John Riggins

in 1971 a Kansas farm boy named John Riggins arrived in New York and made an immediate impression the first thing we we kind of noticed about John was that he was able to grow an afro here's this guy coming out as a white guy so all of a sudden him he's the sole brother and guys were kind of playing with him and a little different life Riggins had the look the question was did he have the game were you very confident that you were gonna make it in the NFL I was kind of ignorant of the NFL so I didn't know of all the first-round draft choices over the years who'd made it and hadn't made it I remember Bob Ferguson the big fullback from Ohio st. was a guy that didn't quite catch on I'm figuring you know I'm gonna be a Bob Ferguson at 6-2 and 230 pounds Riggins was bigger and better than Bob Ferguson [Music] [Music] Riggins was a high-school sprint champion who broke Gale Sayers career rushing record at the University of Kansas and he didn't slow down when he came to the NFL could you complete this sentence for me the mark of a great running back is his eyes [Music] this is eyes if you can't see the cracks if you can't find daylight it's hopeless forget about it starts right there with your eyes maybe along that line is the instinct I think to me it's a very physical game you know I grew up on a farm and we used to get cattle you know you know the cattle boys stay away from you know they're very pass even but you know you get one in the corner and you got a problem variably a defense would put me in a quarter that's when they had a problem most great players agree football is a head game and no running back used his head as creatively as John Riggins it certainly drew attention bitterly but it also made a statement about me which is know if I want to mess with that guy you know the last guy you ever want to pick on some crazy you know the tough guy you got a shot because you think he'll think logically the crazy guy don't know what he's gonna do John why don't you first realize that this was a business I wasn't really my rookie year because I think I was feel starstruck I think it's actually my second year I think we've actually the general manager sent me a bonus check four thousand dollars if I'm not mistaken my singer had 944 yards but I missed basically four games and so he said you know it would have been more had you made a thousand yards and I thought really that was kind of when I started to realize that it wasn't quite exactly what the ancient Greeks had in mind when they invented the Olympics I've used the game through the wide starry eyes of a youth when I first came into it in reality that's just not the way it is my friends this is a business and the only thing that really makes it a game is the competition that burns in the athletes that play on Sunday afternoon Riggins was the first back in Jets history to rush for more than a thousand yards in a season but after five years of losing he was so frustrated that his competitive fire was reduced to a mere flicker when you were playing with the Jets you were quoted here last year that was that you were half-hearted you said the quote was that you were like a machine at half throttle that must have been a bad feeling for you I mean being the competitor that you are looking at your whole career to feel to think to yourself that I'm only going half-speed here is that why you left the Jets yeah I I mean well there was another reason it's Joe Namath John Riggins his talent was really never gonna be explored I didn't feel as long as Joe was the quarterback because it was gonna be a passing team and Joe called his own plays back then I got an ego and you know I'm a little bit of pride and so I thought well I wouldn't mind having the team geared towards me I think I have that kind of talent but I also know who's Joe Namath you want a parody they want a parody would name it and if you didn't get paired with Namath who's willing to take his trade someplace else John was one of the first free agent and George really went after him to get him but once he got him he used them as a blocking back one time John went to Georgia said hey George why don't you just put a 60 number on me you get the ball for five sometimes he'd only get a couple times again I think George wanted a little quicker scat back he was not quite sure what was going through Riggins mind I don't think he trusted him Riggins was unhappy playing for George Allen and things only got worse when Jack Pardee took over as head coach two years later so in July 1980 Riggins made a stunning announcement he was quitting pro football at age thirty I have resigned my position of fullback effective one o'clock p.m. Sunday July 27 1980 happy trails to you until we meet again John John Rhaegar's John didn't have agendas it was tough to resent John Riggins wasn't like now where Ricky Williams leaves a team in the lurch and you hear teammates saying I don't ever want him back to hell with him that wasn't the case with John and it was a certain as usual about John honorable defiance John said I don't want to be under thumb I want to do whatever I want to do there was a little bit of retribution and my walking away in nine years that I'd played I saw a lot of hearts broken you have friends and next thing you know during training camp the knock comes and they're no longer on a team and that was hard for me I mean over the years I'd kind of just this resentment had grown and grown I kind of all right now you guys are gonna know what it's like to feel rejection now it's your deal without me figure it out in 1981 new Redskins coach Joe Gibbs visited John Riggins in Kansas hoping to convince him to come back and so he just shows up unannounced I was kind of like well hey at least you can do is call you just don't show up and say hey Joe gig hey there you go very first time I meet him he's coming across the back of the courtyard with a hunting outfit on it's 10 o'clock no more and he's got a beer can his right hand yeah I'm going oh great I gotta have beer in each hand one for him one for me Joe goes yeah well well a little early in the morning so now I just you know well okay said I'll drink which I did ten minutes into this thing he