Up Close With PSR
John Riggins

John Riggins is remembered by NFL fans as both the Super Bowl MVP for the Washington Redskins and as the fun-loving jock who once advised Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to 'loosen up, baby.' His 168-yard performance in the Redskins' win over Miami earned him MVP honors in Super Bowl XVII. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992 and currently hosts a radio show in Washington, DC.

PSR: What are your thoughts on Ricky Willams' retirement?

Riggins: I'm kind of a person who is pretty strong on individual rights, and I don't know what everybody's questioning -

Basically, it makes everybody question themselves, which nobody likes to do. That's the root of all this. Nobody questions a doctor who practices for five or six years and then decides he wants to become an attorney or whatever it is he wants to do. Policemen quit their jobs all the time. Everyone does - unless you're in the entertainment business, then you're not allowed to just say, 'You know what? This ain't my bag anymore.'

I don't think Ricky Williams owes anybody an explanation, nor do I think we need to waste our time trying to figure out why he did this. - Time marches on and there'll be somebody to take Ricky Williams' place and we'll put all of our attention there, and we'll feel good about that and there'll be new heroes to come. - He's got his own reasons and we don't need to pry into his life to find out what they are. And that in and of itself may very well be the reason he walked away.

PSR: You sat out the 1980 season, and said, explaining your return, 'I'm bored. I'm broke. I'm back.' Joe Gibbs is certainly not broke. I can't imagine that he's bored, given everything he is involved in. So why is he back?

JR:You know what I really think the real reason is? And I'm not 100% on this, but his son Coy wants to be a coach. I really think there are two reasons, he's not broke, but Joe Gibbs, like the rest of us, loves the green stuff.

And the other thing is, I gotta tell ya, I think he's making way more than the five million a year the papers reported. He's probably got a piece of the team or something down the road because the guy's generated way too much economic enterprise in the Washington, DC area alone to not be getting paid more than they're saying. He's getting paid only a few hundred thousand dollars more than Steve Spurrier got paid, if I'm not mistaken. (Editor's note: Gibbs will average $5.5 million per year; Spurrier was making $5 million annually). To me, that would be absurd. There's no logic here, in my mind, the guy's won three Super Bowls.

Anyway, it's the money and it's his son, two reasons why, I would guess, that Joe Gibbs is back in coaching. Plus he's still got the racing deal going, so he's doubling up the catch-up, know what I mean? He's making money while he sleeps and then picking up a dime during the day as well.

PSR: Did you have fun playing ball?

JR: Yeah - on the one hand it is very demanding and cruel in a lot of ways. On the other hand, it's all fantasy, so your childhood never ends, really. To have a childhood that lasts until you're 35 years old is not a bad thing and there's a lot of fun to be had there. But if you're not careful, you can probably find yourself in situations and predicaments that had you left college and went into a profession, or started a business; you probably wouldn't find yourself in.

There are perils and pitfalls, but there are a lot of highs. I guess you could say that being an entertainer-slash-professional athlete provides a lot of highs and a lot of lows.

PSR: Is the league less fun now than it used to be?

JR: I think I could have more fun if I was making six or seven million dollars a year. Someone who gives me the green stuff makes me very happy.

PSR: Are there any running backs that play the game the way you did?

JR: Oh yeah. There's nothing that I did that was unique. In all honesty, I think that I'm probably one of the most overrated people that ever came down the road. I had a helluva lot of talent, I will say that - People have a hard time with that and they try to tell me that's not the case, so maybe I don't even know what I was thinking or what I was doing. But I guess you could say that I wasn't the most committed or dedicated football player.

So I have to say that almost every one of them plays the game better than I did. Basically the genetic pool is the same, so it starts with talent, but after that what is it? It's commitment. And as I said, I certainly wasn't one of the most committed. I think these guys today - well, I look around and I don't see a John Riggins out there, someone just out there for the fun and games.

PSR: You played behind a legendary offensive line in Washington. What did the Hogs do for your career?

JR: They didn't make me any better or worse a player than I was before I started playing with them. The most yards I ever made in a season was 1,300 or something like that (1,347 yards in 1983) and I had gained about 150 less than that about five years before they came along (1,153 yards in 1979), so they didn't do a whole lot. I had the best line in football, but it didn't change my game much.

PSR: Will you always be linked in history with Sandra Day O'Connor?

JR: Well that's the way she feels. So if she feels that way, and she's one hell of a smart lady, I have to agree with her. I suppose in some way, it's inevitable. It was unfortunate for her but it turned out pretty well for me.