Interview with Greg Lafleur
LD interviews LSU football Living Legend Greg Lafleur. They discuss their time together at LSU and the different paths they took to the NFL. Listen in for never heard before LSU football history and great, inspiring life stories. Greg also reviews Billy Cannon A Long Long Run.
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WHAT IS COUNT TIME?
Count Time Podcast features LD Azobra formerly Lyman White, formerly of the LSU Tigers and the Atlanta Falcons. Join LD as he describes a journey to enlightenment, awakening and truth. Count Time it is time to Stand Up and be Counted.
Greg with sons Robert Sacre and Greyson
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview of Living Legend Greg Lafleur
Good evening. Good evening. Good evening is 4:00 PM. Stand up. It’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of count time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra formerly named Lyman white. Thank you for joining us today.
LD:
Welcome everyone to Count Time. Another edition of Count Time. We have a young man visiting with us again today. Dear friend, a teammate, we go back a long ways. You’ve been on the show before and it would be glad to have him back. We got here the great, awesome tight end LSU and St. Louis Cardinals, the Mr. Greg Lafluer.
Greg:
Thanks again, LD for having me on the show.
LD:
You know, it’s a pleasure, my friend, uh, a partner, we go back a long ways over 40 years thought We would be saying that one day?
Greg:
No, no, not forty years. And matter of fact, it’s almost forty-five years.
LD:
Man, man Where have time gone. Right. But let everyone know. He’s still looking great in great health, physically, spiritually, mentally, you look great. You look wonderful. Thank you for coming back today. Cause last time we had a more intellectual discussion, I guess, right? We discussed the book by Charles deGravelles something like that on Billy Cannon, a long, long run. And we had a discussion about that book and it went well. And I appreciate you coming in for that purpose. Cause you sent me the book to read and I decided that we would have discussion about it, but we didn’t get a chance to have a discussion about your time nor my time at LSU together. So this was this, uh, conversation going to be about. We’re going to have a discussion about your experience at LSU and uh, beyond in our experience together, you got there, you arrived to LSU a year before I got it. Let’s see. Tell me, how you end up at LSU.
Greg:
I got to LSU in 1976, as you know, I grew up in Ville, Platte, Louisiana.
LD:
Oh, let me send a shout out to my dear friend and mayor of Ville Platte Mayor, Jennifer vitrine. I can’t leave you out . Right? She was in school with us at LSU. She was
Greg:
So, you know, not, uh, LD growing up in the sixties, uh, LSU was not an option, so I never even considered going to LSU because it was not possible. And then my freshman year in high school, LSU had its first black player, Mike Williams and LoRa Hinton. But it didn’t phase me that much. Cause it was just two of them and only one really played. That was my William because Laura Hinton I think
Greg:
Had some injury problems. Yeah.
Greg:
So the only person we saw on TV was Mike Williams.
LD:
He was an awesome defensive bank. Right.
Greg:
So I didn’t have any interest in going to LSU.
LD:
Nor did I. None, zero, zero
Greg:
With me too. Because when I was growing up and if you saw a black person with an LSU shirt on, you knew that mothers worked at some white folks home and that was some hand-me-down clothes. So that that’s all that LSU meant to me. So it just didn’t because it was not an option. It’s not like I didn’t like LSU. It was just not an option. My junior year in high school, we were at spring practice and this white fella came out on the field and he was standing there watching practice. And my head coach came up to me and he said, Hey, you see that guy standing on the track? I said, yeah. He said, that’s the coach from LSU. And he’s here to watch you practice. What, what position you played? And I was a quarterback in high school and the coach was coach McCarthy, the offensive line coach.
Greg:
And he was there watching me practice. I still had no interest in going to LSU. So I go into my senior year in high school and now it’s time to take our visits, you know, and I get the LSU on my official visit. I just took the visit because they offered me to come and take a visit at LSU. I’m not gonna turn down a free trip to Baton Rouge to go watch LSU play Alabama. So I came to the game and I was just shocked when I walked into that stadium. And at the time the stadium on the hill, 65,000 people, they didn’t have the upper deck
LD:
Only 65,000
Greg:
At that time. And I was just in awe of the, of the crowd and what threw me off and Lyman coming from Ville Platte. When we walked back into the locker room, after the game, everybody kept their jerseys. I’m like, what? Y’all get to keep your jerseys. Could you already had those tearaway jurors at that time, y’all get to keep your journeys. And so all that stuff was happening around and I’m like, wow. So then I went home and told folks what I experienced at LSU. And that’s when I started to get interest on attending LSU after my official visit. But before my official visit, it was not on my radar at all. You also played basketball
LD:
Yes. In high school. And you had another visit from LSU.
Greg:
Well, my first letter that I received, my first college letter I received was from Dale Brown,
LD:
The Great Dale Brown. LSU coach. And I
Greg:
Still have that letter today, but I knew I was not a very good basketball player. I was tall and can jump and all, but my coach wouldn’t let me dribble the ball. And I knew six, four. Wasn’t tall enough to try to play college basketball without dribbling. So the coach brown kept hounding me. He kept saying, why don’t you come to LSU and play basketball? And even after I got to LSU, when I’d run into him on campus, he said, Hey, you could you’ll come out for the basketball team because I was not playing very much. And I’m sure we could talk about that a little bit once we get into. So
LD:
When you got to LSU, ya’ll was considered the largest class of African descent players. How many of y’all the had?
Greg:
Yeah, we had eight. It was only four on the team when we got there only for the team. And when I got that, it was eight of us. The ride in the Royal twin from baker high school. We’ll go stands, bear from, uh, McKinley high school. Uh,
LD:
And Wilbon is deceased in the roars deceased. Yes.
Greg:
And, uh, Sterling Sterling, Vizio
LD:
From an Edgard,
Greg:
Willie Teal from Texarkana, Texas. My roommate, Carlos Carson. You’ll have you spoke to Carlos a year ago. Okay. From time to time, we, we, we try to talk at
Greg:
Least once a year. I have not seen, I spoke with it doing very well
Greg:
In Kansas city. He owns a McDonald’s in Kansas city. So that’s seven. Yes seven. And then, uh,
LD:
Uh, 600 [inaudible] Sterling.
Greg:
Carlos Carson.
LD:
And you
LD:
It, did we mention when the Tio, oh, you know what? The other one, his name was hill. A guy named hill signed with LSU. When he didn’t show up, he went to Yale and played at Yale. His name was hill and I’m good friends with his brother, Ernest hill, who was an author. You sent me a book called satisfied, but nothing is here years ago, years ago when his brother signed with us, but never showed up and went to Yale.
LD:
That is interesting. You sit near a book years later, that was 27 years ago.
LD:
Aloma books.
LD:
I that one of the best books I enjoyed
Greg:
Ernest hill wrote that book. Well, his brother hill went to Yale, got drafted in the second round with the New York giants and played about 10 years with the giants. So he didn’t show up. They were from Oak Grove, Louisiana. Right,
LD:
Right. Ernest Hill. I haven’t heard that name in a year, wrote a book, title, satisfied with nothing. And he wrote several other books after that. I don’t remember the name of that book was very, I would encourage someone to look to pick up the book and read it because it’s a very good book. Uh, it is. It takes you to a journey in, in, in, in end up in a place you didn’t think he was gonna end up as a, I thought it was a very, very good book. So in your class you had six, seven of you. All my class came the next year had eight of us eco include me, Marcus queen, uh, will it Turner with disease to meet William? My roommate whose disease? They, the swallow was deceased. Chris Williams. Who else? I can’t remember now. Okay. Well, is that everybody that I’m still missing?
