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Q&A with Ahmad Rashad
Football standout and broadcasting veteran remembers when the NFL draft was just about picking collegiate players
By Mike Wilkening
April 15, 2007
In early 1972, Ahmad Rashad was known as Bobby Moore, Oregon running back and wide receiver, and the annual NFL draft was held on the first Tuesday in February at the Essex House in New York City. According to a New York Times account of the draft’s opening day, the event kicked off at 10:05 a.m. Eastern time.
Talk about your power breakfasts.
And talk about a different place and a different time. The picks were written in block letters on a grid taller than commissioner Pete Rozelle. The event was not televised.
Buffalo made Notre Dame DE Walt Patulski the first overall pick. The Bengals, selecting second, chose California DE Sherman Smith. Next up: the Bears, who tabbed Southern Illinois tackle Lionel Antoine.
The Cardinals, holding the fourth pick, were “astounded” to see Rashad still available, according to the Times. And so they chose the Oregon standout, “who had been high on everyone’s list.”
Rashad did not find immediate NFL success. He was traded to Buffalo after his second NFL season. After two years in Buffalo, Rashad signed with Seattle before the ’76 season. Months later, he was traded to Minnesota.
It was just the break he needed. For the next seven seasons, Rashad starred for the Vikings. He retired after the ’82 season, after catching 495 passes for 6,831 yards and 44 touchdowns in 10 NFL seasons.
Rashad’s post-football career has been just as prolific. Rashad has spent a quarter-century in sports broadcasting, covering the NFL, the Olympics and the NBA along the way. Presently, Rashad is the host and executive producer of NBA TV’s “NBA Access with Ahmad Rashad” and “Tuesday Night with Ahmad Rashad.”
PFW recently caught up with Rashad to get his reflections on the ’72 draft and his NFL and broadcasting careers.
PFW: When you were drafted, there was so much less coverage of the event. By extension, did you have less of an idea of where you might be selected?
Rashad: You know, you just never knew. I actually thought I was going to go to Denver (which selected fifth). Denver was a place I wanted to play. I had a cousin that had played in Denver, and I thought that was the place I was going to end up going to. I never thought St. Louis, because I think they had just traded for a wide receiver from San Diego — Walker Gillette was his name. And I wasn’t sure what position they wanted to play me at. I wanted to play wide receiver as a pro, and still teams were talking about me as a running back.
… The draft was totally different. There was no television. There was no buildup to it. There was no writers calling you, saying, ‘What are you thinking about?’ There was nobody from the city saying, ‘What about if they draft you here?’ There was no conversation about it at all. It’s just the fact that you were taking the next step in your career. But there was no hype, absolutely no hype at all.
I think of the things I was most comfortable with was that I had been rated the best running back in the draft and the best wide receiver in the draft.
PFW: Did the Cardinals ever give you the sense that you would be their pick at No. 4?
Rashad: Noooo. People would ask me, ‘Where do you want to get drafted?’ And I said, ‘Anyplace but St. Louis.’ I didn’t want to play in St. Louis. And so I thought that would ensure the fact that I wouldn’t get drafted by St. Louis.
… I remember when I did get drafted. I got that phone call the next morning. I was just miserable. I was so miserable. My mom goes, ‘Hey, you got the phone, it’s somebody from St. Louis.’ And I went, ‘St. Louis?! Maybe they’re calling to tell me they traded me.’ I picked up the phone, and it was the coach (Bob Hollway), and he goes, ‘Yeah, we just drafted you.’ And that was it and he hung up. That was it. No more conversation. Zero. That was it. That was the extent of my conversation.
Then, a couple weeks later, I flew there, and they had the film guy pick me up at the airport. And I remember the guy didn’t help me with my bags or anything. We got in this old station wagon, and he drove it downtown to the stadium, and then he just got up and walked away.
PFW: Welcome to the NFL.
