Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
(female announcer) This is a production of WKNO - Memphis.
Production funding for "Sports Files" is made possible in part
by..
My guest today on "Sports Files" is Heisman trophy winner and
former N-F-L all-pro runningback, Eddie George.
[theme music] ♪♪♪
He was as durable as any tailback in N-F-L history.
In fact, Eddie George and Hall of Famer Jim Brown are the only
two runningbacks to rush for over ten-thousand yards while
never missing a start.
After a Heisman Award-winning senior campaign at Ohio State,
George became the 14th overall pick of the 1996 draft,
taken by the Houston Oilers.
He would earn N-F-L offensive rookie of the year honors that
season.
In 1997, the Oilers would relocate to Tennessee,
playing their first season in Memphis.
George would go on to play nine years in the N-F-L,
being named to four pro bowls and leading the Titans to a
birth in Super Bowl 34.
Today, Eddie George joins me to talk about his career,
his bouts with depression after he left the game,
and his busy schedule since next on "Sports Files."
[theme music] ♪♪♪
Well Eddie, it's an absolute pleasure.
Thank you so much for your time.
Not a problem at all.
Glad to be here.
Congratulations are in order.
You're part of this 2014 Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
You've won many honors.
How does this one feel for ya?
It's a tremendous honor.
I know that Frank Wycheck and the late Bud Adams,
they're a part of Tennessee Hall of Fame as well.
Anytime that you're recognized for your accomplishments on the
field in any Hall of Fame, but for the great state of Tennessee
and all of the great players that have come from this state,
that have played in this state, you know,
is truely tremendous.
And it's a great honor to be a part of it.
As you said, you made a name for yourself and had a great career
in Tennessee, obviously at Ohio State.
But before that, you're from Philadelphia.
You're from my neck of the woods.
And you went to military school.
What was that like and what did it do in molding you as a young
man -- a boy, in fact -- in to adulthood?
Well you know what?
It's funny you mention that.
That's one of my talking points for my keynote speech is that,
you know, during this journey, although I had a Hall of Fame
career, it was full of ups and downs.
And at that point in time, it was a transition point for me
personally because I wasn't doing anything I needed to do in
school.
I was a poor student, a D average student.
But I had great aspirations of playing football.
And that year when I went to Fort Union,
I was supposed to be the starting runningback at Abington
High School.
Right.
But my mother had other plans.
So she shipped me off to Fort Union Military Academy my junior
year.
And when I went there, it was an eye opening experience.
Didn't have a chance to play.
I sat behind two runningbacks that started ahead of me.
Both were six feet, 225 pounds.
Both ran four fives.
And at that time I was about six foot,
168 and was running a four eight.
So in my mind, I thought I was all of that but I was none of
that once I got down there.
So I had a lot of work to do.
And I had some growing pains to go through it.
And it wasn't easy at first, you know,
to go there away from Philadelphia.
away from my comfort zone.
I had to grow up fast.
I had to realize that I had to work with the system for it to
work for me.
I ahd to surround myself around the right people that were about
getting a great education, about going to D1 schools,
about working hard in the weight room and so forth.
So I established my work ethic there.
And I used the great people at Fort Union Military Academy to
help me put me in a position to foster my dreams.
So I had to surrender basically.
And that was one transition point in my life that I will
always look back to becuae it was not easy.
You know there were days when I would go in to the gym where
you'll see all the great players that have come to this school
that went to the professional ranks that played in the N-C-A-A
that went on to win a Heisman trophy like Vinny Testaverde or
Mike Quick that played for the Philadelphia Eagles.
And I would sit there.
My days were tough when I didn't think I was going to make it.
I would sit there and wonder, look and imagine my picture
being up there one day.
And it took a lot to go through that.
You know it was not easy in trying to accomplish a dream.
You used it as motivation.
Oh, no doubt about it.
You took advantage of it -- that opportunity.
And then you decide Ohio State's right for me.
And you go on to win a Heisman trophy.
Just brings back to those days winning the Heisman trophy.
What was that about?
That was another dream.
Just getting to Ohio State was another story in itself.
But once I got there, I had aspirations of playing early.
I did sell my freshman year.
Started..
Didn't start.
I played sparingly.
Was a goal line specialist.
Had some tremendous success in the early part of the year.
Once it got in to the Big 10 schedule,
that's when it got tougher.
I fumbled twice in the game against Illinois my freshman
year and I never saw the field again until my sophomore year.
Played garbage time.
But really, it wasn't meaningful.
So in my junior year, that's when I kind of found myself,
really got used to the game and wasn't regarded as a high draft
choice coming in to it or even a Heisman trophy candidate my
senior year.
I kind of just brust on to the scene because I would work out
twice a day.
I would be the first one in the weight room,
the last one to leave, always studying film,
always looking at other great runningbacks in the professional
ranks and the collegiate league.
