December 20, 2023 • 44 mins
There are but a handful of professional athletes who are universally recognized as the greatest at what they do. Today’s guest is one such athlete.
Join Bernie in welcoming Pro Football Hall of Famer, 9-time first-team All-Pro and NFL 100 All-Time Team member Anthony Muñoz to the program in the second of a two-part conversation to talk about Anthony’s 13 seasons of dominance at the left tackle position while playing with the Bengals. Plus: the “Freezer Bowl”; rehabbing knee injuries; the heartbreak of losing Super Bowls XVI and XXII; the greatness of Fred Dean and Bruce Smith; offensive line techniques, and the thrill of catching touchdown passes.
Later, Bernie shares his own small world story about Anthony’s friend and former teammate, Dave Lapham. And finally, Anthony talks about his charitable foundation where they teach “Victory Beyond Competition” in their seven mentoring programs dedicated to engaging kids mentally, physically and emotionally. To date, the Anthony Muñoz Foundation has raised $16 million dollars and helped 40,000 kids.
Games People Play is sponsored by TicketSmarter and the TicketSmarter mobile app: get $10 off any purchase of $100 or more with promo code LWOS10, or get $20 off any purchase of $300 or more with promo code LWOS20.
Track: "Im Coming Back Again"
Music provided by https://Slip.stream
Free Download/Stream: https://get.slip.stream/tzpr1l
Join Bernie in welcoming Pro Football Hall of Famer, 9-time first-team All-Pro and NFL 100 All-Time Team member Anthony Muñoz to the program in the second of a two-part conversation to talk about Anthony’s 13 seasons of dominance at the left tackle position while playing with the Bengals. Plus: the “Freezer Bowl”; rehabbing knee injuries; the heartbreak of losing Super Bowls XVI and XXII; the greatness of Fred Dean and Bruce Smith; offensive line techniques, and the thrill of catching touchdown passes.
Later, Bernie shares his own small world story about Anthony’s friend and former teammate, Dave Lapham. And finally, Anthony talks about his charitable foundation where they teach “Victory Beyond Competition” in their seven mentoring programs dedicated to engaging kids mentally, physically and emotionally. To date, the Anthony Muñoz Foundation has raised $16 million dollars and helped 40,000 kids.
Games People Play is sponsored by TicketSmarter and the TicketSmarter mobile app: get $10 off any purchase of $100 or more with promo code LWOS10, or get $20 off any purchase of $300 or more with promo code LWOS20.
Track: "Im Coming Back Again"
Music provided by https://Slip.stream
Free Download/Stream: https://get.slip.stream/tzpr1l
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
Welcome to the games people play.I'm your host, Bernie Corbett, very
special guest with us today, andI guess to open, I have to
say it's not often that you havea guest who can certainly say with a
good deal of pride and emphasis andconfidence that they are the best there ever
(00:36):
was, that whatever they happen todo. I always think of Roy Hobbs
and the National and the natural isthe best there ever was. But we
have that type of individual, notjust on the field, but we're going
to talk about what he has doneoff the field from the time that he
was participating in the National Football Leagueand obviously the time that he spent now
(00:56):
in retirement and beyond with us.As Anthony Munos would say, arguably and
maybe not arguably the greatest of alltime for the National Football League at his
position of tackle. Bernie, thankyou for having me. I'm looking forward
to the chat and I appreciate thatkind of introduction. Thank you. First
Super Bowl appearance was after the eightyone season, your second year and a
(01:18):
dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of theBengals. This was all unshotted territory for
the Bengals. You're six and tenyour rookie year, you're twelve and four,
You're the number one seed. Thejungle was born that year with perfect
eight to o and then winning thetwo playoff games, so ten and zero
through to the Super Bowl. Yourmemories about how it turned around that it
(01:41):
must have been really special for youas a young player to see that things
could turn so dramatically and so quicklyto success. Well, Bernie, you
know when I got there my rookie, of course, I got a whole
new coaching staff Forst. Craig isout for the hot We talked about Jim
McNally, and I looked at thetalent we had. They were both I
got there. They had all thesenumber one picks, Ross Brown or Wilson,
(02:04):
Whitley, Eddie Edwards, you knowGary Burley, they had Glenn Cameron,
they had Bo Harris on defense,Kenny Riley was still there offensively,
you know Kenny Anderson. We hadPete Johnson, Danny Ross, Isaac Curtis,
And I'm thinking, how does thisteam go four and twelve two years
in a row. Well, Ifound out quickly. Forst. Graig,
we did out some of the guysthat might not have wanted to be there,
(02:25):
and he got everybody into shape.I think the main thing was the
work ethic was not there, andlike you said, we go from you
know, my rookie year six andten. We could have very easily been
ten and six. We lost somegames late. Then that second year we
go twelve and four, number oneseed, home field advantage, and it
just all came together. Man.We had the big running back and Pete
(02:46):
Johnson, a tight end that youhad trouble staying at two twenty or two
twenty. Danny Ross but came aroundhim. He had a may brilliant year.
You know, Max Montoya was nowplaying unbelievable guard. We had Dave
Lapham. But it was one ofthose things where everybody got into shape and
I think just the confidence came together. Force came in as a disciplinarian and
said this is how we're going todo it. We had Dick Lebou and
(03:08):
Hank Bulla on the defense. Imean seeing things that we'd never seen in
football. You know, we'd linedup with one defensive lineman and five linebackers.
The nose tackle with get down,so offenses had to figure out who
are the lineman who's going to rush? Yeah, but you know, so
the zone blitz was now in play. And this was my second year,
(03:28):
uh, you know, with DickLebou and Hank Bulla and it was just
Lindia Fonte was there as an offensivecoordinator, basically running the West Coast offense.
Uh. It was just it wasa fun year because, like I
said, I could see the potentialfrom that rookie year six and ten of
the guys we had there, andit was just amazing to see the transformation
(03:49):
and the work ethic really and printingget it. Then we're going to be
in shape, We're going to bestrong, We're going to be We're going
to bust it during practice. Andthat's what we did. And a couple
of guys that had some Boston rootsthat the college had. Andy Ross went
to Northeastern, Pat mcinally at Harvard. I've been there broadcasting Harvard football for
the past twenty three years. AsI tell everybody, Anthony, even though
(04:10):
my SAT scores didn't get any better, I went to Boston University, so
I got always issued that's a greatschool. I got always issue that disclaimer.
And you mentioned another guy I'll haveto give you is a story.
You're giving me the stories, that'syour job. But I got to give
you one story. You mentioned DaveLapham at Dave Lapham. He was from
Wakefield, mass Syracuse, and youtalk about new them when well, I
(04:34):
still live in the same house.I was going to say, we haven't.
We haven't moved to a new stadium. I haven't put any luxury boxes
in. But the house that Ilive in now I moved in nineteen seventy
three and I can still remember asa twelve year old following Dave Lapham around
because he was part of the movingcrew that moved me from my old house
(04:55):
to my new house. So there'sone for you. On Dave Lapham.
You're made on the offensive life.So I played next to day my first
four year next to Dave Lapham forthirty plus years. He's been an amazing
analyst on the Bengals radio network anddoes a job. But yeah, he
was and smart, I mean greatguys. Here's a Lapham story. Lapp
was about two sixty five two seven, and he had some of the biggest
(05:19):
arms I'd ever seen, still does, and so we would walk out on
the field. Of course, thePittsburgh Steelers were the guys with the no
sleeves, you know, short sleevesat the big guns. And lap would
look at Webster and look at thoseguys and say, man, look at
those guns. I said, Lap, you ever looked in the mirror at
your arms? But the guys Ilove Dave Lapham. In fact, nineteen
(05:40):
ninety eight the year I was aduck to the Hall of Fame and they
had a full radio, they dedicateda park. We had a big dinner
at the convention Center and they saidyou got to bring one guy back that
you played with, and I said, that's a no brainer. I got
to check see if Dave Lapham couldcome back. So he flew back to
Ontario with me and we did raidingtogether and so he was part of the
(06:00):
festivities. And yeah, he's justI love David. He's amazing. He
MC's i've had. We just hada virtual dinner for my foundation. But
eighteen years Dave has been the mcMC or co EMC of my foundation dinner.
You know, it wouldn't be aFoundation dinner without Dave Lapplan as the
MC. That's great. That mentionedKenny Anderson was MVP with the top rated
(06:24):
passer you mentioned Pete Johnson and Chriscollins Worth one of your top whiteouts.
We'd be remiss if we didn't mention. On the road to the super Bowl,
you handled Buffalo twenty eight to twentyone, and then you had San
Diego and probably for tuitous you beingin Californian, you brought a Cali team
in to play under some rather severeweather conditions. Your memories of that game
(06:48):
with the wind shill? What didit check in? About? Minus fifty
nine with the wind shill? Bernie, Just a little cool, cool January
December day. I mean, youknow we're used of those kinds of days.
You know. The funny thing aboutit is, Man, I'll tell
you what. I was a roomwith Max Montoya for ten years on the
(07:08):
road camp and we used to stayin the hotel the night before and I'd
be the guy that would open upthe hotel curtains and kind of give a
weather report. So that morning Iopened it up, I said, Max,
blue skies of the suns out,it's a great day, and we
couldn't start our cars. I meanit was. They had a hotel van
ready took us down to the RiverfrontStadium. I mean it was crazy,
(07:31):
painfully cold. Then we played onthat great stuff they called astro turf,
which is like a thin carpet onasphalt. Just unbelievable. I mean,
of course, you know San Diego, just come off that little one game
down at Miami with the Dolphins.But you know one thing, it's amazing.
I gotta keep I gotta mention this. So they said, what if
you guys would have played in regularweather, could you guys have beat the
(07:53):
Chargers with who they had? Isaid, how quickly we forget? I
think it was in November that seasonwe went out to San Diego and I
think we scored like thirty four,beat them, like thirty four to fourteen
something like that. Out in SanDiego that same year, and it was
seventy seventy five degrees. They hadair Coriel still with you know, Kellen
(08:15):
Winslow and Jefferson and those guys,Chuck Munsey. So but no, Bernie,
that fifty nine below. You're right, the sun was out, but
it was so cool. We didn'thave all the nice undergarments they have now,
you know they can wear all this. It was like great T shirt,
shoulder pads, and of course it'sit's not the end thing for offensive
(08:35):
lineman. So we're out there sleeplessfifty nine below. You know, I
figured, heck, we're crazy enoughto play the game in that weather,
why not go out sleep? Absolutelygood, bad badge of Wanna and the
forty nine ers well, very similarto the Bengal club. That year they
had been six and ten. Theyear before they were thirteen and three.
