0:06

It's time for another episode of TATS from the Past

0:09

podcast.

0:09

Matt Smith pleased to be joined by

0:12

one of.

0:13

The all time great Patriots, former

0:15

tight end, Rus Francis, all the way up from

0:17

Connecticut. Thank you for coming up here and

0:19

really appreciate your time.

0:20

Great to see you.

0:21

It's great to see you, Matt.

0:22

Thank you for having me so for the new

0:24

a fight Patriot fans who might

0:27

only think of tight ends and Rob Gronkowski.

0:30

I don't know how accurate this is, but

0:32

Russ Francis was Rob Gronkowski before Gronk

0:36

averaging you know, sometimes seventeen yards

0:38

a catch famously known or

0:40

coined the phrase by all world announcer

0:43

Howard Cosel, Russ was the all worlds

0:45

tight end. If you're watching Monday Night Football

0:48

and listen to the halftime highlights, that's how Cosel

0:50

called Russ Francis on

0:52

two of the great pre craft Patriot

0:55

teams of all time, nineteen seventy six

0:57

and nineteen seventy eight.

0:58

Unfortunately they never got a cheat to win it all.

1:01

Rush.

1:02

Before we start talking.

1:03

About your football career and everything, I know you're

1:05

living in Connecticut. Why don't you tell what Patriot

1:07

fans know what's you're up to these days.

1:09

Well, first of all, you mentioned Brook Gronkowski.

1:12

Rob what a monster he

1:14

is. I mean, there's a guy that can do everything.

1:17

So I just wanted another Patriot tight end,

1:19

which I'm very, very proud to tell

1:21

people about. From time to time,

1:24

I'm in Hawaii. Part of the time, I'm in

1:26

Oregon. Family got

1:28

a place in Cody, Wyoming, and as you mentioned,

1:31

in Connecticut. So I'm still traveling.

1:33

I still love to do that, visit family,

1:35

visit friends, and I run into fans

1:37

all over the place. Not just Patriots

1:40

fans or forty nine er fans because of the time

1:42

I spent there, but NFL fans,

1:45

sports fans, Red Sox fans,

1:47

which is one of my favorite things to do, go to Fenway.

1:50

So it's a pleasure. I mean to be

1:52

here at Jillette Stadium. I feel

1:54

like I just walked in on my first day after being

1:56

drafted.

1:58

Do you think rush when you look back

2:00

at you know, your kind of unassuming

2:02

origin into the game of football.

2:05

Did you become a football player

2:08

by accident?

2:09

Almost?

2:10

You know, it wasn't like you grew up as a kid and we're looking

2:12

at you know, old black and white tape or anything.

2:14

And you know, one day I'm going to be a football player. It

2:17

just sort of happened. Why don't you,

2:19

you know, help educate fans as to how

2:21

the origins of Russ Francis football

2:23

player came to be.

2:25

Well, my mother was a nurse number

2:27

one. She had five boys and a girl, and

2:29

the boys were not going to play youth football

2:31

or any of that stuff. She was way ahead of her

2:33

time with brain injury and that type of thing, orthopedic

2:36

injuries. So it wasn't until high

2:38

school when she said, when your bones stopped

2:41

growing or they're close to stop growing. And

2:44

my oldest brother, Bill, who's almost

2:46

three years older, he loved football,

2:48

so he kind of dragged me into it. I

2:51

really didn't want to play, you know, I'd rather

2:53

be at the beach surfing, I mean, just

2:55

or sailing or something anything but football.

2:58

Because you're growing up in I should we should remind

3:00

people what state are you from?

3:01

From the Hawaiian Islands? Yes, so

3:04

I came from a real different

3:06

background and come to New England where

3:08

they're very very very serious about

3:10

their sports, and they were very very

3:13

serious about their patriots. And I

3:15

didn't know anything. My teammates wanted

3:17

nothing to do with me because I

3:19

only played one year my junior year in

3:21

football, didn't play my senior

3:24

year, and all of a sudden, I'm here on

3:26

the practice field. Luckily my

3:28

teammate that Ray Perkins put me in

3:30

with a training camp. And then on the road

3:32

is Darryl Stingley, God rest his

3:34

soul, and Daryl taught me how

3:36

to read coverages, run routes, and Perk

3:39

made sure that he did. We did it

3:41

before practice, we did it after practice. So

3:43

I was very, very fortunate. I think the number one

3:45

thing when you ask of how do you develop

3:48

becoming a football player, starting as a rookie

3:51

with Steve Grogan also starting as a rookie,

3:54

you have to have people all around you like my coach, Ray

3:56

Perkins and Red Miller on the line, Ray's

3:58

receivers and Raymond Barry's receivers, Chuck

4:00

Fairbanks, Ron Earhart offensive

4:03

coordinator. Such a great group

4:05

of guys you can't help but learn. I'm

4:07

a self taught incompetent, so I looked

4:09

to the highest level I can find if somebody knows

4:12

something, and then I started drilling them, how do you do

4:14

this? How do you do that?

4:15

So University of Oregon recruited

4:17

you in Hawaii to

4:20

throw the javelin, is that correct?

4:22

Well, actually, the University

4:24

of Oregon canceled

4:27

their baseball program due to Title nine.

4:29

So I was going to go play baseball at the University of

4:31

Oregon. Middle of my senior year in

4:33

Hawaii, my parents tell me my brother's going away

4:36

to college with his girlfriend. I've got

4:38

to go back to the ranch in Oregon. So I'm

4:40

going to finish high school there my second year.

4:43

Javelins are illegal in Hawaii, as they are

4:45

in many states spears, so

4:47

I'd never seen one guy goes walking

4:49

by after the basketball season. I'd just

4:52

gotten there. I threw it. It shattered

4:54

in the parking lot because I thought

4:56

I could reach the grass a little over confident,

4:59

and the said, listen, you can either pay me one hundred and fifty

5:01

two dollars or join the track team.

5:04

Since the baseball team was not my

5:06

guys, I said, okay, fine. So

5:09

because of this coach, who's one of the top track

5:11

and field coaches in the United States, at

5:13

a small school, Pleasant Hill in Oregon of

5:16

four hundred and eighty kids, I

5:19

set the national record three times. He

5:21

was a job and thrower himself. So

5:23

we started by just hitting paper. I said,

5:26

can I throw it down the field? Note? Just through

5:28

the point, through the point, through the point. Having

5:30

people like that in your life, all across

5:32

the board of your life is

5:34

how anybody succeeds. You

5:37

don't do it. A small part of it really

5:39

is you pep oh. You're a good athlete, You're

5:42

this, you're that, You're big, you're strong, and you're faster. None

5:45

of that counts if you don't start

5:47

putting all the information. If they're not willing

5:49

to give it to you, it's game

5:51

over.

5:52

Who was your roommate at the University of Oregon

5:55

that was also on the track team.

5:57

When I first got to the University of Oregon The

5:59

coach Bill Barman, who ended up becoming the nineteen

6:01

seventy two this is nineteen seventy one, nineteen

6:04

seventy two Olympic track and field coach for the United

6:06

States in Munich, Germany. Many

6:08

people remember the sort of disaster

6:11

that that was. The guy that he

6:13

put me in as a roommate on

6:16

the road, came

6:18

up to me the first day of practice, ran around the little

6:20

guy running around the track, running around

6:22

the track, running around the going up downstairs, and

6:25

I'm trying to learn how to throw the javelin some more.

6:27

He comes over. He goes, here, let me show you how to throw that.

6:30

He's about five eight five seven, about

6:32

one hundred and twenty pounds left

6:34

handed, and he grabbed it. He threw it, kind of threw it sideways.

6:37

He goes, oh, I used to throw it better in high school.

6:39

He says, you got to get that left foot down

6:41

better. And I said, who are you? He goes,

6:43

My name's pre I said, didn't

6:45

your mother like you? That old story?

6:48

And he says Steve Prefontaine, like I

6:50

was supposed to know. Well, he was well known around

6:52

the world at that point. I said, nice

6:55

to meet you, pre So let

6:57

me finish throwing the javelin. So I didn't know

6:59

it, but he had gone to the coach. The coach

7:01

had talked said this guy needs

7:04

a seasoned member of the team as

7:06

his roommate to help him out because

7:08

he's he's got issues me. And

7:11

he was right. I was lost. I mean, I

7:13

I did you know I'm twenty miles

7:15

twenty five miles from the ranch and didn't

7:18

know anybody in town and pre introduced

7:21

me to everybody. He became a dear, dear friend.

7:24

So you played one year of collegiate football

7:26

at the University of Oregon. Great, you

7:28

know, good conference, top

7:30

talent, and you were drafted

7:33

sixteenth overall in the first round by

7:35

the New England Patriots. Was that Steinberg

7:37

who was a GM back then? Yes, and

7:40

tell the story like, well, he was not a personnellity

7:42

right when you were found when you found

7:44

out you were drafted, did you think they had reinstituted

7:46

the Armed Services draft?

7:48

Like you didn't even know what the NFL draft was.

7:49

Right, My brother comes down from the ranch house.

7:52

I'm in the snow feeding cattle. We had a bunch

7:54

of cattle. We worked two other ranches, so

7:56

you had a busy day feeding cattle every day,

7:59

hauling hay in the summer. And this is January

8:01

when the NFL used to hold the draft. Then he

8:04

comes zimbling down and he's the responsible

8:06

when became a policeman. My oldest

8:08

brother Bill, and

8:10

he says, hey, you've been drafted. You got to get up

8:13

to the phone. They're waiting for you. I said,

8:15

they can't do that again. They get they had the lottery

8:17

back. Then he goes, no, you idiot, it's

8:19

the NFL. I go tell

8:22

him, I'm I'm playing. I've been drafted

8:24

in the fall. This is January by

8:27

the Kansas City Royals to pitch way

8:30

down. I think it was ninth round or something like

8:32

that, maybe even farther down. But

8:34

I wanted to play baseball so bad, so I said,

8:36

no, just tell him I'm I'm not going to play.

