Well, Pats from the Past podcast, Brian hits the road, Blank County, Alabama, and there could only be one reason we come on the road for that, and that's because we're joined by Patriots and Pro Football Hall of Famer John Hannah at his palatial two hundred and thirty plus acre.
Cattle farm here in Alabama. John, thank you for your hospitality, and it's great to see us, so.
Ran us for coming down.
And after I get fIF feed you tonight, you're gonna find out another reason to couna blanca.
Julie noted, love it, love it. So we're taking this podcast Pats from the Past podcast, talking to great John Hannah, Matt Smith, and Brian Morian. We're on this beautiful cattle farm. John, why don't you try to tell Patriot fans if you can a little bit about what it is that you're doing today.
Well, basically, that's a calcaff operation, that's what they call it. And I've got actually two pieces of it.
On the one farm down here.
I got about sixty two head of Brangus cows. Brangus is a breed that is that are made up of basically three eighths Brahma bull and.
Five eighths angus, and.
The brahma does it's the only cow that kind of sweats, so it does real good in the South. So having you know, a little brahma in that English is good.
And then what I do is I grow my replacement.
Heifers there uh, and then bring them to this farm. And I got about ninety head of brangus cows, a few half bridges and three quarter bridges, but and I bring them to a horned herd bull and so you wind up with a three six stanints brahma and the rest is all Anglish between the herford and the angus. So the marveling's really good in the Mate and people like it, and there's a demand. Plus I saw a lot of replacement heifer's and that's been a very profitable source for me.
So I'm old enough to remember and have a copy of the Sports Illustrated cover from nineteen eighty one with your picture that I think it's Paul Zimmermann who wrote the piece. It said the greatest offensive lineman of all time in nineteen eighty one.
Which is on display at the pitch It's Hall of Fame, presented by RAYTHEWN Technology correct If.
I told John Hannah back in nineteen eighty one, you'd be presiding over a two hundred and thirty plus acre farm with Brahma bulls and Cole's what would you have said to me back in nineteen eighty.
One, same thing I'm playing now because back then, when Paul came down, I had a roughly about a two I had about one hundred and seventy three acres, and but I was raised in Santa Gratruda's cattle at the time, and Santa Gratrudas was like a short horn and uh Brahma mix, and you know, it was a good one, but they got they were a little wild at times. So I like the Brian Gus. It's a it's a more recent development. And I like the Brincus a whole lot better than I do the Girts.
But it's a.
I'm like I said, I'm glad I got I chased the dollar because it enabled me to chase my dream.
So I was gonna say in Patriots fans, you're gonna see this later on in Patriots All Access and all of our video platforms. But I'm telling you here we have a smiling and a happy John hannay, this looks like this kind of life suits you.
Actually it does it?
Does?
You know?
I'm a redneck and I finally admitted it to myself and everybody else. And I enjoyed being out here by myself, you know, and just you know, I'm looking out over there or people can't say where I'm looking, but I'm looking back over the shoulder here and I say, my cows out graves and stuff, and there's no more peaceful thing.
In the world. Basically, what I do.
I tell one of you guys, I said, you know, all I am is I'm a grass grower.
That's all I do.
I let my cows harvest it, let them turn that grass into protein, and that's all. And so I'm just a grass grower, that's all I am.
Fair to say, John that you've lived you dream twice by going through the University of Alabama, playing in the NFL, being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and then adding this part of that as well.
Yeah, I mean that's I mean, let's face it, if I hadn't played in the NFL, I would have never been able to have this.
So yeah, I mean, football.
Was no question a dream that I had from early on. I told everybody how I got in the football was when I was in the fourth grade. I was we were living in Canton, Georgia, and there was a two.
Tiered playground outside the school.
School was on top of the hill, and I was on the lower tier, and a few of my friends, uh started star and aiding me with the fatty fatty two by four can't get through the kitchen door. And that was kind of embarrassing. I kind of hurt my feelings and I went home and told Mom about it, and so Mom called dad, or unlike most parents today who would be blasting everybody, Dad called the guy that was coaching the sixth, seventh and eighth grade team who he had coached, and said, hey, I got my boys
pretty good sized. I know he's just a fourth grader, but would you mind him coming out for the sixth seventh Dad got home, said John, He says, I know it's a way that you'll never be called fatty fatty two by four ever again. He said, but it's going to be hard and you have to do it, but you earned a respect to your class race. I said, well, what's that? He says, go out for football on the sixth, seventh and eighth grade team, and I'm want to play football anyway.
I want to be like my dad. So I went out and made the team and actually got to start.
And ever since then football meant a whole lot to me. And so playing in the NFL was a dream coming true because you know, it was.
A way that I earned that.
I felt that what I needed to earn respect from other people was something that I was that I would have blessed with with some ability and some talent, and I just hope I took advantage of it.
Well.
So we were talking earlier and Matt mentioned it to you about Tom Brady being the greatest Patriot of all time. Yep, and I was part of an NFL Network top ten Patriots where number two is John Hannah unquestioned.
