August 8, 2023 • 32 mins
One would assume that a 2-time All American, Butkus Award winner, National Champion and 2-time Super Bowl Champion played football his whole life. Not the case with Alfred Williams. He begrudgingly started playing in high school: Alfred wanted to be a quarterback and when he was switched to defensive line after a couple days of practice, he quit.
Thankfully a coach kept after him and convinced Alfred to come back out and promised he would be by his side and help him. Not only did that high school coach help him with football, he helped him navigate life. Alfred made sure that same coach saw Super Bowl 32 and 33.
While Alfred had incredible success at the University of Colorado and was a first-round draft pick in the NFL, he still faced many struggles during his time as a pro level including injuries, questionable coaching and guidance and a divorce. Life got a lot better when he signed with the Broncos in 1996.
Big Al has always considered Colorado his home and stayed true to that in retirement, entertaining fans on Denver TV and radio stations for years. These days he’s an afternoon co-host on KOA Colorado with Dave Logan and Ryan Edwards.
Hosted by Susie Wargin
Thankfully a coach kept after him and convinced Alfred to come back out and promised he would be by his side and help him. Not only did that high school coach help him with football, he helped him navigate life. Alfred made sure that same coach saw Super Bowl 32 and 33.
While Alfred had incredible success at the University of Colorado and was a first-round draft pick in the NFL, he still faced many struggles during his time as a pro level including injuries, questionable coaching and guidance and a divorce. Life got a lot better when he signed with the Broncos in 1996.
Big Al has always considered Colorado his home and stayed true to that in retirement, entertaining fans on Denver TV and radio stations for years. These days he’s an afternoon co-host on KOA Colorado with Dave Logan and Ryan Edwards.
Hosted by Susie Wargin
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
That was the first time. Iwas walking back into the tunnel and the
South stands were upset. I wasupset. I mean, nobody was happy
with what happened, and a fewmembers of the South stand through something that
us and I was like, it'llnever happen again. That'll never happen again.
Welcome to cut, Traded, Fired, Retired. If this is your
first time, thank you so muchfor checking out the podcast. There is
(00:22):
no order to the episodes. Justpick and choose whenever you want to hear
some great stories from professional athletes andcoaches. If you're a regular, you
already know how this works, andthank you for all of your support.
I'm your host, Susie Wargin.This episode's guest is bigger than life,
which is why we call him BigAl. Yes, he is big in
stature, but his personality is enormous. Alfred Williams didn't grow up playing football
(00:45):
because his single mom couldn't afford topay the fees for three boys to play,
so none of them did, thankfully. In high school, Alfred got
pulled aside by a coach who gothim in the game and was also a
steadfast mentor and friend to Alfred foryears. Even into his NFL career,
big Al was a captain, twotime All American buck his Award winner,
and national champion at the University ofColorado. He was a first round draft
(01:08):
pick in the NFL, and fortunatelyfor Broncos fans, he finished his career
in Denver and that included two SuperBowl wins and then he stuck around to
entertain Denver sports fans on radio andTV, which he continues to do today.
He's in the CEU Athletics Hall ofFame and the College Football Hall of
Fame. Ladies and gentlemen, Enjoythe Show with Alfred Williams. Cut,
(01:30):
Traded, Fired, Rick Tired Podcastwith Susie Wargin. Alfred Williams, How
are you? I'm doing well?How you doing? Sure? You doing
good? I'm doing good. Youknow, we've known each other for quite
a while, obviously with radio,but I got my first press pass with
the Broncos after Super Bowl thirty two, so like twenty five years we've been
(01:51):
around each other. How crazy isthat? Right? And never was it
around radio that I saw you.It was always TV. Well, yeah,
that's true at news, so that'sright. Yeah, the radio part,
I didn't even know you were doingradio until I came over here,
tell you the truth because I wasso used to seeing you on TV.
That's true. Yeah, well,it's fun. It's great to have you.
You're part of the iHeart family,and so I appreciate you coming in
(02:12):
today. Let's kind of go backto your roots of growing up in Houston.
You went to Jones High School?When did football become a big part
of your life? And you werea basketball player too, because you played
a little basketball when you were atSEU. Yeah. I started playing football
when I was in the ninth grade, and I was told I couldn't play
in the sixth, seventh, andeighth grade. And in Texas there's no
(02:36):
pop water pass the fifth grade.You have to play for your junior high
school. So my junior high schoolcoach looked at me and famously said I
was too skinny to play football,so I was not allowed to even go
out for the team. No kidding. What did you weigh then? Oh?
I don't know. I was wereyou truly? I just looked like
the rest of my friends, butI was talling. You look like a
(02:59):
middle school right, right, Imean you know, I'm imagine I was
one forty one fifty whatever sixth gradersare disappointing was that it was crushing.
I was crushing, you know.So I went into the band, and
I was in the marching band foryou know, middle school, and then
I got to high school, anduh, you know, right before my
high school year, a guy bythe name Alfie Mitchell in Houston said,
(03:22):
hey, once you come out forthe football team. And then after getting
crushed for three years in a row, you know, I was just not
into it. Sure, and youknow, I was doing well in the
band. What did you play baritonesaxophone? I still play. No,
I haven't played it, you know, but I don't think I could pick
it back up if I wanted tobe. I bet I could play a
(03:44):
few notes, but it has takenme a while. But I played it
for four years and I became quiteproficient. But I haven't played it since
you go out for football in highschool? Then, yeah, he challenged
me, well, he said,uh you know, I said, no,
I'm good. He said, I'mfaster than you. I say,
no, you're not. He said, if I beat you in this race,
you got to go out for atleast try. He beat me,
and I went out for football,and the coach said, well, position
(04:06):
you play like everybody in the hood, I played quarterback, And I went
out and I played quarterback for onepractice. The next day, I came
back out there thinking I was aboutto play quarterback, and they put me
at the defensive line. And onthe third day of football, I quit.
Did you really? Absolutely quit?On day three? I'm like,
(04:28):
hey, I didn't come out hereto do that stuff. I don't even
know what that is. I didn'teverybody. No, no, I never
played, so I just thought everybodyplayed running back, wide receiver, or
quarterback. So the idea that Iwas not going to play one of those
positions just never entered my mind,and so I quit. I went back
to the band and my high schoolcoach saw me in the hallway and he
(04:50):
pulled me to the side and toldme that he was gonna work with me
and if I would come back outthere, he was going to be the
guy that's working with me. AndI just looked at him and said,
no, thank you. You knowwhat's funny is that he was you know
back then, you know, corporatepunishment was okay, oh yeah, you
know in my high school school athome, everything. He was the guy.
(05:13):
Of course, that was the gymteacher who was smacking dudes on the
butt for you know, being laidor disrupting class, you know, and
the parents had to all sign offon this stuff. So it was part
of the culture. And then youknow, he was there and you know
he had the big paddle in hisback pocket and walking around. I mean,
this guy was huge. I meanhe played for the Washington Redskins.
(05:34):
And I was just like, man, this is uh, you know,
I don't want any smoke with him. I want zero smoke with this guy.
And so he said, I'll tellyou what. I'm gonna talk to
you tomorrow and then we're gonna figurethis out. He pulled me out of
class the next day, this wasa Thursday, and he said, I
expect you out there practice tomorrow.I told you, I'm gonna work with
(05:55):
you myself. I'm gonna work withyou. So I go out there and
he starts working with me, andlo and behold, he became the best
man I knew. And oh mygoodness, man, I mean it was
it was incredible. I did thisguy. He took under under his wing
and I was with him every Fridayand Saturday night. Throughout high school,
(06:15):
I didn't have like places to goand things to do. I was with
him. We were either at howdo he mentor you what did he do?
