So in nineteen seventy eight, you'rethe NFL Defensive Player of the Year,
(26:41):
You're a seven time Pro bowler,You're in the Ring of Fame at the
stadium. Now you're going into theHall of Fame. You were never cut
or traded. You were able tostay with the same team for ten years.
Did you do all of your contractnegotiations? Did you have an agent
at some point? Because it seemslike you're quite grounded in that you could
probably all of this yourself. Ididn't do it by myself, okay,
(27:03):
when I was in college at OhioState, and then they said you're being
drafted. So eventually I did getan agent. Good, okay. And
back then the contracts, I rememberFred girky Or was our general manager.
You bring your agent in and sitwith Fred and maybe somebody else. They
would just say, okay, theyput the contract in front of you,
(27:26):
saying do you want to sign this? No negotiation? Oh no, Well
they already had it figured out.They say, here's what we're going to
offer you and if you like it, great and if you don't, talk
to you later kind of thing.So, wow, negotiations back then,
I mean course, everything has certainlychanged from you know, the way we
(27:47):
were playing football today, the waythe money is. And see, the
average guy when I played and myten years made eighty thousand dollars. What
was your highest contract that you gotduring that time? Do you remember?
You know, it was maybe arounda one hundred and fifty kind of thing,
and that was in my tenth year. Oh my goodness, and that's
(28:07):
nothing these days. Well I understand, and yeah, so now they're millions
and jillions. Yeah, and yousigned for three years, but you didn't
have a guarantee too. And Ialways look back thinking, you know,
the guys in the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixty seventies,
you know, they played for onehundred dollars, right, they built a
(28:29):
base that you built a base,and it just kept kind of going.
Then eventually they got one thousand dollarsand a one hundred thousand. Now it's
millions and jillions. Yeah, it'smultiplied a lot, all right. So,
as you mentioned, you retire innineteen eighty three, Randy. And
then you have done so many coolthings in retirement. You've had trips to
the Middle East, You've been veryinvolved with the troops. You've had a
(28:52):
long relationship with Phil long Ford andyou do all kinds of outreach with them.
And then you've had so many yearsagonizing as a finalist for the Hall
of Fame. What has brought youkind of the most joy in your retirement.
I know there's so many, allof them, and that's what I've
learned from what he has of payingforward in all those areas, being involved
(29:14):
with the community. Even when wewere playing, we would go to children's
hospitals here in Denver and nursing homesand assisted living homes, and that all
started and I did that in college, and then I did that in Denver
and still doing that today and evenworking with the phill Long Dealership group.
(29:37):
You know, it's going on seventyeight years now. Mister Long had a
motto, he said, be thebest you can be and help others and
they'll help you. I'm involved withmy job, being involved with the community
a lot, and all of ourdifferent dealerships, and I continue doing that
and alls I'm doing now is gettingolder stop and people get to meet you
(30:00):
a lot, which is neat yourMiddle East trips, though, I'd love
to learn more about that and whatyou did when you went overseas. That
was just again another blessing because Iget a call from the League office.
It was through the USO program fromthe NFL, and they said, would
you like to go over to Baghdadand you know, meet our troops and
(30:21):
be with them? And they said, well, what are we going to
do? And they wouldn't tell youanything else. I mean, it didn't
give you any details because it wasall military. I had the opportunity to
go on three trips in four orfive and seven from Iraq to Afghanistan to
Qatar to Saudi Arabia, just havingthat experience and then so I said,
(30:45):
well sure I'll go, and soI went. We went, and then
there were some other about ten otherNFL players over there. I took off
from Denver to New York to Londonand then all of a sudden, I'm
in Kuwait. Of course you don'teven know where you're going, right,
You're just going over there. Sothey say, while you're in Kuwait,
(31:06):
we're going to get ready to goto Baghdad. That's all we knew.
We were going to Baghdad. Andthis is four oh five, Yeah,
four five and seven. Things weregoing on pretty There were some crazy times
in there. Yeah. Right thenight I was leaving going to the next
day to the airport to get overthere, I see Baghdad getting bombed and
I said, I'm going over there. You know. It's so we get
(31:32):
over there, we're signing autographs andmeeting troops. And I looked around and
the other guys looked around and said, this is a pretty nice place.
Where are we at. They didn'teven tell us we were just going to
Baghdad, and we're at this prettynice place. And then they said,
you're at Saddam's palace. And wow, if anybody knows about what Saddam was
(31:55):
doing, I mean, they hadpalaces. And I tried to relate it
to if you know Colorado Springs inthe Broadmoor Hotel. It's bigger than that.
And they got cement walls all theway around it. And then also
Bud Grant, the former Vikings coach, was on on our trip, and
uh, the palace had pond theycalled them ponds. But I called them
(32:19):
lakes and Coach Bud Grant was alwaysknow as an outdoor guy. So a
couple of days he was out therefishing in this pond or the lake Saddam's
Palace, catching fish and you're ina movie. Wow, that was just
a fun deal. But you know, saying that Coach Grant outdoors guy,
(32:44):
but now he's fishing at Saddam's Palacewas pretty special, no kidding. Yeah,
And then just the connection with thetroops had to be something else and
they needed it then, didn't they. Oh yeah, Now four was kind
of whatever the beginning was of beingold there in Baghdad and all the problems
that were going on and our troopsfighting, and they would just take us
(33:07):
to different locations and everything was escortedand high secret service kind of thing,
and uh so it was just adid you feel safe the whole time?
Felt safe? That's good time becausewe were always had somebody in front of
us, somebody behind us as faras transportation and those kinds of things.
And uh, you know, itwas just a great experience because I did
(33:30):
two years of razzi in college waitingfor a Vietnam number. That's right,
you told me that, And yeah. So, but all of a sudden,
now I'm kind of on uh youknow, the front lines of people
going to war and understanding what mydad might have gone through, and uh
so having that experience was just areal blessing and I certainly never forget that.
(33:52):
I bet you and I talked backin November when they had the Salute
to Service month and you relayed thatto me about the RAZI that you did
at Ohio State. Our our sondid ROTZI up at CSU and he's currently
in the Air Force now. Soit's a great program if anybody has a
thought about it, and a kiddothat's in college, the ROTC programs are
fantastic, right all right. Sothere's all those years where you are with
(34:15):
the Hall of Fame, a topten finalist, a top fifteen this year
in the senior finalist, What wasit like, Randy? I mean,
and I know, you know,I'm one of them that would ask whenever
we'd see you, and people wouldsee you and they're like, man,
it's every year. It was likeit was Groundhog Day for you over and
over again, and you still justkept going and you've always kept It's like
(34:36):
you are now you just you've kepta smile on your face and you just
keep going forward, and you didn't. I don't think that it ever made
you bitter. No. I alwaysknew if that was ever going to happen,
it would be God's direction and whatyear that was all going to happen.
