Where are they now: Steve Grogan
By Dan O'Sullivan
ABC Sports Online
Steve Grogan, who threw for 26,886 yards during a 16-year NFL career, joined the Patriots in 1975 as a fifth-round pick out of Kansas State. Early on, he was a dangerous running threat who picked up 539 yards on the ground in 1978. He later evolved into a pocket passer with a penchant for the long ball and helped lead the Patriots to their first Super Bowl in 1986. Grogan retired from the Patriots in 1990. He now owns Grogan-Marciano Sporting Goods in Mansfield, Mass., and does some radio and television work covering the Patriots. Grogan lives in Foxboro, Mass., where he shares a home with his wife and two of his three sons.
ABC Sports Online: What made you such an effective runner?
Steve Grogan: I was a pretty good athlete. We ran the ball a lot in high school, and while at Kansas State we ran the option offense. So I really didn't know much about the passing game when I came in the league, and suddenly halfway through my rookie year I was starting for a National Football League team. I really didn't have any idea of what I was doing out there; I was just having fun. I'd drop back and if my first or second options weren't there, I'd take off and run with it because it was something I had done most of my football career. I did that the first four or five years, then I had knee problems. I think one of the things I'm most proud of is that I was able to adapt my skills from being a running quarterback to a pocket passer later in my career when my running ability had diminished.
ABC Sports Online: The Patriots of the late '70s had some great offensive weapons: Stanley Morgan, Sam Bam Cunningham, Russ Francis, Harold Jackson and others. Was that the best talent you ever had around you?
Grogan: I would say probably so. That whole late-'70s group was close on and off the field. We worked well together, ran the ball extremely well, threw it deep extremely well, had some success. Probably not as much [success] as we should have had, but it was a fun group of guys.
ABC Sports Online: The Patriots' coaching situation fell into disarray near the end of the 1978 season, when Chuck Fairbanks left for the University of Colorado. What do you recall from that time?
Grogan: It was tough because there was a lot of confusion over what was taking place and what was going to take place. Fairbanks had already told Colorado that he was coming out there to take over as coach. [Patriots owner] Billy Sullivan found out about it and fired him before the last game of the season in Miami. So we had co-head coaches for the last game, Ron Erhardt and Hank Bullough, the two coordinators. And Fairbanks came back for the playoffs. But there was just a lot of confusion and uncertainty about the whole situation as far as the players were concerned.
ABC Sports Online: On Sept. 18, 1978, the Patriots lost to the Baltimore Colts 34-27 on Monday Night Football. What are your memories from that game and about the Colts' Joe Washington, who had an outstanding night?
Grogan: Joe Washington was a tremendous athlete. He threw for a touchdown that night, ran for one and returned a kick [for a touchdown], if I'm not mistaken. [Ed. note: Washington caught a touchdown pass but did not run for one.] It was a back-and-forth game, a rainy night. We came back toward the end to go ahead, and then he took the kickoff and ran it back to beat us. A very disappointing evening.
ABC Sports Online: Seven years later, you reached Super Bowl XX. Did the disappointment of that 46-10 loss to the Bears overshadow everything else the Patriots accomplished that season?
Grogan: The Super Bowl was a tremendous experience. I think all of us remember the time leading up to the game and how much excitement there was around here. The game was a disappointing loss. But with the year we had, with the new coaching staff and no one expecting us to do much, the outcome of the Super Bowl didn't diminish the fun that we had that year. I remember riding in on buses to the airport, and people pulling over their cars and honking and waving. I had never seen anything like that in New England, at least for a football team.
ABC Sports Online: What did you do post-retirement? Did you try to stay in football?
Grogan: I had interviewed for two coaching jobs. I actually had a coaching job in a new spring league that started for about a month and then went under. I had interviews for a couple of college jobs and was told by both places that I knew a lot of football, [but] that I needed experience coaching at the high school or small college level and work my way up. By that time I was about 40 years old and had a family to feed and didn't feel like I wanted to climb the ladder or needed to climb the ladder. So I had the opportunity to buy this sporting goods business that had been here for awhile. I did some investigating and, in October of 1994, bought it.
ABC Sports Online: What are your thoughts on how Drew Bledsoe has developed the past couple of years?
Grogan: [In] the last year, he's really developed into the kind of quarterback [the Patriots] expected him to be: a franchise-type guy. I always had some doubts about his toughness and leadership ability. But from about the midpoint of 1998, you could see he feels comfortable taking over the leadership role of that team. He's played with injuries and I see him developing as the years go by into one of the all-time greats.
ABC Sports Online: Do you consider yourself a lifetime New Englander now?
Grogan: I think probably. When I got out of football, I tried to find something out [near Kansas] because I still have family back there. But I've been here for over 25 years now, and my name carries a lot more weight here than it does back there. So you go where the opportunities are.
