Tracking proCanes - Leon Searcy - Part I

proCanes.com is continuing our “Tracking proCanes” feature with former All-American, 3-time national champion and NFL Pro Bowl offensive tackle Leon Searcy. Searcy played primarily with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jacksonville Jaguars in an 11-year career spanning between 1992 and 2002. He was drafted in the first-round, 11th overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers out of the University of Miami in the 1992 NFL Draft. Searcy also spent one season with the Baltimore Ravens in 2001 before signing with the Miami Dolphins in 2002. In 2002 he was ultimately placed on the injured reserved and he subsequently retired after the 2002 season. From 2004 to 2006, Searcy was the offensive line coach at Florida International University. Searcy was a member of the 1987, 1989 and 1991 University of Miami National Championship teams and was a first-team All-American in 1991. He also played in Super Bowl XXX for the Pittsburgh Steelers and in 2003 was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame.

Part I: Where is Leon now? His days as a Hurricane and more!

proCanes.com: So, what are you up to these days Leon?
Leon Searcy: I’ve got a couple of foundations that I run, actually two foundations, one is called ProsToo . It’s a foundation where we raise money for formers professional athletes that may be struggling with life after football and we point them in the right direction as far as getting their disabilities. We look to find them opportunities for worker’s compensation and raise money to get them help. Each state varies and you know, when you play in the NFL, you play in so many different states but the main state right now is California because there is no statute of limitations in California. If you played out in California they take a portion of your salary as a workman’s fee and so the guys who played out there are eligible for worker’s compensation. We’ve helped about 200 guys. I have an attorney out there that I work with and we fly them out there and we set them up at the hotel and set them up with doctors out there and they get a full body examination. Each part of their body is evaluated and graded. The process takes about two years before anything is finalized. My main purpose for doing this, is for guys to get medical help that they otherwise couldn’t afford for the injuries they suffered while playing because people don’t know that once you finish playing ball in the NFL they only cover you for three years. A lot of these guys have bad knees, shoulders, back or hip problems. I try to get these guys help for their medical and get them compensated for their injuries.

My mom is the executive director of my other foundation Stand Up For Kids. It is a nationwide program that helps homeless kids. My mom runs it in Orlando. There is a statistic out there that says that one out of every 50 kids is homeless in America and that is a lot of kids that don’t have food, shelter, clothes or water to drink. So, my mom just got involved with that right now, and I’m a part of that. My dad has my foundation in Jacksonville also, the Leon Searcy Jr. Foundation. What we do is we feed people. We prepare baskets and give food out to the homeless throughout the whole year. What we’re trying to do now is build a kitchen so we can feed people every day.

pC: Did you start the Leon Searcy Jr. Foundation when you played in Jacksonville?
LS: Actually no, I started it when I got drafted. I had told my parents when I got drafted that I wanted to give back so I started that foundation.

pC: So you coached at FIU for three years right?
LS: Yea I coached for three years at FIU from 2004 to 2007, you know Don Strock was our head coach. I actually got fired by a Hurricane.

pC: By Mario [Cristobal]?
LS: By Mario, but you know I understand it’s a business. You know one thing I learned about college football is that you want your guy. I played with Mario for three years at Miami, but I wasn’t his guy. He wanted to bring in his guy and he explained that to me and I understood the nature of it and there are no hard feelings, though I wish he hadn’t cut my interview in half. I mean I had a five hour interview with him and Mario was asking me questions he knew I taught him. But it was all cool and it all worked out for the better.

pC: Are you looking to get back into coaching?
LS: I don’t know right now. Someone has given me the opportunity in a Minor League Football league called the United National Gridiron League. It’s supposed to be Minor League Football and they’re going to actually play their games at FIU. I think the head coach’s name is John Fox. They actually hired me but they just haven’t gotten the league kicked off yet.

pC: You’re from the DC area, when did you start playing football? How did it all start?
LS: I started playing football really young. I never played organized football. I just played on street corners, sandlots, in the street. I just loved to play football and I was really active. These were the days before video games and all this other stuff. Kids played outside. Your parents would punish you by saying you couldn’t go outside. Those were the days. I would play basketball, football anything outside. I could never make the grade to play organized football because I was too big for my age. Like this one time, me and my friends are walking to the field for football and as soon as I walked onto the field the coach sent me home because they didn’t believe I was nine years old. I was too tall and too big. I cried all the way home. You know, you walk in there with your friends and everybody else is playing but they send you home. So, I remember my mom putting me in the car and driving back to the football field and she storms in front of the coach and asks him: ‘are you the one that sent my son home?’ and he said ‘yes.’ And my mom says: ‘I want you to remember this name: Leon Searcy. I want you to remember it.’ I know why she did that. I know why she did it that day.

pC: Have you ever spoken to the coach since?
LS: I have never spoken to him since that day.