LD:
The three of Tracy Porter who Tracy roommate, Danny and trace was roommates, linear wireless wide receiver. And there’s one other guy we go take up. And it was, he was able to, we had the largest class of freshmen. So we had seven. We had a interest by one next year. They increased it by word and it brought a little bit different deport linebackers. You know why I received when I received two to Carson, Trey, but Tracy and Wallace was to learn. It was a wide receivers, but also the year I got to use you, they had, they didn’t know what to do with you. They had you played,
Greg:
I was a quarterback in high school and they were honest with it upfront when they were recruiting me. They’re like, you know, we’re going to make a tight end out of you. Cause I was six, four and I could run, you know? And they said, well, you know, we’ll put you in the weight room, have you get bigger? So we could move. You’re either tied in wide receiver and tight end or whatever. So when I got to LSU in 76 and you know that the freshmen didn’t play only two guys on our sign-in class played John Adams and Willie till they were the only two freshmen that played. So the rest of us, we didn’t even, you know, you have to practice everyday and you lost that year of eligibility, but we had freshmen games. So I didn’t get to play as a freshman. Then I come back my sophomore year and you hit you at LSU at that time.
Greg:
Right? And you remember this, but you probably wouldn’t pay any attention to me because you want defense. And most people that that’s not familiar with football, don’t realize it’s almost like two teams. You guys rode a different bus. Your roommates would all defense. Our meetings were always separated. The only time we came together was when the head coach spoke to the whole team. Other than that, we were never together right at my rest, right? So we went to Indiana and played Indiana the first game of the season and Carlos and I alternated every other play. So neither one of those nailed down the starting position. Your sophomore year, my sophomore year, then we came back to Baton Rouge for the second game, rice rice we’ll call. Those, went into the game first and they threw them a pass and he went 80 yards for a touchdown. So the next time we get the ball, they call a run in play. And then I have to run out the game. Carlos ran in the game and they called another pass play. He went to 65 yards, but touchdown. So the next time we get the ball, I go in and they caught a run in place. Then I run out, call those runs in and they call the past plate
Greg:
And it threw them a fan. There was another touchdown. Three consecutive. Now the next time we got the ball, they put me in Colin’s goals in the game. They called another pass. Touchdown. Next time we get the ball, Carlos, go. Then they call another pass plate, touch that. So he caught five consecutive touchdown passes in that day. Then the next week we played Florida. They caught a pass play early in the game and equals, but another touchdown. He caught six consecutive touchdown passes, no pass in between every pass. He caught his first six passes with touchdown. So the NC two-way record today and it still stands. Now there’s Bryant who played for the Cowboys, had a game where he had seven touchdown passes. But the difference with him and Carlos Carlos passes with consecutive six consecutive touchdown peasants. Well there’s Brian called seven, but they were not consecutive. Well, I never played another douse that year. So I only played three plays. So, so now at the end of the season, and I’m like, okay, I didn’t play as a freshman. Last year of eligibility played three plays my sophomore year. And I knew Carlos was a great wide receiver. He was fast. Yeah. So I, so I went in to see coach Mack about moving to tied in. So coach Mac moved me to tie it in. And once, once spring started, we had a shortage of flamenco. So they made me play flanker. And I played a little bit of tied
LD:
In with Della.
Greg:
Oh, you remember that people were telling, I
Greg:
Knew I wouldn’t want to play before Mike and tell her whether I was better than him
Speaker 4:
Or not. What are you seeing your weight? Unless you go play, you wouldn’t understand. But I was not going to beat Mike Montell out
Greg:
Acquisition. It was an uphill battle. And I was a team player. I played those different positions because they asked me to so we can finish spraying, but you know, I want it to be a tight in, well, we’ve finished that spring. And then we come back the next year. So this is my junior year. So we went through two a days and I played tight end doing two days that Monday before the first game, my phone rang in my room at six 30 in the morning. I don’t think I ever shared that with you. My phone rang at six 30 in the morning and the secretary said, coach Mac wanted to see you. So I walked down and went to coach Mack’s office at six 30 in the morning that Monday before the first game, you know, he sat me across his desk. He said, uh, Greg, the reason I called you in this morning, uh, we decided we’re going to red shirt.
Greg:
You and I’m a junior. Like I already been here two years and hadn’t touched the field three plays. And now you telling me I’m not gonna even play this year. And something told me, don’t lose your composure. This is something just right about this. And you go red shooter junior. I’ve never heard of it. I still hadn’t heard of that today. Unless you heard you get redshirted as a junior. So something told me not to lose my composure and just take it. And I said to coach Mack, I said, well, coach Mac, I’m in good standing academically. I’m on, on pace to graduate. And uh, by you giving me an extra year, it’ll make it much easier for me to go ahead on and finish school. I can pace myself a little bit better. And I said also, I’m, uh, I’ll go, go to the weight room and get bigger, strong and fast.
Greg:
And, and w I’m going to be the best tight end when I leave here LD, he stared at me and he jumped up out of his chair that nobody ever responded like that when they got redshirted. Now, he, that was not an endearment comment. When he said that it was like, you shut the hell out of me because in my opinion, I don’t know this for sure, but it seemed like they wanted me to overreact and they wanted me to quit, quit and take my scholarship because nothing made sense about me getting redshirted my junior year. So I’m like, okay, well, I better take advantage of this. I’m here. I’m on course. I’m on pace to graduate on time. Now I got an extra year. So I just started taking 12 hours a semester, just coasting my way outta here. So that’s the approach I took.
Greg:
And then when that freshmen class came and we had two guys from your heart from your high school were in that class, Greg Bowser and Mike Johnson. So, and that year was the first year you could reassure a freshman. Cause see, we lost our freshman year and we only had three years of eligibility to play. But when that class came, they had showed it just about that whole class. And man, they were upset. They were all upset because they knew they were not gonna play. You know, because they were all, all stars coming out of high school. So, because I
Greg:
Was ran shirted, I’m a junior I’m with all these freshmen. I remember that that was a hurting thing, but I had to deal with it, you know?
LD:
Yeah. Would it with the class, do you really?
Greg:
Yeah, because the football thing was starting to fade away in my mind, you know, because I’m like, I’m like, I better handle this school thing. I better make sure I graduated from this place because I can’t come here and waste my time. Because at that time, a lot of athletes, particularly football players when I graduated. So I’m like, I better take this school thing seriously. So anyway, that freshmen class comes in and they all complaining about being reassured because we go to practice for like 15 minutes before you guys would come out because we couldn’t ride the bus with you guys. We had to walk to the practice
Greg:
Unless you play it. You wouldn’t understand it’s making LD laugh because he know he never had to walk, always took the bus to practice. Well, we had to walk your practice and I’m a junior and I’m walking with all this freshmen to practice. So we get to the practice field.
Greg:
And we waiting for you guys to come to practice because we are the dummies for you guys. You know, we, the scout team and we were just sitting there waiting and they were just whining about being redshirted. And I just stood up and I’m like, shut the hell up.
Greg:
Yeah. I said, I’m a junior and I’m here with you guys.
Greg:
I said, listen, you guys are so lucky because chances are, none of you guys would have played as a freshmen, but you didn’t lose
Greg:
That eligibility. You still have four years.