8:38

He goes, you tell him? So I

8:40

said, well, tell him. It's going to be two hours before

8:42

I'm through feeding. I got to go back to the bar and

8:44

get Hay and all that stuff go

8:46

there, and then phone's hanging swinging.

8:49

I said, Bill, what's going on with the phone?

8:51

He said, they're still waiting, and

8:54

I don't think the coach, his name is Chuck Fairbanks,

8:56

is very happy.

8:59

Oh, I'm just come over from Hawaii.

9:01

She just walked by to see what's happening with her boys

9:04

just keep on going. She wasn't sure what

9:06

was going on that it was a football team, because she would

9:08

have said, let me talk to him. But

9:11

I get there and it was Ernie Adams, who's

9:14

been a fixed year here with the Newland

9:16

Patriots since then. He and

9:19

Nancy Meyer, two of my best friends and buddies,

9:21

were all rookies together, and

9:23

he said, yeah, Coach Fairbanks is pretty

9:25

hot. He said, you might want to start out

9:27

kind of slow, or you just tell him

9:30

pleasure meeting you, Ernie. My mother's

9:32

working on her boys. I said, please just

9:34

tell him. We don't need to talk. I'm not gonna I'm gonna

9:36

play baseball because you're gonna have tell him yourself.

9:39

And he was kind of like this anyway,

9:41

So Chuck came on and he says, you're on a plane tonight

9:44

to Boston. I said, you know, I

9:47

really can't do that, Coach. I've got a feed

9:49

cattle. I've got class, summer classes

9:51

and graduate early at the University of Oregon

9:53

pre med. And

9:56

my mother goes walking by. He said, is

9:58

your mother home? Put mom

10:00

on the phone. She is, yes, Coach, yes, I understand

10:03

them. Okay, fine, I'll tell him, but it's up

10:05

to him. It's his decision. He'll call you

10:07

back. Click. She said, listen, my

10:09

recommendation is that you get to go first

10:12

class tonight, get into Boston tomorrow

10:14

morning, meet with the coach, let

10:16

him have his say, then tell him whatever you want.

10:18

To say that you're either going to play or you're not

10:20

going to play, but do it in person.

10:22

That's really good advice, by the way.

10:24

And I said, and that's how mom was with the

10:26

boys. I said, Mom, I got a feed cattle,

10:29

I got classes and ever there. She goes, Bill, Billy,

10:33

you're taking Russell's cattle. I don't know what he could

10:35

do for your classes. Maybe he can sit in for

10:37

you. But you need to go, I said,

10:39

Mom, I just I don't have time. She

10:41

goes. You know what's at Boston because

10:44

she knew her son all of her Since I

10:47

said no, she goes, and you'll get to see it. I

10:49

said, no, what Fenway Park,

10:51

the Green Monster. Oh,

10:54

that's right, the Red Sox. You think I'll

10:56

really be able to see the Red Sox? Ernie drove

10:58

me over to the Fenway Whenever when you picked

11:00

me up.

11:01

The next day, When you look back at that Russ

11:03

and you think about it, like it sounds

11:05

like a kid who football wasn't a priority

11:08

to you. You had other things going on in your life.

11:10

Here comes this surprise phone call that you have no idea

11:13

really what it means or anything like that. How

11:17

when you look back at that and how that

11:20

was a defining moment in your life

11:23

for taking a turn that you really didn't

11:25

know what you're getting into.

11:26

By saying, you know what, I'm going to hop in the planet and go to Boston

11:28

and see what happens.

11:29

Do you ever look back at that and reminisce

11:31

about, like, you know how.

11:35

Important that moment was in your life?

11:37

Well, my mother, my grandmother, my father,

11:39

grandfather, our whole family. It was

11:41

all about making your own decisions. So

11:43

she's gonna give you some advice, and she's going to give

11:45

you some backup reasons or ideas

11:48

or thoughts. Then you get to think about it mulled

11:50

over, and then you make the decision. I

11:52

came really close to just say no, I'm

11:54

just gonna stick with baseball, you

11:56

know. Plus I'd been accepted by a couple of

11:58

colleges to VET school here

12:01

in the Northeast, So

12:06

I came really really close to saying no, I'm

12:09

not going to I'm going to go spring practice

12:11

for baseball. And I never would have done

12:14

much. I don't think in baseball as

12:16

a pitcher, and I could throw really fast, especially

12:18

after throwing the javelin. I had

12:21

no idea where he's gone football

12:23

and baseball too, is more of a team. They're

12:26

going to deal with the top players they have. They'll

12:28

develop you as they can. Either you can or you can't.

12:30

In football with Ray Perkins, it was every

12:32

day working with me catching the

12:35

ball. Raymond Barry saying, those

12:37

threads that come to the point of the ball, what

12:40

do you see with those threads? I

12:42

said, I see threads, Coach, when he throw me the ball.

12:44

He was very, very cerebral kind

12:47

of coach, and he said, keep

12:50

looking, throw me the tight spiral.

12:52

So finally, one moment it hit me and

12:55

these are the people I get to work with. And

12:58

I'd already played three years in the league, and I was doing

13:00

pretty well, Pro Bowl and everything else. I

13:03

drop a pass every now and then I

13:05

went to almost zero drops when

13:07

he saw said, look at the

13:10

threads coming together at the point of the ball. It

13:12

forms a black dot when

13:14

you turn your head around. And Steve Grogan has

13:16

just throwing that ball, or Joe Montana in this case,

13:19

and it's already on its way and you have to

13:21

pick it up. If you pick up that

13:24

football, you'll go right to your hands.

13:27

You just can't get to it. If you pick up that dot,

13:29

you can stop it. And I went

13:31

son of a Gun coach Jam Fingers

13:34

later, but finally, that's

13:37

the kind of coaching. I had. Teammates

13:39

like Daryl Stingley, you know, John Hannah, Leon

13:42

Gray Shelby, Jordan I

13:44

God rest his soul, Steve

13:47

Nelson, the guy, Steve King, Steve's

13:49

able, the three, Steve A. Darrow's I call him

13:51

the linebackers for the Patriots. They

13:53

were so good at detail stuff

13:56

and getting better every single day. Then you go with the

13:58

kuy like Bill Walsh where they wrote the book

14:01

they called me genius. Well that was for a reason.

14:03

The West Coast offense and

14:05

Joe Montana and all those guys that

14:07

were on that team, Roger Craigan. It

14:10

was an honor and a privilege.

14:13

The chance to do broadcasting.

14:15

We were talking earlier with al Michaels

14:17

and how great he is. I got a chance to do

14:19

college football games with al Michaels.

14:21

We'll get to that.

14:22

One of my heroes, right, And I just say that

14:24

based on these are people that walked

14:26

into my life. I had no

14:28

idea they were coming. I'm a self

14:30

taught incompetence, so I'm here to learn

14:32

I learned that from my flat instructors, and I learned that

14:34

from my parents.

14:36

So here you come as a first round draft pick, sixteenth

14:38

overall the draft. You're coming to an area you don't know, you

14:40

don't know any of your teammates or anything like that. I

14:42

think you've said to me off camera that

14:47

you know, there's a little bit of a bullseye on your back.

14:49

What was it? Was it?

14:50

You know, not that it wasn't a welcoming environment

14:53

or a nurturing environment. Certainly the coaches,

14:56

it was important for them to see you develop

14:58

and develop well. But as this hot

15:01

shot first round pick with a bunch of

15:03

veterans, was it a difficult

15:05

transition to transition into pro football?

15:08

Oh? Absolutely. I mean Tommy Nevill

15:10

who was the starting right tackle at the time before

15:13

Shelby Jordan the next year or to Tommy's towards

15:15

the end of his career, A really honorable

15:17

guy, you know, from Alabama. I

15:20

think Alabama Arkansas. I can never

15:22

hogle get upset if I said Arkansas. So I started

15:25

doing it on purpose. John Hannah from

15:27

Alabama. John, he

15:29

came up to me the first day of practice. He goes, listen, my

15:31

name is Tommy Neville. I'm the right tackle. You would

15:33

be playing tight end next to me from time to

15:35

time. I just want you to know I'm rooting for the veteran

15:39

Bob Windsor. Don't come

15:41

to me with any questions about how to run your plays,

15:43

or how to block or anything else. You either figure

15:45

it out or you're out of here. That

15:48

was my welcome.

15:50

Now.

15:51

I've always admired Tommy Nevill

15:53

because he told me exactly how it was. First day,

15:55

straight shooter. He straight shooter, and

15:58

you have to make the adjustment. I think, knowing

16:00

Tommy later and talking to him after he retired,

16:02

he said, I wanted to see what you were made at him. He

16:05

said, so you kept coming back. He said that was all

16:07

right. And Bob Windsor got hurt so before

16:09

the season, and Bob Allens got hurt

16:11

the second string guy. So I'm

16:13

starting as a rookie. The

16:16

guys are going, oh my goodness, you know

16:19

so and two games later, Jim

16:21

Plunker goes down. So Steve Grogan comes in and said,

16:23

what do we do? He goes, if I do

16:25

this because I don't know the plays. When he calls him in the huddle,

16:28

just run straight, just run down. Then that's

16:31

where I got the yard is my first year, and

16:33

they kept.

16:34

Throwing to me, deep, was it lonely?

16:36

Rush a little bit.

16:38

It wasn't lonely from the standpoint of

16:40

I've learned to be comfortable

16:43

in my own skin, with my own company, kept

16:45

myself busy, and then in the

16:47

off season, I went home. I flew the airplane back

16:49

to Oregon, hopped another commercial

16:51

plane to Hawaii, and started a charter service,

16:54

the state's first civilian or ambulance service in

16:57

a helicopter service in Hawaii. No,

16:59

I wasn't lonely.

