Stories and Quotes
Some of the things that have been written and said about me.
New Shows: Night-By-Night
Tom Feran - Cleveland Plain Dealer - September 12, 1993
"Saved by the Bell: The College Years" (NBC, 8 p.m., this week) Continuation of "Saved by the Bell," the teen-oriented Saturday morning and daytime series, in which Bayside High grads Zack, Kelly, Slater and Screech (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Mario Lopez and Dustin Diamond) become roommates at California University. Former Cleveland Brown Bob Golic joins as resident adviser Michael Rogers, and Roger Kabler ("Rhythm & Blues") plays an eccentric professor. Tuesday
"Saved by the Bell" or "Full House" - what a battle. Tape it, fast-forward to Golic, and watch "Roc."
Golic Scores
Tom Feran - Cleveland Plain Dealer - July 25, 1993
Bob Golic, who's never met a camera he didn't like, says he's always been a ham - "and they haven't found a cure for it, so I guess I'm an uncured ham," the former Cleveland Browns nose tackle told a groaning but appreciative audience of TV critics here.
Golic plays a no-nonsense dormitory adviser in "Saved By the Bell: The College Years," NBC's upcoming nighttime continuation of the popular teen-oriented Saturday morning and daytime comedy. Though it's his first weekly role, after guest spots last season on "Coach" and "Good Advice," Golic stole the show from teen stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Mario Lopez in their meeting with the press.
"One of my brothers said if a wall had a note pad, I'd give it an interview," he said.
He said his recent decision to retire from pro football after 14 years was prompted by his final campaign with the Los Angeles Raiders: "By the end of the season, I still had a lot of energy and my uniform was very clean.
"I'm a '90s kind of guy," he quipped, when someone noted he had cried about the decision in an interview with ESPN. "I don't cry when I get hurt playing. I'm just sensitive. I've always been very emotional. I'd play another 10 years if I could, but I can't."
Golic, who also has a monthly sports show on local cable, said he might have tried to keep playing if it weren't for "Saved By the Bell." Three days of auditions for the part "got my competitive juices going" and disclosed a knack for comic timing.
"This was the beginning of a new life, something I found out I love to do. That's what football was for me, an emotional rush. I was going to need something that would really push me, after 14 years in professional football, and I said it's time to get on with it."
Ex-Brown Golic Retires
Cleveland Plain Dealer - July 14, 1993
Bob Golic was several minutes into his retirement announcement yesterday when it became poignantly obvious how difficult the decision had been.
His voice breaking with emotion, the 14-year NFL pro and four-year Los Angeles Raider said: "I want to play. I know I'm old and beat-up, but I want to play so bad.
"But a time comes when you've got to face it. I think I've played too long to deal with standing and watching. That's too hard."
Golic, 35, a St. Joseph High graduate and former Brown, stood and watched a great deal last year as the Raiders phased him out of their game plan. He said the strain of not being involved in the action contributed to his decision not to request a return with them or seek free-agent employment elsewhere.
"I think I had been fooling myself trying to convince myself that it wasn't time," he said.
But Golic is an engaging personality with a razor wit; so he's not likely to lack for career options.
Announcing his retirement so close to the start of the NFL season probably precluded his getting a broadcasting job for this year, although the networks have expressed interest in him in the past. He auditioned for ESPN this spring but says he hasn't heard back. He says he'd like to work in that field "because it would keep me close to the game."
In the meantime, Golic is pursuing an acting career. He is working in an NBC sitcom, "Saved By the Bell: the College Years," in which he plays a dormitory director.
Golic was wracked with emotion throughout his announcement. At one point he said, "They say when you die you have flashbacks of your life. The last two days I've been having flashbacks of my career. It's like I'm dying, because it's been my life."
Bob Golic Tackling Hollywood
Tom Feran - Cleveland Plain Dealer - July 14, 1993
Whatever happened to Bob Golic?
You'll get the answer quickly if you watch local TV in Los Angeles for any length of time. The former Cleveland Browns nose tackle seems to turn up at the drop of a helmet to talk about matters not limited to pro football.
"If I don't know the answer, I'll make something up," he says with a chuckle.
"He's always got a comment on anything, and you never have to worry that what he says can't be used," says agent Randy Peskin.
But TV interviews have become more than mere diversion for Golic, who went to Los Angeles with the NFL Raiders four years ago.
Now that his playing days may be over, he is going Hollywood.
Tomorrow night on CBS, he appears on "Good Advice" (9:30 p.m., WJW Channel 8), the comedy series starring Shelley Long as a psychologist. Golic plays a football player nicknamed "Scud," whose sensitive side she decides to bring out.
In February, he guest-starred on ABC's "Coach," playing a former football player with steroid-induced cancer.