He just was just a great man. He just knew that I could
use some guidance. But more importantly, I wanted to be around him because
he was He was stern man.He was he was a tough coach,
but but you still loved him,Oh, my goodness, love him.
(06:36):
Pieces I was with him every Fridayand Saturday, you know, even during
the basketball season, because football seasonrolls in the basketball season. Basketball season
rolls in the track. He wasthe head track coach. And so I
did discus, shot put, highjump. Yeah, I did. It
(06:56):
was great man. I was justwith him all the time. And then
I got through with my high schoolcareer and I remember going through the recruiting
process and all these schools were askingme to come visit. I got letters
from Miami, Hawaii, UCLA,Syracuse. I must have had ninety letters,
Susie. I mean, it wasgreat. And so I had my
(07:19):
high school visits scheduled for Hawaii,hit Miami, and for some reason I
thought that Syracuse was in New YorkCity, so I scheduled Syracuse and then
he pulled me to the side andhe was like, very very clear,
like, these are these guys careers, and you just can't treat them like
(07:39):
crap. If you're not gonna goto that school, you shouldn't. Don't
just go for the trip, rightright, And so I paired it down
and he helped me through the wholeprocess, and before he passed away,
he got a chance to see meplay in two Super Bowls, and I
made sure he was there for those, him and his wife, and it
was a wonderful, wonderful relationship.There's always at least one person, whether
(08:01):
it be a coach or just somebodythat was a huge influence I think in
everybody's life, especially people that havemade it to a level like you have,
where there was that one person youcan look back and go that was
the difference. I know for afact who that person is. For me,
there's no guesswork. I know howdiligent he was with me as an
athlete, and I remember at theconclusion of my freshman year, I had
(08:24):
like a one point one GPA.It's not because I couldn't do the work.
I just wasn't doing the work.I remember coach came when I was
a sophomore because I was playing varsity. I went from freshman to varsity.
Wow. And I was starting andI was playing good. And one of
the coaches came by from a collegeand he said, hey, you mind
(08:45):
if I look at his transcripts.I was just finishing up my sophomore year.
I had like at that point,I had like a one point five.
And from the end of my sophomoreyear until I graduated, I didn't
make another See everything was I madetwo bees and the rest were as the
rest of my high school career.Wow. Because I didn't know. I
mean you didn't. You don't whennobody tells you it's important, and you
(09:09):
don't know. When somebody tells youit's important, that's when you should adhere
to what the challenges are. Absolutely, So how did you end up deciding
then on Colorado? Was it becauseof your visit or was it because of
just pairing things down with him?They were the only school that didn't offer
money, No kidding, Yep,that was it. That was the deciding
factor. They were the only schoolthat didn't offer money. So you're eighteen
(09:33):
and a lot of times money isyou know, that gets a lot of
guys, especially back then when itwasn't you know, I mean it's under
the table and it's not great,but people still took it. Obviously you
had some morals well, I meaneverybody was offering from cars to briefcases of
money. I was also one yearremoved from SMU getting a death penalty right
in football, since you saw thatfirsthand, right, I was in Texas
(09:56):
when that happened, and I thoughtthat there was going to be some others
schools in the Southwest Conference that we'regoing to get the death penalty. But
they didn't. And I don't knowwhy. They still have not been sanctioned
for illegal funds, but that's foranother show, another podcast. In the
University of Colorado never offered, andI was thankful. I mean, yeah,
(10:20):
the campus was beautiful, absolutely,and uh, you know coach mack
bless his heart. Man, herecruited my mom, did he? He
recruited my mom? But my momhad nothing to do with this decision.
What did he do with your mom? Oh? He just sat with her.
You know. They went through biblicalverses, They talked about culture,
and they talked about opportunity. Mymom was getting recruited by Bill McCartney,
(10:43):
some of the best. But whenI tell you, Susie, when I
tell you, it had no bearingon whether or not I was going to
university, It had zero, zerobearing on whether or not you made your
own decision. I made my owndecision. And remember now, the guy
that started me in this process washolding my hand throughout the entire deal,
(11:05):
this whole football I was the onlyguy that played football in my family.
It wasn't like my brother played.My mom couldn't afford to send us over
to play Pop Warner and other sportswhen we were young. It was three
of us and we didn't have themoney. And her philosophy was, well,
if you play, then they haveto play. And I can't afford
all three of y'all plans, sonone of you, Well, so none
(11:26):
of us are playing. Wow.So that's what happened. And so this
whole football process was all because ofyou know, Rolling Rodgers. And so
when I went through the process,she didn't have nothing to do with this.
It was me and Rolling Rodgers sittingback and going through every opportunity.
I remember when the coach from WestPoint came in because at that time I
(11:46):
got my DPA up to A threetwo from where I was, and I
was eligible to go to Air Forceand West Point. The West Point coach
came in and he started talking tome. Coach Rogers came in and he
said he's not going to West Point. I just looked at him, like,
hey, man, I the guywasn't even done with his spill.
He said, he's going to playin the NFL one day, so he
(12:07):
needs to go right from college tothe NFL. And I looked at him
like looking around the room, likeare you talking about me? Yeah?
And so that was the first timethat I had even thought about playing.
During that interview with the coach fromWest Point, yeah, like he said
that, he said that he's goingto play in the NFL, and I
(12:28):
was I just looked at him like, I don't even know what you're talking
about. It was a shocker,to say the least, because all you
thought about that point was going tocollege. I just wanted to leave Houston.
Oh yeah, I just wanted toleave Houston. I would sacrifice my
weekends and my nights to make suremy grades were good so I could get
out. I just didn't want tobe there anymore. All the coaches in
the state of Texas, you know, they were of course recruiting me,
(12:52):
and I told them, I'm notgoing to school in Texas out of the
whole state. Yeah, I justsaid I wasn't going to school in Texas.
So I was just done because ofthe SMU debacle, and plus I
had just gone through the whole recruitingdeal. I mean, the recruiting deal
was serious. Man. Imagine Iflew on a private plane to go to
(13:13):
Georgia. I flew on a privateplane to go to LSU. I mean,
it was it was. It wasthe pilots, me and Rodney Hampton
to go to Georgia. Rodney itended up signing and planning for the Georgia
Bulldogs, and me and another guyjumped on a private plane in Houston to
go to LSU. And it wasit was just wild man. Coaches were
(13:33):
sitting outside my house and limousines andyou know, because I didn't, you
know, every weekend I went onthe recruiting visit. I committed. So
they say, hey, you comein. I say, absolutely, next
visit. You're coming, absolutely,next visit. Absolutely, And so that
just happened five separate times, andthen I just told the coaches. The
night before signing day, I toldhim I'm I'm not going to your school.
(13:56):
I didn't tell them where I wasgoing, but I just told him
I wasn't going to their school,and I went to school. They were
upset, but but you know,they were all sitting outside my house the
morning of the signing. My momworked at night. My mom took the
day off on National Signing Day totake me to school, you know,
because I took the city bus everyday. Wow. So I just walked
(14:20):
around the corner, jumped on theseventy three Belfort to the thirty three Calhoun
dropped me off in front of theschool, multiple buses to get to two
buses to get to school. Soour kids would shudder at the thought of
that. How many plane rights hadyou been on before you went on those
recruiting visits? Had you been onplanes? Now? Man? When I
took my visit to the University ofColorado, it was crazy because they had
(14:43):
a smoking section. They had asmoking and a non smoking section on the
airplane. And this was nineteen eightysix, right, this is this is
like November of nineteen eighty six,and I was in the non smoking section
of the airplane, which was oneseat behind the smoking section. So I
laughed. Now every time I geton the airplane and when they say no
(15:07):
smoking, you know, and I'mthinking to myself, you know what,
I guarantee you Maybe it's happened somewherewhere a cigarette caused some kind of issue
on an airplane. But for themost part, up until nineteen eighty six,
everybody could smoke on an airplane.Yeah, it's wild. Yeah.