Greg:
You can play. I said, I came here in 76 and didn’t play and lost that year of eligibility. I said, not the best thing you guys can do is take advantage of this year. Make sure you get your schoolwork done because you have five years to graduate. And this is a blessing for you. So you got need to take advantage of this. And one of your, uh, the guy, one of your guys from your hometown, he didn’t accept that Mike Johnson Mike would accept. He wouldn’t accept that at all. And he went to see the coaches and he was upset about being redshirted and he quit. He didn’t even stay on the team, lost the scholarship. And all he had to do is just not play that that year. And he would have had four years of a scholarship after that. So you would have five years of a scholarship. So, but anyway, I told that freshman class that I’m like, man, listen, don’t complain. Just, just, just take advantage of this extra year because we lost that year. Now, this is where the story gets interesting. So now I’m trying to be a tight in now. You know, I couldn’t be a wide receiver. Carlos caught six consecutive touchdown passes. I’m trying to move to tidy and that’s spraying. They signed the
Greg:
Best tight in, in America, Malcolm Scott. I’m like, ah, nah, I got to deal with this guy. Now here I am. I never played tiny. And they bring in the best tight end in the country.
Greg:
Oh man. So now I go into my junior year, which is yeah, which is my fourth year, but it’s, but it’s my junior scholarship year. So, but this is my fourth year. And you know, Malcolm was a good tight in, so Malcolm played and there was a young man from Clinton, Louisiana. Was it Clinton? Centerville,
LD:
Robert big Robert Lee is another big tight end. Yeah. Another big tidy.
Greg:
So they played those two tight ends before me. So I was the third tide is over freshness
Greg:
Of a freshmen. I was behind two freshmen, tied in
Greg:
Tight is, and so I’m like, man, I never get to play. So I’d play. I had 80 plays that whole year. Not, you know, 80 for one game. I had 80 plays the whole season,
Greg:
My junior year 80.
Greg:
I only had 80 plays. So what was interesting about midway through the season? After a game, I walked out of the locker room. Cause my parents came to every game. Although they didn’t see me play
Greg:
Because I didn’t play. But they came to every game. So after
Greg:
Midway through the season, I walked out of the locker room after one of the games and my father said, son, I’m going to come pick you up Tuesday and take you to lunch. He said, yeah, Sonoma, meet me in front of your dormitory. Tuesday at 12, I’ll come get you to take you to lunch. So that Tuesday came and he came around that circle. I got in the car and he took me to a restaurant called Mike and Tony’s. So we get into the restaurant and I’m like, why is my father taking me to lunch? That was just out of nowhere. He drove from Ville. Platte picked me up, took me to the restaurant. He said, son, you know why I brought you here? I said, no. He said, well, when you came out of the locker room Saturday night, I noticed your wings were broken as well.
Greg:
Dad, I’ve been here four years and I’m not playing. He said, son, I understand. He said, well, let me tell you something. He said, listen, you save and mama and I about $60,000 because you on a football scholarship. I said that that would have cost us about $60,000 for you to go to college. And you saving us that money by being on scholarship. Now there’s no other job in America that you can work for two hours a day and get all your school paid for. That’s not another job that you could do that you Meg now, no matter where you go, you’re not going to only work just two hours to get all your school paid for. Now, this is what you need to do. You need to go to practice and give it all you got for those two hours. And don’t give that coach any reason to say one bad thing about you because he has your future in his hands.
Greg:
So if you build that culture hard time, anybody that’s going to try to hire you in the future, going to call that COFA reference. And the, that course say you hard to deal with, or you have an attitude or whatever. You never know why you won’t get a job. So you just go out there and give it your best for them two hours, you can do two hours. You can give it your best for two hours. And he said, and if you’re good enough, they’re going to find, he said, if you want to play in the NFL, they’ll find you you’re good enough. So, and that when the conversation he drove me back to the dormitory, dropped me off and left.
LD:
How powerful was that does even think about that this point in time in your life that Joel fought. He had a father, a man to come show up who saw his son, heard him. So he saw a sign in a bad place, became the uplift. You that’s correct. Let you know that you can do this and you never looked back and you didn’t quit. No.
Greg:
So, uh, and, and, and you know, you on defense. So I was on the same field as you, you know, when we, we just scout team the offensive scout team. No, no, that was the year before that. But anyway, so yeah, so I came back and at, and I was giving it all I had then at the end of the year, they fired coach Mac. Wow. You know, so, uh, but now, but it’s after my junior year and when they brought in this new coach, I’m like, well, let me hit the books harder because I know I’m not going to play with this new coach. I’m going into my senior year. You know? So they had this new coach and we were gone for, to the break, go
LD:
For a break. And let’s talk about that. Cause the milk’s supposed to be, don’t know how that happened. But we was, I was a junior. You go into your senior going into my senior year. We both were going a thousand years, but I had been four years. That was your third year. No, we both was juniors. Cause it’s the spring. Now it was the spring.
Greg:
It was the end of the fall going into the spring.
LD:
And they had just had coach Bo Ryan. Correct. And probably when he was home for about two weeks and they call all the players, tell us that, look, you need to get here on this day. I was like belong on Wednesday or Thursday and told us that coach ball, Ryan, you know, he, he wanted to meet his, his team. That’s correct. And he asked all of us to show up. So we showed up that day for a meeting. Do you remember? Well,
Greg:
Check this out. This is what happened in my recollection because I was back and I needed to go register that morning for class. And my alarm clock came on, which was the radio. And the news was on. And the news said, LSU coach is missing. I’m like what the coach is missing. And you know, we didn’t have CNN or anything to turn the TV on to see if I missed something. You know? So I had to wait a few more minutes for the news to come back home. And they talked about LSU coach is missing. Then they finally said his plane disappeared in the Atlantic ocean, the plane left Freeport, Louisiana. They were recruiting liquid Hoblit. They left leopard hobbled, his house. They were all Navy. They were flying back to Baton Rouge and something happened in the plane either. They lost the oxygen or whatever, right? The plane just drifted off and went all the way to the Atlantic ocean, hit the water. And they hadn’t found the coach or the plane today
LD:
Because we were supposed to be meeting with him that day. And he was, he would call a meeting for meet with his staff. And we was just so happy to meet, never transpired. Cause we went down there for a meeting, but he said, you know, nobody showed up. So we never had a chance. [inaudible] no.
Greg:
So all was the athletic director at the time. And he was in a bind because bull Ryan had hired his whole staff except for one spot. So the athletic director, Paul diesel had to come up with a new coach quick. And what he did was he hired one of his former players who had been an assistant coach for two years while I was there. He had, I don’t know how long he had been at LSU before I got there, but he was with me for two years. And then he got out of coaching and he got out of coaching and he started working with the tiger. It was called the varsity club back then. But that’s the tiger athletic foundation today? Well, he was with the varsity club and I guess, uh, Paul diesel was just in a bind and he needed to get a car. We know
LD:
That they say they hired Paul diesel to fire Charlie for Clinton. That was the whole body, brought him back in the first place because Charlie had too much stroke. He had a lot going on and they felt nobody could really call Maddix was there when we first got used to D uh, they, they, uh, all these, all these Paul, these are called me in me and hokey guys. See, I didn’t know that he called us. He called us in and he asked us what we thought about Jerry Stovall, really? And we kind of like, you know, compare by the lack codes, but we didn’t, we didn’t, which was kind of figure out where you’re going with it. But we didn’t know we wanted him to be our coach. Cause he still was, he had these tough rules and regulations that he was straight, that the players didn’t quite, you know, childhood cleanser. We can, you know, we can, we can sneak out everyday. Did you can sneak somebody up here,
Greg:
But we’re Stovall. We are locked out because we saw how he treated his running backs. So strict on the running back, you know, like man, he’s driving them guys to the ground, you know? So, so we was like,
LD:
We like coach, he’s a good guy, but I don’t know about the head coach, Paul. These are ex hokey guys out of that. Well, I didn’t know that because he saw us as being team leaders. And we Hogan at war team, captain of our senior year. He was offense. I was defense and he asks us to help to encourage the other players. Other words, we to create a campaign like that’s all rally behind Jared Stovall for the coats. And that’s really what we ended up doing.