finally leans across the table on the first meaningful thing he said to me looks across that table he goes you need to get me back there I'll make you famous all sudden I go oh my gosh the guy's a fruitcake I'm gonna get stuck coaching a fruitcake for ten years his teammates gave Riggins a royal reception but he explained his return with typical irreverence hey I'm bored I'm broken I'm back [Music] we had tremendous football arrogance and I can remember numerous times walking in RFK Stadium as a beauty mother and said about 57,000 in a crowd that asked yeah Jason they all came to see me so make sure it gives he gets the message I want the ball I said you got it Gibbs made Riggins the centerpiece of his offense and he responded by becoming the only back to rush for more yards in his 30s than in his 20s aided in part by a pregame ritual we would never take the field until John got his vitamin B shot in a rear-end we heard that was John Riggins getting his vitamin B we said we're ready to go so those are the thing and I asked the doctor so what actually is a vitamin B shot he's always filled out them with water and just get with Chad he thinks he's Superman after that but beneath the tattered cape was not a superhero but an antihero I was a hedonist take it or leave it you know Hagen hedonist I don't know about my diet but let's face it I didn't get a lot of sleep I live for the moment and then I lived enjoy myself and I never thought of myself as really have pudding in much time I felt like I'd try but I know in my heart that I didn't quite see it through you know I was lazy yeah but in a way I don't know whether that's true because to me you're a little bit of a Sandbagger on this because I remember going to practices and the team would come off the field and it'd be Twilight and you'd be down there all by yourself running sprints so to me some of this is a little book you're trying to let people know that well look I'm the natural I'm not working but in your heart there really was that you really weren't committed you really did work he would come in at 4:00 5:00 o'clock in the morning and get the weights done where nobody would saw see him he'd go in a training room late at night early in the morning so nobody can see him get it treated in her so he was kind of a Sly Fox about that one time John wanted to go duck hunting in Baltimore so he had to be in a duck blind before the Sun came up he said by 4:30 so we asked if we could work out at 2:30 in the morning and people look at running backs in like spring flowers they bloom quickly brightly and they're gone here's a I don't know what kind species you were that you could come in at 32 33 and take the beating that you did you didn't seem to lose any speed I've never doubted my talent I mean seriously I mean my talent was in all honesty and I I mean I only on dude though I shucks you excuse me a sandbag in a little while ago the truth matter was there's probably only a handful of backs that had my talent big Jim's one that comes to mind right away because physically were so similar and like the great Jim Brown Riggins was held in awe by his teammates even on the practice field we run plays we call life thought really getting into people giving a good heart Chuck they would not even touch him it was the most unique thing I've ever seen they would not even touch John Riggins in practice that's the ultimate respect because they knew that guy can load the wagon and pull it himself Riggins was the Redskins leader on the field he was also their leader off the field and after hours the five o'clock club basically was the Hogs getting together after practice for a beer or two and a little shack that was out there where they kept the equipment and it was just offensive linemen but as it would be John Riggins was in the club he called himself the El Presidente he was the president of the five o'clock club what did the Gibbs think about that well I'm sure it was one of those things that caused him a little bit of consternation I said we've got a problem there I said the five o'clock club I said you got to fix this for me and he goes like this done don't worry about it done I got this covered for you no other saying is this a good walk it off and I was a that was easy you know figured that was gonna be a fight the bottom line is I think he moved it a hundred yards right outside the fence Riggins moved the five o'clock Club and in 1982 he put the entire team on his back and carried it through the postseason appreciate that I'd never really been in a meaningful playoff game in what would have been ten years in the NFL thinking the Superbowl is what it's all about even though I know it's a business this has got to be like the Promised Land if there is one in the NFL so I'm driving into Park I was starting to think of the possibilities how the great this was going to I'm telling you Steve I'm driving down the road and I'm getting goose bumps in fact I'm getting them now telling the story I mean the hair was starting to stand up on the back of my neck so I roll in there I see Joe bugle by the water found I say Beus give me the ball that's all I'm gonna say just give me the ball everything's gonna be all right actually it was one of those deals where you had a chance to step forward and basically shape your destiny and I'll always feel like that was my moment this was John Wayne and this was a movie he's running down the sidelines and he lowers his shoulder on a DB and he must have knocked this guy five yards back out of bounds okay you could sense right there that you know he had something to him that day there's certain people that have the ability to be honest stage in sports they raise it up a level and Jonathan had the ability to do that Gibbs gave Riggins the ball 62 times against Detroit in Minnesota and he pounded out 304 yards and the two victories not everybody has an opportunity to see a a hall-of-famer execute at his highest level and I think that's what we saw in that stretch he knew that these guys were counting on him and and he relished the fact that they did this is what he thrived on this was his stage in the NFC Championship game Riggins carried the ball 36 times and battered the Dallas