17:00

I had my airplanes, so and

17:02

those airplanes came into play. As

17:05

an NFL player, you know back

17:07

in the day when you started training camp in July

17:09

and you had training camp for nine weeks,

17:11

and it was real training camp, not like what the players

17:14

are accustomed to today. Two

17:16

days and you were telling me that there were

17:18

sometimes were three days early on, but let's

17:21

focus on the two days practice. In the

17:23

morning, you'd hop in the plane and

17:25

go to the vineyard for lunch.

17:27

Yeah, yeah, I did.

17:30

I went to the vineyard for lunch because it

17:32

was a college environment Brian College. The

17:34

food wasn't that great. And

17:37

my mother and grandmother were great cooks,

17:40

so I was told that there were great

17:42

restaurants on the islands. I grew up on

17:44

an island, so I gravitated towards

17:46

the island. So I kept my little airplanes

17:48

that I bought with my bone at signing bones the beach graft

17:50

Sierra, and

17:53

flew to the vineyard, flew to Nantucket,

17:57

and with every one in a while player would say, hey, can

17:59

I come with you? Well, we're supposed to be eating

18:01

lunch with the team, socializing,

18:04

but I didn't get along with that. I didn't get

18:06

along. I didn't know anybody. And

18:09

then you're supposed to go take a nap and rest up

18:11

and get ready for the three o'clock practice.

18:14

Well, I'll go to the vineyard,

18:16

just have a nibble of this or some really good

18:18

or some lobster or whatever, go

18:20

walk on the beach and

18:23

then fly back, fly

18:26

back to and get no nap,

18:29

don't need a nap, and go

18:31

in to get dressed and go to practice.

18:34

That would be unusual

18:36

today, had to have been unusual

18:39

yesterday. Did you get the sense

18:41

that you were maybe developing

18:44

this? You know, I don't know you're a

18:46

nonconformist. You know, I'm going to follow

18:48

you rules. I'm not going to break any rules or anything. But

18:50

you know what, there's certain things that I want to do, you

18:53

know, and as long as I'm not hurting anybody or

18:55

breaking any team rules.

18:56

Or anything like that, I'm going to do it.

18:58

Did you get a quizzical look, and then maybe

19:00

some other players saying, hey, that's pretty cool to your

19:02

point, Can I come with you for lunch?

19:06

There was their

19:09

team, their game, their

19:12

rules, and I followed them for the

19:14

most part. They want me to tape ankles. I wouldn't

19:16

do that. They want me to lift weights. I didn't do that. I was

19:18

a little precocious because my mother had

19:20

totter boys. I developed.

19:23

If you tape an ankle too tight, you restrict

19:25

a blood flow, range of motion. It becomes like a cast

19:27

a new atrophy. You actually weaken the ankle.

19:31

Go run on the sand, go run

19:33

knee deep in the water, which I did in the off season.

19:36

Lifting weights, muscle becomes greater than

19:38

the ten and it takes the ten and right off the bone. They

19:40

must supposed to tear first, So

19:43

I said, guys, I just so, I

19:45

guess in that way, I was kind of a handful.

19:47

But I aside from that, my mother

19:50

taught us to live our lives our

19:53

own way, and make our own decisions

19:55

and judge, listen to good ideas,

19:58

and even criticism, constructive

20:00

criticism, consider it because

20:03

we are all self taught in competence, learn

20:06

the right way to do something if you really have joy

20:08

and passion like I did for flying. They

20:11

called me in mister Sullivan, Billy Sullivan,

20:15

Chuck Fairbanks, Peter had Hazy,

20:17

the general manager of my rookie year. When they found out I was

20:19

flying. This is before taking the guys,

20:21

this is when we're going to Amherst for summer

20:23

camp. They found out I was flying down out

20:26

of Norwood. They said, you have an airplane

20:28

here that you flew back from Oregon

20:31

and you're flying it on your days off on Tuesday

20:34

up to Llllbean and you

20:37

can't do that. In the standard player

20:39

contract it says if you get hurt, you

20:43

know, if you can't

20:45

play, your insurance isn't

20:47

covered, and you don't, you stop getting paid. I

20:49

said, first of all, in airplanes, since there's a crush,

20:51

there aren't any injuries. So

20:54

but I understand what you're saying. So I

20:57

apologize and I'll clean

20:59

out my locker. And they said,

21:01

what I said, Well, he just fired me.

21:03

I thought they'd fired me because they

21:05

were adamant Chuck Fairbanks was

21:07

was this pretty steady guy. Loved him, you know,

21:10

great coach miss him

21:12

as well, along with the other guys. But

21:15

I thought they just fired me. So I learned

21:17

a very important lesson. I said, I'll get my

21:19

locker cleaned out and everything else. They thought

21:21

I was, I'll just take the airplane

21:24

and go, which wasn't what I meant.

21:26

I hadn't. I had embarrassed them. I had done

21:29

the wrong thing. I felt bad about it. I really

21:31

did, so I was gonna pick up and go.

21:33

They said, okay, wait a second, just don't

21:35

talk to the press about it. Just don't do this and don't

21:37

do that. So pretty soon I learned, if you're

21:40

playing hard enough and you're

21:42

learning quick enough, there's

21:44

just about anything that you want to do within reason. And

21:46

I wasn't doing anything. I didn't go out

21:48

drinking at night. I wasn't running around with girls.

21:50

I wasn't, you know, my girlfriend from high school

21:53

was my girlfriend. I

21:55

was focused on being the best football

21:58

player I possibly could rape her made

22:00

sure that instead of Red Miller. So

22:03

I'm honored to say that I

22:05

gave everything. I hadn't continued and

22:07

any time I've ever done anything with the

22:09

New England Patriots. That's why I came back

22:11

to see Pete Brock when he retired as

22:13

the alumni president. He's

22:16

been so much to us guys over the years

22:18

and the fans of running that whole organization.

22:21

I couldn't let them have the big party

22:23

without me to say so long to Pete,

22:25

and he's going to, like the rest of us, We'll be

22:27

back.

22:28

Can you imagine if there

22:30

was a player of your magnitude today

22:33

in this social media world that we live in that

22:35

was flying a plane. I mean, they don't have two

22:38

days, so that couldn't happen, but it

22:40

would cause such a stir And if you can look

22:42

back on it and say, wow, I was able to do that.

22:45

Maybe to the point that you were saying about your parents,

22:47

and your mom lived the life that you want to

22:49

live. Be respectful, don't

22:51

you know You're not going to commit crimes or anything like

22:53

that, but live your life. Maybe

22:56

it was a simple a time back then where you

22:58

were allowed to do that, and it's.

23:00

Just it's unimaginable.

23:01

It's something like that would ever be able

23:04

to be allowed today.

23:05

You know, even back then, no social media,

23:07

right, no Internet. Somebody

23:09

saw me having lunch in Hawaii

23:11

with Priscilla Presley. Now all of a sudden,

23:14

it's on the Hollywood side of

23:16

the pond, as they say, the Pacific

23:19

Priscilla Presley is dating

23:21

younger NFL player

23:24

Res Francis. We

23:27

had a mutual friend that was one of my charter

23:29

customers who was at the table, woman

23:31

named Marge Garamhausen. Never forget her.

23:33

She and Priscilla were good friends. But Priscilla

23:36

was very sitting right next to me very soon, and she'd put

23:38

her hand on my hand, and well, that's so funny,

23:40

that's so nice. You're gonna teach her how to surf and all

23:42

that type of stuff because Marge asked me to. So.

23:45

Even the quote unquote celebrities of the day, Bill

23:48

Lee Spaceman, I just talked to him the other day.

23:51

He was the guy that said to me at Daisy

23:53

Buchanans, I said, how do you

23:55

guys get away from

23:58

people just arguing with

24:00

you? I said, I don't mind the fans coming up to you.

24:03

I'll sit until the last autograph

24:05

is signed. I still do it. I get a couple hundred

24:08

requests a month. Every single

24:10

one of them is signed and sent back. How

24:14

do you how do you guys do it? He says rest He said,

24:16

just live your life. He said, stop stop

24:19

winding about it. This is Spaceman. He's

24:21

just a great guy.

24:22

There's a guy who lived his life.

24:23

He's still seventy seven. He

24:26

just told me the other day he struck out a forty five year

24:28

old with two curves and fastball. It's unbelievable, said,

24:30

it works every time.

24:30

He's believable, fast pitch right, seventy

24:33

seven, unbelievable.

24:34

One of my heroes.

24:36

So, a dormant NFL franchise

24:39

in the mid seventies, all of a sudden, Nick Knights,

24:41

that's seventy sixteen, captures

24:43

the region by storm. You beat the

24:45

defending champions Steelers in Pittsburgh.

24:48

You beat the bag out of the Raiders here in Foxborough.

24:51

You should have beaten the Raiders in the playoff

24:53

game.

24:53

We all know that.

24:55

You know at that point in time, what

24:57

we're thinking about the NFL and the

24:59

New England pay at that point.

25:00

In time, R was, well, first of all, every

25:03

one of us has moments in our

25:05

lives that will never forget, good,

25:08

bad, indifferent or puzzled

25:11

by it whatever. That

25:13

first year, my rookie year, when I was really

25:15

all by myself, and you know, guys tried,

25:18

you know, Steve's able was tried to approach

25:20

me. We had a little fight on the field and then he said,

25:22

well this isn't right. And he was a

25:24

senior guy, so you know he's helping

25:27

me calm down and everything else. But

25:30

one of the things that you'll

25:33

you never forget are you're being sort

25:35

of outcast, and then

25:37

people get to know who you are. Howard Cosell is

25:39

calling you all world. You're doing ABC Superstar

25:42

Competition and setting

25:44

the record, by the way, which stood

25:46

for years in the pool until Greg LUGAINUS

25:48

and Olympian beat it. Craig messed

25:52

up my whole thing. You

25:54

can't remember, you can't forget those things.