He won't say it, but Brian and I will say it.
Oh, there's no doubt.
And I mean, arguably the greatest offensive all aligneman of all time in nineteen eighty one.
It's still possible, still still hold.
You today, Yes, So you know, I mean.
Do you ever look back at that and reflect on the fact that that's where you that's your standing in professional football?
No figure.
I remember was a kid, I used to watch the Miss America contest and the gal that I thought was the prettiest and never won, So I kind of fail being named that.
It's kind of like being in the beauty contest beauties and I the beholder.
So you know, I'm I appreciate people thinking enough of me to say that now.
I really do appreciate it. But do I think about it? No, not really.
But but if that's the contest, it's not that company to be If if the only guy ahead of is Brady is it.
It's not bad at all, my boy, I tell you he uh.
He said a standard, no question about it.
John. When did you was there time? I don't know if it was an AHA moment or something. You know at Alabama again, great school, perfect feeding ground for the National Football League? When did when did that come into focus to you that, hey, you know what, I think I might be able to play at the next level.
When I was about uh ten or eleven, always in my mind wanted to be in the NFL.
I wanted to be following my dad's steps. I want to play in.
The NFL, and that was my goal all growing up. I wanted to be in the NFL, and you know, that was a target that I shot for, and so I didn't know if I could make it physically or talent wise, but in my heart I figured I.
Could, and then you call it.
Coach Bryant taught me some lessons when I was at Alabama, and.
The biggest lesson he taught.
Me at Alabama was that it's not always the guy with the talent that wins. It's the guy that with the most guts who'll stick it out and played hard all the way through the game. A lot of guys with talent that'll play tough a quarter or two, but he'll take some breaks.
When he takes those breaks, that's the time to take care of him.
And that was that was a huge lesson. That's what really kind of got me over the hunt. I always figured there's a lot of guys more talent in me than me in the NFL, but I could outwork most of them.
Coach Bryant, I think I was reading some literature you know about this and you and he weren't very close. Is that a fair statement to make?
In real that's real? Fair?
Were you and him joined a little bit of war? Was it was it more fear both.
I was in awe. I'm not thinking I was so in awe of.
Him that I didn't want to be you know, I didn't want to be his buddy, and I don't think he wanted to be buddying for me either. But we there's two incidents that I remember that really. I mean, I respect Coach Bryant and think.
A lot of it. I love his wife.
His wife's the kind of one of the kindest ladies ever met in my life. But Coach Bryant, you know, we had a Saturday. Matter of fact, I think it was a week before the Southern col game that that we're talking about. That when they beat us a bed he sent ten guys to the hospital a heathtroke and dehydration. And the guys were leaving out of my freshman class, only four out of forty guys that signed scholarships, only fourteen of us made it.
The guys are packing the bag and everything. He come and I had to quit.
Luckily, I fell asleep before I can pack my car, and he came in next day wind out what he said, Well, boys shall learn a big lesson yesterday he said, you'll push yourself and push yourself. You think you're gonna die, but human body is an amazing machine. It'll always pass out for it does. And I remember that one. And then my senior year, we're about to go out and play Texas and the Cotton Bowl, and i'd been and we just got back from having a day off for Christmas with the family, and.
Dad said, well, you on you getting the law of there.
Why don't you ask coach Brian after the game if you'd arrange a meeting with you can find out who an attorney might represent.
You said, So I'm walking to the meeting.
Coach Bryant comes out of his office and I said, Coach Bryant, I do not want to talk to you about this now, but I would like to set up a meeting with you after this game if it would be all right to see if he might recommend somebody to represent me, because I think I might be in the NFL. Coach Bryant looked at man, excuse the language, shit, John, you ain't good enough. No damn lawyer, that was miss That was the last words Coach Bryant spoke to me at Alabama.
So yeah, there's there's a little there's a little Well he was wrong.
I don't know if he was or not, but it did it didn't didn't help my feelings though.
Yeah, can you imagine that there's somebody that intimidated John Hannah. I mean, I don't think Joe Green would be on that list.
Yeah, he might be.
I think you gotta know Coach Bryant, and you gotta remember I was a nineteen twenty kid.
That's a that's a big statement though to here, you know, that shows the respect I think that you probably.
Oh I had, I had. I will say he had comed out. My uncle Bill was playing at Alabama. He coached my uncle Bill. Coach Bryant came and my uncle Bill went through that junction boy type camp at Alabama when he first came, when actually he actually built a fence around the practice field so that.
The boys couldn't quit. So he said no.
That was in Alabama, in Tuscalusia, And so I knew who he was. And he was tough man. He was a tough armbran and he wasn't no small guy. You know, he wasn't like Saving or Belichick. He's six four, you know, waited about two forty two fifty as strong, as a canyon ape. I mean, he'd grab you up by that faceman.
That day when we went to the thing Goose Tree, our trainer came over and told us all to get our shoulder pads and helmets off, and so we took them off with sitting there and Coach Bryant looked over, saw us and his t shirts.