Always challenging myself so that my senior year was very
special for me because it was my final crack at,
you know, leaving my legacy in college football by trying to
win a Heisman trophy, trying to win a national championship,
trying to win the Big 10 championship.
Those were my goals.
And I almost accomplished all of them.
Well through hard work, through diligence,
through dedication, you made yourself a better player.
So you go in to this senior year.
You end up winning the Heisman.
Well obviously, once you won the Heisman,
you knew what was going on with the N-F-L.
But what was the point when you finally figured out yeah,
I could play at that level?
When was it?
Uh..
Man, you know what?
My junior year, I didn't know.
I didn't think I could.
It was the senior year?
I think it was.
I know it was in the middle of the workouts that summer.
You know people think that the season -- that's where all the
magic happens.
But actually the season you go through is a by product of the
work you put in from the winter, spring and summer.
That's where you win.
That's where you get drafted in the first round.
That's where you win the Heismans.
That's where you win national championships,
during that time frame.
And it's so critical that you can not waste a day in doing
that.
So I kind of felt like I had an opportunity to play at the next
level right around the summer of my senior year because of the
work I was putting in to it.
And I was really fine tuning my craft.
I was becoming a craftsman in terms of being a runningback,
the nuances of reading the plays,
letting the game come to me, feeling the holes versus trying
to see it and force it.
You know, allowing it just to happen and manifest and trusting
my instincts, trusting my speed, trusting all the work that I'd
done before that and just kind of fell in to that a little bit.
You move on.
You're drafted to the Titans.
You put together this unbelievable career.
You make it look, to a guy like myself,
for any fan out there, easy.
I know it wasn't easy.
But you certainly made it look that way.
No, no, I don't know if I did.
I mean there was some rough moments.
You know the one thing that I take great pride in that I never
missed a game in my entire N-F-L career due to injury.
And this is during a time when, um,
the league that we played in was for grown men only.
And the runningback position was..
Right.
Bring your big boy pads and your aspirin because it was gonna be
a long day.
You said moments ago that you almost accomplished all the
goals.
Obviously we're talking about coming up just a little bit
short in Superbowl 34.
When I bring that up, do you get mad?
Do you want to hit me or are you over it?
You know you're never over it.
I mean you never get over that game regardless of whether it
was a year ago, 15 years ago, 20 or 100 years from now because it
was a combination of everything that I had gone through or we
had gone through to get to that moment.
And it's just..
It's just fresh as day.
Just being in it, just physically,
energetically, you know, just feeling tired,
exhausted and you are playing literally with your soul at that
point in time to will yourself to victory.
And to fall a yard shy of that always sticks out in your mind
because you always wonder what life would be like having
crossed the line, had we gone in to overtime,
what would have happened.
How would life be different if I were a Superbowl champion,
you know, able to say that we put Tennessee,
the entire state, Superbowl championship when no body
expected it?
But it wasn't for a lack of trying.
It was certainly a great season.
It was a great career.
The N-F-L is done.
You move on to the business world,
which we'll talk about in a second.
But I just read this, Eddie, because I had no idea about the
depression.
How bad was it?
It was..
It was difficult.
To put it on a scale of one to ten,
I think everybody has their own range of what their able to deal
with and how they're going through something.
I think you can't say well, it's a second degree,
third degree.
You're either in depression or you're not.
I mean it's one way or the other.
And, uh..
We hear some horrendous, horrible stories about athletes
who really can't live and they take their own lives.
I mean how bad did it get?
It never got to the point where I considered taking my own life.
But I could certainly understand or see how guys can take a turn
for the worst if you stay there.
That's the kick.
You've got to..
It's something that you go through.
And I don't care if you played 20 years,
15 years, made millions of dollars.
There's nothing like that game.
And you truly die.
A part of you dies because you've,
um, pretty much cultivated that baby from the time that you were
a child 'til the time that you're a grown man.
And now you have to put that part of you to rest.
The days of preparing for a season are long gone.
When you smell the fresh cut grass on an August day in the
evening, you know it's time for football.
Those days are gone.
Right.
You know the hitting of the pads.
I mean all of that, the clacking of the cleats,
it's not longer a part of you.
So you're gonna go through that phase or those phases,
the nuances of that defined who you are.
And you've got to allow yourself to divorce away from that and go
through that process to see what's on the other side.
And often what happens is guys get stuck in that because they
want to hold on to that identity.
And that's what happens.
They fade away with that identity.
So you've got to have enough courage.
You've got to do the work.
You've got to seek out counseling.
You've got to seek out the proper support to get through
it.
And it doesn't.
It's not a three-month phase, six-month,
two-year, four or five..
It's a lifetime.
It's a lifetime, yeah.
And you have to work at it.