LD:
I don’t know if I had no idea how, but we all, we all kind of, you all started rallying behind.
LD:
Cause it started talking about Jerry Stovall. They started interviewing it. Yeah, of course. It’ll all be good because after having their meeting with coach Paul diesel, he encouraged the foci that to help heal, you know, like pain, like get this thing going for Jerry Stovall. So that’s, that’s what he wanted. Yeah. Yeah. See, I
Greg:
Was going into my senior year and nobody talked to me.
Greg:
I only had three plays on the 80 players my junior year. And so I was, I was not a lot of the loop. I was totally out of the loop
Greg:
And I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on either. I’m like, I just need to go and
LD:
Finish. W w where was the mud? Our, both our junior year, our GCs and you wasn’t playing at all that year. Right. And, uh, we was getting ready for the Tangerine bowl. We got to tell a story. It was [inaudible] no, it’s not the Tangerine bowl. It was deliverable Liberty bowl year before the year before. So we’re getting ready for the red. That was my red shirt year. We get ready for the Liberty bowl. And, uh, coach Mack has given us the itinerary, this the hot thing it’s going to look like, what is, well, it was,
Greg:
You know, after practice, we all have to kneel down and he stands in the circle in the middle of the circle. And that was our last practice. Before we left to go to mentors for the Liberty bowl. And he was just making his last little comments and, and he made the comment that we could drive our own cars to Memphis. You know, we all got excited about that. And, and LD. You remember we had our interview about Villa cannon and the tickets. Well, because I was a junior, I was in the ticket business, like middle camp.
Greg:
So, you know, the football thing I told you, my mindset was totally different because I wasn’t playing. So
Greg:
My survival still kicked in, was red shirted. I raised my hand up cause I had a question. So coach Mack looked at me and he said, okay, look, look what you got. I said, well, coach, we all red shirted. We need to use a ticket to get in the game or will we dress out? And will we have all four of our tickets? Hmm. Good question. And he looked around at all the assistant coaches, coaches, what are we going to do? And everybody understood what was going on with those tickets. So the assistant coaches were like, oh, we’re going to get, we’re gonna let them, let them dress out so they can have all four of their tickets. Okay. Y’all want to dress out. And the floor, don’t you get in my infant weight
LD:
In front of them. And to this day we could figure out what that was about.
Greg:
Help me with this and overheard coach Mac swear? No that big. Have you ever heard Cosmax swear. After that day, nobody has ever heard coach Maxwell. And he called me out in front of the whole football team. Don’t you get in my F way?
LD:
What the hell? I mean, we all, like, we was like, what, what had happened? We thought you messed with his daughter or something.
Greg:
It didn’t make sense. And it still doesn’t make sense today. Why he did me like that in front of the whole
Greg:
Team when he never swore against anybody.
LD:
That was, that was interesting. That was very, but you also, you remember when, uh, when, when my first got the LSU you first got there, we, we, we, we used to the teams to vote on what movie we would go to. Right? So we, you know, you raise your hand. So this particular game, it was a home game at home game. We would, they would take us to a movie first. After the movie, we would come back to dormitory. He brings on a couple of buses and it was voting on this particular day on Richard Fry had come up with a movie what’s the bin, which way was up or something. And we all decided that, oh, we won’t go to see Richard prod. So we encouraged the white brothers. So Mo
LD:
You go down numbers. Yeah. We never went nothing. Yeah, because we didn’t have enough numbers. So where were we? They chose. But we had to go see, we didn’t care what
LD:
It was, but we knew they like Richard PRA. Uh, so, so we did a little campaign. We asked the guys to vote for Richard PRI. So now it’s dope. I mean, uh, Charlie McLendon, X, everybody raised their hand when they were moving here at Joe’s go to when I don’t know what it was. Then he said Richard Fry. So the people chose with the proud one. So he got mad. He said, would you put your hand on y’all can’t make up your mind. I choose a tea. I choose a movie. You remember that? Yeah. So he chose the movie for us because he figured we could not make up our mind with it caught him off guard that white players voted to see Richard Price. So we had a tough time. Let me bring up this story here too. I don’t know how well you might remember that he decided we was gone. LSU had never had a black queen, a queen homecoming for you remember, like it was yesterday. You remember that situation? I remember. So I had a brother by the name of the twins, Cedric and Mero must’ve been, which was Cedric said it was the one that deals with the politician. I believe Cedric came to me a queen. So, you know, we can have it y’all cause y’all can vote for a queen because at that time, tell them how it went. How did I get the queen?
Greg:
Well, at that time, the student body had to vote. No two players, the student body had to vote and narrow it down to 10. And when they got to 10, the football player had to pick from that 10. Now you can pick it from them. I thought it was my worse. No, no. The students pick the 10 and then we voted for the queen out of that 10.
LD:
Okay. And so when it came to, what we decided to do was that the years before lasted all the white brothers come campaign for their niece, their cousin, their, whoever, their girlfriends just said, brothers, sisters, today we’ll come campaign. And we didn’t get
LD:
Who won that’s correct, because it was never one of books.
LD:
So at that particular time, we decided to know the broad, the boy Cedric came to us. This is how we can do this. So he gave us the strategy, et cetera, uh, moronic, et cetera. I can’t remember the last name. So Cedric out of new Orleans, he gave us the, uh, concept for how to do it. So I took the concept. We equated, I took the concept to all the other players, all other brothers. You say, look, you got enough of us here. Well, we can do, we can ask every player, every player, all the Bronco
LD:
For all the sisters. We just want to, no, it was, it was three.
LD:
Oh, it was, it was no, it was more than two. Okay. That’s what I’m saying. It was more than three. Okay. It was, it was several of them there. So what happened is that when it came down to, we had to pick the top. I forgot the top five, something like that. Top five. When we got through with the process, we asked all the white brothers, it was like, he was exchanging votes. This one I’ll vote for that one. You vote for this one. I vote for that one. But we had decided if all our brothers vote for these ones,
Greg:
This particular one, give her the most vulnerable that they can win.