So the Universe of Colorado was myfirst airplane visit. And I got there
(15:30):
and it was cold. I hadmy high school jacket on. It was
snowing. I didn't leave my hotelroom. Really, the Buffalo Bells left
a cake in my room. Iate the crap out of that cake.
Man ate the I ate that cake. Man. We went to dinner,
I came back to the room,I ate the cake. And next day
I woke up and the snow wasmelting and it was beautiful. That's what
(15:52):
recruited me to the University of Colorado. Really, that was it. Oh
wow, So your first visit endsup being Colorado, that's where you end
up going. And then what acareer you have with the Buffalos, especially
the year of nineteen ninety that's whenyou're a unanimous All American. You win
the Buckets Award that year it's thenational championship year. I mean, your
career at see you and I knowyou've talked about it a lot, but
(16:15):
it's just incredible. Yeah. Theguys that I played with at the Universe
of Colorado, I still to thisday call them my best friends. You
guys are very tight, aren't you. We are very very very tight.
We are our own support group.We check on each other daily. Alfred.
That's so important. Yeah. Italked to a lot of guys that
are our age and now mental healthhas talked about so much more. But
(16:37):
just that daily check in or justnot and then listening, not how you
doing good? No, no,no, how are you actually doing?
Yeah? We talk. You talkto somebody every day. I had to
pick up the phone and call himand tell him I love him, and
just thinking about them, it's agood day. What did you take away
from that college experience? I mean, not even thinking about going into the
(16:57):
NFL until that one point with theWest Point coach, and now you have
this incredible resume, that you builtup with the University of Colorado, and
you do you go first round.You're eighteenth overall in the NFL draft.
Yeah. I just remember my senioryear at the University of Colorado and there
was a lot of chatter about megoing into the NFL after my junior year,
(17:18):
and I remember going into Bill McCartney'soffice and at the time, I'm
a consensus All American as a juniorat the University of Colorado. He said,
hey, listen, there are alot of people saying that you're gonna
go into the NFL draft. Isaid, well, I don't know who
told you that, but what I'dlike to do is I'd like the red
shirt. He looked at me likeI was he I think he was.
(17:42):
I think he thought he was thereto tuck me out of going to the
NFL. And what I was tellinghim is that I didn't want to leave
the University of Colorado. I wantedto stay one more year, and he
talked me out of it. Soyou wanted to just red shirt, not
play, but still stay there foranother Yeah, yeah, stay, get
stronger, be more dominant than Iwas, and enjoying my college lifestyle.
(18:06):
I don't think there's a guy inthe world who had a better time in
college than I did. There can'tbe a person alive who had a better
time than I did at the Universityof Colorado. My whole time there was
it was fantastic. It was ablessing that I chose to go there.
They were six and five I thinkwhen I signed. In my last game
there, we won a natural championship. And then, you know, the
(18:27):
thing that I thought pro football wasis that I'm gonna be playing with the
best of the best. And becauseI'm going to pro football, then these
guys are smart, they are tough, and they're big and fast. They
were big and fast, smart,not all the time. It was just
(18:48):
just different than what you thought itwas. I played for a lot of
dumbass coaches, that's the bottom line. I played for a lot of dumbass
coaches, and and for a guywho played for really smart coaches, yeah,
who took great care of me.That was to the system. It
was a shocker, man. Imean, you know, like everything that
you do in the league when you'reyoung should be monitored and you should take
(19:14):
very good care of who says anythingto rookies because that's their first impression of
the league, and if it's notright in year one, it could be
a couple of three years before theypick it up if they're a high draft
pick. If they're not, itmay just get bumped out of the league.
I was just watching Hard Knocks fromI think it was Jeff Fisher,
(19:37):
and he cut a guy for havinga woman in the room a few years
ago. Right, I mean,this guy didn't he didn't get good advice,
right, somebody. He didn't havegood men around him to tell him
the right things to do and notto do. And that's football, like
that for real, that's football.Yeah, did you have something happen like
your rookie season or your first coupleof years? And okay, I got
(19:59):
hurt because I didn't know what thehell I was doing. You know,
like when you don't know what you'redoing and you don't have great instruction,
that's when you get hurt. Youcan watch any NFL preseason, and guys
that are great players in college profileto be great players in the NFL.
If they go to a bad team, it just seems that things happen like
(20:21):
they get hurt or you know,there's an attitude issue us. It's always
something and it always reflects poorly onthe athlete, but really it's the organization's
fault for not giving them the properoutlet to do what they're supposed to do.
Absolutely, and then when you arebrand new in the league and you
get hurt, being injured is avery difficult place to be mentally because then
(20:41):
you are separated from the team.You don't feel like you're a part of
things. What was that like foryou when you were going through that in
Cincinnati? It was miserable and Ididn't want to be there. I didn't
have great coaching. It was asecond class organization. It was disappointing.
Did you realize it was second classwhen you were there or did you not
realize it until you came here later. I just played for the University of
(21:03):
Colorado, which is practically franchises exactly. We're winning every week, they're tearing
down the old building building a brandnew facility. And then I go play
for the Cincinnati Bengals, who arein essentially an industrial building like a warehouse.
Yeah, and the building was underlike when we parked our cards was
(21:25):
under a viduct. You know whatI'm saying? So we could come out.
You know, you got white drippingsall over your car, and it
just didn't feel like it just wasn'tright for me. I just knew it
wasn't right for me. As soonas I got there. I just knew
it wasn't right for me. AndI just could not wait to leave.
And it was bad for a longtime. So from Cincinnati you go to
San Francisco. So were you afree agent when you went to That's that's
(21:49):
where I fell in love with footballagain. How come because it was first
class? You don't know, likeI'm thinking, most places are. You
know, it's the NFL. It'slike big time colleges. Everybody has great
facilities, everybody is. You wentto all great places when you were being
recruited, a first class places,right, And so when I got to
(22:11):
Cincinnati, it was not what Ienvisioned what pro ball would be. And
then I go out to the fortynine ers and I was like, this
is pro ball. You know,from the weather to the way that we
traveled, you know, room accommodations, the way that they talked to you.
You know, we weren't out therebeating each other up all day every
(22:32):
day. It was amazing, andthat's what I wanted for the rest of
my life. And so when Ibecame a free agent after that year,
I wanted to come home. Ialways wanted to be a Denver Bronco.
I just never wanted to play anyother places. You want to drafted by
them, yeah, man, Imean on draft night, I didn't get
drafted by the Broncos, and Icried. I'm not ashamed to say it.
