There is life after the NFL for members of the 10th annual Pepsi Celebrity Quarterback Shootout field, which completed its first decade of fun in the abundant sun on Saturday at Buckingham Golf and Country Club, where you couldn”t have asked for better weather on a late August day.
Compared to some of the other Shootouts, this one was downright cool weather-wise and fans from all over Northern California and some from as far away as Southern California made their first trip to the event or were back for a sixth, seventh or even eighth visit.
Gripes? Always, though fewer this year than last. The biggest had to do with soon-to-be Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, who allegedly wasn”t signing enough autographs for many of the fans, both 49ers and Raiders alike, who made the trek to Buckingham seeking out No. 80”s autograph.
“He said he would only sign programs and he wasn”t signing any over there,” said one fan who was stationed near the first-hole putting green. “But I hear he was signing last night for all the corporate guys. That”s not right.”
Another fan, positioned near the second hole, had just the opposite experience, showing off a Rice autograph that she was quite proud of. “I didn”t have any problem. He signed a whole bunch of autographs.”
John Lindblom, a sports writer/columnist for the Record-Bee, also spotted Rice signing autographs early on Saturday morning and said he signed all that he could.
One thing”s certain about Shootout autograph protocol. While most of the celebrities are only too willing to sign any type of memorabilia, even body parts, others will sign only certain items because they are wary of the e-Bay hounds who bring nylon bags full of memorabilia in the hopes of getting each piece signed at some point during the day. They”re all over and easy to spot if you take half a moment to look, and it”s their type that hurts the common fan.
One gentlemen approached the Record-Bee”s representatives at the Shootout, thinking they were tournament officials, and complained about just that.
“It”s not right you let those guys in here,” he said. “They”re ruining in it for everyone else.”
But as Record-Bee golf columnist John Berry said, as he was standing nearby, there”s not much you can do short of searching everyone”s belongings and patting them down at the entrance gate. And no one wants to see Shootout security approach airport security anytime soon.
We all agreed with the gentleman, who said he was having a good time despite the presence of the professional memorabilia hounds.
The only other complaint came from the amatuer golfers in the morning flights. Once their nine holes are over, the golf carts they are riding in stay put at their final hole, forcing them to lug their bags back to the parking lot, a walk that can be very short or very long depending on which hole you end up on.
I chauffeured a handful to the parking lot and to the lunch tent … it was actually pretty comical because I was trying to get back to the location that I had dropped off Lindblom and photographer Bob Minenna, but a couple of these guys seemed pretty desperate for a ride. They thought I was a tournament staffer and I didn”t have the heart to turn them away. So I gave them a lift.
The best time to be at the Shootout is between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., which is before the event starts. Members of the media can work inside the ropes and at that time the celebrities are free to talk about their careers, current events or whatever they feel like talking about, and that”s generally how an interview goes. You may have questions ready, but they don”t always get answered.
Once the event tees off, it”s harder for media members to get the attention of the celebrities because they”re busy signing autographs and talking with their foursome of amateur partners.
All of the celebrities at the Shootout were approachable this year … I mean really approachable, the best I can remember in years. Yep, even Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. While many think these stars “have to be” cooperative with the press, that”s not true. Fact is these guys have been badgered and harassed by the media all their lives and many wouldn”t mind never speaking to another reporter again.
One of the more interesting aspects of these guys is what they”re doing now. We know of them when they”re playing football, but once they retire, most of them, except for the high-profile guys such as Montana, seem to drop off the radar.
And most of them don”t mind. There is life after the NFL and it usually involves working every day just like you me.
Kenny King, a running back for the Oakland Raiders from 1980-85, didn”t take long to make a splash with the Silver & Black. In the Raiders” 27-10 win over Philadelphia in Super Bowl XV, King caught a then-Super Bowl record 80-yard touchdown pass, a record that stood until 1997.
King now wears a different uniform as he is a senior manager for FedEx in Oakland, where he has been on the job for the last 8 ? years.
“I love it,” said King, who still follows the NFL, but nothing approaching his playing days.
“A majority of my employees are Raiders fans and I try to get to as many games as I can … I still support the Raiders but I don”t think you can say I”m real close to the game.”
While the money he made when he first signed with the Raiders is a mere pittance compared to what today”s players make, even the reserves, King said he is not bitter.
“My only concern is that a lot of players don”t understand what the game is all about,” he said when asked about a couple of this year”s high-priced rookie holdouts. “But if I was playing today, I”d probably be the same way. I”m happy for them but I just want them to remember why they”re out there.”