They were the number one seed withBill Walsh, Joe Montanner at the controls
(08:58):
of the offense, had won Cincinnatiin December that year, and two teams
that nobody really could make much ofin terms of their track record. San
Francisco was favored by two points.You look back on that game statistically,
absolutely dominant when you think of thejob that your offense did. Was the
first Super Bowl where the team thatoutgained the other team. We're talking a
(09:20):
significant mind in the total offense threefifty six to two seventy five plus eighty
one in the game had lost withyour Bengal team. But once again,
what a coaches say about turnovers,Anthony, that proved to really take its
toll in terms of the final result. And it was the two right before
half. We're down fourteen ZIP,and we think we're going to go down
(09:41):
halftime fourteen ZIP and Ray Wilson kicksthe Squip kicks, we fumble, they
get it, kick a field goal, they do another one, so they
get six points just like that rightbefore half. So instead of four,
team Zip were down twenty. Andthose six points were the difference because we
came out the second half and Ithink at one point we were eight oh
and first downs and we were justreally dominating. We were rolling. And
(10:03):
of course another big series that secondhalf after we got rolling was that you
know, four downs at the atthe one yard line. You know,
we couldn't punch it in and goalline stand exactly. And if I'm not
a betting man, but if someonewould have told me going into that game
with the two hundred and sixty poundfull back running back that you're gonna have
four cracks at the one yard linefor I would have put my d down
(10:28):
for my house and said, you'recrazy and falling short there twenty six to
twenty one. In the first opportunityto play in the Super Bowl that was
with forres Greg you would get anopportunity later in your career, and they
were again the forty nine ers,and by this time the opinion and the
perspective of the forty nine ers hadchanged dramatically. They'd been a dominant team
(10:50):
in the eighties with Joe Montana,and once again a super Bowl that's looked
back and I'm sure you're sick ofwatching the tape anyway as far as the
final result, but uh, oneof the one of the super Bowls that's
looked at is one of the verybest and one of the most did dramatic
your thoughts other than the ultimate disappointmentas you look back on what was your
(11:11):
your second trip there in nineteen eightyeight. First of all, Bernie,
seriously, I thought, with thetalent we had after sixteen that we were
going to go, you know,two or three more time there. But
it wasn't. You know, theguy that had one catch and it happened
to be the final touchdown catch,that's John Taylor. I mean, you
know, Jenny Rice had an amazinggame, but are defensive enough to stop
them from getting the end zone.And you know we have that long kickoff
(11:31):
return for a touchdown by Stanford Jennings, and you know, Jim Breech is
on the verge of really being theyou know, Super Bowl MVP with three
field goals and you know, weback them up, they have ninety two
yards ago and you know, threeminutes or less, and we're thinking our
defense is going to do it again. And they were so frustrating, and
we had we had our chances.I mean, they had like I think
(11:52):
a third and sixteen and we stopthem then and there's not a lot of
time left. But Jerry Rice makesthe catch, he breaks the tackle,
and I think he gets seventeen oreighteen yards, so he makes the first
down by a yard or two,and that's really what kept him going.
But very frustrating because you know,even though I don't think we've played as
well as we should have thought,you know, we've done enough late in
(12:15):
the game and it just didn't workout. And of course, like I
said that Montana to John Taylor,that last play with thirty four seconds left.
Every Super Bowl season that I seethat high light and he never misses
itself. Some adversity affected the team. Your recollection of what happened the night
(12:37):
before was really unfortunate. Stanley Wilson, You fall back key contributed to your
club and what happened with the incidentwith him, and also the backdrop in
the as far as the atmosphere inMiami, you had the OVID and you
had the rioting that was going onthat week. There was a lot of
weight from the field. Any effectas you think back, any residual effect
(12:58):
in terms of your club get andfocused and being able to to have you
know, the eyes on the prizesfor the for the game on that day,
Well, I think the last thingyou mentioned, I think with the
riots going on, we I thinkwe're able to pretty much focus even with
all that going on. And thenwe moved out of downtown on Saturday,
out by the stadium on a smallhotel, quieter place, so we I
(13:20):
think we overcame that whole riot thing. But you know, the night before
and accident were in the game,where two things I think really had an
effect. You know, Sam letus. Usually we had dinner and then
Matt right after the meeting, Samsays, right at dinner, he says,
there's a Super Bowl special. Whydon't you guys go back to the
room watch it, and as soonas it's over, we'll meet. And
of course we did that. Weall got back in the meeting room,
(13:43):
and you know, when something's goingon, you can just fill it within
the team. And of course youknow, the whole team was in the
meeting room, but no coaches.And then Sam comes in and he informs
us the whole ordeal with Stanley Wilsonand in crack cocaine. So again,
sure you you hate to see thathe is, I mean an integral part
of our offense, the team,but more than that, it's a human
(14:05):
with drapped emotionally. So now wehad to overcome that move on biggest game
of your career with one of yourteammates, one of your family members.
Uh you know you thought he hadbeen over the drug plumb, but it
still bid him, still got him. So we go into the game.
We're like, okay, now wegot to move in Sunday, we wrap
up our our reviews at that morning. We go into the game and then
(14:26):
the second thing is, you know, one of our team leaders, the
defensive leader game, Tim Krumwright,I mean ugly breaks his leg. Now
you know we lose him. DavidGrant, rookie from West Virginia, does
a very good job, but youknow it's hard to replace the Tim Krumbright
on the defense. So you know, we had to overcome both those things,
(14:46):
and you know they're not excuses,but mentally very taxi and it takes
a toll. And I thought wedid a good job even with those things
going on, to focus and comeout and play pretty well. But uh,
he's the nightmare Joe Montana keeps doing. I was gonna say, still
haunting you, And well, figureis in being a Notre Dame guy and
(15:07):
you being a Trojan. So well, you know, I was very successful
against Utre Dame. We were threeand one, but in my football career,
I was oh for Joe Montana backthe one game we lost another Dame
who was the quarterback, Joe Montana. I think I was over four against
the forty nine ers and all fourwere against Joe Montana. Fall against Joe,
(15:28):
it's, you know, the measurablesat the at the tackle position.
Uh you look and just just gaudy. For that year, you were first
in the NFL four hundred and fortyeight points with that offense, ran for
twenty over twenty seven under years twentyseven to ten, sixty three oh two
for tolly yards and once again KennyAnderson was the MVP in eighty one,
(15:52):
you had Boomer was the MVP innineteen eighty eight. Uh, you weren't
protecting his blind side again, youwent the right of the ready lefty carbindation
there. But as far as Boomer, you've talked about just maybe the fact
that maybe he's a little bit underratedin terms of just how good he was
week in and week out, inthe fact that you played and we're in
the huddle with him for a goodpart of his career, prime of his
(16:15):
career. I agree. I mean, you know, one of the really
frustrating things for me right now isnot having Kenny Anderson in the Hall of
Fame. He should be in there. His stats, what he did during
the era he played and when heretired, and then Boomer. I think
he's very under sixteen years in theNFL. Of course, he played with
us, went to the Jets,went to the Cardinals, came back to
(16:36):
the Bengals. I mean, amazingstats, an MVP like you mentioned the
Super Bowl. Yeah, I thinkhe's very underrated. Not only his physical
performance on the field, but theguy was an amazing leader. I mean,
his leadership qualities, his passion,his intensity, it's just I mean
most of my career with two quarterbacksthat were just really really smart. I
(17:00):
mean, Kenny Anderson went to lawschool. You know, it has his
law degree. Boomer is very smart. And I tell people, you could
give Boomer the offensive game plan onWednesday, bring the whole team to get
on Saturday morning, and Boomer couldtell every one of the other ten guys
on offenseh to block against every defensein every play. He was that smart.
(17:22):
And looking at the end of yourtime with the Bengals, Anthony,
your contract had run out, andit looked as if you were retired.
You retired and then unretired, andI suspect one of the things that factored
in was suddenly there was an appreciationand maybe a little bit more of a
(17:42):
financial motivation for the left tackle position. Suddenly it had become appreciated. It
was like a great piece of artsuddenly that had raised the value exponentially,
and you had an opportunity circumstances youcould just you know, tell us about
what the circumstances worth. Kind ofa perfect stormfeeder. Give it another going
tamper. At the time. Yeah, it's funny, because I mean the
(18:03):
financial game was a little more wouldn'tlike it is now, but it was
a little more. But the thingwas I had retired. I had interviewed
with NBC and CBS. I donehigh school football and radio for seven years
when I was playing, so thatwas something I wanted to get into.
So I went to the Combine withJim McNally. He wanted to just kind
of show me what they did there. So I talked to Mike Brown about
maybe coaching. So I'm contemplating doI coach or do I go into broadcasting.
(18:27):
Well, I was at the Combineand Pete bether Bobby Bethard had just
want and went to San Diego asa general manager. I said, Bobby,
would you mind if I called youand talk to you about broadcasting.
I know you were in it.Now you're going back into football. I
said, no problem. So abouttwo three weeks after the Combine, I
called and talked to his assistant andhe says, Bobby said he wanted you
(18:49):
wanted to talk to him. Isaid yeah, so his assistant Anthony.
He said, now, Anthony,are you really retired? And I said,
yes, I'm really retired. Anduh, I said, why do
you ask? I let Bobby talkto you. I'm talking to Bobby about
broadcasting. Bobby says, so,are you really retired? And I said,
Bobby, and yeah, now it'smy retirement. I've been I'm down
to about two hundred and fifty poundsof forty five fifty and I'm checking out
(19:11):
broadcast. He goes, why don'tyou just fly out let's talk. I
said, what do you want totalk about? He says, well,
we have a left tackle, butwe need to right tackle and maybe a
left guard. And I said,what. I played thirteen years at left
tackle. My last year was Cincinnati. I played one guard at left or
one game at left guard, orall our guards were hurt. So I
volunteered to play left guard and BernieI said, man, this is pretty
(19:32):
cool. You have a guy oneach side of you the whole time.
