Dan Pastorini: Life in the fast lane

Jim Plunkett (left) and Dan Pastorini.

Senior Bowl: Dan Pastorini, from the 1971 Senior Bowl, had a nice career with the Houston Oilers. Also, you’ve done a lot of other things in your life. Dan, people say that you lived life in the fast lane. You wrote an autobiography: “Taking Flak: My Life in the Fast Lane.” Before we get into all that, what’s your definition of life in the fast lane?
Dan Pastorini: Well, it was the 70s back then and there were a lot of free spirited people and I think the game has changed quite a bit from a traditional butch hair cuts or flat top haircuts to the longer haired players. It was kind of a wide-open time at that time. We were human beings and we took advantage of it to the best of our abilities but we also made enough time to make sure we focused on our careers and played the game. We played hard, but we had a lot of fun along the way. 

SB: You talk about spending time in your career - you’ve had several careers in the long run in your life from football to the racing to some appearances as an actor in movies and a TV series. Out of all that, what do you see in the life that you look back on?
DP: I had a lot of opportunities because of football and that enabled me to get into the other things like acting and the racing and whatnot. It was fun, it was a lot of fun. I met a lot of nice people and to had a lot of good times. It was something that wouldn’t have been presented to me had I not played football.

SB: You once said that if it wasn’t for you getting into football you probably would’ve just gone straight into racing. What was it that led you to football?
DP: Well that or baseball because I had an opportunity to play with the Mets the same year they drafted Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan. I was a shortstop and I liked playing every day and I was a pretty good hitter. And stupid me, they wanted to make a pitcher out of me. Stupid me, I turned it down. They offered me pretty good money but they drafted me way low because they knew that I wanted to go to college and play football and baseball. In fact, I went to college on a baseball scholarship. But yeah, racing has always been the first love of my life and if I’d have had the opportunity to race professionally – but back then it was street racing and match racing and travel from town to town and race other guys – there wasn’t a lot of money in it either so the best opportunity was either baseball or football and I chose football.

SB: So, you go to Santa Clara on a baseball scholarship and you end up being a star football player and the third overall pick in the NFL Draft.
DP: Yeah, the irony there is I was injured most of my career in college. I think I played a total of maybe 7 or 8 games if that in 4 years. I had knee injuries, medial collateral ligament tears, back then they just kind of put you in a cast for 6 to 8 weeks and let it heal. Then you had to rehab and come play. Fortunately, I don’t know how it happened but I was selected to play in the East-West Shrine game and the Senior Bowl game in 1971 and those allowed me to showcase my talent. And I think that moved me up the ladder on the Draft in 1971 and I was the third player picked. The first player was Jim Plunkett, then Archie Manning and then myself. So that was quite an accomplishment and I’m very proud of that but it’s still kind of a shocker to me. If it weren’t for the Senior Bowl and the East-West Shrine game, I don’t think I’d have ever been able to showcase my talents.

SB: That’s kind of a testament to the players that maybe might pass on an opportunity to play in one of these all-star games in today’s world because they think their college careers speak for themselves. Can you elaborate on the importance of showing up to one of these game weeks to prove yourself to all of the NFL personnel that will be here?
DP: I think it’s the best opportunity in the world. Nowadays, these guys are having their own camps and whatnot, which I don’t understand. It’s still an opportunity to showcase how you play under the best competition against the best players in the country. I think any player is foolish to turn down an opportunity to play in these games because it’ll definitely showcase the talent.

SB: 1971 wasn’t too long ago so what do you remember about that week?
DP: Wasn’t too long ago? That was 44 years ago! I don’t know, I’ve had a lot of concussions too. I remember being in the south and my first exposure to the south. The funniest thing that I remember that comes to mind is back then we didn’t have cell phones so I called my parents and checked in every other day and one of the operators from Alabama there calls – my mother answered the phone and she (the operator) says, “I have a collect call from Dan” and my mother said, “I don’t know a Diane.” And she says no ma’am, Dan,” and my mother says, “I don’t know Diane, I’m sorry,” and she hung up. So I started laughing and said call her back so she called back and I said, “mom it’s me” and she said, “Oh okay.” She started laughing because that was her first exposure to a southern accent.

SB: You got to experience the south a little bit and it had to have some effect on you right because you have your own line of BBQ products?
DP: Well yeah actually my parents were in the restaurant business for about 37 years and those are products that we used in our restaurant and I’ve been able to showcase them over the past few years. It’s a very difficult competitive market. It’s a lot more competitive than football or baseball ever was to me. The food industry is real tough.