LD:
Yeah. So now we ask [inaudible] who you want me to. Okay. No problem. No problem. So when he started calling the names of the winners, it was the first time at LSU history. He had three sisters and two white girls. No, no, no. See, no, that was the team we had to vote for the top tier. So we had to vote for the top 10. Right? So when they got through, that was six sisters and four white girls. Now we know that was the first time that ever happened. That assistant going to have to win, come over there. Because if you, when you, when you vote that out, so you know
Greg:
The numbers for African-Americans to win Queens. So
LD:
It’s gonna be the first time that a queen with a system will win the queen. So now it goes back to the student body and the LSU administration decided the numbers ain’t going to work. It, they can’t stop the process. So the administrative side with no, I’ll tell you what, there’s too much confusion going on, blah, blah, blah. We gonna postpone the vote. Y’all gonna do the vote the following week. So the following week, come up, everybody getting ready to vote. No was still gonna be the same. So the says, I tell you what, since y’all, can’t come together, y’all can’t work together. We go to the queen,
Greg:
No LD that year. They decided not to have a queen. They honored everybody the same on it, everybody the same. And they didn’t name a queen that year because the numbers would have worked in our favor to have the first black queen. So that year they didn’t have a queen. That’s how I ended up here
LD:
Because it was going to be, it was, it was, it was going to be six. It’s going to be six to four something. My dumb number wouldn’t ended up. But we made that happen because we struck, we stuck together and we organize ourselves and we put it in a way where they could, nobody administrators would leave. The first time the student body had, had not voted for queen. Exactly. And I think they changed the rule ever since. I don’t think it’s about, I
Greg:
Don’t know, but that year they didn’t have a queen [inaudible] I didn’t pay much attention to after that. But I remember that year that didn’t have acquaintance, how I like it was yesterday.
LD:
So we came together and strategize. So that’s a little tidbit for, for the audience. And to let you know that we were strategizing back then, and it’s unfortunate, unfortunate. We had to strategize on everything we got, right? Because no one was just going to give it to you because it was the right thing to do. Right. You know, we had, they made things. If we figured out a way to do something, they changed the room and it kept happening, kept happening. And it was just unfortunate. Also, Greg and I, because when he moved to tighten that we had to play against each other at practice every
Greg:
Day I had to go up against each other. We’re all in one.
LD:
It was because of that, me, he made me better. And I have, I have the believer being heal better because we, everyday it was, it was a, it was a battle every day. He wouldn’t quit. I would go quit. So, you know, that was, that was a great experience, you know, going against you, playing against you and, and Malcolm, you know, we all became better, but guess what happened? It was because of your dad and talking head, which is that conversation when he came, pick you up and spend that time with you, that next year a bull ride was didn’t make it. And Jerry Stovall came on board. Things got a little bit better for it. And
LSU Football, the NFL and Southern University Athletic Director:
It’s interesting that you bring that up because, uh, again, with coach Stovall got the job and I had no idea you were part of that process. Cause I was a senior. I thought maybe I could have been in that process, but they didn’t call me. But anyway, my phone rang at six 30 in the morning and it’s the secretary and the football office. Again,
LD:
They like calling you.
Greg:
And I had a flashback when coach Matt called me to red shirt. When you know, I’m like, what is this about? So this is six 30 in the morning again. And I’m at Busan hall, got to take that wall to the stadium and everything was going through my mind. Like, what am I going to see? Cause you must be over with that. So I get to his office. I sit in that same chair across the desk from him, like when coach Mac told me I was red shirted, what coastal wall said, look, the reason I brought you in, he said, because you are the oldest on the team because you know, I got red shirted and he said, I need your help. He said, now, when I was working as an assistant coach, I always felt that you could play, but we just couldn’t. As a staff, couldn’t convince coach Mac to put you on the field. He said, but I always felt like you had the talent to play.
LD:
James Stovall had told you that told
Greg:
Me that. And he said, nah, this is what I need from you. He said, I think you’re good enough to play at the next level. And we can get you the ball, but I’m going to be harder on you than anybody else on the team, because we need to set the pace with you. And the younger players. See me get on you as the oldest player, it would help me line them all up. So if you man enough to handle it, we can go from here and I’ll make sure I do everything I can to help you get to the next level and going into my senior year. That last year that I played now, I didn’t catch a lot of balls because we played that beer offense. I only caught 18 passes my senior year, but I led the team in receptions with just 18.
Greg:
But I caught more passes. Anybody on the team you led the team I led the team in recession was just 18. And I think Tracy Porter traced report. And I, we were tied with 18 passes, a piece that year. And you know, we, we had a decent year and uh, we decided not to go to a bowl game. I was senior year. Yeah. And we decided not to go. And so you probably remember this, the Raiders were playing the Philadelphia Eagles in the super bowl in new Orleans. So I’m watching the game. And two weeks after the super bowl, my phone rings again. And I was staying in an apartment at the times and it was like seven o’clock at night. I answered the phone and it was Dick Romil. He said, Hey, this, they put me on. I’m like, yeah, Dick Romil, the head coach of the Eagles rule.
Greg:
Listen, I heard you can run. I said, well, yeah, of course I got them wrong. He said, look, I can’t believe somebody. Your size couldn’t run that fast. So I’m going to come down to Baton Rouge and Tommy and myself. I think he met with you and hokey when he came, he did well. He called me to tell me he was coming to time. So he, I think he worked you guys at first. So when I got there, we went on the track. He made me run the, that, uh, he made me do those shuttles. Then we went inside the stadium. I had to jump. And then, uh, we talked for a while and he left and I never heard from him again. And then on draft day after me in the third round, but Dick Rameel, how did he hear about me? How did he find me? I have no idea. It’s amazing how these things happen. That you have so little control over and you don’t know who’s watching. You don’t know how things, but that’s how I ended up with the Philadelphia Eagles.
LD:
And this one, one of the things you share with a lot of young guys to let them know you have no control over
Greg:
This. Oh, you can do is the best you can do at that moment. You can’t worry about two plays down the road. Just do the best you can with this plate, go to the hub, crank it up, do the best thing, the next plate. But it’s the same thing with life. You just do the best you can with what you have in front of you. And if something good going to happen, it will happen. But you can’t be taken too far out because all you can do is the best you can do. Now look at your journey. You know, I watched it and you know, LD. When you say you watch my journey and I would speak to a lot of high schools at the athletic banquets and stuff. And the way I would start my speeches, I had the most unorthodox journey to the NFL.
Greg:
That’s nobody can compare their story to mine. Now mine wasn’t devastating or anything, but it was so unorthodox. The chances for me to make it in the NFL was almost slim to none. And the way I got there, I had hardly any control over that. It bull ride hadn’t had gotten killed in that plane crash. I wouldn’t have played my senior year because the new coach don’t play seniors. That’s not playing already. You would have played with bull ride. I wouldn’t have played with boron. Cause you know, you’re experienced when a new coach comes in. If you’re not bringing it, he’s going to play his younger players because he used to be in position three years down the road. So he won’t get fired. So I knew that. And uh, so you know, that plane crash happened, Jared Stonewall, because the head coach, he worked me harder than anybody else on the team made you better. He made me better. Got the most out of it. I’ve got the most out of it. And you know, the rest of history,
LD:
Of course I, I, I, I was a part of that store and I watched it all unfold. Although I knew, we all knew that he was a great athlete. I mean, watched him movie from spot to spot place to place all. I was like baffling. Why did nobody, nobody can figure out what was going on. But I guess it still won’t tell you what was going on in a lot of ways. But we all saw that, but we couldn’t understand not giving opportunity. You know, they’re the same time people got mad with Stovall, put Duff or JBT and he was a senior. Yeah. You know, so that, you know, people was mad about that. Like why would he put on the GV team? He’s a senior. So you know that didn’t go well for McDuff Charles McNeil, Charles. So he was in your class, right? No, Charles was Charles arrays shirt.