And in that thirty five years,I learned a lot of patience,
yeah, because I was asking questionsand then I started to looking at my
(34:59):
ownts and my statistics were better thansome of the guys that were in there,
yep. And so that's where thatmedia East Coast guys and West Coast
guys that get their teams in anddifferent people. So but I just learned
a lot of patients through that wholeprocess and having the opportunity to kind of
(35:21):
wait. And then I finally finallyrealized that this was of God because I
waited thirty five years. A dayor two later, I switched thirty five
years and I turned it into fiveto three. Oh brilliant God's timing,
no kidding, Oh my gosh,you know. And then I asked the
(35:42):
laurd, I said, why thirtyfive years? But now it's fifty three.
So that's that was his plan.Yeah, so I have to ask
you. I watched the NFL Honorsprogram when they had everybody come up,
you know, from underneath, andyou're you're brought up as the newest members
that are be enshrined in can Andwhat was that like being at that situation
and coming up from wonder It's likeyou're in a one of the many shows
(36:06):
they have in Las Vegas and youcome out of nowhere. Yeah, well,
going to Las Vegas. I haven'tspent any time in Las Vegas,
but we were out there for theSuper Bowl. These hotels were monstrous.
Oh yeah. And so having thefirst opportunity to do that and then all
of a sudden they're telling us whatto do and saying, Okay, we're
gonna take you on an elevator downto our basement. In this platform or
(36:31):
the stage, we'll be telling youwhen you go up, you're going to
go up halfway and you're going tostop there. And then with them telling
us that, they also said,you know, when you see the green
lights, that means you got tomove. You move up. If you
see the red light, you knowit stopped. So it's like an intersection
(36:52):
light, you know. So thefirst light's read. They take us up
halfway and we stayed in there andwait, we can't hear anything. We're
all in there together. Okay.It's a huge elevator, a rising platform
from the basement up half way andthen all of a sudden, we're on
stage and the smoke's everywhere, smokeseverywhere, and we're they're telling us to
(37:19):
walk out here and stop. Andthen you turn and then you're looking for
the red light the green light kindof thing, and they start introducing you.
But the elevator ride was a kindof a highlight too. Oh yeah,
when you came up out of nowhere, I was like, oh my
god, it's so cool. Yeah, that is really neat all. Right,
So Randy, we get to seeeach other and all the Broncos home
(37:43):
games because you also have another jobthat you do in that you're the uniform
check guy for the Broncos at thehome games. Wade Manning is in charge
of the opponent's side and you're incharge of the Broncos side. You've been
doing that for a long time.Yeah, I've been doing that about eight
years. Okay, Yeah, anddo you like it? And you get
i mean, fans call out toyou all the time as you're walking by
(38:05):
on the sideline, and it's goingto be a gazillion fold this year with
the Canton and Triman. Yeah,and that's been a lot of fun for
me and all. I didn't evenknow anything about it. I didn't even
know the NFL league had uniform inspectors. The Broncos call and say, you
want to be a uniform inspector.I said, what do you got to
do? So then I find outit's been going on. Greg Boyd,
(38:28):
who was a defensive lineman, hedid it for like about twenty years and
I'm now going on till my eighthor ninth year kind of thing. I
get there a few hours before thegame and wait for them come out in
pregame warm up, and then Ihave a list of I call them the
violation list, where your jersey's supposedto look a certain way, you're supposed
(38:51):
to have orange and blue and whitesox on, You're supposed to have a
Nike or an underarmor logo on yourshoe or your glove. And then if
you have a tinted windshield, ithas to be light, medium or dark.
And so that's my main job.When the pregame warm lest I walk
(39:12):
through and watch them. S you'llstart checking for violations before the game.
You'll do it in that as soonas they come out in their uniforms.
Yeah, yeah, so that's thefirst check mark and saying then I give
after right after the pregame warm up, they go in to get dressed,
come out for the first half,I give it to the equipment manager with
a number of violations whatever they are, and he takes it in and goes
(39:35):
to the players and then tells themfix your jersey, fix your helmet,
whatever that would be. And thenthey come out the first half and most
of them correct that, just ona normal basis. Okay. Then I
watch them for the first half,and then when they go in at halftime,
I give the equipment manager the samepiece of paper if guys didn't have
(39:57):
it corrected. And so then whenthey them out for the third core second
half, I still have to watchthem because there's always a couple guys who
were okay in the first half,but then they changed their logos or whatever
they've done for the second half.No kidding, So I just for the
whole game, I'm just walking themback and forth. You do we get
(40:19):
a lot of steps in. Youand I. We're back and forth all
the time. I wish I hadmy new watch so I could catch one.
You need an Apple Watch. Backand forth, back and forth.
You would be shocked how many milesyou end up walking, because I'll always
look at mine after a game andI'm like, whoa, seven miles?
Eight miles? Yeah, and thenI see you just standing on one side
and then all of a sudden theymove the ball to the other side.
(40:43):
You take a few steps. Imove with the ball. Yeah, I
move with the play of action.Yeah. So do you get so you
never tell the players. It alwaysgoes to the equipment guys. Uh?
Yeah, the equipment. A guyI wondered if you ever had any chats
with players. No, no,okay, because you have to have separation
of church and state, don't youchurch and state? And you know,
you know I'm there for business andyou don't. You don't develop personal relationships
(41:07):
on the sideline with these guys.And then I when I get home after
the game, I take all theguys with the violations, and then I
record that and then send it tothe league office. And then the league
office decides to find them if they'regoing to get fined, so they get
a lot of chances to correct thingsbefore they actually get a fine. Sure,
(41:28):
yeah, they got They got thewhole game, really, and there's
no reason for any violations, right, and there's and over the years,
there's always been a couple of guyscoming over and they'll see me writing them
up. They'll come over and say, what are you writing me up for?
I said, well, you're you'reviolating the dress code, and so
(41:50):
they hassle me, blame me forright, it's not your fault, it's
the rules. So who is theOkay, can you say, like you
know, not to name a currentguy, but was there like a past
guy who was a bad offender soyou got to keep it quiet. I
can't remember really, but you're undera cloak of secrecy. Don't out anybody,
(42:13):
so I don't want to create anyproblems for even the guys that were
absolutely no unfair question. Okay,all right, So last question for you,
Randy, as you've gone through yourwhole career and you've had lots of
time to reflect now and especially asyou're going to go and be enshrined in
Canton, you were fortunate enough thatyou played for the same team for ten
years. There's a lot of guysin the NFL that they would love to
(42:36):
do that, and they don't andthey get cut and things happen. But
it wasn't always easy. You losta Super Bowl. There were probably games
in there that you knew something couldhave been changed, that you could have
done differently. So as you lookback, and what would you tell people
as they go through life of howto kind of pick yourself back up and
keep going to have great things cometo you in the future. You had
(42:57):
to pick yourself up a lot forthirty five years waiting for Hall of Fame
announcement. Yeah, well, duringmy thirty five years I learned a lot
more patients through that process, andagain going back to my style of playing,
my style of being upbringing and payingattention to coaches, paying attention to
parents, and then just having thatin life and also on the athletic field.