You know you're So I flew outto Diego to talk to Bobby Bedford and
so we talked. Well what happened. I flew in and the next morning
I went into his office earlier anda reporter saw me going into his office
and he put it together and sowe found out I was going out to
talk to Bobby about, you know, maybe coming back and playing. So
(19:55):
I was getting ready to leave thereand the guy wrote an article. Well,
the head coach in Tampa Bay,who I played nine years for,
Sam Wis, calls me on mycell. He goes, what are you
doing? What are you doing?I said nothing yet he goes, don't
do anything until five down here toTampa. I said, okay, I'll
talk to you. And then allof a sudden, Bruce caused it's the
head coach with the Jets. Hecalls me and goes, what are you
(20:15):
doing? Because I'll watch you playyour last couple of days. You can
still play. Let's talk. Isaid, Bruce, nothing's happening. He
goes, keep me posted. ThenMarty Schottenheimer, who's now in Kansas City,
calls me and says, I'm comingthrough Ohio. Can we talk.
Well, each one of these teamshad a left tackle and they were looking
for a right tackle or a leftguard. So my wife and I are
going, okay, what do wedo? So we flew down to Tampa
(20:37):
after our San Diego and so Imeet with Hugh culver House, I meet
with Sam Wise, Rich mccazy,Tom McKay played it with the coach at
USC. I knew rich. Sowe're getting ready to leave and I signed
a contract with Tampa Baby. Andhere's a couple of reasons. The same
offense that I was in for eightnine years, Sandwich running with Bob Wiley
(21:00):
was his line coach. Bob andJim McNally were like this, and Bob
was teaching everything that Jim toot andeverything that we had done for my whole
career. They had a lot ofyoung offensive linemen down there, so I
went down there. Of course,it didn't work out. Making a tackle
against the Buffalo bill is a thirdpreseason game, I tore my shoulder up.
(21:21):
I had it repaired. I stayeddown there rehabbing for about three months
and coaching for about three months,and then I came back home. I
said, Okay, enough's enough,it's time to move on. Then that's
when Fox hired me and I wentinto broadcasting. But that was the short
lived wearing the old pink and orangewith the Tampa Bay bat but before they
got the Pewter And yeah, soI went down there, and you know
(21:42):
you mentioned the financial game. SureI made some good money because I wasn't
gonna go come out of retirement andgo there as a thirty five year old
NFL football player not getting anything upfront, so they gave me, you
know, some upfront. But itwas you know, and I helped coach
Bob Wiley when I was rehabbing upon the field. Coach, uh,
you know, I got my lastgame that I spent down there. Bob
(22:03):
was in the press box. Iwas on the field with the guys with
the headset making adjustments as they ranoff during the game. So that was
fun. But then I went intobroadcasting, So that was my short lived
Tampa Bay career. I got toask you about running backs, and there
have been to date eight one thousandyard rushes in the history of the Cincinnati
Bengals, six of them while youplayed. You got a favorite? Are
(22:26):
you going to get in trouble ifyou pick one of the running backs that
was running behind you? Well,you know, it's amazing because they were
so different. I mean, youPet Johnson was like a guard back.
You know. We had Nicky Woodsat Howard be and he had James Brooks
Man, the guy could have beena wide receiver one five as tough as
a two hundred and thirty five poundsback. So I mean, it's hard
(22:47):
to pick because they're so different.If they were more evenly type of running
backs, maybe I could, butthey were all fun to block for and
they were all different. I mean, you know Harold Green that was my
last year. He was a totallydifferent running back. You know, he
makes the Pro Bowl my last year, and you know, so it was
we had some great backs that Ihad a chance to block four and they
(23:08):
were really all totally different type ofbacks, and they did have a time
for you at halftime. December twentyseventh, nineteen ninety two. Final appearance,
as it turned out, in theJungle. What do you remember about
that as a culmination of your Bengalcareer in front of the people that came
(23:29):
out to see you every Sunday.You know, I tell people, you
know, people always act after retirementand come back to southern California. I
said, first of all, beachesand palm treings are overrated. But I
tell people I stayed in Cincinnati becauseof the people. And you mentioned the
Jungle. I mean, the Junglewas established when I was playing in the
eighties. The fans were amazing.People still amazing here. So just the
(23:52):
appreciation that was shown and in additionto all of that, you know,
I got to mention there was adefensive player that I was playing against.
It was whining the whole game.And I did like that he was whining
because he was also a trojan.He said, just because it's your last
game, stop holding me. Youcan't hold me because it was Dwayne Vickett.
(24:12):
I said, Dwayne, do youremember Dwayne Vickett, the big outside
line. I'm not holding you.So finally, I said, Dwayne,
if you're going to just give meyour chest, I'm going to take it.
I'm not going to turn down charity. But you know, the fans
there were amazing, you know,fifty seven thousand seasons, but it was
sold out and still packed. It'sfunny because I have a foundation, I
(24:33):
do a lot of speaking with youngpeople and I get a question asked me
a lot and Bertie. The questionthey asked me is do you wish you
would have played in the Jungle whenyou were playing? And I said,
well, let me just give youa little history lesson. So I get
a chance to tell these young kidsabout the Jungle, how it was established
in the eighties when I was playing. You know, I know you're very
close to remain close to the Bengals, and you wear your stripes with pride.
(24:59):
The Bengals franchise, I mean enigmawrapped up in a question, wrapped
up into a riddle. At thispoint, you had four playoff appearances,
you had three AFC Central Championships,the two Super Bowl appearances, and now
here the Bengals are the last.And I'm sure it crosses your mind from
time to time. The nineteen ninetyone wild card victory over Houston, you
lost to Oakland divisional playoff the nextweek. That stands as the last playoff
(25:25):
victory for this franchise. And there'sbeen some pretty good players that have played
for this franchise, and there's beenhalf a dozen first round playoff losses.
It's it's almost a curse onto itselfhere that has not yet to be broken.
Yeah, you know that's the shamethat you know that I was playing
for the last playoff game, becausethat's a long time ago. But you
know the thing that's said is,I mean you look at you mentioned the
(25:45):
sixth playoff first round, but youlook at those what five six years where
they had ten plus wins. Imean with Andy Dalton and all I mean,
they had some really good seasons withMarvin after that long spell of eighteen
nine, ten years of really adrought, and then Marvin gets here and
you know, they have all theseplayoff appearances, but of course the knockau
(26:06):
is that there's not a playoff win. So you know that's as a former
player and a fan now and amember of this great community, that's what
we're all waiting for, is thatfirst playoff game. And hopefully now I
don't know what's going to happen thisyear, but I think with Zach Taylor,
there the moves they made and freeagency this offseason and the draft day
(26:26):
culture. You know, when youlook at all just about all the free
agency signed, they all have playoffexperience. Six of the seven draft picks
were college captains. One of themwas a three time captain, Higgins,
who left after his junior at Clemson. I was talking to a coach who's
really close friends with his position.Coach at Clemson said if he comes back
to his senior year, he's probablygoing to be a captain. So I
think there's a culture of who they'redrafting, who they're signing, so hopefully
(26:49):
it translates not only into playoff appearances, but some playoff wins and the final
point on your playing career. Onceagain, remiss, if I didn't mention,
I know what great pride. I'msure what great pride you take.
It was a play in the playbookthat was Muonio's eligible and your milk that
(27:10):
pretty good during your career, andyou got a pretty good highlight railed to
assembled how much fun was that?You know, the Fridge had his moment
for the Bears. You had morethan a couple of moments as a Bengal,
right from the first one that youever made. The first touchdown catch
that you ever made was pretty importantagainst the Browns, big division rivalry game.
Exactly. We can look at thecatchers, Bernie, but let's not
(27:32):
mention the yards per catch. Okay, it's I think it'd be fans played
in defeat per catch, not yardsfort But no, it was. You
know, it started with Sam Wishis rookie year as a coach. Boomer,
we implemently put it into the gameplan. I thought it would never
be used, and it was.We're up in Cleveland, We're down seventeen
to ten. All they have todo is punt the ball. There's like
forty two seconds left, we haveno timeouts, and we take it down
(27:56):
and we get a pass inn Affarencecall. We're first and goal to one,
and he calls the play where I'mthe primary receiver. What does the
rookie coach do it? Because hewant to lose his job right away?
And it didn't work exactly how wedrew it up, but it was muddy.
I fell, the defense started togo that way, and Boomer stopped
and kind of threw me a littlesidearm pitch. But you know what,
(28:18):
it was one of those things.I catch it, we score, we
kicked the extra point, we goin overtime and Jim Breach kicks the field
goal to win. But you're rightagainst a divisional team, an interstate team,
and a Cleveland Browns. You know, people, when I'm out speaking,
they say, what share the mostmemorable moments of your NFL career?
They're thinking Super Bowl, Pro Bowls, And I basically start out by saying,
as a former lineman, I gotto say the first touchdown catch because
(28:41):
alignment usually doesn't get to catch passes, and it's against the Cleveland Browns.
So I ended up catching four touchdowns, which was unbelievable. It was fun,
and so I thank Sam Wish,and I thank Boomer Siacin for taking
a little bit of the velocity offof it when he threw it to me.
Patiental hazard of thirteen years. Ican't quite compete with you. I'm
(29:03):
just gonna show you. That's myleft pinky, Anthony, and that was
courtesy of a foul ball on Julyfourth, twenty twelve at Fenway Park off
the bat of Adrian Gonzalez, whowas a little late getting around. So
that's how my left pinky ended upthis way. Your left pinky is at
a little bit of a different angle, if you will. Yeah, it's
(29:26):
just just a little bit. Youknow what, Bernie, It doesn't hurt.
I don't need another surgery and pins, and I'm just gonna in a
plus, I can use it asan excuse on the golf course and I
can get a couple of strokes becauseyou know, all fingers don't go the
right way. So it's the hazardof you know, the profession. Your
(29:48):
career ended up in Canton and theGold Jacket in nineteen ninety eight as the
second Hispanic member of the Hall ofFame, what are your recollections about when
the call came and the experience andyou also had I was really moved by
the fact that you had your sonto present you at the Hall of Fame,
(30:10):
which I must have been really specialfor you to share that moment,
but to share it on that level, it was really exciting. Couple of
things. So I grew up insouthern Californias. Now I played college ball.
They're played in Cincinnati, but theSuper Bowl was actually in San Diego
the year I became eligible, Sothat's the city back in California that I
actually received the call. Dave Botswas the head of marketing there and he
called me and said, Anthon,are you superstitious? I said, nope,
(30:32):
not at all. He says,I checked the previous year, but
the individuals wanted nothing to do withit. I'm going to ask you a
question, he says. We havethis room where all the selectors are in
and when they come up with theirguys, they come to the podium and
then they read their names off.He said, if you're not superstitious,
would you mind hanging out in aroom in the back, you know,
(30:52):
where these guys are making the selectionsand then if your name is called,
you just come out and you cometo the podium there in front of everybody.