King said he signed a four-year contract with the Raiders in 1979 for a whopping total of $215,000, including signing bonus. And while that was a good piece of change back then, in today”s NFL dollars, well, King summed it up pretty well.
“That”s a fine today,” he joked.
Tom Rathman, the former workhorse fullback for the San Francisco 49ers who looks as if he could still be playing, is out of football for the first time since his playing days ended following the 1994 season. He played on two of the 49ers” Super Bowl championship teams Super Bowl XXIII and XXIV. The former University of Nebraska star actually had more receiving yards (2,684) than rushing yards (2,020) during his NFL career, this despite coming from a university where he was rarely called on to catch a pass.
“I think I had five catches at Nebraska,” Rathman laughed. “It wasn”t that I couldn”t catch the ball, it was just an under-used part of my game and Nebraska”s … we didn”t throw the ball much.
“When I got to the NFL (in 1986 with the 49ers), I had to adjust,” Rathman said. “They wanted me to block and catch. If I wanted a job, I had to do it.”
Until this year, Rathman has been an assistant coach on Steve Mariucci”s staff, first at San Francisco and then in Detroit. But when Mariucci was fired as Detroit”s coach after the 2005 season, Rathman was part of the coach housecleaning.
“It”s my first year off and it”s kind of nice,” said Rathman, now a Michigan resident.
With two girls in high school one”s a senior this year and the other a freshman — and another who has already graduated, Rathman said he”s keeping plenty busy.
“I”m traveling a lot, making appearances,” Rathman said.
Immediately upon his retirement from the NFL, following the 1994 season, Rathman coached running backs at Serra High School (San Mateo) in 1995. He moved on to Menlo College in 1996 and served as offensive coordinator there before joining Mariucci”s San Francisco 49er staff as running backs coach in 1997. He remained in that capacity for the 49ers through 2002, then moved to Detroit with Mariucci in 2003, also as running backs coach.
Does he want to return to the NFL?
“Yeah I do,” he said. “I want to be an assistant coach or a coordinator at some point.”
Eric Wright, a cornerback who played on the first four 49er Super Bowl championship teams, is employed by his old team and works in their public relations department.
Wright said current 49ers second-year coach Mike Nolan will be successful if the players buy into what he is doing and if team management gives him enough time to enact a top-to-bottom reshuffling of the roster.
“A lot of it will depend on how the team does,” Wright said. “If the team does well, they”ll let him finish out his contract. If not …”
Wright, preparing for a day on Buckingham”s links, said he was confident he could hit the ball long.
“The only question is whether it will go left long or right long,” he joked. “I”m just going to try and keep the ball in play.”
Wright said he looks forward to such events as the Shootout.
“It”s good to see the guys you played with and against,” he said. “There”s a lot less pressure at these things.”
Russ Francis, a star tight end for the New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers over the course of 13 NFL seasons, currently does a three-hour show in the New England area for ESPN. That show takes place on Saturday and Francis didn”t let the Shootout prevent him from doing last Saturday”s radio gig, which he did from the Buckingham clubhouse.
In fact, Buckingham Golf and Country Club got a nice plug on the radio from Francis, who caught 393 passes for 5,262 yards in his 13 seasons, including 40 touchdowns. He was a three-time Pro Bowl selection and the starting tight end for the Niners during their rout of Miami in Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto.
During his playing career, Francis raced airplanes and he was about to go after a record in the Utah desert during his playing days with the 49ers.
“I was going to be traveling at 500 mph at 50 feet (off the ground),” Francis said. “(Coach Bill) Walsh told me to be careful because I could get hurt that way. I said, Coach, if I have an accident at 500 mph traveling 50 at feet, I won”t be injured.” “
Francis never did get a chance for a new record, however.
“It didn”t sit well with Bill and he sat me down for a heart-to-heart talk. He told me this (racing airplanes) was a distraction to the team and he wanted me to do it after the season.”
Francis agreed but the record-breaking attempt never happened because of difficulties with the plane that was then in construction.
“The only way they could guarantee that the canopy would stay on at that speed was to bolt the thing down and I didn”t like the idea of being in a plane with a canopy that I couldn”t open in an emergency. I ended up selling the plane.”
Francis has raced at Reno”s big air show a couple of times and he was a test pilot in a joint NASA/McDonald Douglas/United Propulsion venture at one point. He”s flown many planes, including a World War II P-51D Mustang, one of the best fighters of the war.
Francis did offer up a Super Bowl prediction. “The 49ers will play the Patriots,” Francis said, not all that seriously. “I”ll keep predicting that until it happens.”