(43:21):
It was just something that I knewI grew up with. That's who
I am. I think hopefully I'mstill that way today for sure, And
so that's been a lifelong process forme and then particularly I mean, I'm
just very very grateful that now I'vefinally had the opportunity. I didn't even
(43:43):
worry about it for the first fouror five six years. And then the
owner of the phill Long Dealerships,Jay Chimino, he said, Randy,
we need to get started on essen. So he got some people together and
started like campaign, yeah, campaign, and he put together a book that
had quotes from other former players thatplayed against me and statistics and all that.
(44:07):
And so because of j Chamino,because I would have never done that
myself right here too, so andthe committee that he put together, all
my credit goes back to him.I love it. Well, congratulations.
I know that it's been a longtime coming, and it's exciting. It's
exciting for Broncos fans, longtime fanslike me that watched you play, and
(44:30):
I was still care for the Broncos. I still cheer for the Broncos.
Yes, you know, I bleedorange and blue like nobody's business. You
know, it's one of those things. I'm from here and that's just all
I've ever known. So even thoughyou know I work there and do the
sidelines, I still cheer and it'sexciting. So this was so fun to
have you in. We've like Isaid, talked about it for a long
(44:51):
time, and I hope it wasa good trip down memory lane. And
I think people are really going toenjoy learning more about your past and your
upbringing too. Well. It certainlywas, and certainly appreciate the opportunity just
to share part of my life withyou and with some of those Bronco fans
that are out there, a lotof those Bronco fans, all right,
Thanks, thank you, thank you, Randy. What a pleasure. New
(45:13):
episodes of Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired are released on Tuesdays. Please
follow and download this podcast wherever youlisten to podcasts, and keep up on
new releases by following on Twitter andInstagram at ctfur podcast and also on the
website ctfurpodcast dot com. I'm yourhost, Susie Wargen. To learn more
about me, visit Susiewargen dot com. Thanks so much for listening, and
(45:36):
until next time, please be careful, be safe, and be kind.
Take care.
As soon as I hung up,I call mom and dad at home and
say, Mom and Dad, I'mgoing to Denver, Colorado, Denver Broncos.
I didn't say when I was draftedor anything, because I didn't even
know that I was in the firstround. And after coach Ralston said you
know you're coming to Denver Broncos,I had to go look on a map
to see where Colorado was. Welcometo Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired
(00:24):
a weekly podcast featuring conversations with professionalathletes and coaches who have experienced being cut,
traded, fired, and or they'reretired. I'm your host. Susy
Wargen, the guest for this episode, was never cut, traded, or
fired, just retired. He alsohappens to be going into the Pro Football
Hall of Fame in twenty twenty four, and it's an honor that is long
(00:46):
overdue. Randy Gratischar is a legendof a football player and person. I
get to see him at every Broncoshome game as he works for the NFL
as a uniform checker on the Broncossideline. Randy grew up in a small
town in Ohio and had zero aspirationsof doing anything but working after high school,
hard work like all the other bluecollar folks around him. But as
(01:07):
it turns out, he was prettygood at a sport that he didn't even
start playing until high school. Randywas recruited by a number of colleges,
opted for Ohio State, and whenthe Broncos drafted him in the first round,
he didn't know what that meant orwhere Denver, Colorado was even located.
Over the next ten years, Randyhelped build the infamous Orange Crush defense
and was part of the Broncos' firstSuper Bowl appearance. He racked up countless
(01:30):
accolades like seven time Pro Bowler andnineteen seventy eight NFL Defensive Player of the
Year. After retirement, Randy spentway too many years as a finalist for
the Hall of Fame and didn't getin until thirty five years after he retired.
By the way, flip around thatthirty five and you get the number
he wore in Orange and Blue.He's still very involved in the community up
(01:53):
and down the front range, andas you'll hear, just as humble and
unassuming as they come, ladies andgentlemen. Number fifteen, Randy gratishar Cut
Traded Fired Retired podcast with Susie Wargen, Randy gratischar It is so good to
have you in here. We've talkedabout this for a long time, but
(02:14):
I wanted to wait until it wasfor sure, for sure, for sure,
that you're going into the Pro FootballHall of Fame. Yeah, well
I'm for sure too now. SoI'm pretty excited about that. And finally
got the call, and I didn'tget to call. I got a call
from the Broncos and they said,well, Greg and Carry Penner want to
(02:35):
meet with you because they want tofind out more about why the Orange Crush
was so good. Oh, that'show they got you in. What was
I going to do? Say noto the owners? And so my wife
and I went. That was theThursday call, and we went in Friday
morning and then had the opportunity toshare with Greg and Carry about why we
(02:55):
thought we were so good, ofthe relationships, the talent, and all
those kinds of things. And soeventually Greg got up or said we need
to go to the other room.So my wife and I, Beth,
walked into the other room and thenall of a sudden, there's twenty five
to thirty different media people there wavingtheir microphones and I found out and then
(03:20):
I hugged Beth and I said,we finally made it. We finally made
it. So that was just veryvery exciting. And then turned to my
right and then I see a guynamed Tom Jackson and Billy Thompson, and
it was just great to have thembeing part of this and finally know that
I was going into the Pro FootballHall of Fame, which is just amazing
(03:44):
and how cool to be able tocelebrate that with a couple of your Orange
Crush teammates. And we're going totalk way more about that, but we
need the first rand to go wayback to your beginning. Okay, we're
going way way back, far toofar. You're born in Ohio and you
go to Champion High School letter infootball and basketball. And I'm going to
venture because most of my football playersthat I have in say I always wanted
(04:05):
to be a basketball player. Didyou want to be a basketball player more
than a football player or did youwant football more? You are very good
from a small community Warren, Youngstownare the bigger cities, and Champions a
little township right outside of Warren,Ohio. And so that's where Champion high
school was we didn't even have footballuntil I was in ninth grade, No
(04:28):
kidding, I wasn't even playing football. And then when you said football basketball,
I thought I was always better inbasketball, see, and then I
started playing football in ninth grade.And then after my junior year in basketball,
there were some college coaches scouts thatcame around and they said, ready,
we want you to go to ourschool, our university. And because
(04:51):
I call it a very sheltered communityin an environment that I grew up in,
my parents couldn't help. But allof a sudd sudden, it's like
going to college, going to auniversity. My high school basketball coach and
football coach actually mentored me over thatperiod of my last year there of saying,
Ray, you need to do thisbecause my parents they were depressing kids.