25:56

But if you think about

25:59

how damaging the first year was three

26:01

and eleven, how hurtful that was. The

26:03

fans were, I felt so bad. They're coming

26:06

to the stadium and we lost again, and we lost

26:08

again. We lost eleven times, they would

26:10

still be out there getting an autograph

26:12

at the end, but the line was smaller, and

26:16

I just felt our job is to win. So

26:18

we got together and Coach Fairbah's got Mike Haynes

26:21

and Tim Fox the next year and everything

26:23

else, and Stanley Morgan came back early

26:25

from Tennessee and Steve Grogan

26:27

from Kansas, and we got there early before

26:29

camp and we start, we're not gonna let

26:32

this happen again. Well, it takes

26:34

every single person, not just

26:36

one guy standing up and putting his hands on his hips.

26:40

Let's go break the gates. Men.

26:42

It was everybody working together,

26:44

and we went eleven and three, the largest, quickest,

26:47

biggest turnaround in NFL history, and

26:49

went on to play the Raiders, and we should

26:51

have won that game. It's the only game I

26:53

played. And I would say this, I've been saying it for

26:56

years that I'm absolutely possibly

26:58

sure that somebody got to somebody,

27:00

and I won't talk about payoffs or anything else. There

27:02

were too many calls in that game, not just the Ben Drive

27:04

callers. There's three or four major

27:07

calls where they would turn away

27:09

and look when you looked at the official just

27:11

kind of like like this, and Ben

27:14

was one of those one of those plays with

27:16

me holding the ball, hits me in the chest and Villa

27:18

Piano's got his arms around me. I got

27:20

Villa Piano back when he came to the Pro Bowl,

27:22

he and his wife, and they wanted to fly to Maui,

27:25

and I had the charter service, and

27:27

I took him up in the single engine airplane because I wanted

27:29

us to be nice and cozy in the cockpit, because

27:31

I had this already thought out and planned. Get

27:34

mid the fa listen to stuff like

27:36

that.

27:36

I don't know.

27:37

This is nineteen seventy six. I think it

27:39

was seventy five, No seventy

27:41

six, so seventy

27:43

seven beginning of seventy seven, if they want to check

27:45

the records. So we're

27:48

going between Maui, Molokai

27:50

and Lanai, from Oahu to Maui.

27:52

He and his wife were taking there for nothing. They

27:54

were there for the Pro Bowl. This is the guy that helped

27:56

me and helped us lose that game. They

27:58

go on to win the Super Bowl. So

28:00

I said, look at I tipped the wing just a little

28:03

bit like this to look at

28:05

Lennai, which is right down there. Moloke's there I'm

28:07

always right there. I said, look at that, Phil,

28:10

and he went to do it, and I grabbed the handle

28:12

of the door and opened it up, and I kicked the opposite

28:14

rudder to take the wind away from the door. The

28:17

door flew open, and

28:19

I undid a seatbelt, and he thought

28:21

that he'd be able to go

28:24

right out the door. Well, he

28:27

came close, but I

28:29

kicked it. I was just starting to kick the plane back when

28:31

Patty, his wife, came over the top with

28:33

nails and everything. You're trying to kill my

28:36

husband. The plane's going like this

28:38

all over the place. I finally slammed the door. I

28:40

said, I just playing. I'm just kidding,

28:43

just having a good time. He

28:45

didn't think that was funny. But we're still

28:47

good friends. I think aren't.

28:48

Well, so I could

28:50

see. And I don't proclaim

28:52

to know you or John. And

28:54

I'm just using him particularly as an example.

28:57

But this free spirit, this

29:00

I'm going to live my life. I've

29:02

got a lot of talent and I

29:04

want to get to something following that up. But a guy

29:06

like John Hannah farm raised

29:08

you also, you know raised, you know, did a lot of

29:10

work and everything like that. He's a no

29:12

nonsense kind of a guy, one of those

29:16

personalities on a team. Mesh,

29:18

do you feel like you need to prove something to

29:21

a John Hannah type who's not

29:24

in an airplane dipping and bobbing

29:26

and weaving and.

29:26

Doing things like that, or flying back

29:29

or jumping out of planes.

29:30

Even from that matter, I always wanted to take him up and push

29:32

him on an airplane.

29:33

How does that, sorry, John?

29:34

How does that sort of job where you can

29:36

gain his respect, you gain

29:39

his and you just we're different

29:41

people, but we do have the same goal in

29:43

mind because we want to win well.

29:44

First of all, John Hannah is the greatest offensive

29:46

lineman ever played, bar none.

29:49

Now I'm talking about practice, end

29:51

games. I'm talking about longevity,

29:54

being able to play as hard as he played every

29:56

single down. I

29:59

pay you the guys that are us room in practice

30:01

because it's full speed every day. I'm doing

30:03

half speed with the linebackers because you work

30:06

on footwork. He didn't need work

30:08

on footwork. It was all natural to take

30:10

that two hundred and eighty two and ninety pound body and

30:12

swivel from a stance down by

30:14

the ground and be to

30:17

the outside before the fullback can get there.

30:20

Sam Cunningham that's

30:22

a real quick and miss the center, missed

30:24

the quarterback, and miss everybody else the

30:26

footwork that it takes. And then to take that

30:28

linebacker and take him to the sideline or

30:31

take him, knock him down, go on for the safety.

30:33

John Hannah is a freaking nature and

30:36

he said one time, and we are very, very

30:38

different. I love to live life, but when I

30:41

step across the line, the sideline or the end

30:44

line, I'm a different person. I'll

30:48

go and run and hit the sled and do the stairs

30:50

and all that stuff. And it may look like

30:52

I'm having fun, which it is. But if I'm on

30:54

there to practice and play, all that stuff went away.

30:57

And John didn't know how deep and serious

31:00

all of that was. He wears

31:02

that on his face and his body and everything else. You

31:04

don't see it me, but line

31:07

up across from me and try and beat

31:09

me at the line of scrimmage or cover me in

31:11

a play, and you'll find out. John

31:13

made the mistake of saying

31:15

to the Boston Globe, somebody probably willn't have gun.

31:18

And somebody, you

31:20

know, Russ Francis has more

31:24

talent in his body one

31:27

percent of his body than the rest of us.

31:29

If he could learn how to use that talent,

31:32

he'd be a great player. Well,

31:34

John didn't know at the time, was I was

31:36

dead serious everything single time. I may be

31:38

smiling, but I'm gonna put you on your back.

31:41

And so that started to happen. So

31:44

it took a couple of seasons,

31:48

even after the seventy sixth seasons, for John

31:50

Hannah to come up and kind of slap me on the back, says, Okay,

31:53

you've made the team their team.

31:56

Do you feel validated at that point?

31:58

Does that.

32:01

H validation

32:04

from a guy like John Hanness, who you obviously respect

32:06

and was already a great pro and everything like that.

32:08

What does that mean to you when you get that?

32:10

Well, first of all, in our family, we were

32:12

taught by our parents and our grandparents and everything

32:14

else to understand what

32:16

we can and can't do and work to get better. Just

32:19

because somebody's better doesn't mean that at some point in

32:21

time you're not going to be as good or better. So

32:23

focus on yourself, don't worry about everybody else.

32:26

So whether John thought I was a really good player

32:28

or not never cross my mind.

32:31

The fact that he was saying something

32:33

in public, say it to my face. That

32:36

was what got my no. So I went straight to him

32:39

face to face. I said, don't ever do that again,

32:41

mister Hannah, you know, and I respected

32:44

him, so for him to come up

32:46

and pat you on the back later and everything else, I

32:48

already knew that I passed that point.

32:50

I didn't need anybody to I've never

32:53

needed a slap on the back. I

32:55

did appreciate being his teammate

32:58

because being accepted as his teammate,

33:00

now I can be part of this group. And

33:03

I've been on teams before that really really

33:06

did well because everybody understood

33:09

their roles and their responsibilities and

33:11

they carried them out and they didn't try

33:13

to do your job for you. As Bill Wah

33:15

said, find your highest and best use focus

33:18

on that. When he told me he wanted

33:20

to pull me out of retirement, and

33:22

he said, you're not going to throw the ball like you do in New England,

33:24

I had a forty five yard pass to Dwight

33:26

Clark. However, with the forty nine ers, we

33:29

have a quarterback. His name is Joe. You're not going to run with the

33:31

ball. We have a running back named Wende Tyler and Roger

33:33

Craig. He said, you can block her in the running

33:35

play and run pass patterns and catch the

33:37

ball and hopefully score points for us.

33:41

I was just a tight end on the team.

33:44

I was Joe Montana. I wasn't

33:47

Steve Grogan. I understood my role.

33:49

I wasn't John Hannah. I couldn't do what John Hannah

33:51

did, and John Hannah couldn't do what I did. So

33:54

that's where the coaches like Coach Fairbanks and Coach

33:56

Walls, and the assistant coach is Ray

33:58

Perkins, Raymond Barry all the guy

34:00

Denny Green over in San Francisco, they

34:02

put that chemistry and that talent together and

34:05

then they develop it more because

34:07

it's so much stronger as a team. And all

34:09

of a sudden, we're looking at

34:13

a season, a year where we

34:15

only lost one game, and

34:17

that was because they called back a kick by Ray

34:19

Wershing and he missed the second one. We

34:21

had to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers and

34:24

went on to beat Miami in the Super Bowl. Super

34:27

Bowl nineteen. Yeah,

34:30

John, I see John Hannah today, So we

34:32

move fast forward all the way from those days to

34:34

this day. I have the most respect

34:36

for him because of

34:38

the way he's lived his life exactly

34:41

the way he wanted to his

34:43

family is tight and he's

34:45

still he's doing everything for his family

34:47

he can do, and so is everybody in his family.

34:50

He comes up here because he loves the fans,

34:52

he loves his teammates, he loves the time

34:54

that he spent here. But he's not going to leave

34:56

a crop that needs to be brought in or something.

35:00

You have to schedule it for you. Absolutely, I

35:02

have the utmost respect for John

35:04

Hannah and all those guys that I played with.

35:07

As a twenty something year old kid. You mentioned

35:09

ABC Superstars and there's probably people listening

35:11

to this have no idea what that is. And

35:14

ABC back in the day would gather the

35:16

best athletes from respective sports

35:18

Reggie Jackson in baseball, Lynn

35:21

Swan and football, yourself in football, and you'd compete

35:23

against each other and.