LD:
Oh, okay. He was so he had to come with, you need mine, maybe they’d come with me because he was in your class in, uh, but Charles was, you know, he was a big guy are alive in, uh, you know, he didn’t hit her. He didn’t bring much, you know, he didn’t, he wasn’t a strong guy, but he was off his alignment and it hurt a lot of people that Stovall had put a senior, you know, just like you as a junior, had to go to the JWT. And, and I guess I didn’t have that journey. I mean, I didn’t go through none of that, that affect you were, you know, my story than anybody, I probably was treated better than most. I really conceited from the time. A matter of fact, you still, you told me a story that you thought my sophomore year coming into my sophomore year, after my loss of my father, I was going back to LSU and uh, you know, I was holding out and you told me that, what would you tell what you thought
Greg:
Thought? Because we didn’t see you, you know,
Greg:
Everybody had reported back that we’d all reported
Greg:
Back to school and we knew your father, you know, uh, got killed. And you know, we all were, we were feeling for you, but when you didn’t show back up, we thought you didn’t show up because you were strong arming the cultures, you know, like, okay, y’all better do this or I’m not coming back. That was how we were thinking, because we were like, wow. Cause we didn’t look at it as how hurt you were that you lost your father. We didn’t know how devastated you were. We just thought that you would give an LSU a hard time, you know, to beg you to come back and play. So that’s how we thought we that’s what we thought. What was going on until you told me recently, how, how devastated you were and you had no enters on coming back and they convinced you to come back play
LD:
In one of the two, one of the key people was my uncle’s date. Data’s quite a few. [inaudible] just everybody. My pop, my both of my grandfathers was still living. So they came and talked to me. Mike Foster, dad and Murphy, foster of governor foster, Dan Murphy for a lot of people. Uh what’s his name is, uh, Mike Foster brother [inaudible] was named foster. He, uh, he came, uh, Dr. Sterling and a lot of people come in and encourage me to go back out there had gotten me a job at McDermott where my dad used to work at. Uh, so I was working on the ship yard, making pretty good money, but the LSU showed up, you know, coastal Oblon showed up, even McLendon. They called me, you know, cause I didn’t come back to camp so they didn’t not believe it. And when he came back, of course, they came back with a lot of promises so that well in more encouraging that they was able to assist with the situation. But with my coming back, it was a good thing. It was a good thing. So I never looked back and I didn’t Elisha treated me. Well, matter of fact, I went from four tickets to eight tickets, mama. They took pretty good care of you.
Greg:
I didn’t even know that. Oh no,
LD:
You got eight. They took care of me. They took really good care of me. They made sure I had, but I still found myself. I was one of them guys. I want this. I want you to see one, see the right thing. I didn’t ha I didn’t know. I didn’t like how people treated others. So I found myself fighting LSU for other purposes. For other reasons. I didn’t like it. They didn’t treat my roommate Dimitri. Right. I’m fine for the beach tree. You know? So that’s the kind of, I don’t know why I found myself in fights over. Not because I LSU treated me, but how I watched him treat others. Right. So that’s kind of, it didn’t get me in trouble, but I found myself, you know, as a what’d you call it like, like my boy, Georgie, you said a Jew, a warrior for justice. I just wanted to see them do the right thing. And I guess that’s what [inaudible]. I want people to stand up, be counted, enjoy
Greg:
Your show. I listened to every one of them everywhere. Everyone listened to it as soon as they come on. But the good thing about the podcasts, you could play it whenever you want to listen to it too. When I’m in the car and have about 20, 30, 40 minutes or sometimes even an hour, uh, I wait until I have that much time I put it on and I just listened to the whole thing at one time.
LD:
Give me your best. What was your favorite podcast to this date?
Greg:
Well, Lynn and the blog, because the blog, that one got me the most excited, excited, because yeah, well, it was my
LD:
First, first one I had when I interviewed somebody my first
Greg:
Year. And I was so intrigued with that one because it was football. It was life. It was integration. It was everything. Because law said he was known as the black recruiter. We never heard that before. I’d never heard that before. And I kind of had mixed feelings. Of course. I didn’t know how he felt about me because he didn’t speak to anybody. Matter of fact, when he was on your show, that’s the most I ever heard him speak. Cause the whole time he worked at LSU, he never said a word to me. He would just grumble. I’m like this guy.
LD:
And he was a good looking guy. He was just looking at me
LD:
Handsome. And uh, so I was so impressed with your interview with him and, and his, because it was such a good football story and a life story. I’m like, man, that was interesting. So that was number one. But when you had an interview with Mr. Charlie Granger, man, that took it to another level too, because I had no idea how Mr. Granger got the bedroom and I didn’t know all the trials and tribulations he went through to get here. And so after I heard the show with Mr. Granger, I called you to get his phone number, to call him, let him know how much I enjoyed his show, the show that he was on. And because when I was athletic director at Southern, and then whenever we had a booster club meeting, Mr. Granger was he never a booster club meeting, but he would always sit in the last seat in the back in the corner.
Greg:
And I would always make my little presentation. The coaches would talk or whatever, but he would not say a word he was, but he was there every meeting. And after I heard your interview, I had to call him and say, Mr. Grander, I wish I would’ve known that story because I would’ve had you tell that story. Every time we went to a different booster club, I would’ve had you present that story because everybody at Southern needed to hear your journey, because he said some stuff that nobody even thought about back then, the coach Mumford and how he started playing football because he threw the disc was back for somebody.
LD:
I, you get to sit all that up. Yeah.
LD:
He had to create his own opportunities. So the two co you enjoyed the football stores. That’s good. There, we’ll be glad that you tuned in and that you found a purpose to, uh, to listen to our podcasts. And as a dear friend and a confidant, they’ve been knowing each other for 45 years. Almost, almost.
LD:
I wouldn’t add that fast. I guess I got them.
Speaker 2:
When I got there in 77, you got there 76 at the time he had gone there and you end up getting, we ended up getting drafted exact same year also. So you’ll see here in a beam must-see or you use their year ahead of me. I was the 50 Chris William was the first player to be drafted from LSU. He went in that class, thirties 37 30 player to pick in the draft, maybe a little bit out of that. I was like 54, 56 in the second round. So our part of linebacker crew. So you remember that the greatest
Greg:
Linebacker crew in NFL history
Greg:
Today, that’s
Greg:
Still the biggest, the best linebacker coop, if not the best draft, a lot of people think that’s the best draft ever. I don’t know if you’ve been hearing that now I know
LD:
That it was, it was a year of the linebackers and from, I think, quite a few of them guys, a hall of fame from Lawrence Taylor,
LD:
Taylor Singletary,
LD:
Ricky Jackson [inaudible]. Yeah. So matter of fact, I was drafted two rounds before no Rick was drafted. Then Mike Singletary, then me, it was all like right there, right. Close to each other. So I felt honored. Cause remember I was hurt and I got hurt the year Alabama game. So I didn’t know what was going to happen with my situation. But my, my coach, Bishop Harris and Kosovo, they, I suppose play the Japan, Japan in the Japan bowl and uh, senior bowl, senior bowl. So I had to forego both and I told him, I said, well, coach, I’m going to go to the Japan bowl. Ex-co Stovall honor. Is he, is he want to keep things upright? Well, if you’re not gonna play it on these gone, I’m thinking where I could still go drop myself. They said, we know you ain’t gonna play. Don’t go let somebody else go. Yes, but I wanted to go. Right. I’m not going. And I miss that opportunity. Uh, but uh, but I, I didn’t get, I didn’t work out for anybody because go Stovall and my position, coach, Bishop pears. So we know that the knee is not strong. Don’t you work out, but I was invited to some combine. So I got a chance to meet a lot of the player back then we went to combines every week. Yeah.