Get those damn pads back on and get your back.
And when I'm running out, as I run by him, he kicks me, and he knocks me about twenty yards in the.
Front of him. And yeah, I was scared the death of the old man. I really was. I wasn't in all, I was scared period.
Well, you needed representation. You go into the draft in nineteen seventy three. He's had three first round picks that year. The draft is certainly not then what it has become today. No, what do you remember about that whole process?
I remember going to the Hula Bowl because I wanted to participate in track and I could go to that game without losing eligibility, and wanted to time me and do all this stuff. And I'm being a smart electy like I wasn't. I'd never been anywhere except you know, Alabama and Georgia. Now I wanted to say Hawaii, I got her. They wanted me to run sprints for them all the time. I said, you know what I got film. You go look at them film. If you like what I do, draft me. If you don't, I can't help you.
I said, that's the best for indicator good, whether I'm good or not. And then Dick Steinberg give me a mental exam to see if I was could remember my plays, and.
That I remember.
And then the second thing I remember is the day of the draft, which was like in January.
The end of January.
Back then, I get a call from Fairbanks and he says John. And I knew who coach Fairbanks was because we'd played them my Oklahoma my sophomore year and then asked Blue White Bowl game.
So I says, hey, coach, how you doing?
He says good. He says, you know, I'm coaching with the Patriots now, and I just want to let you know you've been packed picked, you know, number four in the draft by the New England Patriots, and we'd like to get it you get you up here just soon as pot hospel, he says, But I need to get back to work now, and I said, well, coach, I appreciate it and I look forward to talking to you again on the phone. Look and says, where's the new England Patriots?
Please? Still do that? Where are they? Where do they? Where is that?
Do you have a globe or did you have an atlas? Did you have a map? What'd you do?
I went and called some people up mastered until I finally found somebody new. But you got I mean at that time, Alabama, you know, we were is all college football still is primarily, but back then totally was the only pro teams we watched was where in.
Alabama or an Auburn player played?
So I knew the Giants because my dadd had played there, and Tucker Frederickson was there when I was growing up from Aulbourne, and I even though he was from Auburn, I enjoyed watching him play.
Joe Willie Joe Willie.
At the Jets, Leroy Jordan with Cowboys, Bart Starverard Green Bay, Ray Perkins at Baltimore and a few others. But that's about it, and you know the rest of it we didn't really care about.
He said, your dream is to play in the NFL and gets drafted by we, I mean again for Patriot fans today that don't understand what the Patriots are like. Back in nineteen seventy three, I wanted to play in the NFL and he gets drafted by the Patriots. That weren't exactly the NFL at that point in time.
No, it was when I remember the first exhibition game that we played in a home exhibition game. We're playing the Giants, and I was all fired up a little bit because I knew that the noseguard was all played at in Nebraska Rich Glover, and he for good ball player and real good ball player, quick as a cat.
So anyway, I was a little nurse. But we were pulled into the stadium and there's actually more giant fans there than there was Patriots fans at our own stadium, and I thought that was that was kind of odd, and it was just it was very different back then.
It was totally different. I was Chuck Fairbanks compared to.
I've responded to Coach Fairbanks a lot better than I responded to Coach Bryan's methodology. To me, Fairbanks was the best head coach I ever played under. He had a great eye for talent, both player talent and coaching talent. Well, he ran in great assistant coaches. He was a great organizational skills, just an unbelievable organizational skills. And he was a man of integrity. And that's why you know he
left the Patriots because he couldn't. The owners of that time didn't allow him to keep his promises to his players. And he said, if I can't, if I can't, my words, my bond. And I said, for example, when I went up Mayorn rookie year, he would call every rookie is what's your goals to be in here? I sat down in the chair and I said, well, coach said, I want want want a super Bowl. He said, everybody wants to wear the super Bowl. He says, what do you
want personally? I said, well, I've always dreamed of trying to be the best office flyman or I can be in the league and you know, be the best. He said, well, what's it going to take to get there? I said, well, it's gonna be.
Take a lot of work, hard work on my part.
But I said, I need a coach who can show me the right techniques and can catch things when I'm doing them wrong and get me a cricket.
He said, do you like your coach now? I said, yeah, Coach Red Miller is a great coach.
He you know, he just sent four of his five offense wine of the Pro Bowl with the Cardinals, and Red was unbelievable.
And so but a few years went by and I'm locked on his.
Door and Red had gone to Denver, and I said, Coach, this guy that you've got now he's not doing a job. He said, okay, and that's all he said. Next year I come back. Jim Rango is sitting in his office line best offense grone coach. I thank god ever created unbelievable office coach.
You can talk about the coaches Red Miller, Jim Ringo, Hank Bulla, Ray Perkins, you know guys, you.
Know Coselves how about how about Heart?
How about a guy by the name Ronnie Earhart. How about a guy named Ernie Adams.
Ernie Adams.