(05:15):
All they knew was how to work. And then my college wasn't on
your radar, was it? Oh? No? Honestly, I mean I
knew there was colleges out there,but again not even knowing that until my
junior year. You know, someguys came around and said, we come
to our school. Did you notknow you were good at that point?
(05:35):
Did you just kind of think youwere just playing. Yeah, I was
just playing. Wow. I havea mindset that I'll do the best I
can and never thought of if Iwas good or not. That's what made
you so good, Randy, Yeah, it really did. It's at that
blue collar attitude that comes from yourupbringing of you just and I've seen many
(05:56):
people say this. You brought yourlunch pail to work every day. You
just worked. That's what you knewhow to do, right, And I
learned that all. You know,the foundation of my life was from my
parents and growing up and then allof a sudden involved with athletics and football
and baseball and basketball when I wasin high school, then going on to
eventually choosing Ohio State. And thatwas an opportunity in itself. Oh yeah,
(06:21):
because I remember my dad having agrocery store and I had half a
day off of when I was asenior. I get a call from the
principal's office. I was working atmy dad's grocery store, and he said,
well, Woody Hayes is here.Can you come up and talk to
him and see him. I said, well, sure, I'll be right
there, and I hung up thephone and I looked at my dad and
(06:45):
said, who's Woody Hayes. That'sthe reality of my sheltered environment. Because
this going to school. I thoughtI might go to a mid American school
because I thought I was still betterin basketball, so I could play both
sorts at the Mint American school.And then all of a sudden, Woody
comes and I go up to theprincipal's office and we spend about an hour
(07:06):
and fifteen minutes talking. Eventually hesaid, well, Randy, what's your
dad do. I said, well, he owns a grocery store down the
street. He said, well,let's go see him, because he's always
excited in energy, and so Isaid, okay, we'll go to see
him. So we went drove downto the grocery store and we walked in
(07:28):
and it was an old fashioned grocerystore, produce counter, meat counters,
wooden floors and all that. Sowe walked back to the meat counter because
my dad was slicing bologney for acustomer and he had to finish doing that.
And then all of a sudden theystart talking, and then wood he
said I'll see you later. Afterhe left, I turned to my dad,
(07:49):
I said, Woody, he neveror coach hays I didn't call him
Woody back then. Coach Hayes nevermentioned my name, you know, he
was trying to recruit me or whatever. But it took me a number of
days to figure out he's recruiting theparents. Oh yeah, and so he's
recruiting the parents. And the conversationwas all about World War Two. My
(08:13):
dad was in World War two.What he was in World War interesting?
And they he was connecting with them, yeah, and they both were in
the Philippines. And so I learneda lot about my dad's standing there for
an hour and fifteen minutes at thegrocery store, learning about my dad's career
(08:33):
in the Philippines. Amazing. Whatother schools were looking at you, and
especially when you mentioned the basketball andI should mention that you're I think it
was your senior year. You werethe leading rebounder, you were the second
highest scorer, So you really werea very good basketball player along with being
a very accomplished football player. Yeah. Well that's why I felt better in
basketball, and then and the footballthing came along. Of course, there
(08:56):
was no offers in basketball, youknow, but uh, and I got
a lot of help from my highschool basketball coach and football coach was no
two different coaches, but they mentoredme. At the time, I didn't
know what mentoring meant, and butthey, you know, they said,
Randy, you really need to dothis, and got parents involved and all
(09:20):
that, and it was just agreat opportunity to all of a sudden adventure
getting all those offers, right,Yeah, And I got a couple other
offers from Again, I didn't knowanything about the Big Ten, and so
my high school basketball coach took meto like Penn State and Purdue. And
(09:41):
again, Penn State wasn't even inthe Big Ten at that time, so,
uh, Penn State and Purdue.And then I got a few offers
to go to Bowling Green or MiamiUniversity. But I never visited the Mid
American schools, and so then Idown to Ohio State and my high school
(10:03):
basketball coach took me down there,and all of a sudden, I'm in
a stadium with eighty six thousand people. I never experienced that before. Just
a great experience and the relationship Ihad with Woody Hazen. And again,
Woody was there for twenty eight yearsand influenced thousands of young men over twenty
(10:24):
eight years. He had a mottocalled pay Forward. He would pull in
every freshman. He would be talkingand then all of a sudden, he
would point at you. He said, Randy, you got to start paying
forward. I said, okay,okay, how do I do that?
He said, I'm going to showyou. And then for twenty eight years
he showed us. And I wasone of those guys that paying forward.
(10:48):
We got together at the facility everyFriday in the spring quarter. He would
take us to hospitals, nursing homes, high schools, middle schools and just
paying forward, trying to be aleader and show respect and volunteer and get
involved with your community. Obviously,that made an impact because you still do
(11:09):
it today. I know. Imean that's the football career is great,
and then after football, but thatpay forward and him influencing over twenty eight
years thousands of young athletes paying forwardas a real meaningful slogan. Absolutely a
lot of people know about that today. Yeah, and the fact that he
(11:31):
was a coach to that many studentathletes, but called you the best linebacker
he ever coached. That is sayingsomething, Randy. That's pretty impressive.
And there's a lot of people whohave said pretty incredible things about you throughout
the years. But that has tomean a lot with how much he means
to you. Well, when I'vefound that out after I was out here
with the Denver Broncos, I neverheard of another one of our players having
(11:56):
that kind of accolade. A hugecoach Woody Hayes, when he said that,
that was more than special. Oh, absolutely, So you become a
starter. You're a three year starterthere with the buck Eyes. Over your
three years, they have a recordof twenty five six and one, two
Big Ten championships. You win theRose Bowl in nineteen seventy four, you
(12:16):
set school records, your sixth andHeisman voting. I didn't know that until
I started doing some research. Mygoodness, and you're all academic, All
American in nineteen seventy three. Youwere also in a fraternity. So how
did Randy gradishar coming from a littlesmall town champion going to this massive stadium.
You're able to be in a fraternity, have good studies, and be
(12:37):
a phenomenal football player all the sametime. Well, I didn't realize it
until after going through it, andit was like saying, here's what you
need to do. To be goodand what he was always more into education
than he was really into football.Makes a big difference. As he would
pull you in after every quarter,even to the guys that were or not
(13:00):
freshmen, and he would pull usin and go over our grades and saying,
you know, it's kind of likewhen you're going to graduate and you
need to do better in your grades. It was almost like a counselor yeah
wow, yeah, so he Imean, and most people don't even know
that, and they just know himas a coach, but great respect,
a great man and great coach youknow at Ohio State, and just having
(13:26):
that influence of the way he treatedus, and it certainly wasn't in a
bad way. I know a lotof people have a different attitude against what
he hates kind of thing what theyhave seen, but you know, from
an internal standpoint, it was allabout how could he make us better on
the field and off the field.The persona on the outside is perhaps different
(13:48):
than what you guys saw on theinside. Sure, yeah, and you
know, and I know the publicmay not understand that, but if you
talk to anybody who was Underwoody fortwenty eight years, you'd get the same
answer. I bet that's really neatall. Right, So you graduate then
in nineteen seventy four, what wasyour doing? I got a degree in
(14:09):
education education. So in nineteen seventyfour, you graduate, you go into
the draft, and the Broncos pickyou with the number fourteen pick. I
know you went to the Hula Bowl. Was there like a combine back there
or how did you How did theNFL kind of work you out and do
all that back in the early seventies. No, there was no combine.