Rashad: Yeah. It’s like, ‘Welcome to the NFL.’ It’s like, ‘Okayyyyyy.’ Everything that I had thought about this place was coming true. And so I remember going in and sitting to see the owner [Charles W. Bidwill]. And I must have sat for an hour in the lobby. Just sat there for the longest time. And finally, I went in to see Mr. Bidwill, and we talked very briefly, and then that was it. It was like, ‘OK, see you later.’ Nobody to take you to dinner or say, ‘Hey, here’s St. Louis, glad we have you, nice to draft you, let’s show you around the city a little bit’ — none of that. I remember having to go outside, and the film guy didn’t even give me a ride to the hotel. We had to catch a cab back to the hotel, and the next morning, I flew back home. That was it. That was my introduction to (the) St. Louis Cardinals.
PFW: You played two seasons in St. Louis, then went to Buffalo. In your second season with the Bills, you suffered a serious knee injury. Did you fear that your career was over?
Rashad: It was never a panic, because I never felt that like football was the only thing offered in life. Football was what I did, but it wasn’t who I was. So when I hurt my knee, I did my rehab. I went to Seattle to do my rehab; that’s where I grew up. During that period of time, I had always wanted to teach school — and maybe, at some point, become a sportscaster. So I went back to Seattle, and I substitute-taught while doing my rehab. Now I did my rehab down (with) the Seattle Sonics’ trainer; he was helping me do my rehab. Nowadays, you get a guy who’s your first-round draft pick and he gets hurt, he goes to some clinic and he’s there and somebody’s monitoring everything he’s doing. But I didn’t do any of that.
I met (Bullets and Knicks great) Earl Monroe. It’s weird how basketball comes in and out of this whole thing. Earl Monroe also had a knee injury, and he had talked about what he did to get it back. I figured I would do that kind of stuff. I remember doing that, and what happened was, I became a free agent. … I remember getting a call from [Commanders head coach] George Allen. So I fly to Washington, and we talk and all of those things. Meanwhile, Seattle gets a team. So I go back up to Seattle, and I think of how nice it would be to play there, and it turns out that we talk, and things work out, and I end up staying in Seattle for about four months.
PFW: And then you get traded to Minnesota, and that’s where things seemed to take off for you. Is that a matter of finally just finding the right offensive fit for you?
Rashad: No, I think what happened was that it was a veteran team. It was a well-established coach. It was one of those things where you come in and you fit in, as opposed to leaving a place where they were just starting on the ground level, everybody’s trying to make the team, they’ve never had a team before. It was kind of a strange coaching situation. And (I’m) still coming (off) an injury, not really being 100 percent, but being 85, 90 percent. That’s probably not good enough on an expansion team.
The greatest day in my sports life was when (Seahawks head coach) Jack Patera called me in, and he [says something like], ‘We have good news, and we have bad news.’ I said, ‘What’s the bad news?’ He said, ‘Well, we’ve traded you to Minnesota.’ And I said, ‘What could possibly be the good news? You’ve traded me to Minnesota, and I’m going to play with Fran Tarkenton and that group of people.’
Going to Minnesota was absolutely fabulous. Bud Grant was perfect. We had a great football team. It was really a great thing to be able to join that team.
PFW: What was it that you liked about Bud Grant?
Rashad: Because there was no B.S. about Bud Grant. He was what he was. No B.S. about this guy whatsoever. Flat-out winner. And the team was all about winning. And it was a team. That Minnesota Viking team was a team where all the guys were together, we were all as one. It was a wonderful experience, and I experienced a couple teams that weren’t quite like that. Buffalo was like that, but I got hurt, and that team kind of went south after that. But up until that, we had a good team up in Buffalo. But nothing like Minnesota. They won for years. They never even discussed losing. I had never seen anything like that. Losing never came up in any conversations.
PFW: Your first impressions of Fran Tarkenton?
Rashad: Well, I had met Tarkenton the year before I got traded there. I was somewhere in California for an event, and he took me out to dinner, just the two of us. We sat and talked, and little did I know, (but) I think it was an interview, looking back on it. He kept talking about, ‘What do you plan on doing? Would you like to play in Minnesota?’ All those kind of things. And when I got to Minnesota, after my first practice, they called me in after the first practice and said, ‘Well, you know, you didn’t pass the physical. And so I had gone back to my locker and I was packing my stuff because I was done, and Tarkenton goes, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ And I said, ‘Well, they just told me I didn’t pass the physical.’ He said, ‘Just wait here a minute.’ And he goes into the main office (laughs), and he comes back about 10 minutes later and says, ‘Unpack that stuff — you’re here.’
