By Jim Gehman, Engagement Insider
Drafted by Minnesota in 1985, that was also the year legendary head coach Bud Grant returned to the Vikings for his 18th and final season. Was he a little intimidating?
“Yeah, he was. [Laughs] He always ran the scout team and I was always on the scout team my rookie year. They say those blue eyes are piercing. Trust me, they are. I wish I would have got to play for him longer.”
You were a center, a position where there’s contact on nearly every snap. How were you able to play so well for so long – 12 seasons, eight with Minnesota and four with Indianapolis – in the NFL?
“I think I was just lucky. I stayed fairly healthy. And I always had good people around me. When I was in Minnesota, (guard) Randall McDaniel came in. Jim Hough was there. Brent Boyd was there for a while when I was starting out. And then Todd Kalis and Brian Habib came in. Dave Huffman was there, also.
“But to have a Hall of Famer [McDaniel] to the left of you for most of your career, that’s a big plus. And then on the other side of him is another Hall of Famer, Gary Zimmerman.”
You left the Vikings and signed with the Colts in 1993. Why?
“That was at the very beginning of free agency. It was such a shock. You had to go. I liked Minnesota. We had a lot of friends up there. My teammates were great. My coaches were great. We really enjoyed living up there. We had three kids when we left there. It was a great place to live. The offer was just too good, you had to go.”
Indianapolis also signed free agent tackle Wil Wolford that year. The Colts clearly planned to upgrade their offensive line.
“Yeah, but we did a lot better the second year because we drafted a kid by the name of Marshall Faulk. (The future Hall of Fame running back) made us look pretty good.” [Laughs]
What makes you most proud of your football career?
“Probably just the fact that I was able to last for 12 years, survive in that business. Because that’s a tough business. To make it that long was, in my mind, a pretty good accomplishment.”
You now co-own a business– Eastern Resource Service LLC – in Carroll County, Ohio. It’s a diesel engine repair company which concentrates on the oil and gas drilling industry. What led to creating the company?
“We started about four or five years ago, and basically what we do is we’re a mechanic service. Within 45 minutes of my house; there were probably 10 drilling rights. At one time, you’d stand at my house and see three different ones at the same time. It’s slowed down a little bit, but it’s still very busy with the hydraulic fracturing and the horizontal drilling.
“I and my partner, Todd Lensman, hoped that it was going to get as big as it is. That’s part of it. We do a lot of preventative maintenance for companies. We do a lot of mechanical work. There’s so much equipment out here it’s unbelievable. It’s all for natural gas and oil production. We still have trucking customers, but that’s what it’s mostly for.”
Your customers earn their living with those machines and trucks. When something does break down, is it a case of I need this to be done yesterday?
“Yes. All the time. [Laughs] That’s how it is. When they need it, they need it. That’s part of what you signed up for.”
What’s your goal with the company?
“We’d like to continue to grow. We’d like to add another location here pretty soon. Just keep building it.”
What do you enjoy about what you’re doing?
“It keeps me very busy. I consider the mechanical service, the mechanics; they’re kind of like the offensive linemen of the oil and gas business. They do all the dirty work and they don’t get a lot of the credit for what goes on.”
Away from work, you and your wife, Kellee, have three daughters and a son, John, who may possibly follow your footsteps into the NFL.
“All my kids worked very hard at athletics. My oldest daughter, Ashley, played basketball at Gannon University in Erie (Pennsylvania). My second daughter, Ally, played softball at the University of Charleston in West Virginia. Taylor is my youngest, and she’s probably the best athlete of the girls. She’s going to school at Ohio University. But she doesn’t like sports enough to play in college.
“And John is the third out of four. He went to the University of Iowa and played strong safety. We talked about (the upcoming draft) a little bit, and he just hopes he gets a chance to play somewhere.
“We talked about all the different teams that are contacting him. I told him the way it works is the team that picks you, you probably never heard from until they call you. I never heard from Minnesota before they drafted me (in the third round in 1985). He’s (projected) to be a late round pick. Or he’ll sign as a free agent.”