There was no combine and no fortyyard time. Just keep changing, for
(14:31):
sure. I went to the HulaBowl. I really enjoyed that because both
scham Beeckler from Michigan was the coach. He coached the East team and somebody
else coached the West team. Afterthe game, as we were leaving,
we were there all week with coachHeim Beckler, and I finally went up
to him and made a point tohim. I said, coach, the
(14:54):
reason I went to Ohio State.Woody Hayes came and talked to me,
me, you just called me andso I, you know, try to
make fun of that, and helaughed. I wondered if Michigan also recruited
you. They did. Oh yeah, both. Yeah, he called me
what he showed up and what heshowed up we went to my dad's grocery
(15:15):
store. So that was something funand uh and you got to tell him
later. Yeah, right, that'sgreat. So you do the Hula Bowl
and then how does the NFL startto or how do teams find out about
you? And did you have anidea that the Broncos would draft you?
No, none of that. Andagain somebody goes back to my personality because
(15:35):
I never dreamed of wanting to goto the NFL, even though I was
Because I remember in my senior yearthere were some pro scouts that came around
at Ohio State and they were onthe sideline and a couple of them eventually
come up and said, hey,Randy, you're pretty good. You could
get draft in the NFL. AndI said that'd be great. So I
(15:58):
had no id. You're so unassuming. Yeah yeah, so no desire,
no dream to go in the NFL, And all of a sudden they said,
well, okay, I'll consider thatand seeing if I get drafted or
whatever. I remember even the call, I didn't even know what round I
was drafted. John Ralston called me, certainly, today's a different thing.
(16:22):
Yeah. And then eventually I hadto say, well, I got drafted
in the first round, but Ididn't know what that meant. Are you
that good? Just fourteenth overall pick? Yeah, fourteenth pick and all that.
And I found out I said,well, you know I'm going to
I got to go to Denver,Colorado. John Ralston called and he said,
Randy, you're coming to Denver,Colorado. Congratulations, and that kind
(16:45):
of conversation. As soon as Ihung up, I call mom and dad
at home and say, Mom andDad, I'm going to Denver, Colorado,
Denver Broncos. I didn't say whenI was drafted or anything because that
didn't concern me. And I didn'teven know that I was in the first
round. And so after that conversation, before I hung up, my dad
(17:06):
said, Randy, I was bornin Pueblo, so my father was born
in Pueblo. And after Coach Ralstonsaid you know you're coming to the Denver
Broncos, I had to go lookon a map to see where Colorado was,
and then all of a sudden,my dad says, Pueblo, Colorado.
Of course, I didn't know wherethat was, but still have cousins
(17:27):
down there. Oh my god.And when they were little kids, Grandpa
and Grandma, they moved to northeastOhio, Warren, Youngstown, Ohio.
That was big steel mill cities backthen. And my grandfather worked at the
CF and I Steel mill down inPueblo. That's why they the time.
You know, I look back onthat and remember that as clear as the
(17:49):
sky is, and so it's reallyfun fun in order to be able to
rehash this and let people know,oh, yeah, absolutely that there was
kind of a world tie from thevery beginning. So you come out to
Denver, what's that like? Becausenow you've gone small town to big Ohio
state and now you're in the NFL. Did you just assume you were gonna
(18:11):
leave college and go work as ateacher and that was going to be it?
Yeah? I mean, and thatwas the Woody Hayes thing. He
said. He never talked about theNFL. Wow. I mean, he
didn't say, Randy, you're goodenough to go to the NFL. And
it was always about getting a degree, coming back if you couldn't get it
in four years, and come backand get that because you were offered to
(18:34):
do that. So that's why hewas so wanting to have his guys being
graduated and having a degree then goingoff into real life into some kind of
business or career that each and everyone of us were able to do.
So wow. So instead you gointo a career, a ten year career
in the NFL, and you becomepart of one of the most iconic defenses
(18:57):
with the Orange Crush defense. Imean, you come here and then soon
you join the likes of all theseincredible you mentioned a couple of the teammates
earlier with BT and Tom Jackson andSteve Foley ends up being there. Louis
Wright, I mean, you havethis incredible orange crush defense that you know
a few years after you you comehere, you end up going to the
(19:17):
Super Bowl. But what was thattransition like from Ohio State to the Denver
Broncos. And Red Miller is yourcoach or was he not? John Rawls,
John oh Johnson, Ralston drafted allof us guys from seventy to Lyle
Alzado, Barney Chavis, Reuben Carter, myself, Tommy Jackson, Rizzo,
Swenson, Billy Thompson, Louis right, Billy Thompson was the old only holdover
(19:42):
from the lou Saban air Okay,and then then seventy seven Red came and
I remember talking to Tommy on thesideline. They said, Tommy, we're
twelve and two. You know,the Broncos certainly haven't ever done that because
they always lost more games than theywon. And so all of us sudden,
we're twelve and two. Then weplay the Steel Curtain guys at the
(20:03):
first Divisional playoff at Old Mile Highand we beat them, and Ken Stabler
and John Madden come in with theOakland Raiders and we beat them, and
all of a sudden, we're goingto Super Bowl twelve. First time ever
playoffs and going to a super Bowl. And always remember how crazy Colorado went
(20:25):
for, you know, having thatopportunity to do that. That was really
cool. And that was in NewOrleans. Yeah, super Dome in New
Orleans. C Fully, I thinktold me the funny story about that,
about how you guys stayed at somecrap hotel somewhere right at the airport,
but the Cowboys got to stay insome plush place and you had a horrible
(20:45):
training facility. Yeah, I rememberthat. It was like it's kind of
like you're saying, well, isthis what the super Bowl's like? And
they you think of what's happened overthe years, and I even go back
to, well, I was insuper Bowl twelve. I just came from
super Bowl fifty eight and was beinginducted into the Hall of Fame. I
(21:06):
have to use a calculator in orderto see how many years difference it is
from super Bowl twelve super Bowl fiftyeight. So yeah, I've had a
lot of fun with being selected.Oh absolutely, yeah, no, really
cool. And then to go tothat Super Bowl, I mean the town
went crazy. As you said,everybody's wearing I had. I wish I
could find my Orange Crush T shirtbecause I had an Orange Crush T shirt.
