Death threats, a perfect spiral, an everlasting legacy
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Death threats, a perfect spiral, an everlasting legacy
Our Warren Moon Happy Hour was full of stories from an unprecedented career that paved the way for the quarterback stars of today.
There were quarterbacks predestined for superstardom.
Then, there was Warren Moon.
Undrafted out of Washington. Forced to play in the CFL five seasons. The NFL’s doors were sadly slammed shut to Moon in the early 1980s… and then he changed everything for African-American quarterbacks. His impact on pro football is obvious every Sunday. Moon blazed the trail for Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts and countless others.
The Hall of Fame quarterback joined the Go Long Happy Hour to relive it all.
His picturesque deep ball. Moon explains the secret behind his spiral. It involved nail clippers.
The Comeback. Moon can still picture Buffalo Bills fans mooning the Oilers’ team bus after that epic loss. Yeah, he’d like to have that second half back.
Houston’s Run and Shoot offense. This offense was ahead of its time. Also, why was the team broken up so abruptly?
The worst hit he ever took? It’s right here. It still hurts.
Excelling into his 40s. Moon just kept going, and going.
And once, in Cleveland, Moon needed security to guide him off the field due to death threats. (Seriously.)
“We had a game where it was on my birthday and I threw five touchdown passes in Cleveland that day and they took me out of the game the last couple of minutes just to let the backup go in and let the clock run down. I’m standing on the sideline thinking about what I want to do that night when I get home for my birthday. Are we going to go out to dinner? What are we going to do? And then, all of a sudden, our head of security comes over to me and about five police officers. He just says, ‘Warren, you stay close to us when the game is over because there’s been another death threat on your life and we’re going to escort you off the field.’ That’s how I left the field that day, wondering if I was going to get shot walking off the field. Those were the types of things you got exposed to that I never talked about until my career was over. Never told my family about it or any of that type of stuff. I just held it all inside of me just to make everybody think everything was OK.”
What was going through his mind?
“You almost chuckled like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Somebody really wants to kill me over a football game?’ That’s the way I looked at it. Then, they asked me: ‘This is something that’s happened before. Would you want to know before it happens or do you not want to know about it?’ I said, ‘I don’t want to know about it. Don’t even tell me about it. If you think it’s serious enough that I need escorts off the field, then you tell me. But I don’t want to know every time there’s a death threat on my life.’”
He laughed thinking back to the scene outside the locker room after guys got dressed. Teammates didn’t want to stand close to him. Part of Moon was legitimately concerned.
Get this full story — and a lot more — by replaying the Warren Moon Happy Hour at the video above or audio links/embeds below.
Also, is there a current or former player you want to hang out with? Upgrade to a VIP membership and let me know at golongtd@gmail.com.
Enjoy.
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