35:24

The Cathlian type items.

35:26

Right, here's a twenty something year

35:28

old kid who's being called all world tight end

35:31

by Howard Kosel, who's being invited

35:33

to go on ABC's Superstars.

35:35

Is your mind blown a little bit

35:38

by this?

35:38

Who's a guy who's not a football player,

35:41

and you know it comes from a simpler life

35:43

maybe in Oregon and a little bit hawide

35:45

that all of this notoriety is coming in away.

35:48

Well, I didn't watch much TV growing

35:50

up, certainly sports, certainly

35:53

never football because that was never live

35:56

until after I started playing. But

36:00

Howard Cosell coined

36:03

the all world phrase my rookie Year when I caught it, like a

36:05

forty yard pass in Miami on a Monday

36:07

night game. Well, I've been catching

36:09

I think I averaged over eighteen yards as a rookie.

36:13

And what he didn't know, and

36:15

I told his wife when they asked me to speak

36:17

of his services after he'd passed that

36:22

the only reason I didn't tell

36:25

Howard why I was catching such long passes

36:28

is because I called him up when he started

36:30

calling me all world, because my teammates started

36:32

trying to beat me up in practice and roll me over,

36:35

need me in the ribs and everything else. The guy's

36:37

on the field playing against saying all

36:39

world my ass.

36:40

Right, that can be. It's a blessing

36:43

and a.

36:43

Curse, and they're coming after me, right, So I

36:45

said, mister Cossell, I'm really honored if

36:48

you could, because I finally got him after like four phone calls.

36:50

And this is before I started working for ABC. My

36:53

Rookie Year. Here's a rookie calling

36:55

Howard Cosell. I still didn't really understand

36:58

the importance of all these people. I'd never

37:00

heard of him before. So you asked

37:02

me earlier about how to deal with that. I didn't know

37:04

any better, So I just lived

37:06

my life. I said, mister Cosell, thank you for

37:08

taking my call. I was such an honor for

37:10

you to even mention my name on a Monday

37:12

night game. I said, I have a big, big

37:14

favor to ask of you, and he says

37:17

number eighty one. He said,

37:19

Oh world, He said, what can I do

37:22

for you today? Oh

37:25

god, I'm just stumbling

37:27

and they'll go ahead

37:29

anything eighty one. Come

37:32

on, it's so good to hear. Thank you for calling.

37:34

I'm sorry I missed your other calls. I've

37:36

been busy with Frank and the gift

37:38

and everything and this and that and on

37:40

and on. I said, mister Cossel, could

37:42

you please stop calling me all world? They're killing

37:45

me out there, my teammates and the

37:47

other guys. Do

37:50

you notice any silence right now? There

37:54

was silence, and

37:56

all of a sudden, that booming voice were

38:00

eighty one. Listen

38:02

up and listen close, get

38:05

tough or get out click

38:09

so missus

38:12

Cosel at his service. They asked me, Billy

38:15

Crystal, myself and Frank the Ford right

38:19

to speak at it because we had become baby

38:22

sat their grandchildren, Justin

38:24

and Jared, who I think we're in ESPN now at

38:28

the pools when we played in Miami and everything

38:30

else. Got to know him pretty well. Heather, their mother

38:33

sweek out. Emmy was just a sweetheart,

38:39

I can do do everything kind of wife and mother.

38:43

I said, I got to tell you the story, I said, never got

38:45

a chance to tell it the story to Howard because I

38:47

was afraid. And she goes, what I

38:49

said, you know that all

38:52

world things that he

38:54

he kept calling. She goes, oh, he just thought you

38:56

were a great player. She's given me the same thing.

39:00

And I said, well, the truth of the matter is I didn't

39:02

know how to read coverages or run past prays. So

39:04

here's the truth. I'm pouring it out. I didn't want to

39:06

do this, especially it's at

39:08

his services, I said, but I kind of felt like,

39:10

well, Howard's here, we're all here together, right, So

39:15

but I called him up and asked him to not call me all

39:17

world, and he slammed me down and said get tough for get

39:19

out. So I wasn't gonna tell him. It's because Steve

39:21

just told me to go straight. I didn't

39:23

know how to run. It wasn't because I was a great player.

39:26

It's because I had speed. Steve

39:29

had an arm. We had Randy Vatah,

39:33

Stanley Morgan. You

39:35

know, a bunch of greatsus Steve Burke, great

39:38

receiver from Arkansas, and

39:40

this kid who didn't know anything about football.

39:43

So I'm looking good because of all

39:45

of them. And a great offensive line.

39:49

So you know, once Shelby Jordan

39:51

and all the other guys got together that nineteen

39:54

seventy eight team you're talking about, we ran

39:56

over people.

39:57

Held a rushing record until just a couple of years ago

39:59

in Ravens that reconstruct for

40:01

forty something years ago.

40:02

Something. We're very, very proud of it. And the one

40:04

thing that the Craft family, by the way,

40:07

on a couple of these alumni weekends when we come

40:09

in for games, had made a real They've

40:16

given us an opportunity to highlight

40:18

some of the film when they show it to the fans. They're up in

40:20

the club boxes and everything else. Sometimes

40:22

on the screen of those teams with John Hannah

40:25

coming around and Sam Cunningham.

40:28

He was always fast enough and

40:30

good enough for passes and everything else. When

40:32

you send him out there first two hundred and forty five

40:34

pounds, he ran a four or five forty. He

40:37

just blow through people. There goes John,

40:39

there goes I'm looking for people to block. I

40:41

don't have to write.

40:43

And you mentioned receivers and you

40:45

were remiss to not ask you about Darryl Stingley,

40:47

who you said you roomed with in

40:49

your rookie year and when

40:52

he got hurt. I mean I remember

40:55

watching it as a kid. It was devastating

40:57

to everybody in New England. He's paralyzed,

41:00

paralyzed for life.

41:02

And you took a stand Russ. That

41:05

probably changed your life in a lot of different

41:07

ways because ownership

41:09

at the time it said that they were going to pick up all

41:11

his medical bills.

41:12

Of course that's the right thing to do, and

41:14

then they rescinded the offer. What

41:17

did that? What

41:19

did that mean and do to you in that situation?

41:23

Well, yeah, Darrow was my roommate on

41:25

the road and in training camp for three seasons

41:28

before he got hurt. My third

41:31

year be his sixth year. He

41:36

really took a lot of time and I

41:38

didn't pick things up that fast. I hadn't played youth

41:41

football. I hadn't played but a couple years of

41:43

high school. Because my brother was a captain. I didn't play

41:45

very well, didn't play much one year in college.

41:48

I was so far behind the curve and Darrow was

41:50

so patient. And

41:53

I was a player representative at that time. Darrow

41:55

was the first guy to tell me as a rookie. He

41:58

said, the team's just met and voted.

42:00

I said, voted on what? And why didn't they

42:03

let me know that there was a meeting. Well,

42:05

Russ, you're not really their favorite guy, I

42:08

said, But they did vote you to be the player

42:10

representative, their union rep essentially the

42:12

NFL Player Association represented. Wow,

42:16

I'm like a little kid up in Hawaii. Right.

42:18

It was like a penance. Probably right to

42:20

give it to somebody that you know.

42:21

Oh fantastic, right, I

42:24

said, Well, that's an honor, he says, Russ. The

42:26

reason they voted you is that guy's normally

42:28

fired by management. You

42:31

said, you're kidding, and he goes, no, I'm not kidding. He

42:33

was. He talked straight to me. Daryl's

42:35

from Chicago. He was everything

42:37

was straight and

42:40

just a really really smart guy and how things worked

42:42

and everything else, and

42:45

so I became the player rep. And when

42:47

he got hurt, the

42:51

league covers a career

42:54

ending injury three and sixty five

42:56

days, and the team's supposed to pick up and they probably

42:58

can contribute some too, like

43:00

all the other teams. After

43:02

that year's up, the team then has to take

43:05

over. On the three hundred and sixty

43:07

sixth day, Jack Sans, Darryl's

43:09

attorney in Boston called me up, told me they

43:11

just canceled his medical coverage. They're

43:13

not going to provide medical coverage. So

43:15

I sued the team and the league.

43:18

So we found in favor

43:20

of the lawsuit found in favor of Darryl. Middle

43:23

of the nineteen eighty season. I

43:26

finished the season and then I.

43:27

Retired because you were so upset

43:30

about this.

43:30

Yeah, yeah, I was gonna

43:33

stay in. I did stay in to

43:35

see the lawsuit through and to push

43:37

it and what do we need to do? What

43:39

do we need to do? What do I know? I'm

43:41

a football player, But I had

43:43

great guys working with me. You

43:46

know, Peter had Hazy us now with the

43:48

league office and everything else, who knew

43:50

Darryl well as also and

43:52

the Rooney family doing the

43:54

best they can. So as

43:57

soon as that season's over with, I want to

44:00

a long motorcycle ride which we used to do in Misco

44:02

Gill, Klahoma, jump out airplanes, ride

44:04

down to Colleen, Texas, visit our friends down

44:06

at Fort Hood, and then ship back to

44:08

the or run back to the West

44:10

Coast. By the time I got to the West Coast

44:12

went back to why, I called mister

44:14

Sullivan up. I said, I'm coming over in two days.

44:17

I'd like to meet with you. And

44:19

I met with mister Sullivan and I said, I'm

44:21

sorry, I'm

44:24

not playing anymore, and I retired.

44:27

I didn't say anything about it at the time because I

44:29

didn't want any reflection on

44:31

the team or really mister Sullivan.

44:34

So so you're retired. Was

44:37

that an easy decision for you? And

44:40

I think the thing that Patriot fans will

44:42

find interesting. Before you

44:44

know, somebody convinced you to come back and play. Who

44:47

called you with a job opportunity when

44:49

you retired?

44:51

Nobody called me. Well,

44:54

there were some calls after I retired.