PFW: In your estimation, how has NFL analysis and broadcasting changed from when you started out 25 years ago?
Rashad: I think there’s too much information. There’s information on a lot of nothing. There’s a lot of stories that are non-stories. There are a lot of situations that are non-situations. And in saying that, there are some things that are great, because people want to see inside what’s going on. And the ways games are telecast is fantastic. You see it from all different kind of angles. You hear things that you never heard before. Those things are good. But I think that all the peripheral stuff, when you have that many outlets for radio shows and TV shows and all that kind of stuff, you’re going to end up with some garbage. You know, the talk-radio thing. I guess football’s a perfect thing for it, but there are some towns that are just run by that.
PFW: What would your advice be to someone like Tiki Barber or any professional athlete who is entering the broadcasting world?
Rashad: Don’t change your personality. They hire you to be you. Don’t go in and try and sound like somebody else. You find some people that are very successful in the business, and then you find a lot of people that mimic that person as opposed to being yourself. Be yourself. You’ve played the game, you know the game. Now you need to learn the business of television and somehow incorporate those two together, and then you have a chance of being a successful broadcaster. But you have to put in the same work ethic that you did as a player. It’s not as easy as it looks. It’s something that you have to put time (into). It’s a real profession.
PFW: You host and produce your work at NBA TV. Talk about that process.
Rashad: Every show I’m involved in at NBA TV, I produce. I’m the executive producer of those shows. I think when you first start, you want to be in front of the camera. And at some point, if you’re more creative, you want to be behind the camera, to be able to create shows, to be able to create ideas. And those are some of the things that I do here. They’ve given me the opportunity at NBA TV to come up with certain shows, to take them right from the ground level onto the air. That is exciting to me. It’s like being an artist, I guess — if you’re painting a picture, to be able to put that picture on television.
LINK
Football standout and broadcasting veteran remembers when the NFL draft was just about picking collegiate players
By Mike Wilkening
April 15, 2007
In early 1972, Ahmad Rashad was known as Bobby Moore, Oregon running back and wide receiver, and the annual NFL draft was held on the first Tuesday in February at the Essex House in New York City. According to a New York Times account of the draft’s opening day, the event kicked off at 10:05 a.m. Eastern time.
Talk about your power breakfasts.
And talk about a different place and a different time. The picks were written in block letters on a grid taller than commissioner Pete Rozelle. The event was not televised.
Buffalo made Notre Dame DE Walt Patulski the first overall pick. The Bengals, selecting second, chose California DE Sherman Smith. Next up: the Bears, who tabbed Southern Illinois tackle Lionel Antoine.
The Cardinals, holding the fourth pick, were “astounded” to see Rashad still available, according to the Times. And so they chose the Oregon standout, “who had been high on everyone’s list.”
Rashad did not find immediate NFL success. He was traded to Buffalo after his second NFL season. After two years in Buffalo, Rashad signed with Seattle before the ’76 season. Months later, he was traded to Minnesota.
It was just the break he needed. For the next seven seasons, Rashad starred for the Vikings. He retired after the ’82 season, after catching 495 passes for 6,831 yards and 44 touchdowns in 10 NFL seasons.
Rashad’s post-football career has been just as prolific. Rashad has spent a quarter-century in sports broadcasting, covering the NFL, the Olympics and the NBA along the way. Presently, Rashad is the host and executive producer of NBA TV’s “NBA Access with Ahmad Rashad” and “Tuesday Night with Ahmad Rashad.”
PFW recently caught up with Rashad to get his reflections on the ’72 draft and his NFL and broadcasting careers.
PFW: When you were drafted, there was so much less coverage of the event. By extension, did you have less of an idea of where you might be selected?