I said, Dave, I said, you're right, I'm not superstitious.
I will do that under one condition. He goes, what's that.
I said that from this room thereis a back hall. Exit the back
door, through the alley and backto our hotel. He goes, no
(31:15):
problem. So I was actually ina back room when my name was announced,
and after I called dating my wifeand told her, I came out
to face the media. But itwas unbelievable. I mean to get that
you know word right there. AndI joked with Damasho retired a couple of
years ago after forty plus years atthe hall. I said, Dave,
I think we were in a broomcloset that year. Now they have a
(31:36):
green guys with food and breaks andbig chairs. But that's how I got
word Bernie. As I was therein the little room in the back,
and when the selectors came up withthe class of nineteen ninety eight, you
know, my name was announced andI was able to come out and face
the media and then you give ayou know, a word or two.
So it was I still pinched myself. Twenty two years later, I still,
(31:59):
you know, being able where thatgo jacket in the ring and being
able to drive up the canton everyWell, we'll continue next year. Of
course, it would have been justthis past weekend. It's always a great
time to do with all the guysbeyond the field. Anthony, I know
you had. I guess it wassomewhat of an epiphany at the beginning of
(32:19):
your second season, in particular abouthow you were going to dedicate your life.
I mean, that's a pretty That'sa major moment if people that do
have those moments in their life,and that is carried over into a remarkable
record of philanthropy and charitable support.Your foundation, the Anthony Munoz Foundation,
(32:44):
was founded in two thousand and two. I'm gonna let you talk about it
because when I looked at just howextensive and expansive it is in terms of
all the good it does in somany different areas, I think it'd be
tough to talk about the thing isthat you're not doing and the groups of
people that you're not helping, andthe groups of people that you are helping.
(33:05):
It's remarkable. I got to getback to your initial comment about my
second year in the league, andyou know, my faith started to grow
as a sophomore and colleagues with mywife and I, but it wasn't until
my second year where this tagline reallybecame a great tagline and something that I
started to understand when I say victorybeyond competition. Yes, so I was
competing on the field, but Ineeded victory beyond that competition. Victory beyond
(33:30):
the wins and losses, you know, the blocks and no blocks, And
that was through my faith. That'sthe victory. And that's really been the
motivator for me for the last fortythree years. And that's really what spawned
my foundation. And I really didn'tstart until eight years after I retired because
when I was playing, I understandleverage relevance of being an NFL football player,
(33:51):
but being a husband, being afather, and having to produce on
the football field, I was notgoing to have the time to be engaged
in the foundation. So I startedtoo zousand and two and both my kids
were like sophomore juniors in collegation.Statement of really engaging the Tri state area
to impact kids mentally, physically,and spiritually. And here we're going into
our twentieth year next year, andwe have seven programs, so we work
(34:12):
we've probably worked with forty thousand kidsin the last nineteen years, and we
start out with elementary kids and wehave a mentoring program one on one mentoring
with about thirty kids for the wholeyear. And every program we have,
we might offer us a different programto the kids, but we build relationships
with them. We say, onceyou enter into a AMF or an Anthony
Munas Foundation program, you become afamily member. So we're really going to
(34:36):
pour into your life. So wehave this mentoring program for K to five
kids once a week during the wholeschool year. We do other things like
take them to the zoo, maybesome Reds games, do some stuff with
them, Christmas parties for their wholefamily. And then they age out at
fifth grade. So from six tomiddle school we have what we call until
we continue. With the middle schoolkids, we take them to local college,
(35:00):
we take them to local companies,We mentor them to let them see
after middle school go to high schoolwith the vision of moving on to a
trade school, to a college andcontinuing to study. And then so that's
a couple of our programs. Thenwe have what we call our overnight Character
Camps. We have one in thespring, which is pretty diverse, one
hundred and fifty young men. Wetake them away for three days. We
(35:22):
teach them a little football, We'regoing to do that, but we teach
them a lot of character, teambuilding, and how to work together.
I mean with the landscape of today, as you know, with everything going
on racially. We've been doing thisfor twenty years, teaching black kids,
brown kids, white kids, towork together, to respect each other,
to learn each other's culture. We'vebeen I've been doing that for twenty years,
(35:43):
twenty five years. And then wehave another one in the spring or
in the fall, this exact sametemplate, but it's one hundred percent Hispanic
kids. Teach them the same thing, football, character, team building,
and how to respect each other.So that's another program. Then we have
what we call our Youth Leadership Seminar. We try to get anywhere from eighty
to one hundred high school together fora full day event. We have motivational
(36:05):
leadership speakers. We have breakout sessionsduring the day to listen hear what these
high school kids have to say,what they're hearing from these speeches, and
then At the end of the day, we have what we call our Community
Service Challenge. We really give thema charge and these students that are there
put together community service projects. Wetrack them. I pick a couple winners,
(36:27):
but it's amazing what these young menand women will initiate. They have
their moderators, their teachers, theircounselors that come with them, but these
kids put them and there are alot of sustainable programs that they're doing.
Then we have two types of scholarships. In the spring. We have what
we call our straight A Scholarship.It encompasses as athletics and a big criteria
is overcoming adversity. We have adinner or a lunch at one of the
(36:52):
nicest steakhouses in town, Jeff RubySteakhouse. He totally donates it. We
have all eight team have nine male, nine female finalists. They get to
bring their most influential teacher. Theybring their parents, who have about one
hundred and thirty at a luncheon andit's a two to five thousand, one
time scholarship that we give them forthese kids going to college. We give
(37:14):
them a nice foundation ring and thenthe female winner gets a nice medallion.
So that's one of the scholarships.Then at our dinner in the summertime,
we give away anywhere from four toten twenty thousand dollars scholarship depending on budget.
We're starting to partner with companies universitiesto increase that. So that's our
(37:35):
scholarship fund. So that's what wedo. Like I said, about forty
thousand young people, we've been ableto nineteen going on twenty years. It's
a passion of mine. I'm therewhen I'm in town, I'm there every
day. I don't take a pennyfrom the foundation. We have a great
board, a very engaged board,sixteen board members that are amazing. Right
now, we have two full timestaff, which is really lean for what
(37:59):
we do. But from the beginningwe've always had a local college internship program.
We'll have four to ten local collegestudents that intern with us and they
get to learn the non for profitbusiness because with our lean staff, they
come in and they have projects theywork. We usually have one or two
graphic designers that helps us with ourlogos for our camps, our events,
(38:21):
and that's what we do. LikeI said, going on twenty years,
we've raised probably close to sixteen milliondollars. Wow, and every year during
our audit, and it's happened foryears and years. As you probably know,
the one question they always ask youwhen you have a non for to
ninety one cents just about every yearfor the dollar that goes to our kids
(38:43):
in the program. So that's whatwe do. And like I said,
started it. It'll be twenty yearsthis next year, so we plan on
really having a big party celebrating thekids this next week. Twentieth and one
may have run for another wanting,God willing and beyond with that's right with
with with what you've established. Youmentioned your kids. You had bold your
(39:06):
kids division one athletes. I rememberMichael as an offensive tackle at Tennessee.
Your daughter played at Tennessee and thentransferred to Ohio State. You're a young
man. You got eleven grandkids,actually actually nine. Yeah, but yeah,
we still call our daughter the bestathlete. I think we've all co
needed that. She could shoot lightsout. You know, she was a
(39:27):
two time mess basketball and Ohio twotime Division One Player of the Year.
And Michael had he was the numberone lineman coming up, could have gone
anywhere. We had him at Tennesseeat least for one year together. Michael
was there, you know, forhis freshman sophomore the Michelle was there for
her freshman year. So that thenshe came to a house state made a
lot easier for us to drive aroundall her games. But yeah, so
they had unbelievable careers. They bothyou know, finished school, got their
(39:51):
masters. Michelle, you know,finished undergraduate. I went into education,
taught for a few years. Nowshe's homeschooling her kids, which is a
some times. Michael didn't go onto the NFL, but he had a
great career there, got the postgraduatescholarship, which is that now it's called
the Campbell Award, the Academic Heisman. When he wasn't drafted, decided to
go get his NBA, worked atProcter and Gamble for about six years and
(40:15):
now he's been up in camp workingat the Hall of Fame for two years.
So yeah, nine grandkids, fiveboys, four girls, and uh
so it's it's a lot of fun. So we got to keep active to
stay up with all those. Ohyeah, I saw. I'm sorry about
the eleven. I didn't want toscale the way. I didn't have any
inside knowledge on that, but youknow, nine nine is a pretty formidable
number. We did know exactly.You've taken the Bible literally, go Ford
(40:38):
and multiply Anthony exactly. They gotthe clivers Pool there with with with this,
with this next generation. I alwaystry to make the guests feel at
home. So I want you toknow that. AH love it, I
love it. I covered the seriesfor the Creative Sports Network. Was down
(40:58):
at Georgia Tech, can't believe,twenty years ago, and it was a
big win for SC to come acrossthe Mississippi, and they ended up in
the super Regional two out of three. They knocked up Georgia Tech was led
by a guy named Mark to Shiaand they beat him too straight and USC
had a guy named Mark Prior onthe mound who wasn't bad. So I
really enjoyed covering that series. Iremember Mark, No Mark, Yeah.
(41:22):
I love uh yeah, college baseball, I love it. You know,
I still like you said, Igo to Reds game, I gotta go
to Finnway Park. That's that's gottabe somewhere that I gotta go to.
Of course, you know we've hada few SC guys play there, so
you know absolutely. You talk baseballreal quick. My recruiting trip into SC
(41:44):
the weekend. It's a football recruitingtrip. So Friday I get in,
I'm with the football people. Saturdaymorning, I'm sitting on the bench at
Dato Field with the USC alumni baseballgame against Major League All Stars. So
Kingman sever quote our Freddy, They'reall sitting there. Wow. So that
Saturday morning and Saturday night, I'mwith football. Sunday morning, there was
(42:07):
a tradition the USC varsity would playthe Dodgers at Dodger Stadium and then the
Dodgers would head to Verrea Beach forspring prints. So I'm sitting on the
bench with the SE baseball team atDodgers Stadium as they're playing in an exhibition
game. So that was my recruitingtrip to USC. Wow, there's some
stop power. Theyre no question,top to tough to say no under those
(42:29):
circumstances. Indeed, well consider considerit done for Fenway Anthony and once again,
Sam White said, the greatest offensivetackle the game has ever known.
And Bob Trump, he gave youthe ultimate compliment. He said he was
the same guy and played at thesame level from the beginning to the end
(42:49):
of his career, and Chris collinsWorth, your friends said there is nobody.