44:57

I don't remember who they were, but

45:02

I do remember.

45:03

Was there an opportunity in broadcasting for you?

45:05

It was towards the end, I was still doing

45:08

ESPN and ABC wide World of Sports broadcasting

45:10

from time to time, so

45:12

I got to do the Pro Bowl. Well,

45:14

the forty nine ers had just won their first Super Bowl

45:17

the nineteen eighty one season, the one

45:20

that I was out of, so

45:23

the championship coaching staff

45:26

gets to coach the AFC

45:28

or NFC side. Bill Walshston his

45:31

team was coaching the NFC All

45:33

Pros in Hawaii at the Pro

45:35

Bowl because a group of us got

45:38

the player meetings all that happen in Hawaii. Then

45:40

we started bringing the owners meetings to Hawaii and

45:42

ge whiz. Then the Pro Bowl showed up in Hawaii,

45:44

and then we did a contract that five

45:46

year with a five year option with the NFL

45:51

Management Council and owners that

45:53

I'm still very proud of that we did and held

45:55

that for ten years. So

45:57

I'm interviewing Bill Walsh as the Super Bowl

46:00

coach for ABC Sports. So after we're done,

46:03

he says, you know that I went to college with your high

46:05

school basketball coach and really my surrogate

46:07

father's second father in

46:11

middle school, high

46:13

school my basketball coach, and then afterwards

46:16

teaching us how to throw a net. And he was one

46:18

of the few one hundred percent of

46:20

Hawaiians left, and he just turned ninety

46:22

last September and still walking the

46:24

beaches, fishing and everything else. Merv Lopes

46:26

is his name. He and Bill Walsh were

46:28

inseparable at santas A State. I didn't know that

46:31

they were playing tennis. I knew they were playing tennis together.

46:33

Bill would come over and play tennis with Merv,

46:37

but I didn't realize until I started

46:39

putting together. When I started playing with Bill,

46:41

the coaching styles they're very, very similar,

46:44

the way that they work with players. So Bill's

46:46

coming to me and he said, hey,

46:48

listen, we're gonna have dinner tonight, coach and

46:51

me and you at the beautiful

46:53

Hilton Hawaiian Hotel, not

46:56

the new Hilton Hawaiian, the

46:58

Kohala, the

47:00

big hotel by Diamond Head. And

47:04

so I turned to my coaches were walking away.

47:06

I said, what's that all about. He goes, he's

47:08

going to offer you a job at the forty nine ers. He said, tell

47:10

him to save his money. I'm not coming

47:12

back. I'm having a great time with ABC, skydiving

47:15

in France, surfing in Morocco, you know,

47:18

And he said, just listen rush. Just listen.

47:21

So he did. He asked me to come back

47:24

and play and I said no. He asked

47:26

me again. I said no. He uped

47:28

the price. I said, I'm not negotiating.

47:31

Up the price again. I said I'm not. Still not negotiating.

47:35

He said, this is my last

47:37

offer. He says, more than any other tight end of the league.

47:39

I said, well, that's why I was getting paid before I left,

47:41

more than any other tight end of the league, So

47:43

that doesn't mean anything to me. ABC's

47:45

paying me more more than that. And

47:48

he said, just remember

47:50

this one thing. It's the only

47:52

chance in your life you can be able to work with a group of people

47:54

that work to get better every single day,

47:57

from Ronnie Lot to Joe Montana, Roger

48:00

to all these great players.

48:05

ABC. You have a great crew and everything else,

48:07

but you're just kind of by yourself. It's just you're

48:09

doing this, you're doing that. You're the co host, you're the host.

48:12

He said, this is the only chance you'll get. And

48:15

like two or three months later, I called

48:17

him back up. I said, all right, this

48:20

is the number. These are the

48:22

conditions. I don't want any

48:24

roommates in training camp. But you know I

48:26

don't want any roommates on the road. I'm here to

48:28

play football. I don't, so

48:31

I had all my conditions, he says, done

48:34

this negotiation, so I

48:38

couldn't you know? We went there and I played

48:40

eight more years, six with him and two more here. So

48:42

I wanted to come back and finish with Raymond Barry,

48:46

who I had the utmost

48:48

respect for and is

48:50

one another one of my heroes.

48:52

We'm going to follow up on San Francisco in a minute, but I want

48:54

to go back to the broadcasting part because I think they,

48:56

maybe as I remember it, or maybe it's misremembered,

48:58

you're retired tension of playing football

49:01

and didn't cosell.

49:03

How was your entree into ABC?

49:05

I know you were doing the Superstars, so they saw that

49:07

you were glib and personable

49:09

and things like that, but your opportunity

49:11

to do college football games? Did Howard

49:13

help broke her that with you to

49:16

get you into the announcing moove? How did that start

49:18

happen when you first retired from New England.

49:20

Cross, I come back from a season

49:23

here and excuse

49:26

me from my retirement, miss

49:28

talking to I flew all the way over. I wanted to do it in

49:30

person. Mother had taught us the boys

49:33

to if you're going to do it, do it in person. So

49:35

I'm flying back to San Francisco. From San

49:37

Francisco to Hawaii, Boston,

49:39

San Francisco NonStop. And

49:41

then so my chief pilot picks

49:44

me up. And he's a character. He's

49:46

a former submarine sailor, so lack of oxygen

49:48

for days and weeks at a time has

49:51

certainly affected his brain. And

49:53

he said, heck of a pilot, skydiving

49:56

buddy of mine motorcycle. He's one of the

49:58

guys. Every year we went across country

50:00

claw the kid boy skyguide. I won't give his real

50:02

name, but that was

50:05

his moniker that he put on himself. So

50:09

he picks me up at the airport Honolulu and

50:11

he says, hey, listen, you got to call Howard

50:14

Cosell back. He just called for a little while ago. He

50:16

said, no matter what time, day or night, is it six

50:18

hour difference. He wants a phone

50:20

call as soon as you land. I

50:22

don't have a cell phone, so I said, you have to wait

50:24

till we get to the house, which is an hour away on the

50:26

north shore. I had a house on the beach, and

50:29

he goes, he's not going to be happy, I

50:31

said, Claw. Howard

50:34

Cosell did not call me. We're friends,

50:36

yes, but he's getting ready to go into

50:38

the football season and everything else. There's

50:41

nothing he wants to talk to me about. He

50:44

said, Russ, he called you, and

50:46

now it's a serious claw face. So

50:49

I called him up as like Midnight number

50:53

eighty one. It just

50:56

it just always wring in my head. What a

50:58

wonderful guy he was. It's what a fantastic

51:01

talent he was, but what a genuine

51:04

human being he was. He

51:06

said, it's six o'clock

51:08

your time. I said, I know. I'm on the North Shore. The waves

51:11

are breaking. Can't wait till tomorrow? He says.

51:13

You need to get on a plane tonight, fly

51:15

to San Francisco and take the

51:17

all night and then pick up the seven o'clock in

51:20

the morning and get here by ten o'clock or

51:22

whatever. So get where,

51:24

said New York City. The limit will pick you up.

51:26

You've got a meeting tomorrow with who

51:31

ran it? Ruin rune Arlidge

51:34

running everything, and John Martin was running

51:36

sports. That's what it was, he

51:39

said, Rune Arledge and John

51:41

Martin and myself. I

51:43

said, come on, quit kidding

51:45

around he goes, no, I'm serious. They

51:47

want you. I've asked them

51:50

to consider you to work as Al Michaels

51:52

Keith Jackson and do a lot of you

51:54

sky dive, you surf, you do all these things.

51:57

It's perfect. That was Howard.

52:00

Howard got me started into broadcasting.

52:02

It's one thing to be receiving as

52:05

we are now. You're thinking of

52:07

everything that could work. The reporters

52:09

are thinking of everything they want to get answers

52:12

to. But when you're hosting

52:14

and having to do the show. Howard

52:17

brought me into New York. I came

52:19

in the next week, Don Meredith,

52:21

Frank Gifford, all those guys were there. I'm reading

52:23

learn how to read teleproductor for the first

52:26

time, this and over here, this here, over

52:28

here, in cards over here.

52:30

But what's fascinating Russ is here. You are.

52:32

So Howard gives it this opportunity, and

52:35

as a neophyte as far as broadcasting

52:37

is concerned, you're going to do a college football package

52:40

and the two announcers that you're

52:42

going to do with is young Russ Francis, who

52:44

hasn't done any games. You get to work

52:46

with Hall of Fame Keith Jackson

52:50

and Will be in the Hall of Fame.

52:51

He's probably in a thousand of them already.

52:53

Al Michaels like, that's

52:56

that's a small world when I think about

52:58

that.

52:58

You know what I think of when I think of those two

53:00

guys and that great opportunity that Howard gave

53:03

me and Ruin gave me, and John Martin

53:05

did and Keith

53:07

had to agree, as did al Michaels,

53:10

that you don't just assign a guide to

53:12

those guys. My

53:15

favorite memory is meeting

53:18

al in one of the early college

53:20

games in Washington, Seattle,

53:23

and I'd flown my little plane up from Eugene

53:25

Orton because I'd already flown to the West coast,

53:28

and I said, come on, hop In, I'll fly We're

53:30

doing the Cougar game in Pullman.

53:33

I said, I'll fly over to Pullman. Found

53:37

out all al Michael's hates to fly.

53:40

He said, don't ever mention that again. Okay,

53:42

don't ask me how I got anywhere or did

53:44

anything. I just you want to fly to

53:47

the games, you just do yourself.

53:49

But that's before al Michaels was al Michaels.

53:51

Al Michaels was on the rise as

53:53

a young announcer at ABC.

53:56

Who hadn't you know, do

53:58

you believe in miracles?

53:59

Hadn't necessary?

54:00

Maybe that had just happened, right, Yeah,

54:03

yeah it did. But

54:06

Keith Jackson was hand

54:09

picking guys. Nobody had

54:11

a memory like al Michaels. Nobody

54:13

had the enthusiasm and the passion

54:15

when he's going to tell his story what happened

54:18

twenty years ago for you know Hallis

54:20

with the Cleveland Browns or Bill

54:22

Walsh as an assistant to Hallis and then worked

54:25

his way up to becoming a Super Bowl Chane.