What was your thoughts about Ernie Adams back in those days? John Is, who just retired within the last couple of weeks. We're talking about one of the most unbelievable NFL careers that anybody's had, and nobody knows what he does or what he did. But he had his heat was not only with the Patriots on those great teams that you played with in the seventies, but his Belichick's right hand man for this dynastic run that has led happened for twenty years.
He probably he had the respect and you know, we laughed with him and at him some, but I want to tell you what he knew, knew that everybody respected him. He probably was more knowledgeable about the.
Game than anybody I ever met. And he studied.
I mean, he worked his butt off and so he earned the respectable lot.
And we knew on on on.
Two on Wednesday mornings when we came in and got that scouting report, we knew we were going to know what was going on because he had he had built that scouting report and uh along with the assistant coaches, but he was the he was the guy that got it going.
And I think.
If anybody, if there's some sort of a hall of fame for what he's done, he needs to be in it because he's a silent hero.
He really is high praise, high praise, unbelievable. Yeah, I think kach Palchi would agree. Yeah, I agree, I agree. You know, you talked a little bit John about the ownership situation. I don't want to, you know, reveal all that and everything like that. But in a way, when you see where the franchise is today and you see how it's run, what the Crafts have done, is there a bit of jealousy in your head that goes, oh, yeah, why couldn't he you have owned the team when we played,
and who knows what would have happened. Well, we know things would have been different, don't we.
We do right?
Ye, Well, there's two ways of an owner making money in the NFL.
He can go in and he starts building.
He'll spend a little money, he'll win a few games, and he starts selling season tickets back when I played.
And all that stuff.
And then as soon as the season tickets starts selling out, he cuts payroll.
So that's one way of making money.
There's another way of making money that's figuring out how do I make money by capitalizing on a championship team.
And that is what the Crafts have done.
And I would have given my left arm to play when the owner, when Bob Craft will on the team, it's my here. I think the world of Bob Craft he's and he's done a lot for us old guys too. And uh, you know, I truly he has my respect, a lot of my I mean really respected. And I just uh, and I always say in the NFL championships always start with the owner.
Always.
Uh, you look at anybody, the owner always is the building block. You got a bad owner, you'll never have a championship. You have a good grade owner, You're gonna have lots of championships. And Bob Craft's great owner.
And he was sitting in the seats in nineteen seventy three on the metal benches.
He's probably frustrated stadium. He's probably as mad as we work, right, you know. It's some of the stuff. I mean, can you believe trading Leon Gray away? And I mean, how stupid is that? You know, just because Leon and I were coming up from negotiations a year away and we were up at the same time, and so they traded him away so I could break us up, so I wouldn't have to negotiate with the two.
So don't get me started. That's a that's a sore spot in my life.
Well, I'll change the subject a little bit then to nineteen seventy six, and you guys have that outstanding regular season. You go to Pittsburgh beat the defending Super Bowl champions Steelers. You hand the Oakland Raiders their only loss of the season, and then get the rematch and they blew them out. You get the rematch with the Raiders in the playoffs, which we all know about the controversy surrounding that with the non holding call on Russ and the roughing.
The Raiders wanted a new stadium.
They still they still need a new stadium. They had to go to Vegas to get a stadium.
I know. But you know what I'm saying, Yes, well.
I mean so so how bitter was that because that was the year that everyone looks back on from that era as the team Oakland goes on to win the Super Bowl as the team that might have been the first world champion for.
In New England had they not been some bad calls. Let's call it what it is. It was.
It was, you know, it was a very similar scenario. I mean, you know it's I know, we say, uh that official all the way and he locked the door of his dressing room so we could get doing we're trying to kill him.
But anyway, Uh, it was better.
Uh.
We knew we had a great team. Uh, and we and the people don't know this.
The bad call, I guess Ray Hamilton was bad, but that would have never happened.
The guy on the sideline banned.
We were in slant nineteen and Slam had a kind of a he could have made the first down, but he saw the yard marker and he stepped out in front of the yard marker. But the guy that was holding the yard marker didn't have it stretched out. You see what I'm saying.
And so there's nobody knew that. But that was one of the things that hey, yeah, he was a yard not even a yard a foot shot.
And if the guy had stretched out the change like he was supposed to have him, Sam would have seen it.
He'd have gone ahead and got that extra foot. We'd eat the clock up.
And that had never been that overtime that passed it interference call or anyway because or rough and faster call.
Because on thirty nineteen, by the way, on a third and nineteen play, roughing the passage, Yeah, I know.
Put you on the spot here. What was the better team, John, the seventy sixteen or the seventy eighteen.
It's hard to say on that one either one of them would be basically the same team, only with a little more age, because you you know, seventy six you got Tim Fox, Mike Canes and we were a little younger. In seventy eight, uh, you know, Weaver gone then we had replaced him and some things like that.
So I would it would it would be a tough call, and I it wouldn't to me.
That whole group of guys that I played with from like seventy five, even in say seventy five, in seventy three, four, even in seventy four, we started getting good people. You know, we got Grogs and Nelly and all those guys coming in and there you got you know, we had Bam already, we had Geezer, Tony McGee, you know, Julius was there. I mean, just a good group of guys that enjoyed being together.