(21:30):
I just you know, it waseverything to everybody, and even though
it wasn't a victorious super Bowl,it still meant the world that, OHI
were there, and the defense waswhat it was, and Craig Morton was
our quarterback and everything was great.Everybody loved Red. Talk a little bit
about Joe Collier and how he helpedwith that defense, and he was just
such an iconic part of putting allthose guys together as well. Even though
(21:52):
Ralston was the one who drafted him. Yeah, a lot of great credit
goes to Joe Collier. I meanhe I say he invented the four defense.
I come from Ohio State. Wewere lined up on that defense very
similar, and so I already kindof knew, you know, some of
the reactions and blocking and those kindsof things. And then when I came
(22:12):
to Denver, it was very veryfamiliar with for me. And they switched
at one point from the four tothree to the three four right and would
you middle to inside? And Inever played the four to three. I
never played over the middle. Sookay, in college, would he called
it the Oklahoma defense? You hadtwo outside linebackers and two inside. But
(22:34):
and then coming out to thirty fourdefense, I think Joe's kind of got
that started, I think in seventyfour or five, and then all of
a sudden we got very good.And I talked to some older guys that
I played against and played with.They could never figure out the blocking and
what we were doing in order tomake that thirty four defense. And then
(22:56):
the New York Giants and Harry Carsonand Lawrence tail Or, you know,
they're playing the thirty four defense.And so I take some credit because I
just got into the Hall of Fame. You should take credit. You never
have and you should take credit.Randy. Yeah, everything. And the
giants are Harry Carson and Lawrence Taylor. They're already into the Pro Football Hall
(23:18):
of Fame. So I just wantedthem to know that I take a lot
of credit for them for their success. What do you think, Randy,
made you different? Because there isand you know, it's been a lot
of years that people have talked aboutyou for the Hall of Fame. You've
had so many different people weigh inon your style of play and what you
(23:40):
did. You weren't flashy, youweren't lt, you weren't those guys that
like you. Weren't the big headline, which probably then maybe hurt you down
the road for trying to get inbecause people didn't know your name as much.
I mean, it took forever forBroncos to get in the Hall of
Fame because people just didn't know ourteam that well. But it doesn't mean
we didn't have Hall of Fame worthyplayers. So what was it about you
that made you different and made youplay the way that you did? And
(24:03):
now finally you're being recognized for that, well, you know, it goes
back to a lot of credit ofparents, but also my coaches over the
years, and then coaches with theDenver Broncos, Joe Collier, Murral Moore,
Stan Jones, Bob Gamboled and justhaving the opportunity to play ten years
(24:23):
and again getting recognized as the OrangeCrush. And I guess I need to
publicly say we made the Orange Crushdistributor a lot of money all the time,
and people don't even know may Dn F and Lazarus and some of
those retail stores selling the sodas andselling the shirts and all that. So
(24:45):
it's just a real blessing to beable to know that, you know,
the Orange Crush defense was in myera and I finished in eighty three,
and that's when Kubiak and the Elwayand Mecklenburg were rookies and the Orange Crush.
And I take a lot of creditfor that because I taught him everything
they knew and so finally they gotinto Super Bowls and finally they start winning
(25:10):
super Bowls. So Bronco history certainlygoes back to a lot of that for
the Orange Crush. You were theelder veteran that taught them everything. Yeah,
well maybe they took a little bitof I remember even Tom Jackson when
we were in the huddle, Imean telling me, you know, he
was always yelling and screaming at theopponents, and a lot of times he
(25:33):
wouldn't even get the call because he'sstill yapping and saying stuff and I'm going
to get you. And then hecomes back to me, he said,
you never made the call, andhe blames me for his yapping all the
time, even on the field andeven sometimes in practice he's talking and talking
and I'm trying to make a callfor our defense. And so it was
(25:55):
just funny. And the relationship wehave and still with some of the guys,
it's just been great. Yeah,you guys are all very close,
which is really neat to see.So Tommy was a talker. Did you
get into trash talking very much?No? No, no, I'm just
like I am today kind of thing. And you know, once in a
while, when I was playing againstopponents, particularly in the NFL, you
(26:18):
know, somebody held me or blockedme or illegally or whatever. I would
just go over and to them say, please don't do that again, you
know, and if you do,I'm going to get you. So I
didn't have those bad blocks for mefor sure, right, Yeah, they
were afraid that you would actually getthem. Yeah, absolutely all right.
So in nineteen seventy eight, you'rethe NFL Defensive Player of the Year,
(26:41):
You're a seven time Pro bowler,You're in the Ring of Fame at the
stadium. Now you're going into theHall of Fame. You were never cut
or traded. You were able tostay with the same team for ten years.
Did you do all of your contractnegotiations? Did you have an agent
at some point? Because it seemslike you're quite grounded in that you could
probably all of this yourself. Ididn't do it by myself, okay,
(27:03):
when I was in college at OhioState, and then they said you're being
drafted. So eventually I did getan agent. Good, okay. And
back then the contracts, I rememberFred girky Or was our general manager.
You bring your agent in and sitwith Fred and maybe somebody else. They
would just say, okay, theyput the contract in front of you,
(27:26):
saying do you want to sign this? No negotiation? Oh no, Well
they already had it figured out.They say, here's what we're going to
offer you and if you like it, great and if you don't, talk
to you later kind of thing.So, wow, negotiations back then,
I mean course, everything has certainlychanged from you know, the way we
(27:47):
were playing football today, the waythe money is. And see, the
average guy when I played and myten years made eighty thousand dollars. What
was your highest contract that you gotduring that time? Do you remember?
You know, it was maybe arounda one hundred and fifty kind of thing,
and that was in my tenth year. Oh my goodness, and that's
(28:07):
nothing these days. Well I understand, and yeah, so now they're millions
and jillions. Yeah, and yousigned for three years, but you didn't
have a guarantee too. And Ialways look back thinking, you know,
the guys in the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixty seventies,
you know, they played for onehundred dollars, right, they built a
(28:29):
base that you built a base,and it just kept kind of going.
Then eventually they got one thousand dollarsand a one hundred thousand. Now it's
millions and jillions. Yeah, it'smultiplied a lot, all right. So,
as you mentioned, you retire innineteen eighty three, Randy. And
then you have done so many coolthings in retirement. You've had trips to
the Middle East, You've been veryinvolved with the troops. You've had a
(28:52):
long relationship with Phil long Ford andyou do all kinds of outreach with them.
And then you've had so many yearsagonizing as a finalist for the Hall
of Fame. What has brought youkind of the most joy in your retirement.