He's had small parts in the movies "The Taking of Beverly Hills" and "DaVinci's War"; hosts a monthly cable show, "Life in Sports With Bob Golic"; and has interviews coming up with CBS, NBC and ESPN, who "are all expressing a very dramatic interest in having me come and be an analyst for them."
Last weekend, most significantly, he completed work on "Saved by the Bell Goes to College," the pilot for a fall series that has a 13-episode order from NBC. It's a spinoff of "Saved by the Bell," the popular, youth-oriented series that airs Saturday mornings on WKYC Channel 3 and weekdays on WOIO Channel 19. Golic will be a regular.
"It was real strange," he said in a call from Los Angeles this week. "After 14 years in the NFL, there's this tremendous emotional, physical, psychological high you go through during the course of a weekend for a game. And I was wondering if I'd ever be able to replicate that in any way, in any other occupation, and I just couldn't see it happening.
"But after I had done `Good Advice,' I realized, hey, there's a good adrenaline buzz that comes off of this. It was great. I told these guys at `Saved by the Bell' that if I could just get somebody to hit me a couple of times with a baseball bat, I'd feel right at home.'
Always ready with a quote, Golic got into TV by giving interviews.
"I've always looked at the media's job as being somewhat unenviable," he said. "They've got to deal with guys after games, win or lose, who just don't want to talk. But the fans are going to find out what's happening with the team by what they read in the paper, see on TV or hear on the radio, and if you want them to get the facts, you better be the one giving it to them.
"And I've always enjoyed doing the interviews, messing around on camera a little bit. Since I made it easy on the reporters, they kind of accepted me pretty quickly.
"After my second year with the Raiders, we went to training camp and one of the stations brought one of those satellite trucks. A couple of the guys on the team were going, `I see you got yourself a new truck this year.' I said, `Yeah, why mess with the middleman? I'm going right to my own broadcast.'
Sportscasting would be the more logical career move, he said. But people from the entertainment industry "saw me doing interviews and thought I was funny or articulate, and started calling about an appearance here or there.
"`Good Advice' was the first show I got called on. It was the role of a football player, so it wasn't really a stretch for me or anything. They didn't have me actually read for the part. They needed a big guy.
"For `Coach,' I had to go and read, compete against other actors. When I read the script for that one - a lot of people compared it to the Lyle Alzado story - I felt I really needed to do it, I had to do that part. "Once the `Coach' episode aired, there were a lot of people calling me about doing different things. A lot more interest. People felt I had the ability to actually do some acting, rather than just be used as a football player to fill a big guy's role.
"After `Good Advice,' he said, "I started getting excited, going, `Gee, I wonder if I should take acting lessons?' Somebody said, `Nah, that might mess you up. Stick with what you've got going for you, the sincerity of it, and kind of go with that.'
Golic's outgoing personality helps, too. Once, talking with some entertainment types after a dinner, he mentioned that one of his goals in life "was to be shot or blown up in a movie - the others were meeting Demi Moore and drinking beer with John Goodman."
He soon found himself in the movie "DaVinci's War," with nine explosive charges and packets of fake blood on his body to simulate being machine-gunned in the chest and stomach.
He also wound up with second-degree burns on his wrist - "I was trying to be very authentic" by clutching at a wound, he said. "But I've come out of games worse. No big deal."
As for his other goals, "Good Advice" producer Danny Jacobson used to work on "Roseanne" and promised Golic an introduction to Goodman; Demi Moore remains elusive.
Appearing on sitcoms "has kind of ruined me for watching television now," he said.
"I have a tendency to be a little more critical about performances - `Boy, that sounded fake.' I just don't look at television the same way anymore. Which is kind of sad, because it was always a big hobby of mine, watching television.'
Golic said he still has a home in Mentor but seldom gets back to Northeast Ohio these days. If not ready for retirement, he's trying to "make a nice smooth transition" to life after football.
"Fourteen years might be the max for me," he said, noting he didn't dress for the Raiders' final games last season, and is currently a free agent who hasn't been contacted by any teams.
"But it's still in my heart. I wish there was as much enthusiasm for me to come to somebody's football team as there is for me to come to somebody's TV show."
(Los Angeles/Oakland Raider and Radio Shack spokesperson) Howie Long on Bob Golic
"He'd talk to a wall if it had a [reporters] notebook attached to it."
Rudy
In Reel Life:
At the end of the film, it says, "Since 1975, no other Notre Dame player has been carried off the field."
In Real Life:
"That's BS," Bob Golic, a teammate and friend of Rudy's, told the L.A. Times. "In 1978, I got a concussion and they carried me off on a stretcher."
They Do What It Takes, Take What They Get
Washington Post - December 5, 1991
Monday afternoon, sitting in his office, (Los Angeles Raiders head coach Art) Shell called the series of squeakers "character-builders. You have to win those. You've got to win the dirty, nasty games."