And this was when they gave theNFL, when they evaluated the top
one hundred of the one hundred years, there's nobody on the list that he
said he would trade for. Thatwas high praise, indeed from Chris Collinsworth,
and and certainly deservedly and great tohave you with us here today.
(43:13):
I took French in high school.I did a little study though Munyo's Son
of Hill. I'm going to goout on a limb, if you will,
on the hill and say that theguy that we had on today,
Anthony Munos, the son of Hill, has scaled a mountain in your life,
both on the field and now witheverything that you've done philanthropically, all
(43:36):
your charitable endeavors for the past twentyyears, and long long may it run.
Anthony, thanks so much for joiningus today. Ernie, thank you
so much. I really appreciate youhim. It's been fun. It's been
fun, and thank you. Thankyou. Okay, indeed, thank you
so much. I thank you toAnthony Munio's our guest here. He certainly
played well as we suspected on thegames people play, and we want to
(43:58):
thank our executive producer Andy Bernstein.That was really a pleasure to talk to
once again the greatest of all timeon the offensive line at the tackle position
in the NFL. I guess todayon The Games People Play, we played
with Anthony munnos So for the GamesPeople Play, this is Bernie Corbett saying,
play the game, well, everyone,
Welcome to the games people play.I'm your host, Bernie Corbett, very
special guest with us today, andI guess to open, I have to
say it's not often that you havea guest who can certainly say with a
good deal of pride and emphasis andconfidence that they are the best there ever
(00:36):
was, that whatever they happen todo. I always think of Roy Hobbs
and the National and the natural isthe best there ever was. But we
have that type of individual, notjust on the field, but we're going
to talk about what he has doneoff the field from the time that he
was participating in the National Football Leagueand obviously the time that he spent now
(00:56):
in retirement and beyond with us.As Anthony Munos would say, arguably and
maybe not arguably the greatest of alltime for the National Football League at his
position of tackle. Bernie, thankyou for having me. I'm looking forward
to the chat and I appreciate thatkind of introduction. Thank you. First
Super Bowl appearance was after the eightyone season, your second year and a
(01:18):
dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of theBengals. This was all unshotted territory for
the Bengals. You're six and tenyour rookie year, you're twelve and four,
You're the number one seed. Thejungle was born that year with perfect
eight to o and then winning thetwo playoff games, so ten and zero
through to the Super Bowl. Yourmemories about how it turned around that it
(01:41):
must have been really special for youas a young player to see that things
could turn so dramatically and so quicklyto success. Well, Bernie, you
know when I got there my rookie, of course, I got a whole
new coaching staff Forst. Craig isout for the hot We talked about Jim
McNally, and I looked at thetalent we had. They were both I
got there. They had all thesenumber one picks, Ross Brown or Wilson,
(02:04):
Whitley, Eddie Edwards, you knowGary Burley, they had Glenn Cameron,
they had Bo Harris on defense,Kenny Riley was still there offensively,
you know Kenny Anderson. We hadPete Johnson, Danny Ross, Isaac Curtis,
And I'm thinking, how does thisteam go four and twelve two years
in a row. Well, Ifound out quickly. Forst. Graig,
we did out some of the guysthat might not have wanted to be there,
(02:25):
and he got everybody into shape.I think the main thing was the
work ethic was not there, andlike you said, we go from you
know, my rookie year six andten. We could have very easily been
ten and six. We lost somegames late. Then that second year we
go twelve and four, number oneseed, home field advantage, and it
just all came together. Man.We had the big running back and Pete
(02:46):
Johnson, a tight end that youhad trouble staying at two twenty or two
twenty. Danny Ross but came aroundhim. He had a may brilliant year.
You know, Max Montoya was nowplaying unbelievable guard. We had Dave
Lapham. But it was one ofthose things where everybody got into shape and
I think just the confidence came together. Force came in as a disciplinarian and
said this is how we're going todo it. We had Dick Lebou and
(03:08):
Hank Bulla on the defense. Imean seeing things that we'd never seen in
football. You know, we'd linedup with one defensive lineman and five linebackers.
The nose tackle with get down,so offenses had to figure out who
are the lineman who's going to rush? Yeah, but you know, so
the zone blitz was now in play. And this was my second year,
(03:28):
uh, you know, with DickLebou and Hank Bulla and it was just
Lindia Fonte was there as an offensivecoordinator, basically running the West Coast offense.
Uh. It was just it wasa fun year because, like I
said, I could see the potentialfrom that rookie year six and ten of
the guys we had there, andit was just amazing to see the transformation
(03:49):
and the work ethic really and printingget it. Then we're going to be
in shape, We're going to bestrong, We're going to be We're going
to bust it during practice. Andthat's what we did. And a couple
of guys that had some Boston rootsthat the college had. Andy Ross went
to Northeastern, Pat mcinally at Harvard. I've been there broadcasting Harvard football for
the past twenty three years. AsI tell everybody, Anthony, even though
(04:10):
my SAT scores didn't get any better, I went to Boston University, so
I got always issued that's a greatschool. I got always issue that disclaimer.
And you mentioned another guy I'll haveto give you is a story.
You're giving me the stories, that'syour job. But I got to give
you one story. You mentioned DaveLapham at Dave Lapham. He was from
Wakefield, mass Syracuse, and youtalk about new them when well, I
(04:34):
still live in the same house.I was going to say, we haven't.
We haven't moved to a new stadium. I haven't put any luxury boxes
in. But the house that Ilive in now I moved in nineteen seventy
three and I can still remember asa twelve year old following Dave Lapham around
because he was part of the movingcrew that moved me from my old house
(04:55):
to my new house. So there'sone for you. On Dave Lapham.
You're made on the offensive life.So I played next to day my first
four year next to Dave Lapham forthirty plus years. He's been an amazing
analyst on the Bengals radio network anddoes a job. But yeah, he
was and smart, I mean greatguys. Here's a Lapham story. Lapp
was about two sixty five two seven, and he had some of the biggest
(05:19):
arms I'd ever seen, still does, and so we would walk out on
the field. Of course, thePittsburgh Steelers were the guys with the no
sleeves, you know, short sleevesat the big guns. And lap would
look at Webster and look at thoseguys and say, man, look at
those guns. I said, Lap, you ever looked in the mirror at
your arms? But the guys Ilove Dave Lapham. In fact, nineteen
(05:40):
ninety eight the year I was aduck to the Hall of Fame and they
had a full radio, they dedicateda park. We had a big dinner
at the convention Center and they saidyou got to bring one guy back that
you played with, and I said, that's a no brainer. I got
to check see if Dave Lapham couldcome back. So he flew back to
Ontario with me and we did raidingtogether and so he was part of the
(06:00):
festivities. And yeah, he's justI love David. He's amazing. He
MC's i've had. We just hada virtual dinner for my foundation. But
eighteen years Dave has been the mcMC or co EMC of my foundation dinner.
You know, it wouldn't be aFoundation dinner without Dave Lapplan as the
MC. That's great. That mentionedKenny Anderson was MVP with the top rated
(06:24):
passer you mentioned Pete Johnson and Chriscollins Worth one of your top whiteouts.
We'd be remiss if we didn't mention. On the road to the super Bowl,
you handled Buffalo twenty eight to twentyone, and then you had San
Diego and probably for tuitous you beingin Californian, you brought a Cali team
in to play under some rather severeweather conditions. Your memories of that game
(06:48):
with the wind shill? What didit check in? About? Minus fifty
nine with the wind shill? Bernie, Just a little cool, cool January
December day. I mean, youknow we're used of those kinds of days.
You know. The funny thing aboutit is, Man, I'll tell
you what. I was a roomwith Max Montoya for ten years on the
(07:08):
road camp and we used to stayin the hotel the night before and I'd
be the guy that would open upthe hotel curtains and kind of give a
weather report. So that morning Iopened it up, I said, Max,
blue skies of the suns out,it's a great day, and we
couldn't start our cars. I meanit was. They had a hotel van
ready took us down to the RiverfrontStadium. I mean it was crazy,
(07:31):
painfully cold. Then we played onthat great stuff they called astro turf,
which is like a thin carpet onasphalt. Just unbelievable. I mean,
of course, you know San Diego, just come off that little one game
down at Miami with the Dolphins.But you know one thing, it's amazing.
I gotta keep I gotta mention this. So they said, what if
you guys would have played in regularweather, could you guys have beat the
(07:53):
Chargers with who they had? Isaid, how quickly we forget? I
think it was in November that seasonwe went out to San Diego and I
think we scored like thirty four,beat them, like thirty four to fourteen
something like that. Out in SanDiego that same year, and it was
seventy seventy five degrees. They hadair Coriel still with you know, Kellen
(08:15):
Winslow and Jefferson and those guys,Chuck Munsey. So but no, Bernie,
that fifty nine below. You're right, the sun was out, but
it was so cool. We didn'thave all the nice undergarments they have now,
you know they can wear all this. It was like great T shirt,
shoulder pads, and of course it'sit's not the end thing for offensive
(08:35):
lineman. So we're out there sleeplessfifty nine below. You know, I
figured, heck, we're crazy enoughto play the game in that weather,
why not go out sleep? Absolutelygood, bad badge of Wanna and the
forty nine ers well, very similarto the Bengal club. That year they
had been six and ten. Theyear before they were thirteen and three.
