Football is Where I Belonged.

I grew up in Cleveland and my dad played professional hockey for the Cleveland Barons. He had broke into the league with the Detroit Red Wings, played for Chicago Black Hawks, Played for St. Louis flyers, then got traded over to the Pittsburgh hornets where he met my mother. He and my mother got married and I was born. They moved to Cleveland and I grew up watching him play as the Cleveland Barons. I started skating when I was 3 years old. He really worked with me in hockey. Growing up, I was playing in all the hockey leagues. I played hockey all the way up to age 17. I even played Hockey in high school. However, I moved from the inner city of Cleveland to the suburbs of Cleveland. All the guys I got to know were all playing football and I had never played football at all. I asked my dad if I could play and he said no. He told me I should just stick to hockey, I was better off. My mother secretly signed me up. On my first game, my mom brought him to watch me play. He was very agitated and asked what I was doing playing football. My mother told him that I really wanted to play so she signed me up. He said “it’s a stupid game.” First play I get clipped, it shattered my knee. The doctor told me I could never play sports again. I had to have two knee surgeries from that shatter. My father didn’t talk to me for three months after that.

 In 10th grade, I kept working. I ran track, I did a lot of swimming, and I spent a lot of time ice skating. I was sort of a jack of all trades athlete. I was really good at all of them but I wasn’t great at anything. I continued to work out, built my leg and knee back up, did a lot of leg weight lifting and running. Ice skating was really great for my legs. I went out for the football team in 10th grade and I wasn’t even a starter. Same with 11th grade. I finally made top grade in my senior year.  I was 6 foot 185lbs and I could run pretty fast. We got a new coach that year, a guy named Leo Strang. He took our team and made them a powerhouse. He really helped me. I averaged 10.9 yards per carry that whole year. I lead the state in scoring. I had scholarships basically any place I wanted to go.

I really enjoyed everything about football. Hockey was fun too, but my real passion was in football and that’s the way I went. Despite the injuries and the health problems resulting from my days as a pro-footballer, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I guess that’s a big part of the reason I’m putting so much effort into the Keepr. It’s my chance to give back to my fellow NFL players through the player care foundation and my chance to relive the good times.

The Wonderful World of Broadcasting

I used to broadcast. I worked for CBS with Bob Costas. I was up in New York with the head of CBS Barry Frank, who was head of CBS sports at the time. He said “you’re a pretty good golfer, can you broadcast?” I told him I would love an opportunity in broadcasting and he gave it to me. The first guy I worked with was Bob Costas. Bob Costas was a young kid at that time and never had paper in front of him. He had total recall on everything. He was fantastic. Our first broadcast game was the St. Louis Cardinals against the Green Bay Packers. The game was absolutely terrible! They made a lot of mistakes. It was the first pre-season game and they looked like a bunch of amateurs. Everything that could go wrong in a pre-season game, did go wrong. Bob Costas and I tried to make light of the conversation. I started telling stories and he was able to ask the right questions to make the game into something the listeners would enjoy hearing

I was also given a chance to broadcast for the Ravens when they were brought to Baltimore. I was great friends with Art Modell. The first time I met Art Modell, because I grew up in Cleveland Ohio, is when he took over the Browns in 1961. He had bought the Browns from Paul Brown when Paul went to Cincinnati. It was in my rookie season and in the first game I played, I crushed two vertebrae in my neck. I was placed on injured waiver. Back in those days that made you a free agent. So, Art Modell called me to Cleveland. He wanted to have x-rays taken to see if I was alright. The doctors decided I would be fine, so Art said he would like to sign me in Cleveland. He made me an offer that would have increased my salary by 30%. I went back to the Baltimore Colts’ general manager and told him I wanted to go to Cleveland because they were offering me more money and it was my hometown, I wanted to go back there. He told me “Tom, whatever they offered you, we will match it.” So, I got a 30% raise thanks to Art Modell. In later years, when he came to Baltimore for Preakness or other like events, I always had Art Modell come to my radio show. Art and I just hit it off. I was in attendance at his wedding. He was just the nicest guy in the world, everyone loved him. He was a great philanthropist. When he finally decided to come to Baltimore with the Browns, I fixed up memorial stadium and put down a brand new field for him. That field was voted the best field in the football league at the time. He was grateful for all the work I’d done and in return, he got me a job in broadcasting for the Ravens. For the year we went to the Super Bowl, he gave me and Scott Garceau Super Bowl rings. He was a real gentleman and people don’t give him credit. He deserves to be in the hall of fame.

I had a great time broadcasting with Scott Garceau for the Baltimore Ravens. The year that the Ravens drove for the Super bowl one of my fondest memories. Dilfer was the quarterback at the time. Although, Dilfer was a mediocre quarterback, he didn’t make any mistakes. He was very conservative. He always kept us in the game and the defense would make the big plays. It was just a fun drive. It was great watching the progression of the Ravens into the Super Bowl. It was just a fun time for everybody. I had a great time broadcasting and Scott Garceau is my best friend. It was like broadcasting with a brother.

Sadly, all good things come to an end. When BAL came around, they got the rights away from CBS radio. After 10 years, the Ravens got a better deal and changed stations and that was the end of Scott Garceau and I broadcasting for the Baltimore Ravens.