pC: When did you start playing organized football then?
LS: I didn’t play organized football till my senior year in high school. A lot of it had to with the fact that my mom is a schoolteacher and has been in education for over 45 years. She set my academic standards real high. I couldn’t play ball until I had a 3.5 [GPA]. That was a little high, but I understand what she was doing. Although she wanted me to play football she knew that if I wanted to take it to the next level that she had to set the standards high. So I didn’t play sports until my senior year. So just imagine now, I am 6’4” 305lbs, the biggest kid in school, and I’m not playing ball. First of all, forget the ladies, the ladies are out, you’re not going to be very popular because you aren’t playing ball and they’re going to wonder what’s wrong with you. So I had to endure that my sophomore and junior year. I went out to the Jamboree going into my senior year and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the contact of hitting other people. I gravitated right to it. My high school football coach sees me dunking the basketball one day and he comes up to me and asks me if I was new at the school. I told him I was going to be a senior next year. And he said: ‘You are going to be a senior and you have never played football before?’ And I said no I have never played before. He said: ‘why don’t you come out and let me train you in the summer and we’ll get you ready for the season.’ Most kids in the summer wanted to party and hang out with their friends. I had a 3.75 GPA and I was in summer school training with my head coach. We’re doing drills, weight training, suicides, lifting weights everything. Going into my senior season I had some good games. My first two letters that I got were from Florida A&M and South Carolina State. By the end of the season I had Michigan, Notre, Dame, LSU, Florida, Florida State, and Miami.

pC: Who you recruited you out of Miami?
LS: Don Soldinger. The funny thing about it is, is that he came to my school to look at another player. He came to look at a defensive tackle and a linebacker. He wasn’t even considering me. The funny thing that happened was he was sitting at the stadium watching us do drills, and the guy he was looking at was guy I ran over in the drills, the linebacker and I didn’t do it just one time, I did it like three times in the drill. So Don Soldinger asked ‘Who is that?’ My coach said, ‘oh that’s Leon Searcy he has never played football before’ and Soldinger said, ‘that kid could play at Miami, let me talk to him.’ That’s how it all started.

pC: Why Miami, were you a fan of them growing up?
LS: Absolutely. You know I didn’t watch much college football growing up but I remember Don Soldinger playing a tape of the 1986 team. The whole pageantry of how they played football just excited me. Michael Irvin, Jerome Brown, Stubbs, I mean just every aspect. I said that’s where’s I want to be. I just felt that the pageantry and the way they played football was exciting. I knew that’s where I wanted to be.

pC: On your recruiting visit to Miami, what do you remember? Who toured you around?
LS: I believe it was Melvin Bratton. You know, I wasn’t a little young, I was a lot young. You know, I didn’t go out much, but Melvin Bratton is taking me out to Inferno all these other clubs. You know, I’m a green kid, I had never seen that. I knew I could never tell my mom about where we went. She would have never let me come here if I did but I loved every bit of it. He took me to the Beach to all the hot spots.

The one thing that stood out that he said, was ‘if you come to the University of Miami, if you’re not coming here to be the best, don’t come.’ That’s what he said. He said ‘if you’re not coming here to be the best, don’t come because you’ll be back home in six months because they will run you out of here.’ He said ‘there is so much talent on that field that if you don’t compete it will show and you will not play.’ You know Coach Soldinger told me that too. I am sitting there on signing day, and signing day was a lot different than it is now with all the show. My signing day was in a closet-like room with three chairs and table my dad to my left and Don Soldinger to my right. I am sitting there with the papers and Don Soldinger and before I signed the pieces of paper he said: ‘when you come to the University of Miami, if you don’t come here to be the best, you won’t play and you’ll just be a five-year backup. Before you sign that piece of paper know what you’re committing to.’ I wasn’t worried about that though because I knew I was going to compete, so I signed and was off and running.

pC: Was there another school that was close in the running?
LS: Yea there was one school. Florida State, but Florida State kind of did themselves in. It was between Miami and Florida State, but Florida State was actually the reason why I went to Miami. I went [on a recruiting visit] to Miami first and then Florida State second. I talked to Bobby Bowden and then that evening when the hostess was taking me out I see Deion Sanders, I see Sammy Smith. I see all these guys. They were in the room having a good time and we sit down and we start talking. We start talking football and they start talking about Miami and how they can’t beat Miami and this and that. I said, wait a minute, all these guys are talking about is how great Miami is and how they can’t beat Miami. I said to myself I am in the wrong place. I’m going to spend five years of my life, just like these guys right here, talking about how I can’t beat Miami? When I left and I went back home and my parents asked me what I was going to do, I told them I’m going to Miami. It was like they were already defeated before they even stepped onto the field. In the off-season! I said no, I’m not going to a place like that. I’m not going to a place where they don’t have a tradition of winning and they don’t want to win and they feel like Miami is their obstacle and they can’t overcome it. They answered it for me. I’m going to Miami.

pC: What was the toughest thing playing at Miami? Was it the competition?
LS: Absolutely. Absolutely. The best thing Jimmy Johnson ever did at the University of Miami when he was there, was you never felt comfortable with your position. He kept the grind on you so hard. My first year at the University of Miami he [Jimmy Johnson] got all the freshman together and he said: ‘look, I want you to look to your left and I want you to look to your right because one of you all is not going to be here because when we counted those scholarships someone will have to go.’ He kept the ax on us. I did not feel comfortable with my starting spot until my senior year and I was an All-American by then. He never let up. He constantly kept the ax grinding on you. I remember when we played Arkansas. He is from there and we were beating Arkansas 31 to nothing going into the fourth quarter and he told us on the sideline: ‘if they score a touchdown I am going to run the hell out of you all.’ He meant it, I guess they didn’t offer him a job or something like that and he meant it.

