EMQB Interview: Gary Zimmerman
Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL
Gary Zimmerman will be inducted as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2008 on August 2. Since the announcement of this honor was made back in early February, the media attention has probably been something of a nightmare for Gary. You see, he quit talking to writers and radio and TV people while he was still in Minnesota. I guess he had a bad experience. So when he became a member of the Denver Broncos, he fit right in with the offensive linemen there who never spoke with the media. Eleven years later, he really doesn’t have much choice. “Yeah, it’s definitely different,” he told me on a national conference call today. “It’s been a little stressful, all the coverage with the media.” He also said he was in the process of trimming his acceptance speech to a more suitable length and noted “For the first time in my life, I have too much to say.” Gary is one of just a handful of players to earn the honor of being named to two National Football League All-Decade Teams (in the 80s and 90s). He played in seven Pro Bowls and is considered by many to be one of the best left tackles to ever play the game.
DAVID: You actually played more years in Minnesota than Denver. Do you feel more loyalty to the Broncos since you ended your career there?
GARY: Yeah, my loyalty is to the Denver Broncos. What I’ve been telling people is when I went to Denver it’s like the dog who gets put to the pound and you get a new owner and the loyalty is to that new owner and the owner treats you well. I guess that’s the easiest way to explain it. The way Mr. Bowlen treated everybody in the organization was unbelievable. Coming from where I came from, they didn’t treat people quite as well, so you know, I thought it was that way across the league. And then to go to Denver and to have my eyes opened like that, it was just unbelievable, the respect and dignity. It just made me want to stay there and it made me want to win for the man.
DAVID: Is this award going to change your life? Or do you still feel pretty much like the same guy you were before the announcement?
GARY: I hope it doesn’t change me. It’s a great honor, but I still want to be the same guy when it’s over, so that’s the goal. I’ve got more friends and associations now, but I’m still going to be the same blue‑collar guy. You’re not going to see a big flip‑flop on my part.
DAVID: What are your emotions with this whole process?
GARY: I don’t know. When they brought that blob of clay (the beginnings of his Hall of Fame bust), that was pretty powerful. They set it on the counter and that’s when it first hit me. That was pretty powerful. And I’ve been told when you get to the podium it’s going to hit you. First seeing that blob of clay is when it first hit me that it was pretty powerful, and I’m sure getting back to Canton there it’s going to really hit me, and hopefully my knees will hold up.
I also talked with Gary about his days playing the left tackle position (he protected John Elway’s blind side) and whether or not he felt he helped to redefine that position. I was interviewing Gary on my BlackBerry and not recording (I count on other people for that) so unfortunately, this question never showed up in the final transcript for some reason. There were a lot of sound problems on the line that delayed the interview, so I can’t really share his answer with you in its entirety other than to say he did feel some sense of helping to make that position the high-profile position it is today. On several occasions, however, he did emphasize his role as a team player saying, “I always felt I didn’t want to let my buddies down. I didn’t want to let my teammates down. I didn’t want to let my coaches down. I don’t know, some people say I’m just old school.”
Photo: Newscom
Tags: Denver Broncos, Gary-Zimmerman, Pro Football Hall of FameRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Denver Broncos, Interviews, Pro Football HOF
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