Since it is the slow time of the year for football, I figured I would start this topic. Would love to hear stories about what players are like when the cameras are not on them from the fans perspective. I have met several player throughout the years and most are great, some not so much. Here is one of the good ones to get this started, hopefully others will also chime in:
Back in 1977 one of my friends lived next door to Gary Huff (QB for the Buccaneers during their first win in '77) in TnC. Gary was a local guy that grew up in Tampa, went to Leto HS, and was an All American at FSU. IIRC he played several sports at FSU (basketball and maybe baseball?) and was an all around great athlete.
If you were to have met him, you would have never thought he was an NFL player. He lived in a very modest house, had a regular job in the off season, and drove a tiny Honda Civic to work. Back then Civics were pretty small and to see him drive up was comical. He was one of the nicest guys you could ever meet and I remember us being outside playing then he would come home and we would ask him if he had time to play. He would say to let him get settled in and he would come out after dinner. He would come out and play basketball in the street or throw the football with us. Sometimes he would get carried away and throw a bullet that would almost take us off out feet (we were all only around 12-13.) He would throw bombs all the way down the street and we would have to have three of us lined up to relay it back to him to have him bomb it to us again. I couldn't appreciate it back then as a preteen but have a lot or respect for him now thinking about how he was a family first kind of guy that still had time to be nice to kids in his neighborhood.
Pretty big contrast to some of the stories you hear about some of the divas playing today.