54:27

Nobody does that any better than than al

54:29

Michaels. He just has a memory for detail.

54:32

And Keith Jackson was the guy that and

54:34

probably Howard Gozell those guys kind of picked

54:37

and choose, you know, Howard

54:39

picked Don Meredith and Frank

54:41

Gifford and put those guys together.

54:44

That was Monday. That football is all Howard's I did.

54:46

Sure? Did you have fun doing it?

54:47

Oh? I loved it. I loved it because

54:50

I could just say what I had to say,

54:53

really short, succinct, and those guys

54:55

could go and then they'd asked

54:57

me, really they knew the game. They

55:00

could have said, why that guy blitzed one the other

55:02

time he didn't because the left

55:04

guard was pulling and coming right

55:06

at him. They could have done

55:08

all of that, but they said, why did

55:10

that play? How

55:13

did it develop so quickly? Well,

55:15

Keith, you know? And

55:18

Keith said,

55:20

just mellow your because I'm a little bit higher

55:23

pitched back then he said, just mellow

55:25

your your voice out a little bit. I

55:27

said, because he's got that whoa

55:30

mellye type of thing and it's just beautiful

55:33

and it resonates. And said, how do I do that?

55:35

How do I get because I am naive and

55:37

I on one side of me is

55:39

and the rest of it's don't get in my way because I'm

55:42

coming. I'm going to figure

55:44

this out real fast. The only way I want to figure it

55:46

out, being the self taught and competent is the

55:48

actor asked the master. Mastard said,

55:50

so, how do I mellow my voice out and get

55:53

it strong like yours? He

55:55

looked at me. I'll never forget. We're sitting in the booth getting

55:57

ready to do a game whiskey.

56:00

Hmm, lots of whiskey.

56:03

And those are the memories

56:05

of he and Al that I have and

56:10

Bobyatty and I did skiing

56:13

Men's Pro Skey tour free ESPN. We did every

56:15

weekend. He

56:18

was a fun guy, but a professional

56:21

he did. I recommend to

56:23

Mike Pearl, who's producer at ABC, one of the best

56:26

ever to do the National

56:28

Skydiving Championships. I jump out of the plane

56:30

with the teams that were competing and have

56:32

a skull mic on and call it in the air.

56:35

Who's ever done that before? Nobody's done it before.

56:38

So uh, you

56:41

know Al Michael's and all those guys

56:43

would play off of all of those different

56:46

things that you did that separated you

56:48

from everybody else. But they taught

56:50

me how to prepare for it. They taught

56:52

me how to set the teams up, to interview who

56:55

the best jumpers were and everything else.

56:57

So let's go back to San francisc going and

57:00

this negotiation that you had with Walsh.

57:02

Walsh finally wears you down. You

57:04

come to the decision I'm going to play. You

57:06

play for those that great organization. You

57:09

know the Super Bowl it was

57:11

Montana versus a young Dan Marino.

57:13

You win a super Bowl, there's so

57:15

much.

57:16

Of an emphasis on winning, and you a

57:18

Super Bowl champion?

57:19

How important was that in your career? Russ?

57:21

As you look back on it to have your career validated

57:24

by winning a Super Bowl, being part, excuse

57:26

me off a super Bowl championship team.

57:28

Anybody who plays high school, college

57:30

professional football wants to be in the last game,

57:33

the championship game. And

57:36

we've got close a couple of times here with the Patriots.

57:38

So when we started out just beating everybody up

57:40

with San Francisco, and we knew we had a good team.

57:43

Eddie de Barbilo Junior, who was the owner of the

57:45

team, his sister and her husband,

57:47

John York and Denise York. They

57:49

now own the team that he's relaxing

57:51

in Florida. He brought

57:54

on a guy named Bill Walsh, and he brought on some

57:56

great coaches. I

58:01

I hesitate to say that it was just Bill

58:03

Walsh or just Eddie de Bartelow,

58:06

but they had to pick the chemistry and the

58:08

talent on that team. You don't just find

58:10

a Joe Montana coming out of Notre Dame and had

58:12

an okay college career. I know he's

58:14

going to be a Super Bowl, multiple Super

58:17

Bowl champion. Bill Walsh

58:19

is one of the smartest, most

58:21

decent. He since passed, hard

58:25

working, find a

58:27

way to get it right kind of guy

58:30

and challenges you to do the same thing

58:32

and give you all the tools and all the training and everything

58:34

else to do it. He had Sam Wish

58:36

as the quarterback coach. Sam

58:39

would teach Joe Montana his drops

58:42

and everything else. But then he taught receivers

58:44

better ways to break on patters to get separation

58:47

from the defender. To help the quarterback.

58:50

He said, otherwise he's going to be watching

58:52

that guy who's going to be able to cut in front.

58:54

You need to bend it back a little bit to

58:56

keep your back to that guy. So it

58:58

was everybody working in concert

59:01

because of Bill Walsh. Eddie

59:04

de Bardloa made a very very smart move.

59:06

Bill lost. The first couple of seasons were horrible

59:08

seventy nine, eighty, but then in eighty

59:11

one he wins the Super Bowl, talks

59:13

me out of retirement. I come back in eighty two and

59:16

there's a nine week strike and

59:19

so then we put things back together eighty

59:21

three and then eighty four we go to the super Bowl, and then they repeat

59:23

after that. Bill Walsh

59:26

and Adie de Bardela Junior were the driving

59:28

forces behind that. If you have those two together,

59:30

the ownership front office, John

59:33

McVay, who was a GM working

59:35

with Eddie and Bill part of that three man

59:37

team. And then the coach head coach,

59:40

separating all the coaches. You can't don't

59:42

bother my coach as these are my coaches, guys

59:45

like Sam Wisch and others. Danny Green comes

59:48

a head coach too, Bob

59:50

McKittrick offensive line coach, just

59:52

goes on and on and on. You

59:55

don't have any choice but to win, and

59:58

you know it, you see it coming and

1:00:00

you start digging in. That doesn't

1:00:02

mean you take more hours hitting the sled

1:00:04

or or watching more film

1:00:06

or anything else. It's repetition.

1:00:08

And that's the other thing with Bill. Repetition. Repetition,

1:00:11

repetition. We'd run one play fifty times in one

1:00:13

week because they Miami

1:00:15

Dolphins have a way to look at

1:00:17

make it look different, five, ten,

1:00:19

fifteen different ways, which now we've seen

1:00:22

them all. So when it happened,

1:00:24

we just everybody makes your adjustments.

1:00:26

The thing with Bill is when they call the

1:00:28

player in the huddle, that may not be anything what you run

1:00:31

with the liaion of scrimmage. If if somebody

1:00:33

moves here, so we all change, there's

1:00:36

no way to defend that.

1:00:37

So you get that taste in San Francisco, and as

1:00:40

your football career winds down and

1:00:42

you see you talk about how important the organizational

1:00:45

structure was in San Francisco and how

1:00:47

that was instrumental to their success.

1:00:49

When you look back at your former team here in New England

1:00:52

and see that the foundation

1:00:54

that the Crafts have built and along with Bill Belichick,

1:00:57

does you do you get a sense like, oh, yeah,

1:00:59

I know that culture is because

1:01:01

I sort of grew up on you know, I got a taste of

1:01:03

it in San Francisco and as it you

1:01:05

know, as you see it developed here in New England, do

1:01:08

you sense a little bit of a pride like I

1:01:10

was there on the ground floor. I wish we could have kicked the

1:01:12

door open. We can damn close to kicking

1:01:15

the door open. But look at what they've had

1:01:17

now with that organizational structure.

1:01:19

The first thing I think about is how wonderful

1:01:22

and great Robert Craft

1:01:24

Bill Belichick are

1:01:27

for the fans of New England. We came

1:01:29

so close, We had a great run

1:01:33

at it, so to speak, and we brought

1:01:35

more fans on board because of

1:01:37

it. You know, people are still writing and still asking

1:01:39

for cards or photos or whatever. But

1:01:42

what Robert Craft has done from being the

1:01:45

guy in the stadium watching the

1:01:47

games as a young guy and

1:01:49

then to become the owner and to do what he's done

1:01:51

and find a guy like Bill Belichick, who by

1:01:53

the way, was a big fan and

1:01:56

devotee of Bill Walsh

1:01:59

smartly, rightfully, So they're

1:02:02

very similar in that they're unorthodox,

1:02:04

They're going to find a way to beat you. I

1:02:07

had the greatest respect for Robert

1:02:09

Kraft because he's put all of those

1:02:11

people together, and then Bill Belichick

1:02:13

the way that he's handled the coaching staff and the players.

1:02:17

They're like a bunch of wild animals in

1:02:19

the locker room. We have a pretty

1:02:21

high level of intensity of

1:02:24

passion. Sometimes

1:02:26

we can hold it back, sometimes we can't. Sometimes

1:02:28

we seem really really relaxed until

1:02:30

you poke the bear and then

1:02:33

part of your ear comes off or whatever.

1:02:35

And I'm saying that metaphorically.

1:02:38

But Robert Craft

1:02:42

was a

1:02:44

a an

1:02:46

enormous gift to the fans of New

1:02:48

England. The NFL itself

1:02:52

owners can be really, really difficult

1:02:55

to deal with. He is a smart

1:02:57

man. He's let's just do it right and

1:03:00

we're gonna win. And he brought the people in

1:03:02

to do that. And Bill Belichick, you

1:03:04

know, God bless his soul. He's

1:03:06

had some tough years, he's had some

1:03:09

fantastic years. He's

1:03:11

the type of guy that he doesn't care what

1:03:13

happened fifteen minutes ago. It's what

1:03:16

are we going to do now to get better

1:03:18

to win. I want to be his tight

1:03:20

end coach. Tell him that because

1:03:23

he is so good with young

1:03:25

players and season players, and

1:03:27

they're totally different makeups. The

1:03:29

season guy, you've got to walk

1:03:32

a little tenderly. And Bill's really

1:03:34

good at saying, well, what do you think about

1:03:36

it? A young guy, you could say, I'm not really considered

1:03:39

right now what you think. I need you to

1:03:41

do this one released this way or that way,

1:03:43

or we'll talk about what you think

1:03:45

later on. He's really really good

1:03:47

with that. So are as coaches.