Rashad: You know, you just never knew. I actually thought I was going to go to Denver (which selected fifth). Denver was a place I wanted to play. I had a cousin that had played in Denver, and I thought that was the place I was going to end up going to. I never thought St. Louis, because I think they had just traded for a wide receiver from San Diego — Walker Gillette was his name. And I wasn’t sure what position they wanted to play me at. I wanted to play wide receiver as a pro, and still teams were talking about me as a running back.
… The draft was totally different. There was no television. There was no buildup to it. There was no writers calling you, saying, ‘What are you thinking about?’ There was nobody from the city saying, ‘What about if they draft you here?’ There was no conversation about it at all. It’s just the fact that you were taking the next step in your career. But there was no hype, absolutely no hype at all.
I think of the things I was most comfortable with was that I had been rated the best running back in the draft and the best wide receiver in the draft.
PFW: Did the Cardinals ever give you the sense that you would be their pick at No. 4?
Rashad: Noooo. People would ask me, ‘Where do you want to get drafted?’ And I said, ‘Anyplace but St. Louis.’ I didn’t want to play in St. Louis. And so I thought that would ensure the fact that I wouldn’t get drafted by St. Louis.
… I remember when I did get drafted. I got that phone call the next morning. I was just miserable. I was so miserable. My mom goes, ‘Hey, you got the phone, it’s somebody from St. Louis.’ And I went, ‘St. Louis?! Maybe they’re calling to tell me they traded me.’ I picked up the phone, and it was the coach (Bob Hollway), and he goes, ‘Yeah, we just drafted you.’ And that was it and he hung up. That was it. No more conversation. Zero. That was it. That was the extent of my conversation.
Then, a couple weeks later, I flew there, and they had the film guy pick me up at the airport. And I remember the guy didn’t help me with my bags or anything. We got in this old station wagon, and he drove it downtown to the stadium, and then he just got up and walked away.
PFW: Welcome to the NFL.
Rashad: Yeah. It’s like, ‘Welcome to the NFL.’ It’s like, ‘Okayyyyyy.’ Everything that I had thought about this place was coming true. And so I remember going in and sitting to see the owner [Charles W. Bidwill]. And I must have sat for an hour in the lobby. Just sat there for the longest time. And finally, I went in to see Mr. Bidwill, and we talked very briefly, and then that was it. It was like, ‘OK, see you later.’ Nobody to take you to dinner or say, ‘Hey, here’s St. Louis, glad we have you, nice to draft you, let’s show you around the city a little bit’ — none of that. I remember having to go outside, and the film guy didn’t even give me a ride to the hotel. We had to catch a cab back to the hotel, and the next morning, I flew back home. That was it. That was my introduction to (the) St. Louis Cardinals.
PFW: You played two seasons in St. Louis, then went to Buffalo. In your second season with the Bills, you suffered a serious knee injury. Did you fear that your career was over?
Rashad: It was never a panic, because I never felt that like football was the only thing offered in life. Football was what I did, but it wasn’t who I was. So when I hurt my knee, I did my rehab. I went to Seattle to do my rehab; that’s where I grew up. During that period of time, I had always wanted to teach school — and maybe, at some point, become a sportscaster. So I went back to Seattle, and I substitute-taught while doing my rehab. Now I did my rehab down (with) the Seattle Sonics’ trainer; he was helping me do my rehab. Nowadays, you get a guy who’s your first-round draft pick and he gets hurt, he goes to some clinic and he’s there and somebody’s monitoring everything he’s doing. But I didn’t do any of that.
I met (Bullets and Knicks great) Earl Monroe. It’s weird how basketball comes in and out of this whole thing. Earl Monroe also had a knee injury, and he had talked about what he did to get it back. I figured I would do that kind of stuff. I remember doing that, and what happened was, I became a free agent. … I remember getting a call from [Commanders head coach] George Allen. So I fly to Washington, and we talk and all of those things. Meanwhile, Seattle gets a team. So I go back up to Seattle, and I think of how nice it would be to play there, and it turns out that we talk, and things work out, and I end up staying in Seattle for about four months.
PFW: And then you get traded to Minnesota, and that’s where things seemed to take off for you. Is that a matter of finally just finding the right offensive fit for you?