Greg:
You and I, you and I, we went to New York together. We went to Chicago.
LD:
Who was that guy in New York. We hung out with, I still can’t remember the guy. He brought it to his family house. We
LD:
Rented hall crackly for breakfast that morning. I can’t remember. But I
Greg:
Remember you and I had gone. That was my first day ever going to New York and you and I were together. Right.
LD:
And uh, well he was, that was Philadelphia. We was in Philadelphia. Uh, we flew into New York when we went to it. Okay. Because I remember it was cold. It was cold. It was really cold. But I went to Dallas was my first, see, I didn’t go to Dallas. They had everybody there at that one. So that was the best one. The best one, we went to quite a few comma. It was, it was just a great experience, a great opportunity for you to country boys to get out and baby, to see the other
Greg:
Part of it. And for the listening audience that we talking about combine, but back then each team did its own thing. So years later, all the teams got together and now they have a combined in one central place where all the teams come because we were doing that same thing you see on TV. Now we will do it now. Every week
LD:
We have week. Exactly. We,
LD:
It got, but not this, but it was a free trip. That’s right. They took good care of you. You got a chance to meet a lot of the players. Uh, those will be getting dropped. So you got, you gotta be your relationship with a lot of different guys. Matter of fact, it is date. I still talk to your teammate. Uh, EGA, EGA, Jr. We still talk. And Hugh green in that house and Ricky Jackson, we all still pretty close. And so, you know, because of that, that traveling get a chance to meet a lot of guys. That was a good, good opportunity. Missy, what other stores we got from the LSU LSU days? Cause we, the year we get drafted, it was quite a few of us, probably one of LSU, best draft ever.
Greg:
Well maybe later on they made a ha ha, but it went away. I’m talking about I’m talking before, before that it was one of the beds Dre for that, that was the best because we
LD:
Had, nobody went to first round. We thought Chris Wieden was going to go Christmas early second. So we had Chris in me in Tracy Porter. Didn’t you know,
Greg:
Chris was the first and the second you would a second in the second I went into third, Tracy went into fourth, hokey, went in the fifth, uh, uh, Ooh.
LD:
It was, it was quite a few who, well, a lot of guys get, get up, get got an opportunity. Right. And then the Jones twins,
Greg:
They got, they sign one sign with the jets
LD:
Coincide, uh, wireless, wireless.
Greg:
Yeah. Of with the Eagles. You wouldn’t be in it. Let’s see
LD:
Queens. And you had this equation. What was Queens? Uh, it was quite a few. I think Julia nannies hokey with fifth. Is it that you remember what you remember that at that time it was interesting to hope. It was like, oh, okay, what’s the last one to get drafted. But on the news that night, he was the only one they went interviewed. And that was interesting to me. I remember that, you know, the news, the TV didn’t interview any it didn’t do. Chris Williams was the first one to go. Then interview me. They went out, interviewed hokey. And that was always interested in how that process was going from bedroom.
LD:
You look at the bright side when he was always interested in how that at LSU though, it was all things always did work out. How do we, we did for, for real LSU, although it was not on my radar at all. I was muffled focus was my best friend. My cousin Ray Johnson was playing at nickel state. That’s all I knew I was hitting the NICAR state. LSU was nowhere on my radar. Uh, there was not a big at that time. It was not on TV that regular. So you know who was LSU. So, but I’m thankful that I had, they opened the doors, gave me the opportunity. Let me make the best of it. Because of that. What four and four, four or five years later, we able to sit here and have a conversation about
Greg:
Our journey.
LD:
It was a heck of a word to remember this young man. And I, we butt he every day. Our last two years of practice,
LD:
It’s hard to, they one-on-one every, they don’t even allow that drill anymore.
Greg:
No. Did all not Andrea. They don’t let you hit
Greg:
And pan that much now. And I don’t think they let you go. One-on-one like that anymore. I remember
LD:
When we, when was Nalco Scott got here. I mean, yukata, you know, you let Baca with first because you already know you had already been going against each other. And uh, Malcolm was always, you know, he stood up high. He didn’t know how to get it. No. So good blog to save his life. They gave you today. That’s because you can use able to block it. But we have a,
Greg:
I was able to block. I couldn’t hook you though. [inaudible] so
LD:
That was always pretty interested. But you had to, you was drafted by a Philadelphia,
LD:
Right? Third round.
LD:
I was drafted by Atlanta. Second round. You played the Philadelphia only what?
Greg:
Just that count. And again, things happen beyond our control. We had three T the Philadelphia Eagles had just gone to the super bowl and they brought me in and I was the third tight end. So we went through training camp and that’s a week before the first game. They give me a call, man, man, just everybody, everybody loves you. So I go see Dick for me. And he said, Greg, I’m so sorry. He said, listen, we having some problems with our offensive line. And if I put the lineman on injured reserve, he has to sit up for games, but he’s not hurting bad enough for me to put him on injured reserve. So I have to keep him on the roster, which means I can’t have three tight ends. And he said, we just went to the super bowl and I don’t want to have a veteran tied in and a rookie tied in on this team because we too good to have that big a drop-off.
Greg:
If the starting tight end gets hurt, you know, we, we have a chance to get back to the super bowl. And I don’t trust the rookie to start on this team right now. So we going to put you on waivers, but I don’t want you to leave Philadelphia because as soon as that offensive lineman gets well in two weeks, we’re going to adjust our roster again. And we’re going to bring you back. So stay in Philadelphia. Well, as soon as they released me and you know how that works, they put me on waivers and the minute they put me on waivers, the St. Louis Cardinals picked me up. So the time I left his office, I get a call from St. Louis that I need to go to St. Louis. So I had to fly to St. Louis that night or the next morning. And I played in that first game of the season and I made it all rookie that year. You not get all rookie, but all of those titles that they drafted with Scott and the guy from Tulane.
And I made all rookie that year. I don’t remember that. Yeah. That year got my bonus money. And everything was that the same year
LD:
That we, that you came to Atlanta that same year we
Greg:
Came to Atlanta. I had to play against you. That was, that was pretty interesting. That was hard. Yeah. That was hard, man, because you will, we will write across each other. Matter of fact, I wouldn’t visit you the night
LD:
Before, the day you came by the house and the next day I had
Greg:
To play against you. And, you know, we both fighting to, you know, make the it’s the stay on the team. And I had to try to give all I had, and I had to train my mind, like, okay, forget this Lima. And just try
Greg:
To go and have to, you know, but it was hard. It was very
Greg:
Difficult for me to do that because, you know, I knew what play was coming. You didn’t know. And I had to do my best to get you out of the way, you know, to block. And, uh, but it was very difficult for me to do that. That was tough because somebody had to look bad either I was on the bed or you were going to look bad. So I had to train my mind to not think that was you at. So I would try not to look at you. You know, when I break the hum, I kept my, my eyes on the ground because I didn’t want to look at you. You know? But that was, that was tough. Yeah. I thought you was doing it just to throw me off. You didn’t want to want me to read, you just didn’t want to look at you in the eyes because you know, I could, I have to come at you full speed, you
LD:
Know? Yeah. Can we just meet, you got through hanging out then the night before.
Greg:
And I know a lot of guys that played with each other in college play against each other in the pros, but nobody goes against each other head
Greg:
To head. Like we, we, we had a lineup
Greg:
Head said the whole game. Yeah. And we both want to make it.