I know there's so many, allof them, and that's what I've
learned from what he has of payingforward in all those areas, being involved
(29:14):
with the community. Even when wewere playing, we would go to children's
hospitals here in Denver and nursing homesand assisted living homes, and that all
started and I did that in college, and then I did that in Denver
and still doing that today and evenworking with the phill Long Dealership group.
(29:37):
You know, it's going on seventyeight years now. Mister Long had a
motto, he said, be thebest you can be and help others and
they'll help you. I'm involved withmy job, being involved with the community
a lot, and all of ourdifferent dealerships, and I continue doing that
and alls I'm doing now is gettingolder stop and people get to meet you
(30:00):
a lot, which is neat yourMiddle East trips, though, I'd love
to learn more about that and whatyou did when you went overseas. That
was just again another blessing because Iget a call from the League office.
It was through the USO program fromthe NFL, and they said, would
you like to go over to Baghdadand you know, meet our troops and
(30:21):
be with them? And they said, well, what are we going to
do? And they wouldn't tell youanything else. I mean, it didn't
give you any details because it wasall military. I had the opportunity to
go on three trips in four orfive and seven from Iraq to Afghanistan to
Qatar to Saudi Arabia, just havingthat experience and then so I said,
(30:45):
well sure I'll go, and soI went. We went, and then
there were some other about ten otherNFL players over there. I took off
from Denver to New York to Londonand then all of a sudden, I'm
in Kuwait. Of course you don'teven know where you're going, right,
You're just going over there. Sothey say, while you're in Kuwait,
(31:06):
we're going to get ready to goto Baghdad. That's all we knew.
We were going to Baghdad. Andthis is four oh five, Yeah,
four five and seven. Things weregoing on pretty There were some crazy times
in there. Yeah. Right thenight I was leaving going to the next
day to the airport to get overthere, I see Baghdad getting bombed and
I said, I'm going over there. You know. It's so we get
(31:32):
over there, we're signing autographs andmeeting troops. And I looked around and
the other guys looked around and said, this is a pretty nice place.
Where are we at. They didn'teven tell us we were just going to
Baghdad, and we're at this prettynice place. And then they said,
you're at Saddam's palace. And wow, if anybody knows about what Saddam was
(31:55):
doing, I mean, they hadpalaces. And I tried to relate it
to if you know Colorado Springs inthe Broadmoor Hotel. It's bigger than that.
And they got cement walls all theway around it. And then also
Bud Grant, the former Vikings coach, was on on our trip, and
uh, the palace had pond theycalled them ponds. But I called them
(32:19):
lakes and Coach Bud Grant was alwaysknow as an outdoor guy. So a
couple of days he was out therefishing in this pond or the lake Saddam's
Palace, catching fish and you're ina movie. Wow, that was just
a fun deal. But you know, saying that Coach Grant outdoors guy,
(32:44):
but now he's fishing at Saddam's Palacewas pretty special, no kidding. Yeah,
And then just the connection with thetroops had to be something else and
they needed it then, didn't they. Oh yeah, Now four was kind
of whatever the beginning was of beingold there in Baghdad and all the problems
that were going on and our troopsfighting, and they would just take us
(33:07):
to different locations and everything was escortedand high secret service kind of thing,
and uh so it was just adid you feel safe the whole time?
Felt safe? That's good time becausewe were always had somebody in front of
us, somebody behind us as faras transportation and those kinds of things.
And uh, you know, itwas just a great experience because I did
(33:30):
two years of razzi in college waitingfor a Vietnam number. That's right,
you told me that, And yeah. So, but all of a sudden,
now I'm kind of on uh youknow, the front lines of people
going to war and understanding what mydad might have gone through, and uh
so having that experience was just areal blessing and I certainly never forget that.
(33:52):
I bet you and I talked backin November when they had the Salute
to Service month and you relayed thatto me about the RAZI that you did
at Ohio State. Our our sondid ROTZI up at CSU and he's currently
in the Air Force now. Soit's a great program if anybody has a
thought about it, and a kiddothat's in college, the ROTC programs are
fantastic, right all right. Sothere's all those years where you are with
(34:15):
the Hall of Fame, a topten finalist, a top fifteen this year
in the senior finalist, What wasit like, Randy? I mean,
and I know, you know,I'm one of them that would ask whenever
we'd see you, and people wouldsee you and they're like, man,
it's every year. It was likeit was Groundhog Day for you over and
over again, and you still justkept going and you've always kept It's like
(34:36):
you are now you just you've kepta smile on your face and you just
keep going forward, and you didn't. I don't think that it ever made
you bitter. No. I alwaysknew if that was ever going to happen,
it would be God's direction and whatyear that was all going to happen.
And in that thirty five years,I learned a lot of patience,
yeah, because I was asking questionsand then I started to looking at my
(34:59):
ownts and my statistics were better thansome of the guys that were in there,
yep. And so that's where thatmedia East Coast guys and West Coast
guys that get their teams in anddifferent people. So but I just learned
a lot of patients through that wholeprocess and having the opportunity to kind of
(35:21):
wait. And then I finally finallyrealized that this was of God because I
waited thirty five years. A dayor two later, I switched thirty five
years and I turned it into fiveto three. Oh brilliant God's timing,
no kidding, Oh my gosh,you know. And then I asked the
(35:42):
laurd, I said, why thirtyfive years? But now it's fifty three.
So that's that was his plan.Yeah, so I have to ask
you. I watched the NFL Honorsprogram when they had everybody come up,
you know, from underneath, andyou're you're brought up as the newest members
that are be enshrined in can Andwhat was that like being at that situation
and coming up from wonder It's likeyou're in a one of the many shows
(36:06):
they have in Las Vegas and youcome out of nowhere. Yeah, well,
going to Las Vegas. I haven'tspent any time in Las Vegas,
but we were out there for theSuper Bowl. These hotels were monstrous.
Oh yeah. And so having thefirst opportunity to do that and then all
of a sudden they're telling us whatto do and saying, Okay, we're
gonna take you on an elevator downto our basement. In this platform or
(36:31):
the stage, we'll be telling youwhen you go up, you're going to
go up halfway and you're going tostop there. And then with them telling
us that, they also said,you know, when you see the green
lights, that means you got tomove. You move up. If you
see the red light, you knowit stopped. So it's like an intersection
(36:52):
light, you know. So thefirst light's read. They take us up
halfway and we stayed in there andwait, we can't hear anything. We're
all in there together. Okay.It's a huge elevator, a rising platform
from the basement up half way andthen all of a sudden, we're on
stage and the smoke's everywhere, smokeseverywhere, and we're they're telling us to
(37:19):
walk out here and stop. Andthen you turn and then you're looking for
the red light the green light kindof thing, and they start introducing you.
