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| | | | | | | | Tuesday, November 28, 2000
Where are they now: Steve Grogan
By Dan O'Sullivan
ABC Sports Online
Steve Grogan, who threw for 26,886 yards during a 16-year NFL career, joined the Patriots in 1975 as a fifth-round pick out of Kansas State. Early on, he was a dangerous running threat who picked up 539 yards on the ground in 1978. He later evolved into a pocket passer with a penchant for the long ball and helped lead the Patriots to their first Super Bowl in 1986.
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Patriots QB Steve Grogan is the Patriots' second all-time leading passer. |
Grogan retired from the Patriots in 1990. He now owns Grogan-Marciano Sporting Goods in Mansfield, Mass., and does some radio and television work covering the Patriots. Grogan lives in Foxboro, Mass., where he shares a home with his wife and two of his three sons.
ABC Sports Online: What made you such an effective runner?
Steve Grogan: I was a pretty good athlete. We ran the ball a lot in high school, and while at Kansas State we ran the option offense. So I really
didn't know much about the passing game when I came in the league, and suddenly halfway through my rookie year I was starting for a National Football League team. I really didn't have any idea of what I was doing out there; I was just having fun. I'd drop back and if my first or second options weren't there, I'd take off and run with it because it was something I had done most of my football career. I did that the first four or five years, then I had
knee problems. I think one of the things I'm most proud of is that
I was able to adapt my skills from being a running quarterback
to a pocket passer later in my career when my running ability
had diminished.
ABC Sports Online: The Patriots of the late '70s had some great offensive weapons: Stanley Morgan, Sam Bam
Cunningham, Russ Francis, Harold Jackson and others.
Was that the best talent you ever had around you?
Grogan: I would say probably so. That whole late-'70s group
was close on and off the field. We worked well together, ran the
ball extremely well, threw it deep extremely well, had some
success. Probably not as much [success] as we should have
had, but it was a fun group of guys.
ABC Sports Online: The Patriots' coaching situation fell
into disarray near the end of the 1978 season, when Chuck
Fairbanks left for the University of Colorado. What do you
recall from that time?
Grogan: It was tough because there was a lot of confusion over
what was taking place and what was going to take place.
Fairbanks had already told Colorado that he was coming out
there to take over as coach. [Patriots owner] Billy Sullivan found
out about it and fired him before the last game of the season in
Miami. So we had co-head coaches for the last game, Ron
Erhardt and Hank Bullough, the two coordinators. And
Fairbanks came back for the playoffs. But there was just a lot of
confusion and uncertainty about the whole situation as far as
the players were concerned.
ABC Sports Online: On Sept. 18, 1978, the Patriots lost to
the Baltimore Colts 34-27 on Monday Night Football. What
are your memories from that game and about the Colts'
Joe Washington, who had an outstanding night?
Grogan: Joe Washington was a tremendous athlete. He threw
for a touchdown that night, ran for one and returned a kick [for a
touchdown], if I'm not mistaken. [Ed. note: Washington caught a
touchdown pass but did not run for one.] It was a back-and-forth
game, a rainy night. We came back toward the end to go
ahead, and then he took the kickoff and ran it back to beat us.
A very disappointing evening.
ABC Sports Online: Seven years later, you reached Super
Bowl XX. Did the disappointment of that 46-10 loss to the
Bears overshadow everything else the Patriots
accomplished that season?
Grogan: The Super Bowl was a tremendous experience. I think
all of us remember the time leading up to the game and how
much excitement there was around here. The game was a
disappointing loss. But with the year we had, with the new
coaching staff and no one expecting us to do much, the
outcome of the Super Bowl didn't diminish the fun that we had
that year. I remember riding in on buses to the airport, and
people pulling over their cars and honking and waving. I had
never seen anything like that in New England, at least for a
football team.
ABC Sports Online: What did you do post-retirement? Did
you try to stay in football?
Grogan: I had interviewed for two coaching jobs. I actually had
a coaching job in a new spring league that started for about a
month and then went under. I had interviews for a couple of
college jobs and was told by both places that I knew a lot of
football, [but] that I needed experience coaching at the high
school or small college level and work my way up. By that time I
was about 40 years old and had a family to feed and didn't feel
like I wanted to climb the ladder or needed to climb the ladder.
So I had the opportunity to buy this sporting goods business
that had been here for awhile. I did some investigating and, in
October of 1994, bought it.
ABC Sports Online: What are your thoughts on how Drew
Bledsoe has developed the past couple of years?
Grogan: [In] the last year, he's really developed into the kind of
quarterback [the Patriots] expected him to be: a franchise-type
guy. I always had some doubts about his toughness and
leadership ability. But from about the midpoint of 1998, you
could see he feels comfortable taking over the leadership role of
that team. He's played with injuries and I see him developing as
the years go by into one of the all-time greats.
ABC Sports Online: Do you consider yourself a lifetime
New Englander now?
Grogan: I think probably. When I got out of football, I tried to
find something out [near Kansas] because I still have family
back there. But I've been here for over 25 years now, and my name
carries a lot more weight here than it does back there. So you
go where the opportunities are.
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