defense for 140 yards and two touchdowns for John Riggins the athlete may verge on Riggins the man that's my favorite story of all of it I mean beating Dallas to go to the Super Bowl that was a very defining moment knowing that we were going when you won the Super Bowl it was more of a numbing stunning moment there's the staff handle down we picked one play and risk in history it's the one play I got on my wall John signed it for me I was fortune that at least I think it's his signature it better be it was the signature play for Riggins who sent a Super Bowl record with 38 carries for a hundred and sixty-six yards you said something earlier I want to get back to about the Super Bowl he was interesting worth numbing it was emotionally numbing I was by far the last guy to leave that day stands are completely empty you got all the cups and you got a few of the workers that are pushing the brooms and clean the place out and I look up and I see the scoreboard that says Redskins 27 Dolphin 17 and in that moment I'm a world champion as Super Bowl MVP John Riggins was the toast of Washington and it was during a night of toasting that he met Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor so I get there and I have a couple double scotches right off the bat so okay so I sit down and start drinking wine well now they bring me dinner and by this point I'm like I don't know justice O'Connor had indicated early on that you know she was gonna have to leave she couldn't stay for the whole party and I think that she was getting ready to go well basically it was said in the sense that you would somebody that was your house and you're having fun and you're assuming they're having fun you go hey you know sandy baby you know it's like stick around come on we'll have some more fun or whatever then I got up to go over to talk to her her husband John Paul I know you know like an 18-wheeler on the interstate I jack knife somewhere over behind his chair and I guess he was sitting with mrs. John Glenn and you know she couldn't get out of her chair because this 18-wheeler was jackknifed there so that's the story that I recall because he was different because he was colorful he never fit the convention of Washington and that's difficult because here is the most ridiculously conventional place in America and people don't like folks who color outside the lines and Riggins lived outside the lines and yet because it was natural and it was truly who he was and it wasn't an act people loved them they also loved Riggins for what he did between the lines in 83 he sent a league record with 24 touchdowns he was coughing up blood in the NFC title game but he still scored twice to beat the 49ers but the toll of 14 seasons finally caught up with Riggins and he was released in 1986 after you retired you lived in a trailer yeah I was cheapo and kind of like you know solitary man you know let's face it I've had enough musical point of view for a better part of my life so what did you do all day I mean whatever but you know that's why I fished well you know I'm kind of one of those guys that just I daydream a lot you know I just think about stuff there was a quote about your life after football and it said John Riggins acts like one of the Apollo astronauts who walked on the moon they've discovered they can't cope with everyday life and coming back down to earth was unbearably boring fundamentally that's probably got some truth to it because the one thing about football it's fantasy but there's something very addictive about it and that is you know 50 60 75 80 thousand fans giving you this adulation once you've experienced that that's that's getting right up there it's almost like pure oxygen or whatever you want to call it and that's hard to get that's hard to get away from when you've got in the Ring of Honor for the Redskins the UN ties when were inducted and one of the great moments that any fan in Washington will say is when you came out in your uniform why did you decide to do that well I have a showman Flair to me and I knew that that would be a great moment that I would really enjoy it like I told Joe out there when I get there I had to hear it one more time tried to get back and you know that's been the acting to recreate that to have that same amount of success in something else Riggins now lives in New York where he has performed on stage and in daytime TV what movies bring you to tears it's always the courage that people show the willingness to take a chance or the willingness to risk and then to succeed if they what robert service he's the poet that wrote a lot about Alaska but he also wrote the law of the Yukon which I recited from my induction ceremony well there's that one part in there he says men with the hearts of Vikings and the simple faith of the child men with the hearts of Vikings and the simple faith of a child that works for me John Riggins had a great run starring as the redskins indomitable fullback but whatever stage he appears on he is sure to be the leading man absolutely fits john's personality i think to be there expressing himself as a character it'd be great if they let him be John Riggins I think that's the probably the the best character he could ever be [Music] and in closing I want to leave a little something with you remember the news of my craziness has been greatly exaggerated what fouls the eye and the perception is it eye and the horse of a different color it's reading Newsweek magazine and they have a little thing which says that you know new things that are coming up and apparently they've developed this video equipped tombstone that will display a message from the graves occupant if you were to purchase that what message would you like to see I suppose he came to play and you can take that as broadly or as narrowly as you want but that's what life is I came to play

Channel: PAL 6363

Views: 1,071,637

Rating: 4.7185707 out of 5

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Id: zQN4skHIUlc

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 10 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/jkc000]

The GOAT, I know a lot of people has green as the greatest redskins of all time but I have riggo aka the diesel