They were the number one seed withBill Walsh, Joe Montanner at the controls
(08:58):
of the offense, had won Cincinnatiin December that year, and two teams
that nobody really could make much ofin terms of their track record. San
Francisco was favored by two points.You look back on that game statistically,
absolutely dominant when you think of thejob that your offense did. Was the
first Super Bowl where the team thatoutgained the other team. We're talking a
(09:20):
significant mind in the total offense threefifty six to two seventy five plus eighty
one in the game had lost withyour Bengal team. But once again,
what a coaches say about turnovers,Anthony, that proved to really take its
toll in terms of the final result. And it was the two right before
half. We're down fourteen ZIP,and we think we're going to go down
(09:41):
halftime fourteen ZIP and Ray Wilson kicksthe Squip kicks, we fumble, they
get it, kick a field goal, they do another one, so they
get six points just like that rightbefore half. So instead of four,
team Zip were down twenty. Andthose six points were the difference because we
came out the second half and Ithink at one point we were eight oh
and first downs and we were justreally dominating. We were rolling. And
(10:03):
of course another big series that secondhalf after we got rolling was that you
know, four downs at the atthe one yard line. You know,
we couldn't punch it in and goalline stand exactly. And if I'm not
a betting man, but if someonewould have told me going into that game
with the two hundred and sixty poundfull back running back that you're gonna have
four cracks at the one yard linefor I would have put my d down
(10:28):
for my house and said, you'recrazy and falling short there twenty six to
twenty one. In the first opportunityto play in the Super Bowl that was
with forres Greg you would get anopportunity later in your career, and they
were again the forty nine ers,and by this time the opinion and the
perspective of the forty nine ers hadchanged dramatically. They'd been a dominant team
(10:50):
in the eighties with Joe Montana,and once again a super Bowl that's looked
back and I'm sure you're sick ofwatching the tape anyway as far as the
final result, but uh, oneof the one of the super Bowls that's
looked at is one of the verybest and one of the most did dramatic
your thoughts other than the ultimate disappointmentas you look back on what was your
(11:11):
your second trip there in nineteen eightyeight. First of all, Bernie,
seriously, I thought, with thetalent we had after sixteen that we were
going to go, you know,two or three more time there. But
it wasn't. You know, theguy that had one catch and it happened
to be the final touchdown catch,that's John Taylor. I mean, you
know, Jenny Rice had an amazinggame, but are defensive enough to stop
them from getting the end zone.And you know we have that long kickoff
(11:31):
return for a touchdown by Stanford Jennings, and you know, Jim Breech is
on the verge of really being theyou know, Super Bowl MVP with three
field goals and you know, weback them up, they have ninety two
yards ago and you know, threeminutes or less, and we're thinking our
defense is going to do it again. And they were so frustrating, and
we had we had our chances.I mean, they had like I think
(11:52):
a third and sixteen and we stopthem then and there's not a lot of
time left. But Jerry Rice makesthe catch, he breaks the tackle,
and I think he gets seventeen oreighteen yards, so he makes the first
down by a yard or two,and that's really what kept him going.
But very frustrating because you know,even though I don't think we've played as
well as we should have thought,you know, we've done enough late in
(12:15):
the game and it just didn't workout. And of course, like I
said that Montana to John Taylor,that last play with thirty four seconds left.
Every Super Bowl season that I seethat high light and he never misses
itself. Some adversity affected the team. Your recollection of what happened the night
(12:37):
before was really unfortunate. Stanley Wilson, You fall back key contributed to your
club and what happened with the incidentwith him, and also the backdrop in
the as far as the atmosphere inMiami, you had the OVID and you
had the rioting that was going onthat week. There was a lot of
weight from the field. Any effectas you think back, any residual effect
(12:58):
in terms of your club get andfocused and being able to to have you
know, the eyes on the prizesfor the for the game on that day,
Well, I think the last thingyou mentioned, I think with the
riots going on, we I thinkwe're able to pretty much focus even with
all that going on. And thenwe moved out of downtown on Saturday,
out by the stadium on a smallhotel, quieter place, so we I
(13:20):
think we overcame that whole riot thing. But you know, the night before
and accident were in the game,where two things I think really had an
effect. You know, Sam letus. Usually we had dinner and then
Matt right after the meeting, Samsays, right at dinner, he says,
there's a Super Bowl special. Whydon't you guys go back to the
room watch it, and as soonas it's over, we'll meet. And
of course we did that. Weall got back in the meeting room,
(13:43):
and you know, when something's goingon, you can just fill it within
the team. And of course youknow, the whole team was in the
meeting room, but no coaches.And then Sam comes in and he informs
us the whole ordeal with Stanley Wilsonand in crack cocaine. So again,
sure you you hate to see thathe is, I mean an integral part
of our offense, the team,but more than that, it's a human
(14:05):
with drapped emotionally. So now wehad to overcome that move on biggest game
of your career with one of yourteammates, one of your family members.
Uh you know you thought he hadbeen over the drug plumb, but it
still bid him, still got him. So we go into the game.
We're like, okay, now wegot to move in Sunday, we wrap
up our our reviews at that morning. We go into the game and then
(14:26):
the second thing is, you know, one of our team leaders, the
defensive leader game, Tim Krumwright,I mean ugly breaks his leg. Now
you know we lose him. DavidGrant, rookie from West Virginia, does
a very good job, but youknow it's hard to replace the Tim Krumbright
on the defense. So you know, we had to overcome both those things,
(14:46):
and you know they're not excuses,but mentally very taxi and it takes
a toll. And I thought wedid a good job even with those things
going on, to focus and comeout and play pretty well. But uh,
he's the nightmare Joe Montana keeps doing. I was gonna say, still
haunting you, And well, figureis in being a Notre Dame guy and
(15:07):
you being a Trojan. So well, you know, I was very successful
against Utre Dame. We were threeand one, but in my football career,
I was oh for Joe Montana backthe one game we lost another Dame
who was the quarterback, Joe Montana. I think I was over four against
the forty nine ers and all fourwere against Joe Montana. Fall against Joe,
(15:28):
it's, you know, the measurablesat the at the tackle position.
Uh you look and just just gaudy. For that year, you were first
in the NFL four hundred and fortyeight points with that offense, ran for
twenty over twenty seven under years twentyseven to ten, sixty three oh two
for tolly yards and once again KennyAnderson was the MVP in eighty one,
(15:52):
you had Boomer was the MVP innineteen eighty eight. Uh, you weren't
protecting his blind side again, youwent the right of the ready lefty carbindation
there. But as far as Boomer, you've talked about just maybe the fact
that maybe he's a little bit underratedin terms of just how good he was
week in and week out, inthe fact that you played and we're in
the huddle with him for a goodpart of his career, prime of his
(16:15):
career. I agree. I mean, you know, one of the really
frustrating things for me right now isnot having Kenny Anderson in the Hall of
Fame. He should be in there. His stats, what he did during
the era he played and when heretired, and then Boomer. I think
he's very under sixteen years in theNFL. Of course, he played with
us, went to the Jets,went to the Cardinals, came back to
(16:36):
the Bengals. I mean, amazingstats, an MVP like you mentioned the
Super Bowl. Yeah, I thinkhe's very underrated. Not only his physical
performance on the field, but theguy was an amazing leader. I mean,
his leadership qualities, his passion,his intensity, it's just I mean
most of my career with two quarterbacksthat were just really really smart. I
(17:00):
mean, Kenny Anderson went to lawschool. You know, it has his
law degree. Boomer is very smart. And I tell people, you could
give Boomer the offensive game plan onWednesday, bring the whole team to get
on Saturday morning, and Boomer couldtell every one of the other ten guys
on offenseh to block against every defensein every play. He was that smart.
(17:22):
And looking at the end of yourtime with the Bengals, Anthony,
your contract had run out, andit looked as if you were retired.
You retired and then unretired, andI suspect one of the things that factored
in was suddenly there was an appreciationand maybe a little bit more of a
(17:42):
financial motivation for the left tackle position. Suddenly it had become appreciated. It
was like a great piece of artsuddenly that had raised the value exponentially,
and you had an opportunity circumstances youcould just you know, tell us about
what the circumstances worth. Kind ofa perfect stormfeeder. Give it another going
tamper. At the time. Yeah, it's funny, because I mean the
(18:03):
financial game was a little more wouldn'tlike it is now, but it was
a little more. But the thingwas I had retired. I had interviewed
with NBC and CBS. I donehigh school football and radio for seven years
when I was playing, so thatwas something I wanted to get into.
So I went to the Combine withJim McNally. He wanted to just kind
of show me what they did there. So I talked to Mike Brown about
maybe coaching. So I'm contemplating doI coach or do I go into broadcasting.
(18:27):
Well, I was at the Combineand Pete bether Bobby Bethard had just
want and went to San Diego asa general manager. I said, Bobby,
would you mind if I called youand talk to you about broadcasting.
I know you were in it.Now you're going back into football. I
said, no problem. So abouttwo three weeks after the Combine, I
called and talked to his assistant andhe says, Bobby said he wanted you
(18:49):
wanted to talk to him. Isaid yeah, so his assistant Anthony.
He said, now, Anthony,are you really retired? And I said,
yes, I'm really retired. Anduh, I said, why do
you ask? I let Bobby talkto you. I'm talking to Bobby about
broadcasting. Bobby says, so,are you really retired? And I said,
Bobby, and yeah, now it'smy retirement. I've been I'm down
to about two hundred and fifty poundsof forty five fifty and I'm checking out
(19:11):
broadcast. He goes, why don'tyou just fly out let's talk. I
said, what do you want totalk about? He says, well,
we have a left tackle, butwe need to right tackle and maybe a
left guard. And I said,what. I played thirteen years at left
tackle. My last year was Cincinnati. I played one guard at left or
one game at left guard, orall our guards were hurt. So I
volunteered to play left guard and BernieI said, man, this is pretty
(19:32):
cool. You have a guy oneach side of you the whole time.
You know you're So I flew outto Diego to talk to Bobby Bedford and
so we talked. Well what happened. I flew in and the next morning
I went into his office earlier anda reporter saw me going into his office
and he put it together and sowe found out I was going out to
talk to Bobby about, you know, maybe coming back and playing. So
(19:55):
I was getting ready to leave thereand the guy wrote an article. Well,
the head coach in Tampa Bay,who I played nine years for,
Sam Wis, calls me on mycell. He goes, what are you
doing? What are you doing?I said nothing yet he goes, don't
do anything until five down here toTampa. I said, okay, I'll
talk to you. And then allof a sudden, Bruce caused it's the
head coach with the Jets. Hecalls me and goes, what are you
(20:15):
doing? Because I'll watch you playyour last couple of days. You can
still play. Let's talk. Isaid, Bruce, nothing's happening. He
goes, keep me posted. ThenMarty Schottenheimer, who's now in Kansas City,
calls me and says, I'm comingthrough Ohio. Can we talk.
Well, each one of these teamshad a left tackle and they were looking
for a right tackle or a leftguard. So my wife and I are
going, okay, what do wedo? So we flew down to Tampa
(20:37):
after our San Diego and so Imeet with Hugh culver House, I meet
with Sam Wise, Rich mccazy,Tom McKay played it with the coach at
USC. I knew rich. Sowe're getting ready to leave and I signed
a contract with Tampa Baby. Andhere's a couple of reasons. The same
offense that I was in for eightnine years, Sandwich running with Bob Wiley
(21:00):
was his line coach. Bob andJim McNally were like this, and Bob
was teaching everything that Jim toot andeverything that we had done for my whole
career. They had a lot ofyoung offensive linemen down there, so I
went down there. Of course,it didn't work out. Making a tackle
against the Buffalo bill is a thirdpreseason game, I tore my shoulder up.