I was was so hurt that Ididn't get a chance to start my
(22:55):
career here. I think my careerwould have been way different if I would
have got a chance to, Yeah, and see myself playing with Simon Fletcher
and Carl Mecklenburg and all of thoseguys that were part of those great you
know, Dennis Smith and at Waterand we still got to play with Steve
I did, I did, youknow? And Dennis was just a great
dude to me. He's been agreat friend to me my entire college career
(23:18):
and even to this day. Man. I mean, anytime I've seen Dennis
Smith, it's been it's been wonderful, man. I mean, And he's
a good guy that keeps in touchwith people. I know, Mike Harden
and Mike harden Man, Mike hardenand Dennis Smith used to be downtown and
I would be down there, andmy last couple of years of college,
when I was of age, theysee me out, they bought me a
(23:40):
beer. I mean exactly exactly.So when I see these guys now,
man, you got to know there'sa lot of love there that started back
in like nineteen eighty nine, youknow. And I finally got a chance
to play for the Broncos, andwe did what I thought we were gonna
do. We won two Super Bowls, And you came to another first class
organization because Mike Shanahan had this placewith mister Bowland, with mister b just
(24:03):
running, and he brought a lotof that from San Francisco. At talking
to Mike, he said that,you know, there was some things that
were antiquated that he had to getup to speed. But let me tell
you something. When when Mike Shanahanwas a head coach at the Denver Broncos,
we were the first team to comeout and have breakfast, lunch,
and dinner provided by the team.Believe it or not, back then,
(24:26):
what would happen is that the rookieswould bring in breakfast sandwiches for the veterans,
and then at lunchtime, the equipmentguy would come by and take an
order for what you wanted for lunch. You want Burger King, you want
McDonald's, you want a sub sandwich. And that's how lunch was ordered.
Farcroft from what we have now.Mike told me a great story when I
(24:47):
had him on. He said thatthat was one of the things he wanted
was to have meals for everybody thereat the facility. And so Mike's like,
I'll buy him if I have to, I'll go, I'll buy everything.
And at mister b Kaman said,does Peggy know that you're buying meals
everybody? He go, all goahead and do that for you, right
exactly, So he got a change. But it was really important to him
because and that obviously reflected with youguys to every guy has his own room,
(25:10):
you know, just the all thelittle things that make a big difference
to make somebody feel first class,and then it makes a huge difference.
And one two super bowls. Yeah, I mean the relationship that we have
with coach Shanahan is a magical oneeven to this day. I mean he's
right now in San Francisco helping Kyleinstall offense. But soon as the season
(25:32):
starts and he comes back home,we'll sit on the couch and we'll watch
games together. We'll play golf together, may meet him out for dinner every
now and then. It's just afantastic relationship that we've we've been able to
craft over the years. I loveit and being on the defense. I
do want to ask you about defensiveend versus linebacker, because you've done both.
What's your favorite between the two?Linebacker linebacker because you don't have to
(25:53):
touch the big uglies, you know, so, yeah, plan linebacker.
You can use athleticism in space better. But when you say linebacker, most
of the time it means covering runningbacks and tight ends. And I could
cover a tight end. I couldnever cover a running back. But I
mean most you know, Lawrence Taylorwas a linebacker and he never covered running
(26:18):
backs, you know. So it'sa blurry line it is. But I
was more of a pass rusher anobvious past situation. But I love planning
in space because I was good atit, and not all of them are.
You got to have the speed andbe able to yeah, range and
you gotta understand. You gotta understandwhat their opponent is trying to do to
you. Absolutely, all right.So while you're with the Broncos, Alfred,
you have the two super Bowls,But the year before Super Bowl thirty
(26:40):
two is that thirteen and three yearwith the loss to Jacksonville. What did
you take away from that Jacksonville loss? Every guy on that team had something
different that you brought them to thenext year, and I think that really
fueled the fire for winning that SuperBowl. Yeah, don't lose in front
of your home team. That wasthe first time I was walking back into
the tunnel and the outstands we're upset. I was upset. I mean,
(27:02):
nobody was happy with what happened.And a few members of the South stand
through some things at us, andI was like, it'll never happened again.
That will never happened again. Andso yeah, it kind of feeled
me. I lived here. It'snot like, you know, most of
the guys here right who played forthe Broncos. I lived here. It's
not like I came from someplace andjust was just happy to be here.
(27:23):
Not I was down in Louisville andI just drove up here to be part
of the team. So this wasmy team, This is my Colorado.
So I hold it in a differentlight than maybe some guys that are just
here for work. It's real personal, man, it's a real personal deal.
And I know what this organization,the Denver Broncos, means to this
(27:45):
community. Like I know what itmeans. I was here in eighty nine
when they lost Super Bowl and Iwas just I remember being in my dorm
room and watching the game and howdead the campus was after the game,
you know what I'm saying, Likeeverybody was hyped up before it and then
after the game, it was justdead. And it's funny you say that.
I was. I went to cShoe, but I had a ton
(28:06):
of friends that were at UNC andso we all went over there to watch
the game, and the same thingthere and Greeley. It was just like
you walked out and it was everybodywas in mourning. Yeah. It was
weird. Yeah, And so youknow, I was trying my best to
make sure that never happened again.And you still take this, You're still
very emotional about the Broncos, whichI love. And as we transitioned into
when you retire, you get intoradio in two thousand and six. You
(28:30):
spend thirteen years at one station.You come to iHeart in twenty nineteen.
What has being on radio done foryou? And I know, nothing ever
replaces playing football. Yeah, youknow, I was invited into the press
contingency. Right after football, Istarted a tech company and we ran that
for three years, and then Icame back to Denver and I was doing
(28:53):
weekends and I just love talking tothe audience on the weekend because it was
it was just me and the audience. And I was doing that for like
two three years and it was justfun. You know. I don't even
I don't even know if I gotpaid, tell you the truth, I
was promising me like a hundred bucksa show. I just never voiced them.
(29:18):
I know, I didn't invoice them, but but I just loved doing
it. I could tell these amazingstories and it was just addictive. Yeah,
it was addictive. And then whenI started doing radio as a career,
you know, I just needed toget out the house. I was
in a dark place after finishing playingfootball, had gone through a divorce,
(29:41):
and I was just around the house. So I just needed somewhere to go
that wasn't the house, so Ijust, you know, started doing radio
a couple hours a day in themiddle of the day with Scott Hastings.
It was great. Man over atthe fan, it was great. I
mean men, Scottie just got alongperfectly and and we just had so much
fun. And that l to doingan afternoon drivetime show with d mac out
(30:03):
of my longtime friends. He andI worked together at KBPI years and years
ago. Yeah, and then thatwas good and it ran its course,
and then I came over to iHeartand now I have an opportunity to work
with Dave Logan and Ryan Edwards.And I'd like to say that in this
business, of course, you haveto be a chameleon. This was the
last station, this was the lastcompany for me to work for. I
(30:27):
worked for every TV station and I'veworked for every radio conglomerate in Denver.
So I was like, Okay,I'll give it a try, and now
when this is done, I'll sayI've done it all. That's right,
That's awesome. My last question foryou, Alfred, as you look back
on your career, you talked toa lot of people. As you said,
you'd love talking to the audience youtell great stories. You've had a
(30:48):
lot of ups, there's been acouple of downs in there where you've learned
some lessons. What do you tellpeople, and especially as you check in
with former teammates and things like that, if they're down, if they're having
a bad moment, they got fired, something like that, What do you
tell people to move forwards? What'shelped you? I always ask what do
you love? What do you lovelike? Do you love cooking, do
you love coaching? Do you lovewriting? You love technology? And I
(31:14):
try to meet them wherever that isand try to find somebody who is already
in that space and try to matchhim up. And I've been Uh,
it's been really good in that respect. I've helped I think a ton of
people get into TV and radio andit's it's been rewarding, you know,
because many of these guys have movedon. Some of them are non national.