It has to become a lifestyle versus just a two or three
session deal.
I mean you've got to really put in the work to make that
transition and resurrect something else and use that
platform as your benefit versus a hinderence for you in the
future.
And it's good to be active doing a lot of different things once
you get out of the game.
And that's exactly what you've done.
George Enterprises -- trying to make people's lives better,
trying to do a lot of positive things in the business world.
You've succeeded.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Well succeeded in the sense that I've been able to be proactive.
There have been a lot of misses..
[laughter] ..in the business world.
But you've got to step up to the plate,
right?
Listen, you step up.
You swing.
You miss.
You step up.
You might get a tip ball.
You foul out.
You know so you just got to.
Again, it's about re-educating yourself to a new craft and
understand that, you know, in business there are no friends.
And I've known that from playing in the N-F-L and now having my
own business and creating new businesses and creating new
opportunities for myself.
It's, again, a diligent process that you've got to just wake up
everyday and chomp the bit at it and become a true master and a
student of this.
That's what insprired me to go and get my M-B-A to become a
more diligent, smarter businessman.
Right, right.
And that's where I am right now.
It's alligning my passion and my life purpose to make that a
career for myself in the business world.
And I mean I'm a lot further than I was like five or six
years ago.
But I'm not where I want to be.
So the success, like you mentioned,
is not so much defined in dollar amount or how many businesses I
have.
It's the fact that I can get a quality rest at night,
you know, knowing that I've done all I can do,
knowing that I'm alligning myself with the right people,
the right situations and coming to each adventure with
integirty.
I can rest well at night in knowing that in the end,
eventually, if it's meant to be, that it will become prosperous.
Beside all the business ventures,
obviously work on Fox.
American Dream Builders is a realtiy show and you're a judge
in that, right?
Yes.
And then you've got to explain this one.
Where did the acting chops come from?
Othello in nashville.
Part of the Nashville Shakespeare Festivals
production.
Have you always wanted to act?
Well through my depression, you know I was able to find my voice
and find my new self through the arts.
Again, I'm a person that's always going to challenge
myself.
I'm always going to put myself out there.
And television and acting was something that appealed to me.
Right.
And I was doing, you know, auditions in L.A.,
around the country that weren't working out so well.
I had no idea what I was doing.
No idea what so ever.
So I said you know what.
Let me take a few steps back, understand the basics of acting,
get in to theatre.
Try to learn the craft, right?
Got in to it.
And once I started getting in to it and started understanding
character development, story, bulding a charactrer,
taking something from my own life and using that for the
impotence of the character.
I said okay, let me try this.
So I started about six or seven years ago.
I started doing monologues on stage.
But then I did a two-man play on stage,
which is Topdog Underdog.
The I did Julius Ceasar about two seasons ago.
So then I did Othello.
So I've done some television work,
film work and on stage work as well.
I was going to say are you going to head back out now that you've
learned this craft.
You've gotten it down pretty well.
Well you never get it down pretty well.
I mean I think I can know how to get around a stage.
I know what to do.
I know the rhythm of it.
Right.
But do you feel confident?
See you in another movie, another show?
I would love that.
I think absolutely.
If that's what's in the cards, I welcome that.
Absolutely.
I have to ask you about a story that has been very big and will
continue to be through the draft and through his first season in
the National Football League.
I'm talking about Michael Sam from Missouri coming out and
telling the whole world that he is a gay football player.
And he knows that he can play at the next level.
I think a lot of people believe he can play at the next level.
When you heard this, your initial reaction and is the
National Football League, in your opinion,
ready to?
We know there's probably been gay players but not openly gay
players.
Are they ready to accept this in your opinion?
I don't think so.
I think this is the first of it's kind for someone to come
out and openly say that.
First of all, I comment Michael Sam for having the courage to
come forth and talk about his lifestyle.
And he feels comfortable with who he is.
Because an N-F-L locker room -- it can be brutal.
I mean you look at what happened down in Miami and the bullying
and all of that nonsense that's going on down there.
And now an openly gay player comes out and he's a rookie,
you know, and someone thats on, you know,
trying to get a job.
It could be very difficult because guys are very,
uh, stand-offish when it comes to that.
And I think, you know, overtime, you know,
if and when he gets on the teams,
I think he's an exceptional player.
And guys begin to see him for who he is and what he brings to
the team and not necessarily what he prefers sexually,
then it will all settle down.
And it will be like an after thought.
Because I mean there's a process to deal with that,
all the attention and how he is and looking at his every move
and so forth and so forth.
And no body really cares.
I don't care.
The only thing I care about is the attention that it'll bring
on the team and will it affect his play.
And I looked at his, um, his combine and I think it's
affecting him because all the attention that it'll put on him
alone but pressure.
He didn't perform as well.
Hopefully will.