We played Florida State and they had that rap tape and they were preseason number one and we had just won the National Title the year before and that rap tape just pissed him off. He kicked every coach out and you know he was a psychology major so he knew how to get in your head because he scared the hell out of me but now I understand what he was doing. He kicked all the coaches out, all the administrators out of the room and locked the door and dimmed the lights. He sat in the front and took that VCR tape and popped it in and when we saw that tape, we were fuming. Jimmy Johnson after the tape said ‘hey guys, that’s what they think about you. They’re the number one team in the country. They are coming into our house.’ I mean I felt sorry for them [Florida State], I mean I always felt sorry for them but we beat them 31-0. But that’s what he did. I’m not going to say he was a hell of coach but he was great at taking people and putting them in the right positions of power to get things done. We’re talking about Soldinger, Art Kehoe, Gary Stevens, Butch Davis. Tubberville and Orgeron were GAs [Graduate Assistants] when I was there, I mean he put a hell of a staff together and we worked. This was before the NCAA had all those rules and I mean we worked. There were times when if he didn’t like a drill he would start the whole practice over, I mean it was crazy, it was totally crazy. Our conditioning test would be 15 x 110s and these could make or break your career. The only reason Cortez Kennedy started his last year at the University of Miami was because Jimmie Jones failed the 15 x110 test. He always had the test on the hottest day. If it was cool or breezy he wouldn’t do it.

pC: You won two titles when at Miami, what was one of your favorite memories?
LS: Actually I won three titles because I won one my freshman year. Just winning, I mean my favorite memory was probably how we prepared for games on Saturday. At the University of Miami we said we outworked everybody else. You know when I got to the pros I was already taught on how practice would work and how to study film. You know, at the next level, I was ready. Just the winning and the camaraderie was probably the best memory.

pC: Does one win or one game stand out?
LS: The one game that really stands out that we won in 1989 when Notre Dame came in the number one team in the country and we were like number seven. Just the whole thought of how they stole the title away from us the year before with the fumble. I remember how it was that evening. We don’t like Florida State but we really don’t like Notre Dame. I don’t know what it is. I mean there was the whole “Catholic versus Convicts,” the whole “Good versus Evil” that was created. We really didn’t like them because they were the total opposite of what was presumed. We always presumed Notre Dame to be a bunch of choir boys, stuffed collars with ties walking to class with a halo over their heads. We were depicted as the guys with gold chains on and our guys weren’t’ really like that. So, we just despised them so much we wanted to stick it to them. This was the last game of the rivalry, and I just remember walking into the stadium and the electric feeling. I was just amazed of how much energy we would exert on the bus, in the locker room, in warm-ups before the game. I mean I couldn’t believe how we could then just go out and play.

pC: You went up some big-time defensive tackles in your day, who would you say was the toughest to up against in practice?
LS: Easily Cortez [Kennedy] and Russell [Maryland]. Absolutely those two. They were immovable objects in practice. You know, I did an interview on the radio about two weeks ago and Russell was on the show. I told him that a lot of our offensive success had to do with our demise in practice. I told Russell that the offense might have won 18 practices in five years against the defense because our defense was that good. I mean, they were so good that when we played other teams come Saturday it was easy for us. We would go up against Russell, Cortez, Michael Barrow, Darrin Smith, Jesse all of these guys and we had a good secondary. You’re not going to see that kind of talent on one team back then. Russell and Cortez were easily the toughest guys to go up against.

pC: Who was one leader during your years that really stood out? An emotional leader?
LS: We had so many. Everybody on the team was vocal. I mean we took classes in trash talking. Everybody in there was vocal. Who was the emotional leader? I don’t know. It’s difficult to say. We turned to each other. Everybody cared enough about the program that they spoke up when they thought things weren’t going right or we weren’t practicing right or getting it done in the weight room or in class. Everybody spoke up. Russell was the type of guy that when he said something, because he was so quiet, everybody took notice.

pC: Who was your best friend during your years?
LS: Because I was an offensive lineman, usually guys I hung out with were offensive lineman. There was no one in particular. We usually hung in groups like that.

pC: Do you keep in contact with a lot former guys?
LS: Not as many as I would like to but I talk to Hurley Brown a lot, Horace Copeland, Russell two weeks ago, Calvin Harris actually called me yesterday. It would be nice to catch up with some of the old guys.

Come back tomorrow and read Part II of our interview with Leon Searcy and see what he has to say about the differences between Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson, the current state of the Hurricanes, Drew Rosenhaus and more!