And I loved that. That was the team I really loved.
From that, you know, up until Myers came, I really enjoyed playing football with the Patriots.
You know you referenced earlier White Chucks Fairbanks last.
Well, it was at the end of that season when the Solvents suspended him for the final game of the season, learning and he had taken a college job, and reinstated him for the playoff game, first home playoff game in Patriot's history, in fact, at Solvent Stadium against the Houston Oilis.
How did that whole thing work itself out?
Was that?
Was that the loss of your coach that week and the reinstatement was that a major distraction.
Had big time. It was a big time distraction.
And you know, and the funny thing is, the players knew that Fairbanks was leaving, you know, flying would the guy from Continental Airline be at the meetings at the players meetings ever Monday, you know, after they did the Daryl what they did, so we knew he was leaving. We'd already we already figured that out. So it didn't bother us. You know, we were just gonna go ahead it. But you know, they overreacted as usual, you know, they
had that chip on her shoulder show. But they they assured you had to run a good thing.
I tell you what. Total kind had a more positive note. All records are made to be broken, yep, But that seventy eighteen had a record that last very very long time. It wasn't until just two years ago when the Ravens beat it. Most rushing yards by a team that stood for a long time was there. It's got to be a sense of pride for me.
I'll tell you one record they didn't break. You want to tell you.
Yeah, they didn't have a We did not have a back with over one thousand yards.
You can.
Grogan had five.
Hundred, that's right. So they did it. They did it with a running back.
Well, we had good running backs, don't get me wrong, but we had an offensive line and I don't think they've ever been a run a running game offensive line like we had.
We could come off the ball. Now, let me tell you what we could come off the ball.
And there's only really there's only that starting team, the starting guys. You know, there's only two of us left.
So it was Pete in the middle, No, you and Leon on the left side, Lean.
Died, Sam Adams.
And Shelby Jordan on the right. And so Shelby and I have only two a lot of that five guys.
Now, he came in and played a lot, but Lank was the starter.
And then you know you had Grogan run that offense obviously, and.
The toughest guy and the most mistreated quarterback in NFL history.
So I was just gonna ask you that. So I always felt growing up.
Now this is more in the eighties than the seventies, but that he was They were always trying to replace Steve Grogan. But I know you have such an affinity for him. So tell me your impressions of Steve Grogan as a quarterback and as a teammate.
When you go into a huddle, everybody has his eye on the court and your feed off of it. You look in his eyes and you see what he's thinking, and he's faling is going and when you you when you looked into Goge's eyes, you could just suck the energy and the confidence out of him, you know what
I mean? And if that was what was going and tougher in a pine knot, Uh, he'd hold that ball and I got mad at him a few times for holding, but he had hold of that extra half or a second or so to get that receiver make that extra move that he needed to get open. And he didn't
mind taking the hit, you know. And I don't I feel that you were talking about that Pittsburgh game when we came from behind and beat him down in Pittsburgh, and uh we were down there and uh Dwight White, uh you know, we went for the first down and Dwight White got up and spit on him.
And Leah and I were uh there.
And and uh, grogoes he's he makes them trying to get spit in his mouth, but he's got cotton mouth, get it, so he just makes the sound pooh, and Dwight you know, comes after him, and before he can get to him, Manley I stepped in the middle and make sure he couldn't touch it. But I think Krogs, who's uh, he was one tough on bro. Let me tell you their other quarterbacks probably they had were more gifted talent wise, but there was nobody that was more of a winner than he was.
I want to ask you about two other teammates. Steeley Morgan.
Why he's not in the Hall of Fame beats the smart out of me. That guy.
They got all these TV commentators in there, they can't. Their numbers are half of what Sanley's are, and why he's not. Sandy was probably the greatest receiver of his era, and he just did not get the credit he deserved.
I don't know why. I can't understand it. Russ francis more talent than any human I ever saw.
You know, he's different, different cat, right, different.
Cat he You know, we were talking about people a little while ago who played off of talent. He was one of those guys. He never understood that you got to pay a price for true greatness, you know, and kind of he they would have never known who Gronsky was. I if if Russ had really played the way he could, he I've never seen a more gifted athlete than him.
Did you know during training camp he used to fly to Martha's Vinia's lunch. Oh yeah, story, Oh yeah, I mean he was crazy.
I got mad at him. We're out in California for a week. We played the Raiders, then we would go down place, either La or San Diego, one of them. We were at Stanford and he's walking around coming to practice. He's injured and he's got on flip flops. I was so I yelled at him, but you know, he just he didn't care. That was just Russ, you know, And I I finally figured it out. You know, I ain't going to change him, but boy was when he wanted to suit it up. There was nobody that was better than him.
Eighty five comes along and you talked about, you know, different coaches, everything, and Raymond Berry comes along in eighty four and maybe sort of writes that ship with the talent that was on. You know, now you've got guys like tipp who's on that.