Listen, the kid was a S-E-C defensive player of the year.
That says an awful lot, right?
He can play the game.
But you make a great point, also about all the unwanted attention
that'll come with it but he's also a rookie.
So the normal rookie teasing is going to take place as well.
Well nowadays, I don't think that's gonna happen.
I think all eyes are gonna be on him where it's gonna be handled
with tear and all of that.
I think it's a different league than what I know.
But I think it's a time that we're in where it's become
accepted and it's okay.
You look at any business, it's happening.
Eddie, we like to end all our interviews with something we
call five for the road.
I'll give you five questions.
Quick answer.
First thing that comes to mind.
Rapid fire here.
What is your favorite professional team?
You obviously can't use the Titans as the answer here.
Favorite professional team -- any?
Flyers.
The Flyers?!
There ya go!
My favorite hockey team of all time!
Favorite pro athlete?
Aw, man!
Michael Jordan.
Okay.
What's your favorite music?
Musician, artist?
You know that's a great one.
Um..
See..
Jay-Z.
Well that's a great answer.
Favorite movie?
Legends of the Fall.
Wow!
You're going Brad Pitt on us.
And then finally, your favorite tv show?
And you can not use American Dream Builders as an answer.
I will say SWV Reunited on WE tv.
And maybe one day you'll make a guest appearance on that show.
Eddie, an absolute pleasure.
Thank you so much for being with us.
Alright.
We appreciate it.
We'll take a quick time out.
Overtime is coming up next.
[theme music] ♪♪♪
Three..
Two..
One..
[buzzer sounds]
M-M-A fighting is unquestionably a rough sport.
But recently an M-M-A event was staged that had a more genteel
outcome.
Working with the charity group, "Forever Young" and Bumpus
Harley Davidson in Collierville, an event called "Havoc for
Heroes" took place, that raised money to send World War II
veterans and survivors of Normandy Beach back to France
for a more peaceful visit on the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
So we sent a crew to see what it was all about.
You know this event was a really big deal for us.
It's for a very good cause.
I don't think there's any greater cause than helping
support the guys who fought for our freedom.
Bumpus Harley Davidson has been a big part of the Veteran
movement.
And I've been a big part of Bumpus Harley Daivdson for
several years.
I own several Harleys.
When they found out I was doing M-M-A,
they approached me and said would you like to do this event
for these veterans.
And I thought absolutely.
You know I have..
My step-father was in the Navy.
I have ancestors that were very much active in the military.
And I don't think there's a greater cause.
And those guys went overseas and they fought for us.
So we're gonna come in here tonight and try to fight for
them.
This is a rough sport.
What's your attraction here?
I've been doing Taekwondo for nine years.
I'm a second degree balck belt instructor and I have a big
brother.
So I've always just liked contact sports.
It's a good release.
You feel a lot better after you go hit someone -- in the sport,
not on the street.
I'm not a mean person.
Tell us about your team.
Your team compared to everybody else out here is a little bit
unusual.
Tell us about it.
Our team is actually the church sponsored team that's actually
free on some days.
And it's just a great atmosphere.
Everybody is friendly.
The first day I walked in, they treated me like I was a family
member.
I just instantly clicked.
And everybody was just really nice.
My coaches are great.
My coaches do this for free.
And that's how you can tell they genuinely care.
So tell me about your bout this evening.
I am fighting someone named Hunter.
I don't remember his last name.
He's actually my third opponent.
The first two dropped out and he was nice enough to step up on
two weeks notice and fight me.
And I've actually already saprred him once.
So this is going to be a fun fight since we've already
fought.
I'm feeling confident, really confident.
What kind of..
How would you describe yourself as a fighter?
I'm a Taekwondo fighter.
I like the kick a lot.
Do you know what your opponent likes to do?
He's more of a boxer.
He likes boxing.
I'm tall and long so I'm going to use my range and hopefully
get a head kick.
That's the plan anyway.
It was a great evening of M-M-A.
And hats off to everyone involved for helping fulfill the
wishes of some courageous veterans of World War II who
gave so much for their country.
Oh by the way, Congratulations to Paul Cook who won his match.
The Memphis Tigers men's hoop team played last night in
Cincinnati, and will wrap-up the regular season Tomorrow at
FedExForum versus S-M-U on senior day.
Last Saturday the Tigers picked up one of their biggest wins in
recent memory, taking down Rick Pitino and then 7th ranked
Louisville, giving the Tigers a regular season two game series
sweep of the rival Cardinals.
The Tigers rallied from eight down with less than five minutes
to play, closing on a 15 to 1 run.
Next week Memphis will host the first ever American Conference
Tournament.
And that will do it for now, have a great week,
and well see you next time.
[theme music] ♪♪♪
CLOSED CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY WKNO-MEMPHIS.