LD:
No, we was on the team. It’s the second game of the season.
Greg:
I can’t remember what game it was, but it was a regular season game and we have to bring it. And you guys meet us. We did. Yeah,
LD:
I dunno. Was that it was early in the season. It was very, very who’s running back at [inaudible]
Greg:
And y’all had William Andrews, I believe when you bedrooms. Yeah. Y’all was bringing it man. Andrews. He was chilling,
LD:
But he was strong. He was, he was a big strong guy just to bring back all the memories like, okay. But of course our history is really, we know we, we we’ve been connected for a long time. We still together. We, we fought for each other with each other. And to this day we still do. You know, if there’s a need or something going on, I can call you. You can call me. We started organizations together. We did, we had done a whole lot together and to have the relationship. And also more importantly, David, to sit here and talk about this, this, this, this is pretty darn good.
Greg:
I hope people enjoy it as much as I enjoy me. And so
LD:
I just appreciate, uh, Greg, uh, being here, sharing this moment, this time, uh, with, uh, with me, it truly, truly means a lot. I mean, that that’s, that’s for real, for real, you are the first brand that, you know, Mr. Granger, you know, those, these, these are these older, all of the people I love and have a level of respectful, but you and I, you know, we get a whole lot of history. We ain’t going to talk about in between. We had to come to work together to overcome or let me know. I’ll let you know, we had, we had a whole lot with the work too and work around. So they just don’t know what to say, but thank you for showing up once again and, uh, participated in sharing your story, your history, and, uh, and being honest about the things that happened back back then, and, uh, trusting that when you say you showed up today and there was some, some strange things that happened in the last 24 hours. So I don’t know what this is all about. You want to share who you go with it?
Greg:
Yeah. It was interesting yesterday. I had to take a ride to Appaloosas, which is 20 minutes. And I saw you had a show. Your show was about Edwin Edwards and it had 22 minutes. So I said, well, that’s a good time for me to listen to your show about Edwin Edwards, the former governor. And so I was listening to the show and you started, you mentioned my father in your presence, in your, uh, in your presentation. And as you mentioned, my father’s name, my phone rang my cell phone ring in the car. But for a second, I thought maybe that was a phone ringing on the, on the shelf because it just, and I saw it was Dale brown. I’m like they’re around. And when I answered the phone there, brown started telling me how much he enjoyed a magazine you wrote. And he said, and you automatic, you wrote an article about Greg the floor, and you have this beautiful picture of Greg LaFleur on this, on this magazine. And he said, uh, so as he kept talking, I’m like, I don’t think he’s talking. I don’t think he realized he’s not talking to me. I mean, that he’s talking to me as a coach. This is regular floor.
LD:
Oh, he’s said, I thought I was calling on what?
Greg:
And he said, look, I was just on, I’ll call you lamb LD. He called you lamb. And he said, I would just own lamb a show this week. And he brought me in, we spent about two and a half hours together. And he said, I really enjoyed him. He said, he’s very, uh, very intelligent. He said, I had no idea. He was so intelligent. And, and uh, the way he asked the questions, he made it very easy for me. He never interrupted me when I was talking. And I said, of course I don’t, I don’t mean to cut you off. But I said, I’m headed to Baton Rouge tomorrow to be on his show. And so we just started talking and we talked for a good 30 minutes on the phone, but I thought it was so weird how that happened, you know, for coach brown to just call me out of the blue. But he was not trying to call me. He was trying to call you,
LD:
He thinking about me, but we’re looking at your name. Yeah. I guess that’s how he accidentally called me. That was pretty interesting. And so he said,
Greg:
Look, if you come into Baton Rouge tomorrow, he said, I’m speaking at the sports academy. Come meet me at the sports academy tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. I said, I’ll be there. I’ll meet you at nine o’clock
LD:
At night. I was supposed to be the, how did they go? Oh, so
Greg:
You get what I’m talking about. That’d be good. Yeah. It was good. You know, they had all the kids and then he came in and a lot of the former players were there, basketball players. A lot of, a lot of the former players were there, college temple with his two sons and, uh, Rudy Mac, uh, Stanley Roberts, uh, how it caught her Nikita Wilson. Yeah. Most of the guys that played for him, they were there.
LD:
They, they coming out, he he’d stay in touch with his players. He does a wonderful job. I mean, water football. We don’t, we didn’t get many calls. I didn’t get in a call. So I didn’t get, no, I can’t say I got to say this about, uh, Charlie McLendon. Every time he came to town because willing to be done with a deal till the saying he was stopped by by restaurant. So he did while he was still around, still alive, he was stopped by. And just how and keep on
Greg:
Moving one last thing, uh, about coach McLendon and see, you can attest to what I’m about to say, because when the teal with the Vikings, when they would go down to tamper, coach Mac would always call any LSU player that would go to Tampa because he was living in Tampa. So if I can play it in Tampa, he called Willie, Chris Williams went to Tampa. He called Chris Williams. So Emin play. I talked to John Alexander when they would go down to Tampa, he would call y’all. So we played Tampa. So I’m waiting for my call. I never got
Greg:
A call to go back when I got the thing, [inaudible]
Greg:
Again, trying to figure out why he called me out at that team meeting. So I guess that had something to do with it, but he never called me. And we, we played Tampa almost every year within the league. And you never got a call, never heard the quarterback
LD:
Guess he did with him. And, uh, with a PV him, he coached PV, PV, PV, PV. They would stop by the restaurant just for a brief second. But you become a, and they go by their business. Yeah. I
Greg:
Would still like to know why I was on coach max, bad list or whatever, because I didn’t break any rules. My grades were always good
Greg:
To, I didn’t date his daughters,
LD:
Click, click, click this lake that we didn’t, we didn’t know what to think that
Greg:
Y’all had the right to assume something like that. He was hard on you. Well, you know, a lot of times players come up with excuses like, oh, the coach didn’t like me to coordinate. Mine was not an excuse because the whole team saw what was going on with me. You know? It’s not like I’m just making these things, but I would put co Stovall too. Yes. That’s pretty serious. Yeah. We couldn’t convince callback to put
LD:
You on a beat with Costo Stovall so that you was well able and capable of playing on the next level where, and I’m glad to say too. I was your team captain. So as your captain, uh, but they were, uh, thank you for showing up, like people participated. Thank you for the many years of a comradery, our, our relationship and all that comes with it and appreciate you. Thank you for showing up and participating in count time. Remember it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up is counted. Thank you, my brother for showing up and participate. Well, thank
Greg:
You, LD. And I will be listening to the, the rest of the shows from here on out.
LD:
All right. You’re going to be on several of them from here on out. Thank you.
What years did Greg LaFleur play at LSU?
Greg LaFleur played wide receiver and Tight End for the Tigers from 1976 – 1980
Greg LaFleur played wide receiver and Tight End for the Tigers from 1976 – 1980
What years did Greg LaFleur play in the NFL?
Greg was drafted in 1981 in the 3rd round by the Philadelphia Eagles and played through the 1986 season playing for the St. Louis Rams and the Indianapolis Colts
Greg was drafted in 1981 in the 3rd round by the Philadelphia Eagles and played through the 1986 season playing for the St. Louis Rams and the Indianapolis Colts
Greg also appears on another episode of Count Time where he and LD review Billy Cannon A Long Long Run which includes discussion of the legendary Billy Cannon Halloween run.