(21:21):
I had it repaired. I stayeddown there rehabbing for about three months
and coaching for about three months,and then I came back home. I
said, Okay, enough's enough,it's time to move on. Then that's
when Fox hired me and I wentinto broadcasting. But that was the short
lived wearing the old pink and orangewith the Tampa Bay bat but before they
got the Pewter And yeah, soI went down there, and you know
(21:42):
you mentioned the financial game. SureI made some good money because I wasn't
gonna go come out of retirement andgo there as a thirty five year old
NFL football player not getting anything upfront, so they gave me, you
know, some upfront. But itwas you know, and I helped coach
Bob Wiley when I was rehabbing upon the field. Coach, uh,
you know, I got my lastgame that I spent down there. Bob
(22:03):
was in the press box. Iwas on the field with the guys with
the headset making adjustments as they ranoff during the game. So that was
fun. But then I went intobroadcasting, So that was my short lived
Tampa Bay career. I got toask you about running backs, and there
have been to date eight one thousandyard rushes in the history of the Cincinnati
Bengals, six of them while youplayed. You got a favorite? Are
(22:26):
you going to get in trouble ifyou pick one of the running backs that
was running behind you? Well,you know, it's amazing because they were
so different. I mean, youPet Johnson was like a guard back.
You know. We had Nicky Woodsat Howard be and he had James Brooks
Man, the guy could have beena wide receiver one five as tough as
a two hundred and thirty five poundsback. So I mean, it's hard
(22:47):
to pick because they're so different.If they were more evenly type of running
backs, maybe I could, butthey were all fun to block for and
they were all different. I mean, you know Harold Green that was my
last year. He was a totallydifferent running back. You know, he
makes the Pro Bowl my last year, and you know, so it was
we had some great backs that Ihad a chance to block four and they
(23:08):
were really all totally different type ofbacks, and they did have a time
for you at halftime. December twentyseventh, nineteen ninety two. Final appearance,
as it turned out, in theJungle. What do you remember about
that as a culmination of your Bengalcareer in front of the people that came
(23:29):
out to see you every Sunday.You know, I tell people, you
know, people always act after retirementand come back to southern California. I
said, first of all, beachesand palm treings are overrated. But I
tell people I stayed in Cincinnati becauseof the people. And you mentioned the
Jungle. I mean, the Junglewas established when I was playing in the
eighties. The fans were amazing.People still amazing here. So just the
(23:52):
appreciation that was shown and in additionto all of that, you know,
I got to mention there was adefensive player that I was playing against.
It was whining the whole game.And I did like that he was whining
because he was also a trojan.He said, just because it's your last
game, stop holding me. Youcan't hold me because it was Dwayne Vickett.
(24:12):
I said, Dwayne, do youremember Dwayne Vickett, the big outside
line. I'm not holding you.So finally, I said, Dwayne,
if you're going to just give meyour chest, I'm going to take it.
I'm not going to turn down charity. But you know, the fans
there were amazing, you know,fifty seven thousand seasons, but it was
sold out and still packed. It'sfunny because I have a foundation, I
(24:33):
do a lot of speaking with youngpeople and I get a question asked me
a lot and Bertie. The questionthey asked me is do you wish you
would have played in the Jungle whenyou were playing? And I said,
well, let me just give youa little history lesson. So I get
a chance to tell these young kidsabout the Jungle, how it was established
in the eighties when I was playing. You know, I know you're very
close to remain close to the Bengals, and you wear your stripes with pride.
(24:59):
The Bengals franchise, I mean enigmawrapped up in a question, wrapped
up into a riddle. At thispoint, you had four playoff appearances,
you had three AFC Central Championships,the two Super Bowl appearances, and now
here the Bengals are the last.And I'm sure it crosses your mind from
time to time. The nineteen ninetyone wild card victory over Houston, you
lost to Oakland divisional playoff the nextweek. That stands as the last playoff
(25:25):
victory for this franchise. And there'sbeen some pretty good players that have played
for this franchise, and there's beenhalf a dozen first round playoff losses.
It's it's almost a curse onto itselfhere that has not yet to be broken.
Yeah, you know that's the shamethat you know that I was playing
for the last playoff game, becausethat's a long time ago. But you
know the thing that's said is,I mean you look at you mentioned the
(25:45):
sixth playoff first round, but youlook at those what five six years where
they had ten plus wins. Imean with Andy Dalton and all I mean,
they had some really good seasons withMarvin after that long spell of eighteen
nine, ten years of really adrought, and then Marvin gets here and
you know, they have all theseplayoff appearances, but of course the knockau
(26:06):
is that there's not a playoff win. So you know that's as a former
player and a fan now and amember of this great community, that's what
we're all waiting for, is thatfirst playoff game. And hopefully now I
don't know what's going to happen thisyear, but I think with Zach Taylor,
there the moves they made and freeagency this offseason and the draft day
(26:26):
culture. You know, when youlook at all just about all the free
agency signed, they all have playoffexperience. Six of the seven draft picks
were college captains. One of themwas a three time captain, Higgins,
who left after his junior at Clemson. I was talking to a coach who's
really close friends with his position.Coach at Clemson said if he comes back
to his senior year, he's probablygoing to be a captain. So I
think there's a culture of who they'redrafting, who they're signing, so hopefully
(26:49):
it translates not only into playoff appearances, but some playoff wins and the final
point on your playing career. Onceagain, remiss, if I didn't mention,
I know what great pride. I'msure what great pride you take.
It was a play in the playbookthat was Muonio's eligible and your milk that
(27:10):
pretty good during your career, andyou got a pretty good highlight railed to
assembled how much fun was that?You know, the Fridge had his moment
for the Bears. You had morethan a couple of moments as a Bengal,
right from the first one that youever made. The first touchdown catch
that you ever made was pretty importantagainst the Browns, big division rivalry game.
Exactly. We can look at thecatchers, Bernie, but let's not
(27:32):
mention the yards per catch. Okay, it's I think it'd be fans played
in defeat per catch, not yardsfort But no, it was. You
know, it started with Sam Wishis rookie year as a coach. Boomer,
we implemently put it into the gameplan. I thought it would never
be used, and it was.We're up in Cleveland, We're down seventeen
to ten. All they have todo is punt the ball. There's like
forty two seconds left, we haveno timeouts, and we take it down
(27:56):
and we get a pass inn Affarencecall. We're first and goal to one,
and he calls the play where I'mthe primary receiver. What does the
rookie coach do it? Because hewant to lose his job right away?
And it didn't work exactly how wedrew it up, but it was muddy.
I fell, the defense started togo that way, and Boomer stopped
and kind of threw me a littlesidearm pitch. But you know what,
(28:18):
it was one of those things.I catch it, we score, we
kicked the extra point, we goin overtime and Jim Breach kicks the field
goal to win. But you're rightagainst a divisional team, an interstate team,
and a Cleveland Browns. You know, people, when I'm out speaking,
they say, what share the mostmemorable moments of your NFL career?
They're thinking Super Bowl, Pro Bowls, And I basically start out by saying,
as a former lineman, I gotto say the first touchdown catch because
(28:41):
alignment usually doesn't get to catch passes, and it's against the Cleveland Browns.
So I ended up catching four touchdowns, which was unbelievable. It was fun,
and so I thank Sam Wish,and I thank Boomer Siacin for taking
a little bit of the velocity offof it when he threw it to me.
Patiental hazard of thirteen years. Ican't quite compete with you. I'm
(29:03):
just gonna show you. That's myleft pinky, Anthony, and that was
courtesy of a foul ball on Julyfourth, twenty twelve at Fenway Park off
the bat of Adrian Gonzalez, whowas a little late getting around. So
that's how my left pinky ended upthis way. Your left pinky is at
a little bit of a different angle, if you will. Yeah, it's
(29:26):
just just a little bit. Youknow what, Bernie, It doesn't hurt.
I don't need another surgery and pins, and I'm just gonna in a
plus, I can use it asan excuse on the golf course and I
can get a couple of strokes becauseyou know, all fingers don't go the
right way. So it's the hazardof you know, the profession. Your
(29:48):
career ended up in Canton and theGold Jacket in nineteen ninety eight as the
second Hispanic member of the Hall ofFame, what are your recollections about when
the call came and the experience andyou also had I was really moved by
the fact that you had your sonto present you at the Hall of Fame,
(30:10):
which I must have been really specialfor you to share that moment,
but to share it on that level, it was really exciting. Couple of
things. So I grew up insouthern Californias. Now I played college ball.
They're played in Cincinnati, but theSuper Bowl was actually in San Diego
the year I became eligible, Sothat's the city back in California that I
actually received the call. Dave Botswas the head of marketing there and he
called me and said, Anthon,are you superstitious? I said, nope,
(30:32):
not at all. He says,I checked the previous year, but
the individuals wanted nothing to do withit. I'm going to ask you a
question, he says. We havethis room where all the selectors are in
and when they come up with theirguys, they come to the podium and
then they read their names off.He said, if you're not superstitious,
would you mind hanging out in aroom in the back, you know,
(30:52):
where these guys are making the selectionsand then if your name is called,
you just come out and you cometo the podium there in front of everybody.
I said, Dave, I said, you're right, I'm not superstitious.
I will do that under one condition. He goes, what's that.
I said that from this room thereis a back hall. Exit the back
door, through the alley and backto our hotel. He goes, no
(31:15):
problem. So I was actually ina back room when my name was announced,
and after I called dating my wifeand told her, I came out
to face the media. But itwas unbelievable. I mean to get that
you know word right there. AndI joked with Damasho retired a couple of
years ago after forty plus years atthe hall. I said, Dave,
I think we were in a broomcloset that year. Now they have a
(31:36):
green guys with food and breaks andbig chairs. But that's how I got
word Bernie. As I was therein the little room in the back,
and when the selectors came up withthe class of nineteen ninety eight, you
know, my name was announced andI was able to come out and face
the media and then you give ayou know, a word or two.
So it was I still pinched myself. Twenty two years later, I still,
(31:59):
you know, being able where thatgo jacket in the ring and being
able to drive up the canton everyWell, we'll continue next year. Of
course, it would have been justthis past weekend. It's always a great
time to do with all the guysbeyond the field. Anthony, I know
you had. I guess it wassomewhat of an epiphany at the beginning of
(32:19):
your second season, in particular abouthow you were going to dedicate your life.