Rashad: No, I think what happened was that it was a veteran team. It was a well-established coach. It was one of those things where you come in and you fit in, as opposed to leaving a place where they were just starting on the ground level, everybody’s trying to make the team, they’ve never had a team before. It was kind of a strange coaching situation. And (I’m) still coming (off) an injury, not really being 100 percent, but being 85, 90 percent. That’s probably not good enough on an expansion team.
The greatest day in my sports life was when (Seahawks head coach) Jack Patera called me in, and he [says something like], ‘We have good news, and we have bad news.’ I said, ‘What’s the bad news?’ He said, ‘Well, we’ve traded you to Minnesota.’ And I said, ‘What could possibly be the good news? You’ve traded me to Minnesota, and I’m going to play with Fran Tarkenton and that group of people.’
Going to Minnesota was absolutely fabulous. Bud Grant was perfect. We had a great football team. It was really a great thing to be able to join that team.
PFW: What was it that you liked about Bud Grant?
Rashad: Because there was no B.S. about Bud Grant. He was what he was. No B.S. about this guy whatsoever. Flat-out winner. And the team was all about winning. And it was a team. That Minnesota Viking team was a team where all the guys were together, we were all as one. It was a wonderful experience, and I experienced a couple teams that weren’t quite like that. Buffalo was like that, but I got hurt, and that team kind of went south after that. But up until that, we had a good team up in Buffalo. But nothing like Minnesota. They won for years. They never even discussed losing. I had never seen anything like that. Losing never came up in any conversations.
PFW: Your first impressions of Fran Tarkenton?
Rashad: Well, I had met Tarkenton the year before I got traded there. I was somewhere in California for an event, and he took me out to dinner, just the two of us. We sat and talked, and little did I know, (but) I think it was an interview, looking back on it. He kept talking about, ‘What do you plan on doing? Would you like to play in Minnesota?’ All those kind of things. And when I got to Minnesota, after my first practice, they called me in after the first practice and said, ‘Well, you know, you didn’t pass the physical. And so I had gone back to my locker and I was packing my stuff because I was done, and Tarkenton goes, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ And I said, ‘Well, they just told me I didn’t pass the physical.’ He said, ‘Just wait here a minute.’ And he goes into the main office (laughs), and he comes back about 10 minutes later and says, ‘Unpack that stuff — you’re here.’
PFW: In your estimation, how has NFL analysis and broadcasting changed from when you started out 25 years ago?
Rashad: I think there’s too much information. There’s information on a lot of nothing. There’s a lot of stories that are non-stories. There are a lot of situations that are non-situations. And in saying that, there are some things that are great, because people want to see inside what’s going on. And the ways games are telecast is fantastic. You see it from all different kind of angles. You hear things that you never heard before. Those things are good. But I think that all the peripheral stuff, when you have that many outlets for radio shows and TV shows and all that kind of stuff, you’re going to end up with some garbage. You know, the talk-radio thing. I guess football’s a perfect thing for it, but there are some towns that are just run by that.
PFW: What would your advice be to someone like Tiki Barber or any professional athlete who is entering the broadcasting world?
Rashad: Don’t change your personality. They hire you to be you. Don’t go in and try and sound like somebody else. You find some people that are very successful in the business, and then you find a lot of people that mimic that person as opposed to being yourself. Be yourself. You’ve played the game, you know the game. Now you need to learn the business of television and somehow incorporate those two together, and then you have a chance of being a successful broadcaster. But you have to put in the same work ethic that you did as a player. It’s not as easy as it looks. It’s something that you have to put time (into). It’s a real profession.
PFW: You host and produce your work at NBA TV. Talk about that process.
Rashad: Every show I’m involved in at NBA TV, I produce. I’m the executive producer of those shows. I think when you first start, you want to be in front of the camera. And at some point, if you’re more creative, you want to be behind the camera, to be able to create shows, to be able to create ideas. And those are some of the things that I do here. They’ve given me the opportunity at NBA TV to come up with certain shows, to take them right from the ground level onto the air. That is exciting to me. It’s like being an artist, I guess — if you’re painting a picture, to be able to put that picture on television.
LINK
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