1:03:49

Last one here for me, russ Is and we talked

1:03:51

a lot about football, and you mentioned what a wonderful

1:03:53

life you've had, and is from an outsider standpoint.

1:03:56

I hear skydiving, I hear cattle

1:03:58

farming, surfing,

1:04:01

surfing pilot. Yes,

1:04:04

you played professional football announcer

1:04:06

ABC Superstars. You know,

1:04:09

do you pinch yourself sometimes and go man?

1:04:12

You know this is what I wanted to do, and I've

1:04:14

done it. I've done what I wanted to do in

1:04:16

life.

1:04:16

You know. I do reflect sitting here

1:04:18

with you looking out at the field. I

1:04:21

ran a couple of what I used to call glides

1:04:24

and I could still step it off. It was okay.

1:04:26

You let me hit the sledge a little bit to

1:04:30

put ice on my neck. I didn't hit that hard.

1:04:33

It brings back a lot of fond memories

1:04:35

and I am honored to have been part

1:04:37

of that past. I know where my place

1:04:39

is. This is the twenty

1:04:42

twenty three season football season.

1:04:44

The team's getting ready for that's the focus

1:04:47

and I'm all for it, and I'll be there in the stadium

1:04:49

yelling and screaming along with everybody

1:04:51

else. So it's been an honor.

1:04:53

I look for the next thing. We're putting

1:04:55

together, a possible company someplace

1:04:58

in the East Coast that has to with

1:05:00

airplanes. I'll

1:05:02

be flying a lot anyway, and I still do fly

1:05:04

a lot, but that's a

1:05:06

challenge, so I'm looking to the next.

1:05:09

I don't live much in the past. I like to

1:05:11

go back and visit, especially

1:05:13

with my friends and my teammates. And

1:05:15

now you you know we'll be able to take

1:05:17

some of this stuff that we get responses

1:05:20

from because they've been watching you for years. You

1:05:22

and I are in the same boat, except you're

1:05:24

more You have a lot more exposure on a

1:05:26

regular basis. And I truly am honored

1:05:29

that you gave me this opportunity to speak. Thank you,

1:05:31

Matt.

1:05:31

Yeah, I appreciate that.

1:05:32

I like to you.

1:05:33

I'm going to ask you one more and I mentioned Gronkowski.

1:05:36

Aloha Aloha, mahalo

1:05:38

mahala. Yes, I mentioned Gronkowski.

1:05:41

Do you watch Do you look at a guy like

1:05:43

Gronk who played for the team that you used to

1:05:45

play for, and I mean.

1:05:47

Marvel, bigger kid than you are.

1:05:50

I don't know if he was faster than you were at the time,

1:05:52

different strengths, but a guy who you could put

1:05:54

on the line and he'd knock a guy fifteen

1:05:57

yards past, a true tight end and

1:05:59

yes, you could say him up the scene and he could

1:06:01

run by linebackers.

1:06:02

What did you think of him when you watched him play.

1:06:05

Russ Well, first of all, you said the one thing

1:06:07

that separates him and I believe

1:06:10

me, from most tight ends.

1:06:12

You said, a complete tight end that would

1:06:14

block and have the speed to get downfield

1:06:17

and have the hands. He's got incredible

1:06:20

a sense for the balls. Your head

1:06:22

comes around right here and there's a little

1:06:24

flash of brown.

1:06:25

And you get radius very

1:06:27

high, like you could put the ball. Almost any plays with him.

1:06:29

Yeah, So one thing

1:06:32

I would say about about Rob

1:06:34

Gronkowski is there

1:06:37

isn't anything you can't do on a football field

1:06:39

that he decides to do. And that's the

1:06:41

goal of every tight end. And I work

1:06:43

with some young tight ends from time to time.

1:06:45

They want to get a college scholarship or high

1:06:48

school or a couple of young pro guys.

1:06:51

Not in the coaching standpoint,

1:06:53

but just technique because I had to learn

1:06:56

from the very very beginning. I

1:06:59

won't give you away one of my secrets I learned

1:07:01

that helps tight ends improve quicker.

1:07:03

But to look at a Grondkowski, we're probably

1:07:05

about the same speed. I was four or five forty.

1:07:07

I think that's probably what Rob runs, four or five

1:07:10

four six. We're both in that range. I

1:07:12

waited. I played about they say it comes

1:07:14

out in my car. That was two forty I

1:07:16

played it two fifty five. Now, when

1:07:19

I got here, I was about two forty five. I quickly

1:07:21

became two fifty by hitting the sled. I

1:07:23

never lifted weights. They said you need to lift weights

1:07:25

put on more weight. No, the muscle becomes stronger

1:07:27

than the tendon and it rips the tendon and the muscles

1:07:30

supposed to get first. So I'm not doing

1:07:32

any of that. So I'm going to hit the sled instead, so

1:07:35

that put on weight. So I ended up weighing

1:07:37

about two hundred and fifty five pounds. If

1:07:39

I hadn't done more running and more stairs, I

1:07:41

probably would have gone to you know, sixty

1:07:43

five to seventy, because you do build up muscle

1:07:45

hitting those sleds. But I didn't

1:07:47

want to compromise my speed, so I stopped

1:07:49

a two hundred and fifty two hundred and fifty five pounds.

1:07:52

Rob was probably we're about the same

1:07:54

height. I'm probably not as tall as

1:07:57

I was when I started,

1:08:00

nor will he be. He's about six

1:08:02

six sixty seven six six, Yeah,

1:08:06

just a big guy all around, and

1:08:09

when he hits, he explodes. That's

1:08:11

his number one quality in the running game. And

1:08:13

he has the want to to take that guy fifteen yards.

1:08:16

He's not just gonna hit him and the ball

1:08:18

the guy goes by and he just lets him go, he's

1:08:20

gonna bury him. And when he runs her

1:08:22

route, he's so fluid

1:08:25

for a big guy, he's like a ballerina out there.

1:08:27

You know. Lin Swan used to take ballet lessons so

1:08:29

that he could be quicker. And what a

1:08:31

gifted receiver he was. I look

1:08:33

at Rob Gronkowski and I marvel

1:08:36

at what he can do, and I can't wait till the next

1:08:38

play and the next play. Oh, now he's

1:08:40

playing in Tampa bayh Is Brady

1:08:43

there too? Oh? Great to get to watch both of them. Yeah,

1:08:45

I watch him and I do my Rob

1:08:48

does a little bit early. Oh that's a little bit late. You

1:08:50

could have done this. She could have done that. I'm

1:08:52

sure he if he did. Look at any of my film

1:08:54

in the days. Oh, you could have done better

1:08:57

on that, Russ, you could have done better on that.

1:09:00

One of the best of all time. And he will go into

1:09:02

the Hall of.

1:09:02

Fame Off the field,

1:09:05

did he have a little bit of Russ Francis

1:09:08

in him?

1:09:08

As well as maybe a free spirit?

1:09:10

Because there's a guy who definitely bangs

1:09:13

the drum to a different beat. He's

1:09:15

not just like everybody else. And I don't

1:09:17

know if you've seen that him as you maybe look

1:09:19

at him from afar on social media and how

1:09:21

he is.

1:09:22

He's a different cat. Yeah, well is

1:09:24

similar to you. Tight ends are different to begin

1:09:27

with. I mean the offensive line

1:09:29

won't claim us. Yeah, we're going to look

1:09:31

at film for the running game. They put you

1:09:33

over in the side over here. The receivers,

1:09:35

you're not really a receiver, so

1:09:38

they're off running their little fancy

1:09:40

little you know Darrell used to

1:09:42

do. Stanley used to do these pair of weets. Try

1:09:44

this, Russ. He's trying to work on my foot

1:09:47

coordination. So we are

1:09:49

pretty much on our own and we're fine

1:09:51

with that. That type of mentality is

1:09:54

just who do I hit, where

1:09:56

do I run the pattern? How do I get better? And all that

1:09:58

type of stuff.

1:10:00

Rob I don't do social media, so

1:10:02

I haven't seen him on social media. I could

1:10:04

see where he is a real kick because

1:10:08

he speaks his mind, got a great

1:10:10

sense of humor, and you

1:10:12

know, he's done comedy shows and everything else. There's

1:10:14

nothing that he can't do. Gronk

1:10:18

is a rare specimen,

1:10:21

rare physical specimen. I wouldn't be surprised

1:10:23

if you went back and played with Brady again this

1:10:25

next coming season and they could

1:10:28

show up a week before and be ready to play.

1:10:31

Our guest has been Russ Francis. Russ has been

1:10:33

truly an honor. Thank you so much for your time.

1:10:35

It was great to see a great stories, great information,

1:10:38

great career, great life.

1:10:40

Thank you very much. Matt, and I want to thank all

1:10:42

the fans that watch your show,

1:10:45

listen to your podcasts, and everything else for

1:10:47

everything they've done for forty

1:10:49

eight years. Nancy Meyer and I

1:10:51

came in together. She's still with the team in the front office.

1:10:54

Got to see her today, lover to death. Gave her

1:10:56

a big hug. I want to give her another hug before

1:10:58

I leave. But the

1:11:01

fans have been fantastic. They

1:11:03

are why we got to play. They

1:11:06

were therefore us win or lose in

1:11:08

the snow, in the rain. They

1:11:11

couldn't I couldn't have been. You talked

1:11:13

about being privileged to meet these people, play

1:11:15

with these people, and everything else, but the fans are

1:11:18

there at the very top of the pyramid. Thank

1:11:20

you very much. To thank

1:11:22

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1:11:24

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