I remember my dad, who coached football, would buy some of his players football shoes when they couldn't afford it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was very poor. As a child my dream was to have a leather football.
The only football players in my time were fellows who really loved to play football. They were not in it for the money. There wasn't much money there. They would have played football for nothing.
I always told my dad I'd play professional football.
Only a handful of professional football athletes have had a signature shoe, unlike in basketball where there have been a number of guys.
When I was a kid, man, my dad used to buy me the Ted Williams glove at Sears with the Ted Williams shoes with the eight stripes on 'em. I used to play Little League, and I was Ted Williams-ed out.
When my father bid $5,000 for the 1962 Championship Game, that was a huge amount. It was double the bid the year before. Pete Rozelle was flabbergasted. Who was this guy who was willing to spend so much money on what seemed like relatively worthless rights to the NFL Championship Game?
My father was an all-American football player.
Growing up, we didn't have any money - we shopped where you picked your shoes out of a bin. When I was little, I said, 'When I grow up, I'm going to have nice shoes.'
Once, players came to football expecting to be wealthy when they retired. Now, they expect to be wealthy before they've played their first game!
One thing my dad always told me, was he would make sure I always had what he didn't have. He couldn't play basketball because he didn't have tennis shoes - so I had five pairs of tennis shoes.