(31:37):
The guy maybe your audience might knowis Joel Klatt. He was great,
Joe's doing great. He was sellingtime shares and I was like,
what are you doing? He washe was he was selling time shares and
I had him on the show onetime and I said, man, you're
good, you should do this,and I got him involved over at station
(32:00):
here in town, and from Naryit just grew. Now I'm very proud
of the relationships I've had and thefriends I've helped usher into this business.
It's a it's a great business tobe in. If if you are diligent
and you are respectful, that's reallycool. Alfred, Hey, this has
been amazing. I could probably talkto you for hours and hours and hours,
(32:22):
but you're busy and I know thatyou have things to do. And
I feel fortunate that I get towork with you and see on a regular
basis, and I look forward toseeing you more this year. Go Broncos,
Go Buffaloes, and you know what, go Rams. Oh thanks Alfred,
That was the first time. Iwas walking back into the tunnel and the
South stands were upset. I wasupset. I mean, nobody was happy
with what happened, and a fewmembers of the South stand through something that
us and I was like, it'llnever happen again. That'll never happen again.
Welcome to cut, Traded, Fired, Retired. If this is your
first time, thank you so muchfor checking out the podcast. There is
(00:22):
no order to the episodes. Justpick and choose whenever you want to hear
some great stories from professional athletes andcoaches. If you're a regular, you
already know how this works, andthank you for all of your support.
I'm your host, Susie Wargin.This episode's guest is bigger than life,
which is why we call him BigAl. Yes, he is big in
stature, but his personality is enormous. Alfred Williams didn't grow up playing football
(00:45):
because his single mom couldn't afford topay the fees for three boys to play,
so none of them did, thankfully. In high school, Alfred got
pulled aside by a coach who gothim in the game and was also a
steadfast mentor and friend to Alfred foryears. Even into his NFL career,
big Al was a captain, twotime All American buck his Award winner,
and national champion at the University ofColorado. He was a first round draft
(01:08):
pick in the NFL, and fortunatelyfor Broncos fans, he finished his career
in Denver and that included two SuperBowl wins and then he stuck around to
entertain Denver sports fans on radio andTV, which he continues to do today.
He's in the CEU Athletics Hall ofFame and the College Football Hall of
Fame. Ladies and gentlemen, Enjoythe Show with Alfred Williams. Cut,
(01:30):
Traded, Fired, Rick Tired Podcastwith Susie Wargin. Alfred Williams, How
are you? I'm doing well?How you doing? Sure? You doing
good? I'm doing good. Youknow, we've known each other for quite
a while, obviously with radio,but I got my first press pass with
the Broncos after Super Bowl thirty two, so like twenty five years we've been
(01:51):
around each other. How crazy isthat? Right? And never was it
around radio that I saw you.It was always TV. Well, yeah,
that's true at news, so that'sright. Yeah, the radio part,
I didn't even know you were doingradio until I came over here,
tell you the truth because I wasso used to seeing you on TV.
That's true. Yeah, well,it's fun. It's great to have you.
You're part of the iHeart family,and so I appreciate you coming in
(02:12):
today. Let's kind of go backto your roots of growing up in Houston.
You went to Jones High School?When did football become a big part
of your life? And you werea basketball player too, because you played
a little basketball when you were atSEU. Yeah. I started playing football
when I was in the ninth grade, and I was told I couldn't play
in the sixth, seventh, andeighth grade. And in Texas there's no
(02:36):
pop water pass the fifth grade.You have to play for your junior high
school. So my junior high schoolcoach looked at me and famously said I
was too skinny to play football,so I was not allowed to even go
out for the team. No kidding. What did you weigh then? Oh?
I don't know. I was wereyou truly? I just looked like
the rest of my friends, butI was talling. You look like a
(02:59):
middle school right, right, Imean you know, I'm imagine I was
one forty one fifty whatever sixth gradersare disappointing was that it was crushing.
I was crushing, you know.So I went into the band, and
I was in the marching band foryou know, middle school, and then
I got to high school, anduh, you know, right before my
high school year, a guy bythe name Alfie Mitchell in Houston said,
(03:22):
hey, once you come out forthe football team. And then after getting
crushed for three years in a row, you know, I was just not
into it. Sure, and youknow, I was doing well in the
band. What did you play baritonesaxophone? I still play. No,
I haven't played it, you know, but I don't think I could pick
it back up if I wanted tobe. I bet I could play a
(03:44):
few notes, but it has takenme a while. But I played it
for four years and I became quiteproficient. But I haven't played it since
you go out for football in highschool? Then, yeah, he challenged
me, well, he said,uh you know, I said, no,
I'm good. He said, I'mfaster than you. I say,
no, you're not. He said, if I beat you in this race,
you got to go out for atleast try. He beat me,
and I went out for football,and the coach said, well, position
(04:06):
you play like everybody in the hood, I played quarterback, And I went
out and I played quarterback for onepractice. The next day, I came
back out there thinking I was aboutto play quarterback, and they put me
at the defensive line. And onthe third day of football, I quit.
Did you really? Absolutely quit?On day three? I'm like,
(04:28):
hey, I didn't come out hereto do that stuff. I don't even
know what that is. I didn'teverybody. No, no, I never
played, so I just thought everybodyplayed running back, wide receiver, or
quarterback. So the idea that Iwas not going to play one of those
positions just never entered my mind,and so I quit. I went back
to the band and my high schoolcoach saw me in the hallway and he
(04:50):
pulled me to the side and toldme that he was gonna work with me
and if I would come back outthere, he was going to be the
guy that's working with me. AndI just looked at him and said,
no, thank you. You knowwhat's funny is that he was you know
back then, you know, corporatepunishment was okay, oh yeah, you
know in my high school school athome, everything. He was the guy.
(05:13):
Of course, that was the gymteacher who was smacking dudes on the
butt for you know, being laidor disrupting class, you know, and
the parents had to all sign offon this stuff. So it was part
of the culture. And then youknow, he was there and you know
he had the big paddle in hisback pocket and walking around. I mean,
this guy was huge. I meanhe played for the Washington Redskins.
(05:34):
And I was just like, man, this is uh, you know,
I don't want any smoke with him. I want zero smoke with this guy.
And so he said, I'll tellyou what. I'm gonna talk to
you tomorrow and then we're gonna figurethis out. He pulled me out of
class the next day, this wasa Thursday, and he said, I
expect you out there practice tomorrow.I told you, I'm gonna work with
(05:55):
you myself. I'm gonna work withyou. So I go out there and
he starts working with me, andlo and behold, he became the best
man I knew. And oh mygoodness, man, I mean it was
it was incredible. I did thisguy. He took under under his wing
and I was with him every Fridayand Saturday night. Throughout high school,
(06:15):
I didn't have like places to goand things to do. I was with
him. We were either at howdo he mentor you what did he do?
He just was just a great man. He just knew that I could
use some guidance. But more importantly, I wanted to be around him because
he was He was stern man.He was he was a tough coach,
but but you still loved him,Oh, my goodness, love him.