SB: You got to spend some more time in the south once your professional career got started going to the Houston Oilers. The whole “Luv Ya Blue” mantra came to life with you as the quarterback down there. Does that still resonate with you?
DP: It really does. In fact, I’m standing here in front of the Stafford Centre in Stafford, Texas to go into a staff meeting. Next Thursday, we’re having the Bum Phillips All-American Opera. We’re bringing that here from New York. It premiered up there a year and a half ago. I saw it along with Wade Phillips. It was a very moving testament to my old coach. M charity is producing this opera and we’re in staff meetings today. It’ll be next Thursday as a matter of fact. All the proceeds are going to go to help build a camp down in his ranch for hearing-impaired children. And we’re looking to raise $150,000 for this. So yes, the “Luv Ya Blue” still does resonate here in Houston. And answering your question about my appeal to the south, I still live in Houston and I chose to live here after my career because the people are so great. That’s why I’m a Texan now, I’m no longer a Californian. In fact, I’ve got the House of Representatives here in the great state of Texas, they’ve adopted me as a son, so to speak, so I’m a native Texan now.

 SB: Tell us more about your charity and what its missions are.
DP: The charity is to help kids. We’ve been involved in the last three years with helping Be An Angel Foundation, which helps the multiply challenged families as well as hearing-impaired children. And we’ve raised over $350,000 for them in the past three years and right now we’re dedicating this particular venue and they’ve helped contribute to it as well, to raise money for the hearing-impaired kids for Bum Phillips’ charity. We have our golf tournament next month that we raise all the money for Be An Angel from. So we’re busy here for the next 45 days and then after that I’m going to disappear for a week or two 

Pastorini with coach Bum Phillips.

SB: I want to ask you about Bum Phillips and some of the teammates you played with as well but first, what was it like to play for Bum Phillips?
DP: The greatest man I’ve ever played for in my life. And I’ve had the pleasure of playing for some great coaches with Pat Malley at University of Santa Clara all the way back to John Hanna at Bellarmine College Preparatory. But Bum Phillips was the greatest coach I ever played for. A lot of people mistook his country-isms as kind of a joke but he was the guy that changed the game. He was the founder of the 3-4 defense which is prevalent today in the game, carried on by his son Wade Phillips. He was a great coach, he was a great humanitarian. He was like as second father to me. And a testament to that is his players that he played for, all of them are coming in with the exception of two are coming in for this event.

SB: You got to hand the ball off to a pretty special player and throw the ball to a special player, playing with the Hall of Famer Earl Campbell at running back and then throwing some touchdowns to Billy White Shoes Johnson. Did you ever join in with the Billy White Shoes Johnson dance?
DP: Well, it’s funny the first time Billy did that dance I went up to him and I told him “We don’t do that here. You don’t need to piss off these defenses anymore than they’re already pissed off.” And so then he started scoring quite a few touchdowns and I walked up to him again and I said, “Billy, you dance all you want I’ll handle the defense.” So it was great throwing to guys like him, Kenny Burrough, Robert Woods, Mike Renfro, Mike Barber, we had a bunch of good guys that were great catchers of the ball and handing that ball off to No. 34 was a comforting feeling being a quarterback. I wish he could’ve caught the ball better because he would’ve taken a lot less punishment but the only catch he could make was handing it off to his stomach and that was about it.

SB: The autobiography, it’s called “Taking Flak: My Life in the Fast Lane” and of course a play on words there because of all the injuries you mentioned earlier, you had to put that flak jacket on. Tell us about what went into the autobiography and what the reaction to it has been.
DP: The reaction has been really good and it was after a very trying experience in my life. And it was kind of a cathartic experience to open up and be honest about things that a lot of people were criticizing or a lot of people were curious about. My friend John Lopez who co-wrote it with me, he encouraged me to do it and I said “well I’ll do it if you do it but don’t ask me any questions unless you want the honest to God truth.” And he asked some pretty tough questions but I held my ground and I answered them. There have been a lot of people that read the book that have come up to me now, shook my hand said, “Thank you very much, you helped me face my demons and sobered me up.” So that’s rewarding in itself even if it’s just one but it’s been many.

SB: Are there any details on Farrah Fawcett in that book?
DP: No, not really. Farrah and I had a passing fancy for each other. It was nothing serious. We just dated for a few months and she actually dumped me so I’m kind of heartbroken over it, you know.

SB: You mentioned being a native Texan, give the fans that are missing you these days and wondering what you’re up to, what daily life is like for you now?
DP: Daily life is still busy. I like to keep myself busy. I inherited that from my parents, they worked ‘til the day they died. I have a lot of fun, I’m surrounded by a lot of good people that work for me and work with me. My charity takes a lot of time. I also do some new business development for a company called Insperity, which outsources professional services for various small businesses and large businesses. That’s been very exciting for me to get involved in as well. So I keep busy and on my off time I like to play a little golf and do a little hunting. But other than that life is good and I can’t complain 

SB: Dan, we’re very happy to hear that. We’re glad that you’ve had so many successes in your life. And we’re just glad that you had a good time at the Senior Bowl back in 1971 and that was able to propel you to some further successes in life. Thanks for taking the time to catch up with us.
DP: Thank you. I’d love to come back and see you all.