Team, Donnie Blackman, Yeah, and you go on that run at.
Eighty five, John, the first time the Patriots get to a super Bowl? Can you remember what the region was like with all those road playoff wins and going to the Super Bowl and the T shirts with Burry the Bears and everything. How magical was that run for you at that point in time in your career.
It was great. It was It was really good.
And you know, I don't there was the difference though, between that team and the teams of the seventies was we had a great Now I'm not saying we didn't have a good defense when in the seventies, Please don't get this wrong, but there was not a better set of bookends in the whole NFL than black Men and Andre Tippett. I mean, they were unbelievable pass rushes and if you ever get shot them both.
That quarterback was going down, so we had that.
He still had an La, We still had the you know, Jerius, we had the great We had all the great ones, and we had even better talent on defense. Our offense was not quite as good. You know, we had some good players, but they weren't they weren't the same caliber Sam Cunningham, Andy Johnson, and unfortunately they decided not to start Steve that game, which I think was a very
big disappointment to a lot of the offensive players. I think when we heard he had been cleared to play, there was an excitement about Grogue starting amongst the team, and when we found out he wasn't going to start, I think there was a real letdown. But that was it was really fun. I mean, let's face it, we got a little revenge on the Raiders, were able to beat them out in the Colissem and uh beat the Jets, So it was you know, we were the first Wall
Card team to do that. So you know, there's things that we did when I was there that uh were we take pride in.
You know, you know, I.
Enjoyed being around with Bam and Shelby, and when we come back to the Hall of Fame and stuff, and we talked old school, and you know, we take a lot of pride in the fact that, you know, we weren't able to cap it off, but we got the ball rolling. We got the ball rolling, and finally the the ownership changed the right way, and uh, you know, we're very proud of the team.
The final win of that three road wind playoff streak was in Miami, where you had lost eighteen consecutive games dating back to.
Before you were a Patriot.
Was there ever some sort of mental block with that or did you just feel like we can win there?
It's just circumstances. Losses.
Well, you've got to remember to when did we play them? Most time December, you know, because the ownership wanted to have a Christmas vacation in Miami. Well, we've been practicing in twenty degree weather for three or four weeks, and we go.
Down there and play in ninety.
Degree weather and by the time the game's over, I mean, you can't. I mean you should have seen what the airplane was like on the way out. Oh, everybody's laying out.
On them four cramping and hurting and everything else. Well, you know, so we knew we could beat them down there and when.
And what was really fun about that game? In reality, Yeah, we threw some passes, but we've primarily beat them with the run. And that was That was sweet, antiquities, that was a sweet That was really sweet.
Did you think realistically you guys had a chance against the Beers.
If we kept it on the ground.
I didn't think we could with an air attack, especially with the quarterback we had. And I knew we might fool them at the beginning, but it wouldn't be a consistent So I had hoped we would go back to a more of a rock'm soccam type game, which is what got us there.
So I knew. I didn't say we couldn't. I knew it would be we'd have to play our best game.
And there are people John who believed that that that team, that eighty five Beers team is in the conversation for the greatest single season team.
Yes, you know.
That team was stacked. So there's no shame in that. You know, you guys certainly didn't play well and that had to sting.
Oh we played awful.
Yeah, And there's a lot of stuff going on, you know, with the newspapers.
And after the game and all that.
And well for us before the game because the players knew what was fixing to come.
Ye, And what we're talking about is and we won't spend a lot of time on it, but you know, there was some drug issues with that team that came to light after the super Bowl and really kind of put a damper on what we talked about was a magical time. So you just were did you have it in your mind? John, at that point in time, I was, I knew I was going to retire. What was did you know that that was going to.
Be there for you there?
I knew I'd played the whole last part of the season. I'd torn both rotator cuffs and my shoulders and my knee was giving me a lot of problems, you know, I had.
I had a lot of injuries that year. And when.
Bert Z Aarians came as the orthopedic surgeon uh first year, I said, bert.
I want you to make me one promise.
He says, if you ever see anything on me that will ever that will cripple me and keep me from playing from my with my kids from then on, he says, I want you to let me know. So Anyway, I had both shoulders done and I was recovering from them. And then two weeks later I went in and they cut on my knee and uh Bert called me into his office and they talked to you. I said, okay, he said, John, you're your femurs went off. He said, Uh, you've got basically you've got a groove.
And it's it's basically hanging in that groove and you have no.
Cart lets left whatsoever. He says, So it's your bone on bone. And I said, well, are you referring to our conversation er. He says, yeah, yeah. He says, if you keep going, you'll be just let baby or I said, well that's what I made up my mind. And you know what's funny is when I originally heard it.
It was against Chicago, uh.
The regular season game that you when you played them in the in the.
Ring, no back.
This was my second or third year of the leg and they hit me below with me I forgot to be lower than the lowest and hey high perched it on my knee and tore the posse recruision and uh the doctor at that time said, oh, it's just a strain, okay. So I kept playing, it wasn't getting better. Kept it wasn't getting better. So finally about February I called my brother Charlie, who was playing with Tampa. So I had
to be seventy six. So anyway, I said, turn if y'all got to get orthopedic guy and I said, yeah, he's really good. I said, can you say up a meeting with me?