I mean, that's a pretty That'sa major moment if people that do
have those moments in their life,and that is carried over into a remarkable
record of philanthropy and charitable support.Your foundation, the Anthony Munoz Foundation,
(32:44):
was founded in two thousand and two. I'm gonna let you talk about it
because when I looked at just howextensive and expansive it is in terms of
all the good it does in somany different areas, I think it'd be
tough to talk about the thing isthat you're not doing and the groups of
people that you're not helping, andthe groups of people that you are helping.
(33:05):
It's remarkable. I got to getback to your initial comment about my
second year in the league, andyou know, my faith started to grow
as a sophomore and colleagues with mywife and I, but it wasn't until
my second year where this tagline reallybecame a great tagline and something that I
started to understand when I say victorybeyond competition. Yes, so I was
competing on the field, but Ineeded victory beyond that competition. Victory beyond
(33:30):
the wins and losses, you know, the blocks and no blocks, And
that was through my faith. That'sthe victory. And that's really been the
motivator for me for the last fortythree years. And that's really what spawned
my foundation. And I really didn'tstart until eight years after I retired because
when I was playing, I understandleverage relevance of being an NFL football player,
(33:51):
but being a husband, being afather, and having to produce on
the football field, I was notgoing to have the time to be engaged
in the foundation. So I startedtoo zousand and two and both my kids
were like sophomore juniors in collegation.Statement of really engaging the Tri state area
to impact kids mentally, physically,and spiritually. And here we're going into
our twentieth year next year, andwe have seven programs, so we work
(34:12):
we've probably worked with forty thousand kidsin the last nineteen years, and we
start out with elementary kids and wehave a mentoring program one on one mentoring
with about thirty kids for the wholeyear. And every program we have,
we might offer us a different programto the kids, but we build relationships
with them. We say, onceyou enter into a AMF or an Anthony
Munas Foundation program, you become afamily member. So we're really going to
(34:36):
pour into your life. So wehave this mentoring program for K to five
kids once a week during the wholeschool year. We do other things like
take them to the zoo, maybesome Reds games, do some stuff with
them, Christmas parties for their wholefamily. And then they age out at
fifth grade. So from six tomiddle school we have what we call until
we continue. With the middle schoolkids, we take them to local college,
(35:00):
we take them to local companies,We mentor them to let them see
after middle school go to high schoolwith the vision of moving on to a
trade school, to a college andcontinuing to study. And then so that's
a couple of our programs. Thenwe have what we call our overnight Character
Camps. We have one in thespring, which is pretty diverse, one
hundred and fifty young men. Wetake them away for three days. We
(35:22):
teach them a little football, We'regoing to do that, but we teach
them a lot of character, teambuilding, and how to work together.
I mean with the landscape of today, as you know, with everything going
on racially. We've been doing thisfor twenty years, teaching black kids,
brown kids, white kids, towork together, to respect each other,
to learn each other's culture. We'vebeen I've been doing that for twenty years,
(35:43):
twenty five years. And then wehave another one in the spring or
in the fall, this exact sametemplate, but it's one hundred percent Hispanic
kids. Teach them the same thing, football, character, team building,
and how to respect each other.So that's another program. Then we have
what we call our Youth Leadership Seminar. We try to get anywhere from eighty
to one hundred high school together fora full day event. We have motivational
(36:05):
leadership speakers. We have breakout sessionsduring the day to listen hear what these
high school kids have to say,what they're hearing from these speeches, and
then At the end of the day, we have what we call our Community
Service Challenge. We really give thema charge and these students that are there
put together community service projects. Wetrack them. I pick a couple winners,
(36:27):
but it's amazing what these young menand women will initiate. They have
their moderators, their teachers, theircounselors that come with them, but these
kids put them and there are alot of sustainable programs that they're doing.
Then we have two types of scholarships. In the spring. We have what
we call our straight A Scholarship.It encompasses as athletics and a big criteria
is overcoming adversity. We have adinner or a lunch at one of the
(36:52):
nicest steakhouses in town, Jeff RubySteakhouse. He totally donates it. We
have all eight team have nine male, nine female finalists. They get to
bring their most influential teacher. Theybring their parents, who have about one
hundred and thirty at a luncheon andit's a two to five thousand, one
time scholarship that we give them forthese kids going to college. We give
(37:14):
them a nice foundation ring and thenthe female winner gets a nice medallion.
So that's one of the scholarships.Then at our dinner in the summertime,
we give away anywhere from four toten twenty thousand dollars scholarship depending on budget.
We're starting to partner with companies universitiesto increase that. So that's our
(37:35):
scholarship fund. So that's what wedo. Like I said, about forty
thousand young people, we've been ableto nineteen going on twenty years. It's
a passion of mine. I'm therewhen I'm in town, I'm there every
day. I don't take a pennyfrom the foundation. We have a great
board, a very engaged board,sixteen board members that are amazing. Right
now, we have two full timestaff, which is really lean for what
(37:59):
we do. But from the beginningwe've always had a local college internship program.
We'll have four to ten local collegestudents that intern with us and they
get to learn the non for profitbusiness because with our lean staff, they
come in and they have projects theywork. We usually have one or two
graphic designers that helps us with ourlogos for our camps, our events,
(38:21):
and that's what we do. LikeI said, going on twenty years,
we've raised probably close to sixteen milliondollars. Wow, and every year during
our audit, and it's happened foryears and years. As you probably know,
the one question they always ask youwhen you have a non for to
ninety one cents just about every yearfor the dollar that goes to our kids
(38:43):
in the program. So that's whatwe do. And like I said,
started it. It'll be twenty yearsthis next year, so we plan on
really having a big party celebrating thekids this next week. Twentieth and one
may have run for another wanting,God willing and beyond with that's right with
with with what you've established. Youmentioned your kids. You had bold your
(39:06):
kids division one athletes. I rememberMichael as an offensive tackle at Tennessee.
Your daughter played at Tennessee and thentransferred to Ohio State. You're a young
man. You got eleven grandkids,actually actually nine. Yeah, but yeah,
we still call our daughter the bestathlete. I think we've all co
needed that. She could shoot lightsout. You know, she was a
(39:27):
two time mess basketball and Ohio twotime Division One Player of the Year.
And Michael had he was the numberone lineman coming up, could have gone
anywhere. We had him at Tennesseeat least for one year together. Michael
was there, you know, forhis freshman sophomore the Michelle was there for
her freshman year. So that thenshe came to a house state made a
lot easier for us to drive aroundall her games. But yeah, so
they had unbelievable careers. They bothyou know, finished school, got their
(39:51):
masters. Michelle, you know,finished undergraduate. I went into education,
taught for a few years. Nowshe's homeschooling her kids, which is a
some times. Michael didn't go onto the NFL, but he had a
great career there, got the postgraduatescholarship, which is that now it's called
the Campbell Award, the Academic Heisman. When he wasn't drafted, decided to
go get his NBA, worked atProcter and Gamble for about six years and
(40:15):
now he's been up in camp workingat the Hall of Fame for two years.
So yeah, nine grandkids, fiveboys, four girls, and uh
so it's it's a lot of fun. So we got to keep active to
stay up with all those. Ohyeah, I saw. I'm sorry about
the eleven. I didn't want toscale the way. I didn't have any
inside knowledge on that, but youknow, nine nine is a pretty formidable
number. We did know exactly.You've taken the Bible literally, go Ford
(40:38):
and multiply Anthony exactly. They gotthe clivers Pool there with with with this,
with this next generation. I alwaystry to make the guests feel at
home. So I want you toknow that. AH love it, I
love it. I covered the seriesfor the Creative Sports Network. Was down
(40:58):
at Georgia Tech, can't believe,twenty years ago, and it was a
big win for SC to come acrossthe Mississippi, and they ended up in
the super Regional two out of three. They knocked up Georgia Tech was led
by a guy named Mark to Shiaand they beat him too straight and USC
had a guy named Mark Prior onthe mound who wasn't bad. So I
really enjoyed covering that series. Iremember Mark, No Mark, Yeah.
(41:22):
I love uh yeah, college baseball, I love it. You know,
I still like you said, Igo to Reds game, I gotta go
to Finnway Park. That's that's gottabe somewhere that I gotta go to.
Of course, you know we've hada few SC guys play there, so
you know absolutely. You talk baseballreal quick. My recruiting trip into SC
(41:44):
the weekend. It's a football recruitingtrip. So Friday I get in,
I'm with the football people. Saturdaymorning, I'm sitting on the bench at
Dato Field with the USC alumni baseballgame against Major League All Stars. So
Kingman sever quote our Freddy, They'reall sitting there. Wow. So that
Saturday morning and Saturday night, I'mwith football. Sunday morning, there was
(42:07):
a tradition the USC varsity would playthe Dodgers at Dodger Stadium and then the
Dodgers would head to Verrea Beach forspring prints. So I'm sitting on the
bench with the SE baseball team atDodgers Stadium as they're playing in an exhibition
game. So that was my recruitingtrip to USC. Wow, there's some
stop power. Theyre no question,top to tough to say no under those
(42:29):
circumstances. Indeed, well consider considerit done for Fenway Anthony and once again,
Sam White said, the greatest offensivetackle the game has ever known.
And Bob Trump, he gave youthe ultimate compliment. He said he was
the same guy and played at thesame level from the beginning to the end
(42:49):
of his career, and Chris collinsWorth, your friends said there is nobody.
And this was when they gave theNFL, when they evaluated the top
one hundred of the one hundred years, there's nobody on the list that he
said he would trade for. Thatwas high praise, indeed from Chris Collinsworth,
and and certainly deservedly and great tohave you with us here today.
(43:13):
I took French in high school.I did a little study though Munyo's Son
of Hill. I'm going to goout on a limb, if you will,
on the hill and say that theguy that we had on today,
Anthony Munos, the son of Hill, has scaled a mountain in your life,
both on the field and now witheverything that you've done philanthropically, all
(43:36):
your charitable endeavors for the past twentyyears, and long long may it run.
Anthony, thanks so much for joiningus today. Ernie, thank you
so much. I really appreciate youhim. It's been fun. It's been
fun, and thank you. Thankyou. Okay, indeed, thank you
so much. I thank you toAnthony Munio's our guest here. He certainly
played well as we suspected on thegames people play, and we want to
(43:58):
thank our executive producer Andy Bernstein.That was really a pleasure to talk to
once again the greatest of all timeon the offensive line at the tackle position
in the NFL. I guess todayon The Games People Play, we played
with Anthony munnos So for the GamesPeople Play, this is Bernie Corbett saying,
play the game, well, everyone,
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