(06:36):
Pieces I was with him every Fridayand Saturday, you know, even during
the basketball season, because football seasonrolls in the basketball season. Basketball season
rolls in the track. He wasthe head track coach. And so I
did discus, shot put, highjump. Yeah, I did. It
(06:56):
was great man. I was justwith him all the time. And then
I got through with my high schoolcareer and I remember going through the recruiting
process and all these schools were askingme to come visit. I got letters
from Miami, Hawaii, UCLA,Syracuse. I must have had ninety letters,
Susie. I mean, it wasgreat. And so I had my
(07:19):
high school visits scheduled for Hawaii,hit Miami, and for some reason I
thought that Syracuse was in New YorkCity, so I scheduled Syracuse and then
he pulled me to the side andhe was like, very very clear,
like, these are these guys careers, and you just can't treat them like
(07:39):
crap. If you're not gonna goto that school, you shouldn't. Don't
just go for the trip, rightright, And so I paired it down
and he helped me through the wholeprocess, and before he passed away,
he got a chance to see meplay in two Super Bowls, and I
made sure he was there for those, him and his wife, and it
was a wonderful, wonderful relationship.There's always at least one person, whether
(08:01):
it be a coach or just somebodythat was a huge influence I think in
everybody's life, especially people that havemade it to a level like you have,
where there was that one person youcan look back and go that was
the difference. I know for afact who that person is. For me,
there's no guesswork. I know howdiligent he was with me as an
athlete, and I remember at theconclusion of my freshman year, I had
(08:24):
like a one point one GPA.It's not because I couldn't do the work.
I just wasn't doing the work.I remember coach came when I was
a sophomore because I was playing varsity. I went from freshman to varsity.
Wow. And I was starting andI was playing good. And one of
the coaches came by from a collegeand he said, hey, you mind
(08:45):
if I look at his transcripts.I was just finishing up my sophomore year.
I had like at that point,I had like a one point five.
And from the end of my sophomoreyear until I graduated, I didn't
make another See everything was I madetwo bees and the rest were as the
rest of my high school career.Wow. Because I didn't know. I
mean you didn't. You don't whennobody tells you it's important, and you
(09:09):
don't know. When somebody tells youit's important, that's when you should adhere
to what the challenges are. Absolutely, So how did you end up deciding
then on Colorado? Was it becauseof your visit or was it because of
just pairing things down with him?They were the only school that didn't offer
money, No kidding, Yep,that was it. That was the deciding
factor. They were the only schoolthat didn't offer money. So you're eighteen
(09:33):
and a lot of times money isyou know, that gets a lot of
guys, especially back then when itwasn't you know, I mean it's under
the table and it's not great,but people still took it. Obviously you
had some morals well, I meaneverybody was offering from cars to briefcases of
money. I was also one yearremoved from SMU getting a death penalty right
in football, since you saw thatfirsthand, right, I was in Texas
(09:56):
when that happened, and I thoughtthat there was going to be some others
schools in the Southwest Conference that we'regoing to get the death penalty. But
they didn't. And I don't knowwhy. They still have not been sanctioned
for illegal funds, but that's foranother show, another podcast. In the
University of Colorado never offered, andI was thankful. I mean, yeah,
(10:20):
the campus was beautiful, absolutely,and uh, you know coach mack
bless his heart. Man, herecruited my mom, did he? He
recruited my mom? But my momhad nothing to do with this decision.
What did he do with your mom? Oh? He just sat with her.
You know. They went through biblicalverses, They talked about culture,
and they talked about opportunity. Mymom was getting recruited by Bill McCartney,
(10:43):
some of the best. But whenI tell you, Susie, when I
tell you, it had no bearingon whether or not I was going to
university, It had zero, zerobearing on whether or not you made your
own decision. I made my owndecision. And remember now, the guy
that started me in this process washolding my hand throughout the entire deal,
(11:05):
this whole football I was the onlyguy that played football in my family.
It wasn't like my brother played.My mom couldn't afford to send us over
to play Pop Warner and other sportswhen we were young. It was three
of us and we didn't have themoney. And her philosophy was, well,
if you play, then they haveto play. And I can't afford
all three of y'all plans, sonone of you, Well, so none
(11:26):
of us are playing. Wow.So that's what happened. And so this
whole football process was all because ofyou know, Rolling Rodgers. And so
when I went through the process,she didn't have nothing to do with this.
It was me and Rolling Rodgers sittingback and going through every opportunity.
I remember when the coach from WestPoint came in because at that time I
(11:46):
got my DPA up to A threetwo from where I was, and I
was eligible to go to Air Forceand West Point. The West Point coach
came in and he started talking tome. Coach Rogers came in and he
said he's not going to West Point. I just looked at him, like,
hey, man, I the guywasn't even done with his spill.
He said, he's going to playin the NFL one day, so he
(12:07):
needs to go right from college tothe NFL. And I looked at him
like looking around the room, likeare you talking about me? Yeah?
And so that was the first timethat I had even thought about playing.
During that interview with the coach fromWest Point, yeah, like he said
that, he said that he's goingto play in the NFL, and I
(12:28):
was I just looked at him like, I don't even know what you're talking
about. It was a shocker,to say the least, because all you
thought about that point was going tocollege. I just wanted to leave Houston.
Oh yeah, I just wanted toleave Houston. I would sacrifice my
weekends and my nights to make suremy grades were good so I could get
out. I just didn't want tobe there anymore. All the coaches in
the state of Texas, you know, they were of course recruiting me,
(12:52):
and I told them, I'm notgoing to school in Texas out of the
whole state. Yeah, I justsaid I wasn't going to school in Texas.
So I was just done because ofthe SMU debacle, and plus I
had just gone through the whole recruitingdeal. I mean, the recruiting deal
was serious. Man. Imagine Iflew on a private plane to go to
(13:13):
Georgia. I flew on a privateplane to go to LSU. I mean,
it was it was. It wasthe pilots, me and Rodney Hampton
to go to Georgia. Rodney itended up signing and planning for the Georgia
Bulldogs, and me and another guyjumped on a private plane in Houston to
go to LSU. And it wasit was just wild man. Coaches were
(13:33):
sitting outside my house and limousines andyou know, because I didn't, you
know, every weekend I went onthe recruiting visit. I committed. So
they say, hey, you comein. I say, absolutely, next
visit. You're coming, absolutely,next visit. Absolutely, And so that
just happened five separate times, andthen I just told the coaches. The
night before signing day, I toldhim I'm I'm not going to your school.
(13:56):
I didn't tell them where I wasgoing, but I just told him
I wasn't going to their school,and I went to school. They were
upset, but but you know,they were all sitting outside my house the
morning of the signing. My momworked at night. My mom took the
day off on National Signing Day totake me to school, you know,
because I took the city bus everyday. Wow. So I just walked
(14:20):
around the corner, jumped on theseventy three Belfort to the thirty three Calhoun
dropped me off in front of theschool, multiple buses to get to two
buses to get to school. Soour kids would shudder at the thought of
that. How many plane rights hadyou been on before you went on those
recruiting visits? Had you been onplanes? Now? Man? When I
took my visit to the University ofColorado, it was crazy because they had
(14:43):
a smoking section. They had asmoking and a non smoking section on the
airplane. And this was nineteen eightysix, right, this is this is
like November of nineteen eighty six,and I was in the non smoking section
of the airplane, which was oneseat behind the smoking section. So I
laughed. Now every time I geton the airplane and when they say no
(15:07):
smoking, you know, and I'mthinking to myself, you know what,
I guarantee you Maybe it's happened somewherewhere a cigarette caused some kind of issue
on an airplane. But for themost part, up until nineteen eighty six,
everybody could smoke on an airplane.Yeah, it's wild. Yeah.
So the Universe of Colorado was myfirst airplane visit. And I got there
(15:30):
and it was cold. I hadmy high school jacket on. It was
snowing. I didn't leave my hotelroom. Really, the Buffalo Bells left
a cake in my room. Iate the crap out of that cake.