So I went there. So I went down too, and he said, well, John, if.
Right now, the only way we can repair that is to rewrap the hamstring to the front of the lower leg. And he says it's only successful fifcent time. He says, if we'd have caught it when it first happened, we could have tied the posture or crushe back together.
And it had been fine.
But the way it is, you're just going to have to keep your legs strong and just play as long as you can.
So basically, the.
Orthopedic surgeon prior to Bert's ears shortened my career.
And yet you still played nine years on a bad knee.
Played nine years on a bad knick. See how when you did you retire? What did you miss? The locker room? Not feeling a part of the team. It was. It was it.
I don't know what it's like for current players, but it was devastating. I mean I didn't know what I was worth, didn't know who I was because I'd always been caught up as you know, that's the only identity I could really hang my hat on it. And I went through a hard time for about two or three years, I mean real did some things I wasn't very proud of, uh, just and embarrassed my family. And it.
Was a hard time. It was. And I don't know if they could get that drawn into.
It nowadays or not, but you know, when you get sucked into it like I got sucked into it, I mean it was. It was everything to me. And when it when I didn't have it anymore, it was it was. It was awful, the worst, the worst time in my life.
What do you remember what helped turn that around or get you on the road to where you were going back and that you did feel proud about yourself?
Uh?
Two things, Uh, First is you know my faith getting back to that That was probably you know, my faith in and Jesus and in God. The second thing was a Vietnam vet And he finally telling me, said, John, you know, one of the biggest issues you're facing is ye're a year like a war veteran, you're addicted to the most powerful drug known to man.
I said, what, I don't take drugs. He says, adrenaline. And he's right.
I mean, that was a heck of a fix man. You know, Adrenaline is the best drug in the world. I'd love to take a shot of adrenaline. Uh, and you know it's not bad for you, and it's not you know, And he was right. And I realized that, you know that I was I had, I had an addiction. I was used to going out every Sunday and boy, you just get that feeling, you know, that that surge you know, coming through the tunnel and that you know,
the war, you're one on one combat and stuff and shop. Man, it was I can and I can go back to it. I mean, I just sitting here now, I can still feel the the sinds. It's kind of like I see it's both over.
You know. What's funny.
What's funny is my dad was when my dad was about my age, when he was seventy i'd retired me might have been seventy five, and we're watching and i'd retire. And we're in front of a TV set watching an NFL game. I'm watching this guy play and I'm watching I said, God, I can do better, I.
Said, Dad.
When you watch these games today, he said, you never feel like you can go out there and be better than those guys that are playing out He says, well, I'm pretty old now, John, but probably two or three plays I could be as good as.
They was not better.
And I guess I'm the same boy. You know what I'm saying. You still got that inside you where you know I'm not as big as them, and I'm not probably as talented as them. But they never been hit as hard as I could hit them, and they hadn't they had a defensive line in the NFL days, been hit like like we could hit them. And I'd like to see how they'd react when somebody with their helmet in their mouth.
But I want to ask you, is who's the defensive lineman when they did hit back that you realized, Oh okay, now I gotta I gotta ratchet up here a little bit. Who's the toughest guy that you were called?
You know, you don't do you don't The two guys I always said this there. I mean, there's guys that were great pass rushers, and there's guys that were great run guys.
The best all the two best.
All around guys I ever played against was Howie Long and Jim Cleco. Jim Clecko, he you got guy or how he the one they never ever quit. I mean, you knew you were in for an all day sucker the minute you walked out on that field, and.
They just you know, there are a lot of guys that were great, but you knew they.
Were going to take a vacation every now and then, and uh but they would never they never took a vacation.
Don't blame it. So you had to play ever play I had to. They were, they were. They have my respect.
How long I would I could see him being in the conversation Joe Clecko, I would. I wouldn't have guessed him. So that's an interesting one.
Joe Clicko, to me, was as good a defensive lineman.
You've got to remember, he played defensive end, he played nose tackle, and he played tackle three different total, different positions, played all three, went to the Pro Bowl in all three. Never got the credit that guy was as strong as a canyon. Nape had great leverage, never quit. He was He was a great ballplayer, great ball player.
John help me.
Of course, you have your gold jacket that the NFL does there one of the greatest players of all time and you're on that list.
How meaningful was that for you? On that hundred players? A lot? It was?
It was really good. I enjoyed it. You know, whether it was deserved or not, I don't know. Again, but to be counted in the group with the men that were there, like you know, wife Stevenson or.
Artshell or all those guys.
There's just there was an honor. I mean, those those were, you know, not only my adversaries, but they were my heroes. And you know, I don't know how they'd studied films now, but I always tried to watch films of offensive linemen that I respected and what they did against, you know, the guys I was playing with. And to be with those guys who I thought were so great, meant a lot to me. To be able to be with them.
