Q&A With Floyd Little - 1 of 3
In honor of his new book, Tales From the Broncos Sidelines, being released, Floyd Little recently took some time to answer select questions submitted by the fans from BroncosFreak.com. What follows is part 1 of 3:
Montrose: How would you compare yourself to some of the Broncos running backs of the past decade: Terrell Davis, Clinton Portis, Mike Anderson, and Tatum Bell to name a few?
I think they’re all tremendous players and have upheld the tradition of great Broncos running backs. But, it’s difficult for me to compare with today’s players, because I played during a time when the rules didn’t benefit the offense. To the contrary, the defense held the advantage. They were allowed to clothesline you, grab you around the neck and head, and hold you up so another player could take a shot at you. I think if I played now behind the Broncos zone-blocking scheme my numbers would be off the charts. We didn’t have the talent on offense that today’s Broncos have, but my teammates had tremendous passion for the game. Most were not Pro Bowl players, but they busted their butts on every play. I think just having another huge weapon like John Elway would have taken a lot of the pressure off me.
Mclark: How difficult was it to play for Lou Saban? Lou made a lot of questionable personnel moves during his tenure in Denver — did those moves (Curley Culp, Willie Brown, etc.) demoralize the Broncos?
I loved playing for Lou Saban. As I mention in my new book, Floyd Little’s Tales from the Broncos Sideline with sportswriter Tom Mackie, it took a while for me to realize that we were a lot alike. We were both very intense competitors who hated to lose. I thought Lou made some great decisions, especially trading for Rich Jackson in 1967, who, at the time was a backup linebacker for the Raiders. He also drafted Billy Thompson from a small school, one of the greatest Broncos ever. I understand he got rid of Curley Culp, but who knew he would become a good player? He was only with the club for one year and he didn’t start. So Lou traded him to Kansas City for something like a 3rd-or-4th-round draft pick that turned out to be guard Mike Schnitker, a local guy from Colorado who was pretty good. The questionable trades were when he tried to find quarterbacks. The Steve Tensi trade with San Diego was the biggest flop. He gave up our first round picks in 1968 and ’69 for Steve and he was only a backup.
Steve had it pretty rough during his short career in Denver. He was a tall, gutsy quarterback but everyone realized pretty quickly that he wasn’t worth those two first-rounders. The fans never let him forget it either. Unfortunately, he even endured a few death threats. One of them was from a deranged person who threatened to shoot him during a game from atop of the Holiday Inn that overlooked Mile High Stadium. None of us would stand near him during pre-game stretching or the National Anthem. Nothing ever came from it, but no one wanted to be struck by some stray bullet!
BroncoJoe: What is your greatest (favorite) memory during your playing days, and your worst memory (excluding not ever making the playoffs)?
The greatest memory was Floyd Little Day at Mile High Stadium during the 1972 season. It was something the fans had come up with to commemorate my accomplishments on the field and my charitable work off the field. It was an incredible honor to be recognized by the great fans of Denver, my teammates and the Broncos organization. There’s a great picture of that moment in my book. I’ve had a lot of great honors in my career, Pro Bowls, getting my number retired, the Ring of Fame, but nothing quite compares to that.
My worst memory is that infamous Buffalo game in 1968 when I got fired and re-hired in the same game. I had never been fired in my life and to be cut by coach Saban in front of 40,000 fans during a home game was something I’ll never forget. Then, I refused to leave the stadium and came back onto the field to make that catch to help win the game. What an emotional rollercoaster. Another bad memory was scoring my third TD of the game against the Vikings in ’72 with less than a minute left, only for us to lose in the last second. That game completely drained me emotionally, knowing my best wasn’t good enough. But, that’s football.
Mclark: What are your memories of playing the Raiders? What Raiders player did you dislike the most?
I have to laugh, because it’s not even close: Jack Tatum was the guy I disliked playing against the most because he always tried to hurt people. Today you can’t taunt a player, but Tatum taunted on every play. He really tried to destroy people and he loved to stand over you after a particularly vicious hit. I heard he mentioned me in a book he wrote, They Call Me Assassin, in which he really tried to hit me hard to put me out of the game. In fact, he hit me so hard my shoe flew off. Well, I wasn’t about to let someone like Tatum knock me out, so I shook it off, found my shoe, and went back into the game. I had a few friends on the Raiders, but Tatum wasn’t one of them. Unfortunately, we always played down to their level and only beat them a few times.
If you enjoy hearing these stories, I’d encourage you to pick up the book, where Floyd goes more in depth on most of this material and much more. Look for part 2 to be published on Monday, September 4.