Bob Golic, the 34-year-old nose tackle, said any more of these will cause him to go on the injury report. "Golic: Stress {Probable}," he cracked. "We've won 'em a lot of ways. From behind, by big margins, close all the way. It shows we have the ability to win no matter what the situation is. We're able to respond regardless, and it's something we've proven. A lot of times, you have something happen, like a turnover deep in your own territory, and you say, 'Oh, no.' But we feel, 'Hey, okay, fine, a challenge. It doesn't matter.' "
NFL Preview
Norman Chad - Washington Post - November 15, 1991
Seahawks at Raiders (-3 1/2): Dedication of Reagan library last week marked first time in history that five presidents and gate-crashing Raiders DT Bob Golic have ever been together for any purpose. Pick: Seahawks.
Football and Golic Equal Fun
Washington Post - August 10, 1991
The gentle eyes belie his occupation. The demeanor demands he do his bit on stage. But Bob Golic, the Los Angeles Raiders' funny man, is sure if he ever performed publicly, patrons would demand their money back.
"Somebody came up to me last year and wanted me to do a stand-up comedy routine," Golic said at the Raiders' training camp. "I don't know if I could do stuff like that.
"I just like to have fun. I don't know if I'd be any good on stage. If you go up on stage, people expect you to be funny."
Golic, a 6-foot-2, 275-pound nose tackle, is a constant target of writers and broadcasters because of his warmth, good humor and accessibility.
Truth is, he's never met a microphone or notebook he doesn't like. And he has a comedic way of putting things, all he needs is a straight man.
Golic held out until July 27, the day of the Raiders' first preseason game. When asked about it, he didn't hesitate with a rapid-fire response.
"I was an easygoing sort of holdout," he said. "It was amiable through the whole ordeal. We just hadn't finished things by the time camp started. We were talking on a regular basis. I was working out on my own, but obviously wanted to be in, I feel like I need training camp.
"During the holdout, I found myself watching TV and critiquing interviews. That's sad. Ah, it kept me occupied."
Golic, 33, is about to begin his 13th NFL season. He signed with the Raiders before the 1989 season as a Plan B free agent after playing three seasons in New England and seven in Cleveland.
"Since I came to Los Angeles, I'm playing more," he said. "Maybe I'm just working out harder. I feel my two years here have been two of my best years in the league."
Golic believes he played about as good as he felt, even though he wasn't chosen for the Pro Bowl as he was from 1985-87 with the Browns.
"Performance-wise, I felt I did very well and physically I lasted the season better than ever before," he said. "Right now, I feel great. I think I'd like to go three more {years}.
"The bottom line is I still love football. Knock on wood, I can make it to 15. If I still feel like I can contribute and they still want me around, I'll do it.
Players Haven't Missed A Beat
Jane Scott - Cleveland Plain Dealer - June 23, 1991
Michael Stanley's last words at the finale of his 13 farewell shows at the Front Row four years ago were: "Don't let 'em take the rock 'n' roll away from you."
The concert wound up as it had four years ago with "Strike Up the Band," and former Browns nose tackle Bob Golic coming onstage, as well as his brother Greg and Stanley's first manager, David Spero.
How Can Games Go On With A War Going On?
Pete Axthelm - Washington Post - January 18, 1991
The Super Bowl will be played next week. Why not? The nation needs entertainment while kids are dying in the Persian Gulf.
Right? Wrong.
I happened to spend this week with the pro football team with the most warlike image, the silver and black with the pirates on the helmets. The Raiders.
Almost to a man they were stunned by the bombing raid in Baghdad.
As Bob Golic put it, "Reality has set in. What we do is still a game. We're physical and brutal. But we're not talking about life and death." Howie Long had a similar perspective: "It doesn't affect your preparation for a championship game, but it does make you conscious of what's important in life."
NFL Notebook
One of the more hilarious stories of this year's playoffs happened Sunday morning, hours before the Los Angeles Raiders were to play Cincinnati in the AFC semifinal playoff game.
Raiders middle linebacker Ricky Ellison was stuck in a traffic jam that hadn't moved for 25 minutes about a mile from Memorial Coliseum. Los Angeles players had to be at the stadium at least two hours before gametime and he knew he was going to be late, so he left his car.
Here's the strange part: Not only did he leave his car, Ellison gave the keys to his 944 Porsche and a parking pass to strangers in a van behind him. Ellison, without identifying himself as a Raiders player, asked them to park the car for him.
"I was desperate," he said. "I knew if I didn't get going I was going to be late for the game."
Now here's the amazing part: The strangers did park the car and, after guessing he was a Raider, waited for him after the game with his car keys. Ellison had forgotten what the men looked like but noticed one of them dangling his keys in the air.
"He told us the story before the game," teammate Bob Golic said. "I didn't think he'd ever see that car again. I said, 'Don't worry Ricky, I'll give you a ride home.' "