You mentioned not being on a team and the lots of camaraderie and not being in the locker room. You're on a team where you can't get cut from it. You're in the Pro Football Hall of Fame six years ago. I remember being with you in the Holy Land when Robert Kraft took you eighteen or so other members of
the Hall of Fame. That experience of being able to see guys like Joe Green and people like that, that must have you know, again, it's a club you can't get cut from, you know, being around those people in that in that special place. John, What what was that like for you?
It's better now that it was then. And a funny story about that. When I got inducted. You know, my dad had played in the NFL, so he could. At that time, your dad couldn't induct you. It was somebody had to be in the NFL affiliate. Well, my dad had played, so he could induct me. So he was giving this introduction for me, and I'm listening, and I think it's Buck Gus and Buck Buchanan behind me and my rookie year. I played against Bud and he ate my lunch. I mean ate my lunch. He was a
total shipwreck. He embarrassed me so bad. So but anyway I hear him talking, he says, you're playing from that boy, Buckersa's yeah, but he was young when I played it. But buck says, yeah, me too. He sure must have got better since I played him. Anyway, that's my memory, and that's kind of the way it is, you know what I'm saying. So it's a it's a good good and the guys there, ninety percent.
Of them don't have that huge ego.
They're just part of a club and just brothers, and it's I always try to go back every year if I can, and I look forward to saying all those guys been with him.
Well matter year I called John tell him in our induction ceremonies in Foxborough, and depending on the time of the year, he can't come because he's delivering calves. I hope you get the same adrenaline rust from delivering calves you got from.
Plain and the NFL. You know when I when when you you know, if what's fun, you don't get the same rush, but.
You know there's a there's a sense of accomplishment, you know, I've always being an athlete. I think there's two things a point farmer and trade. First of all, both my grandparents were people.
Of the land. You know, my mom's family were dairy farmers.
Uh. My dad grew up as a farmer and his business basically we built and equipped chicken houses and stuff like that. So I was ram farms all my life, and so I enjoyed. I enjoyed being out and being an athlete. I was always outside. I enjoy outside. I enjoy work, getting with my hands. I enjoy physical labor. You know, I get a headache when I use my brain see too much because it's too little to work out.
So it's I enjoy working with my hands.
And I and as you you know, it takes a long time, but you know, slowly and surely. I mean, like I said, you know, I got a few red cows out there, but there's only six or seven now, and there's eighty three blackings. And I raised every one of them blackings. And then I've got down here, I've got all of about seven or eight now, I registered rangus. It takes time, but it's building and I'm growing. And you know, good Lord Willing before, I mean, Moses didn't
get started. Let's face it, till he is eighty, right, So the way I look at it, I got ten more years just to get started. And I'm hoping that then I'll have the farm set up and doing right. And today I missed the interview. I'm I'm hoping that they're having a hearing today on the meat packers any trust violations and fair trade and stuff, because there's four companies that basically control eighty five per cent in the market and the beef producer is making the lowest percentage
of the total beef dollar. Ever, people don't understand that the beef, the guy that raises the feeder cattles getting a dollar twenty two dollars twenty three and they're getting one hundred and twenty two hundredweight, whereas the packers are getting like around three hundred one hundred weight, and they're making all the money and they control the prices, and if they don't can't get the cows, they'll just import it, you know, and people can't tell whether it's made in
the USA or not because they all they've got to do is bring it in from Nambibia or from Brazil and stamp it, you know, packaged in the USA, but it's not raised in the United States.
It's packaged.
And we're trying to get a mandatory a country of original labeling where it's born, raised, and processed in the United States, and you know, having much more transparency because they do a lot of sweetheart formula deals with their other corporate partners, and we want to see what they're getting paid and seeing how bad they're screwings. So hopefully the Congress will do something. And it's kind of it's
kind of like playing in the NFL. When I played, there ain't no free agency anymore, and we need to We need to get some free agency in the in the beef industry. And that's what I was telling you earlier. I met before y' all came down there. I met with a boy who built a processing plant and he's competing with them, and he's selling to restaurants and individuals and things like that, and he's looking for beef. And I'd love to be able to market and sell to
him and direct. And you know, the more people we get out that, the more market less these people be. Tomorrow night, when you all eat that beef at I Raise versus what you've been eating in that store, chef, you're gonna slap yourself.
Say, this is beef. I didn't know beef could taste like this. What's that other stuff I've been eating. It's foreign slime, that's all it is.
I tell you what, if I were the meatpackers, I think I'd feel like a defensive lineman as I see a little I see some determination in John's face, and it looks like he's getting into a three point stance and he's gonna fire off the ball and knock the meat packers off the ball.
I'm not I can't pay the politicians like they like the packers can, but I am upset about it.
I really am.
I don't mind anybody making money, but when they do it illegally, that's wrong.
Our guest on Pats from the Past is John Hannah, Hall of Fame guard soon to be Hall of Fame cattle rancher. Greatly appreciate your hospitality, your time. Thanks live in Blunt County.
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