Man ate the I ate that cake. Man. We went to dinner,
I came back to the room,I ate the cake. And next day
I woke up and the snow wasmelting and it was beautiful. That's what
(15:52):
recruited me to the University of Colorado. Really, that was it. Oh
wow, So your first visit endsup being Colorado, that's where you end
up going. And then what acareer you have with the Buffalos, especially
the year of nineteen ninety that's whenyou're a unanimous All American. You win
the Buckets Award that year it's thenational championship year. I mean, your
career at see you and I knowyou've talked about it a lot, but
(16:15):
it's just incredible. Yeah. Theguys that I played with at the Universe
of Colorado, I still to thisday call them my best friends. You
guys are very tight, aren't you. We are very very very tight.
We are our own support group.We check on each other daily. Alfred.
That's so important. Yeah. Italked to a lot of guys that
are our age and now mental healthhas talked about so much more. But
(16:37):
just that daily check in or justnot and then listening, not how you
doing good? No, no,no, how are you actually doing?
Yeah? We talk. You talkto somebody every day. I had to
pick up the phone and call himand tell him I love him, and
just thinking about them, it's agood day. What did you take away
from that college experience? I mean, not even thinking about going into the
(16:57):
NFL until that one point with theWest Point coach, and now you have
this incredible resume, that you builtup with the University of Colorado, and
you do you go first round.You're eighteenth overall in the NFL draft.
Yeah. I just remember my senioryear at the University of Colorado and there
was a lot of chatter about megoing into the NFL after my junior year,
(17:18):
and I remember going into Bill McCartney'soffice and at the time, I'm
a consensus All American as a juniorat the University of Colorado. He said,
hey, listen, there are alot of people saying that you're gonna
go into the NFL draft. Isaid, well, I don't know who
told you that, but what I'dlike to do is I'd like the red
shirt. He looked at me likeI was he I think he was.
(17:42):
I think he thought he was thereto tuck me out of going to the
NFL. And what I was tellinghim is that I didn't want to leave
the University of Colorado. I wantedto stay one more year, and he
talked me out of it. Soyou wanted to just red shirt, not
play, but still stay there foranother Yeah, yeah, stay, get
stronger, be more dominant than Iwas, and enjoying my college lifestyle.
(18:06):
I don't think there's a guy inthe world who had a better time in
college than I did. There can'tbe a person alive who had a better
time than I did at the Universityof Colorado. My whole time there was
it was fantastic. It was ablessing that I chose to go there.
They were six and five I thinkwhen I signed. In my last game
there, we won a natural championship. And then, you know, the
(18:27):
thing that I thought pro football wasis that I'm gonna be playing with the
best of the best. And becauseI'm going to pro football, then these
guys are smart, they are tough, and they're big and fast. They
were big and fast, smart,not all the time. It was just
(18:48):
just different than what you thought itwas. I played for a lot of
dumbass coaches, that's the bottom line. I played for a lot of dumbass
coaches, and and for a guywho played for really smart coaches, yeah,
who took great care of me.That was to the system. It
was a shocker, man. Imean, you know, like everything that
you do in the league when you'reyoung should be monitored and you should take
(19:14):
very good care of who says anythingto rookies because that's their first impression of
the league, and if it's notright in year one, it could be
a couple of three years before theypick it up if they're a high draft
pick. If they're not, itmay just get bumped out of the league.
I was just watching Hard Knocks fromI think it was Jeff Fisher,
(19:37):
and he cut a guy for havinga woman in the room a few years
ago. Right, I mean,this guy didn't he didn't get good advice,
right, somebody. He didn't havegood men around him to tell him
the right things to do and notto do. And that's football, like
that for real, that's football.Yeah, did you have something happen like
your rookie season or your first coupleof years? And okay, I got
(19:59):
hurt because I didn't know what thehell I was doing. You know,
like when you don't know what you'redoing and you don't have great instruction,
that's when you get hurt. Youcan watch any NFL preseason, and guys
that are great players in college profileto be great players in the NFL.
If they go to a bad team, it just seems that things happen like
(20:21):
they get hurt or you know,there's an attitude issue us. It's always
something and it always reflects poorly onthe athlete, but really it's the organization's
fault for not giving them the properoutlet to do what they're supposed to do.
Absolutely, and then when you arebrand new in the league and you
get hurt, being injured is avery difficult place to be mentally because then
(20:41):
you are separated from the team.You don't feel like you're a part of
things. What was that like foryou when you were going through that in
Cincinnati? It was miserable and Ididn't want to be there. I didn't
have great coaching. It was asecond class organization. It was disappointing.
Did you realize it was second classwhen you were there or did you not
realize it until you came here later. I just played for the University of
(21:03):
Colorado, which is practically franchises exactly. We're winning every week, they're tearing
down the old building building a brandnew facility. And then I go play
for the Cincinnati Bengals, who arein essentially an industrial building like a warehouse.
Yeah, and the building was underlike when we parked our cards was
(21:25):
under a viduct. You know whatI'm saying? So we could come out.
You know, you got white drippingsall over your car, and it
just didn't feel like it just wasn'tright for me. I just knew it
wasn't right for me. As soonas I got there. I just knew
it wasn't right for me. AndI just could not wait to leave.
And it was bad for a longtime. So from Cincinnati you go to
San Francisco. So were you afree agent when you went to That's that's
(21:49):
where I fell in love with footballagain. How come because it was first
class? You don't know, likeI'm thinking, most places are. You
know, it's the NFL. It'slike big time colleges. Everybody has great
facilities, everybody is. You wentto all great places when you were being
recruited, a first class places,right, And so when I got to
(22:11):
Cincinnati, it was not what Ienvisioned what pro ball would be. And
then I go out to the fortynine ers and I was like, this
is pro ball. You know,from the weather to the way that we
traveled, you know, room accommodations, the way that they talked to you.
You know, we weren't out therebeating each other up all day every
(22:32):
day. It was amazing, andthat's what I wanted for the rest of
my life. And so when Ibecame a free agent after that year,
I wanted to come home. Ialways wanted to be a Denver Bronco.
I just never wanted to play anyother places. You want to drafted by
them, yeah, man, Imean on draft night, I didn't get
drafted by the Broncos, and Icried. I'm not ashamed to say it.
I was was so hurt that Ididn't get a chance to start my
(22:55):
career here. I think my careerwould have been way different if I would
have got a chance to, Yeah, and see myself playing with Simon Fletcher
and Carl Mecklenburg and all of thoseguys that were part of those great you
know, Dennis Smith and at Waterand we still got to play with Steve
I did, I did, youknow? And Dennis was just a great
dude to me. He's been agreat friend to me my entire college career
(23:18):
and even to this day. Man. I mean, anytime I've seen Dennis
Smith, it's been it's been wonderful, man. I mean, And he's
a good guy that keeps in touchwith people. I know, Mike Harden
and Mike harden Man, Mike hardenand Dennis Smith used to be downtown and
I would be down there, andmy last couple of years of college,
when I was of age, theysee me out, they bought me a
(23:40):
beer. I mean exactly exactly.So when I see these guys now,
man, you got to know there'sa lot of love there that started back
in like nineteen eighty nine, youknow. And I finally got a chance
to play for the Broncos, andwe did what I thought we were gonna
do. We won two Super Bowls, And you came to another first class
organization because Mike Shanahan had this placewith mister Bowland, with mister b just
(24:03):
running, and he brought a lotof that from San Francisco. At talking
to Mike, he said that,you know, there was some things that
were antiquated that he had to getup to speed. But let me tell
you something. When when Mike Shanahanwas a head coach at the Denver Broncos,
we were the first team to comeout and have breakfast, lunch,
and dinner provided by the team.Believe it or not, back then,
(24:26):
what would happen is that the rookieswould bring in breakfast sandwiches for the veterans,
and then at lunchtime, the equipmentguy would come by and take an
order for what you wanted for lunch. You want Burger King, you want
McDonald's, you want a sub sandwich. And that's how lunch was ordered.