But the elevator ride was a kindof a highlight too. Oh yeah,
when you came up out of nowhere, I was like, oh my
god, it's so cool. Yeah, that is really neat all. Right,
So Randy, we get to seeeach other and all the Broncos home
(37:43):
games because you also have another jobthat you do in that you're the uniform
check guy for the Broncos at thehome games. Wade Manning is in charge
of the opponent's side and you're incharge of the Broncos side. You've been
doing that for a long time.Yeah, I've been doing that about eight
years. Okay, Yeah, anddo you like it? And you get
i mean, fans call out toyou all the time as you're walking by
(38:05):
on the sideline, and it's goingto be a gazillion fold this year with
the Canton and Triman. Yeah,and that's been a lot of fun for
me and all. I didn't evenknow anything about it. I didn't even
know the NFL league had uniform inspectors. The Broncos call and say, you
want to be a uniform inspector.I said, what do you got to
do? So then I find outit's been going on. Greg Boyd,
(38:28):
who was a defensive lineman, hedid it for like about twenty years and
I'm now going on till my eighthor ninth year kind of thing. I
get there a few hours before thegame and wait for them come out in
pregame warm up, and then Ihave a list of I call them the
violation list, where your jersey's supposedto look a certain way, you're supposed
(38:51):
to have orange and blue and whitesox on, You're supposed to have a
Nike or an underarmor logo on yourshoe or your glove. And then if
you have a tinted windshield, ithas to be light, medium or dark.
And so that's my main job.When the pregame warm lest I walk
(39:12):
through and watch them. S you'llstart checking for violations before the game.
You'll do it in that as soonas they come out in their uniforms.
Yeah, yeah, so that's thefirst check mark and saying then I give
after right after the pregame warm up, they go in to get dressed,
come out for the first half,I give it to the equipment manager with
a number of violations whatever they are, and he takes it in and goes
(39:35):
to the players and then tells themfix your jersey, fix your helmet,
whatever that would be. And thenthey come out the first half and most
of them correct that, just ona normal basis. Okay. Then I
watch them for the first half,and then when they go in at halftime,
I give the equipment manager the samepiece of paper if guys didn't have
(39:57):
it corrected. And so then whenthey them out for the third core second
half, I still have to watchthem because there's always a couple guys who
were okay in the first half,but then they changed their logos or whatever
they've done for the second half.No kidding, So I just for the
whole game, I'm just walking themback and forth. You do we get
(40:19):
a lot of steps in. Youand I. We're back and forth all
the time. I wish I hadmy new watch so I could catch one.
You need an Apple Watch. Backand forth, back and forth.
You would be shocked how many milesyou end up walking, because I'll always
look at mine after a game andI'm like, whoa, seven miles?
Eight miles? Yeah, and thenI see you just standing on one side
and then all of a sudden theymove the ball to the other side.
(40:43):
You take a few steps. Imove with the ball. Yeah, I
move with the play of action.Yeah. So do you get so you
never tell the players. It alwaysgoes to the equipment guys. Uh?
Yeah, the equipment. A guyI wondered if you ever had any chats
with players. No, no,okay, because you have to have separation
of church and state, don't youchurch and state? And you know,
you know I'm there for business andyou don't. You don't develop personal relationships
(41:07):
on the sideline with these guys.And then I when I get home after
the game, I take all theguys with the violations, and then I
record that and then send it tothe league office. And then the league
office decides to find them if they'regoing to get fined, so they get
a lot of chances to correct thingsbefore they actually get a fine. Sure,
(41:28):
yeah, they got They got thewhole game, really, and there's
no reason for any violations, right, and there's and over the years,
there's always been a couple of guyscoming over and they'll see me writing them
up. They'll come over and say, what are you writing me up for?
I said, well, you're you'reviolating the dress code, and so
(41:50):
they hassle me, blame me forright, it's not your fault, it's
the rules. So who is theOkay, can you say, like you
know, not to name a currentguy, but was there like a past
guy who was a bad offender soyou got to keep it quiet. I
can't remember really, but you're undera cloak of secrecy. Don't out anybody,
(42:13):
so I don't want to create anyproblems for even the guys that were
absolutely no unfair question. Okay,all right, So last question for you,
Randy, as you've gone through yourwhole career and you've had lots of
time to reflect now and especially asyou're going to go and be enshrined in
Canton, you were fortunate enough thatyou played for the same team for ten
years. There's a lot of guysin the NFL that they would love to
(42:36):
do that, and they don't andthey get cut and things happen. But
it wasn't always easy. You losta Super Bowl. There were probably games
in there that you knew something couldhave been changed, that you could have
done differently. So as you lookback, and what would you tell people
as they go through life of howto kind of pick yourself back up and
keep going to have great things cometo you in the future. You had
(42:57):
to pick yourself up a lot forthirty five years waiting for Hall of Fame
announcement. Yeah, well, duringmy thirty five years I learned a lot
more patients through that process, andagain going back to my style of playing,
my style of being upbringing and payingattention to coaches, paying attention to
parents, and then just having thatin life and also on the athletic field.
(43:21):
It was just something that I knewI grew up with. That's who
I am. I think hopefully I'mstill that way today for sure, And
so that's been a lifelong process forme and then particularly I mean, I'm
just very very grateful that now I'vefinally had the opportunity. I didn't even
(43:43):
worry about it for the first fouror five six years. And then the
owner of the phill Long Dealerships,Jay Chimino, he said, Randy,
we need to get started on essen. So he got some people together and
started like campaign, yeah, campaign, and he put together a book that
had quotes from other former players thatplayed against me and statistics and all that.
(44:07):
And so because of j Chamino,because I would have never done that
myself right here too, so andthe committee that he put together, all
my credit goes back to him.I love it. Well, congratulations.
I know that it's been a longtime coming, and it's exciting. It's
exciting for Broncos fans, longtime fanslike me that watched you play, and
(44:30):
I was still care for the Broncos. I still cheer for the Broncos.
Yes, you know, I bleedorange and blue like nobody's business. You
know, it's one of those things. I'm from here and that's just all
I've ever known. So even thoughyou know I work there and do the
sidelines, I still cheer and it'sexciting. So this was so fun to
have you in. We've like Isaid, talked about it for a long
(44:51):
time, and I hope it wasa good trip down memory lane. And
I think people are really going toenjoy learning more about your past and your
upbringing too. Well. It certainlywas, and certainly appreciate the opportunity just
to share part of my life withyou and with some of those Bronco fans
that are out there, a lotof those Bronco fans, all right,
Thanks, thank you, thank you, Randy. What a pleasure. New
(45:13):
episodes of Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired are released on Tuesdays. Please
follow and download this podcast wherever youlisten to podcasts, and keep up on
new releases by following on Twitter andInstagram at ctfur podcast and also on the
website ctfurpodcast dot com. I'm yourhost, Susie Wargen. To learn more
about me, visit Susiewargen dot com. Thanks so much for listening, and
(45:36):
until next time, please be careful, be safe, and be kind.
Take care.
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