Farcroft from what we have now.Mike told me a great story when I
(24:47):
had him on. He said thatthat was one of the things he wanted
was to have meals for everybody thereat the facility. And so Mike's like,
I'll buy him if I have to, I'll go, I'll buy everything.
And at mister b Kaman said,does Peggy know that you're buying meals
everybody? He go, all goahead and do that for you, right
exactly, So he got a change. But it was really important to him
because and that obviously reflected with youguys to every guy has his own room,
(25:10):
you know, just the all thelittle things that make a big difference
to make somebody feel first class,and then it makes a huge difference.
And one two super bowls. Yeah, I mean the relationship that we have
with coach Shanahan is a magical oneeven to this day. I mean he's
right now in San Francisco helping Kyleinstall offense. But soon as the season
(25:32):
starts and he comes back home,we'll sit on the couch and we'll watch
games together. We'll play golf together, may meet him out for dinner every
now and then. It's just afantastic relationship that we've we've been able to
craft over the years. I loveit and being on the defense. I
do want to ask you about defensiveend versus linebacker, because you've done both.
What's your favorite between the two?Linebacker linebacker because you don't have to
(25:53):
touch the big uglies, you know, so, yeah, plan linebacker.
You can use athleticism in space better. But when you say linebacker, most
of the time it means covering runningbacks and tight ends. And I could
cover a tight end. I couldnever cover a running back. But I
mean most you know, Lawrence Taylorwas a linebacker and he never covered running
(26:18):
backs, you know. So it'sa blurry line it is. But I
was more of a pass rusher anobvious past situation. But I love planning
in space because I was good atit, and not all of them are.
You got to have the speed andbe able to yeah, range and
you gotta understand. You gotta understandwhat their opponent is trying to do to
you. Absolutely, all right.So while you're with the Broncos, Alfred,
you have the two super Bowls,But the year before Super Bowl thirty
(26:40):
two is that thirteen and three yearwith the loss to Jacksonville. What did
you take away from that Jacksonville loss? Every guy on that team had something
different that you brought them to thenext year, and I think that really
fueled the fire for winning that SuperBowl. Yeah, don't lose in front
of your home team. That wasthe first time I was walking back into
the tunnel and the outstands we're upset. I was upset. I mean,
(27:02):
nobody was happy with what happened.And a few members of the South stand
through some things at us, andI was like, it'll never happened again.
That will never happened again. Andso yeah, it kind of feeled
me. I lived here. It'snot like, you know, most of
the guys here right who played forthe Broncos. I lived here. It's
not like I came from someplace andjust was just happy to be here.
(27:23):
Not I was down in Louisville andI just drove up here to be part
of the team. So this wasmy team, This is my Colorado.
So I hold it in a differentlight than maybe some guys that are just
here for work. It's real personal, man, it's a real personal deal.
And I know what this organization,the Denver Broncos, means to this
(27:45):
community. Like I know what itmeans. I was here in eighty nine
when they lost Super Bowl and Iwas just I remember being in my dorm
room and watching the game and howdead the campus was after the game,
you know what I'm saying, Likeeverybody was hyped up before it and then
after the game, it was justdead. And it's funny you say that.
I was. I went to cShoe, but I had a ton
(28:06):
of friends that were at UNC andso we all went over there to watch
the game, and the same thingthere and Greeley. It was just like
you walked out and it was everybodywas in mourning. Yeah. It was
weird. Yeah, And so youknow, I was trying my best to
make sure that never happened again.And you still take this, You're still
very emotional about the Broncos, whichI love. And as we transitioned into
when you retire, you get intoradio in two thousand and six. You
(28:30):
spend thirteen years at one station.You come to iHeart in twenty nineteen.
What has being on radio done foryou? And I know, nothing ever
replaces playing football. Yeah, youknow, I was invited into the press
contingency. Right after football, Istarted a tech company and we ran that
for three years, and then Icame back to Denver and I was doing
(28:53):
weekends and I just love talking tothe audience on the weekend because it was
it was just me and the audience. And I was doing that for like
two three years and it was justfun. You know. I don't even
I don't even know if I gotpaid, tell you the truth, I
was promising me like a hundred bucksa show. I just never voiced them.
(29:18):
I know, I didn't invoice them, but but I just loved doing
it. I could tell these amazingstories and it was just addictive. Yeah,
it was addictive. And then whenI started doing radio as a career,
you know, I just needed toget out the house. I was
in a dark place after finishing playingfootball, had gone through a divorce,
(29:41):
and I was just around the house. So I just needed somewhere to go
that wasn't the house, so Ijust, you know, started doing radio
a couple hours a day in themiddle of the day with Scott Hastings.
It was great. Man over atthe fan, it was great. I
mean men, Scottie just got alongperfectly and and we just had so much
fun. And that l to doingan afternoon drivetime show with d mac out
(30:03):
of my longtime friends. He andI worked together at KBPI years and years
ago. Yeah, and then thatwas good and it ran its course,
and then I came over to iHeartand now I have an opportunity to work
with Dave Logan and Ryan Edwards.And I'd like to say that in this
business, of course, you haveto be a chameleon. This was the
last station, this was the lastcompany for me to work for. I
(30:27):
worked for every TV station and I'veworked for every radio conglomerate in Denver.
So I was like, Okay,I'll give it a try, and now
when this is done, I'll sayI've done it all. That's right,
That's awesome. My last question foryou, Alfred, as you look back
on your career, you talked toa lot of people. As you said,
you'd love talking to the audience youtell great stories. You've had a
(30:48):
lot of ups, there's been acouple of downs in there where you've learned
some lessons. What do you tellpeople, and especially as you check in
with former teammates and things like that, if they're down, if they're having
a bad moment, they got fired, something like that, What do you
tell people to move forwards? What'shelped you? I always ask what do
you love? What do you lovelike? Do you love cooking, do
you love coaching? Do you lovewriting? You love technology? And I
(31:14):
try to meet them wherever that isand try to find somebody who is already
in that space and try to matchhim up. And I've been Uh,
it's been really good in that respect. I've helped I think a ton of
people get into TV and radio andit's it's been rewarding, you know,
because many of these guys have movedon. Some of them are non national.
(31:37):
The guy maybe your audience might knowis Joel Klatt. He was great,
Joe's doing great. He was sellingtime shares and I was like,
what are you doing? He washe was he was selling time shares and
I had him on the show onetime and I said, man, you're
good, you should do this,and I got him involved over at station
(32:00):
here in town, and from Naryit just grew. Now I'm very proud
of the relationships I've had and thefriends I've helped usher into this business.
It's a it's a great business tobe in. If if you are diligent
and you are respectful, that's reallycool. Alfred, Hey, this has
been amazing. I could probably talkto you for hours and hours and hours,
(32:22):
but you're busy and I know thatyou have things to do. And
I feel fortunate that I get towork with you and see on a regular
basis, and I look forward toseeing you more this year. Go Broncos,
Go Buffaloes, and you know what, go Rams. Oh thanks Alfred,
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