A Football Life: John Riggins 11/21/12 8pm NFL Network (Edit: 12 min preview added to OP)

[MartinC]

Did you watch the documentary? What did you think about Dan Riley or Joey Ts comments about Riggins attitude to training?

Or John Kent Cooke's appraisal of Riggins off the field persona?

All of them, btw, completely disagree with you.

What do you expect people to say about someone when they are asked to take part in a programme like this? Your about the same age as me and so I'm sure you recall Johns off field behaviour mainly drink related. Again I LOVED what Riggo did on a Sunday - but he was not exactly a model professional Monday through Saturday.

[Painkiller]

I thoroughly enjoyed the special. I finally got to watch it this morning. I didn't realize how much I didn't know about the man, and I can see how his father's disposition with him, always praising his older brother, motivated him to accomplish great things. I thought it was cool that his dad was a Marine in WWII. Quite a thing to imagine Riggo's dad out there mowing down Nazis.

[Boss_Hogg]

Riggo was one crazy mother ****er. From trucking over NFC East bamas to macking on a Supreme Court Justice. This guy is everything I like in a football player.

[AsiaticSkinsFan]

What do you expect people to say about someone when they are asked to take part in a programme like this? Your about the same age as me and so I'm sure you recall Johns off field behaviour mainly drink related. Again I LOVED what Riggo did on a Sunday - but he was not exactly a model professional Monday through Saturday.

you were at Ashburn watching Riggins practice each week? if you were, then props. Give us some story of Riggins not being a model professional from Monday to Saturday.

If not, then please stop making writing your opinion based on two events as factual statements.

[Bubble Screen]

you were at Ashburn watching Riggins practice each week? if you were, then props. Give us some story of Riggins not being a model professional from Monday to Saturday.

If not, then please stop making writing your opinion based on two events as factual statements.

I think he was referring to what Riggins did off the field, during the week. And he's right. Riggins was not that great of a human being, off the field.

As for the A Football Life thing: watched it last night. Loved it. I'm amazed at how good a job NFLN does with these things. I could literally watch each one of them.

I had forgotten all about Riggins retiring back in 1980. And also had forgotten about him coming out in full uniform the day he was inducted into the Redskins ring of honor. And I never knew about him living in that trailer on the Potomac. He was an interesting character, for sure.

[AsiaticSkinsFan]

I think he was referring to what Riggins did off the field, during the week. And he's right. Riggins was not that great of a human being, off the field.

I know exactly what he was referring too. a) dude partying doesnt make him "not that great of a human being" b) telling Justice OConnor to "lighten up" has nothing to do with him being a model professional.

No, Riggins the football player is who we care about. I need to know if Riggins was not a model professional during the week at Ashburn. So far his teammates, his coaches, and those around him during his playing career said he worked incredibly hard. But MartinC knows otherwise so I think he should share how Riggins wasnt a model professional at Ashburn during the week.

[MartinC]

I know exactly what he was referring too. a) dude partying doesnt make him "not that great of a human being" b) telling Justice OConnor to "lighten up" has nothing to do with him being a model professional.

No, Riggins the football player is who we care about. I need to know if Riggins was not a model professional during the week at Ashburn. So far his teammates, his coaches, and those around him during his playing career said he worked incredibly hard. But MartinC knows otherwise so I think he should share how Riggins wasnt a model professional at Ashburn during the week.

Ask and you shall receive - there are lots of stories around about Riggins turning up hungover for practice and even games and drinking after practice but I think the story below makes the case quite nicely - drunk and urinating over himself in the locker room during a team meeting?

http://espn.go.com/page2/wash/s/simmons/020314.html

Maybe the defining Riggo story: During one team meeting, the players heard a strange noise from inside the locker room, like the sound you hear when it just starts to pour rain. They glanced in the back and there was a groggy Riggins, lying on his back, his pants pulled down, peeing straight into the air all over himself. Gibbs and the poor coaching staff always looked the other way with Riggo, as long as he was coherent on Sundays, but this seemed a little much ... and yet the coaching staff never did anything. "They always looked the other way with him," said May. "It just wasn't Gibbs's nature to constantly battle with a player like that."

[deejaydana]

Thanks for the heads up, already set up the dvr for the next airing. In a related note, the Eddie DeBartolo A Football Life was really compelling. The guy was just a great owner.

[AsiaticSkinsFan]

Ask and you shall receive - there are lots of stories around about Riggins turning up hungover for practice and even games and drinking after practice but I think the story below makes the case quite nicely - drunk and urinating over himself in the locker room during a team meeting?

http://espn.go.com/page2/wash/s/simmons/020314.html

thats all I asked for. Thank you sir.

Doesnt make me look at dude differently because all I care about is how he is on the field, but thank you a lot for this. If there was a rep button here, you would get a positive one.

[Skins4Life6388]

Just watched it, finally. Pretty good documentary.

[deejaydana]

Was a solid show. The guy is NOTHING if not an original. I liked the 'social hour' the team would hold back then and just chill out with each other, play cards, shoot the ****. I still feel like the run he made to seal our first Super Bowl win was literally just yesterday.

[Dan T.]

I saw Riggins twice around town during the years he played here. Once at the Black Rooster Pub in DC and once outside P.J. Skidoos in Fairfax. He was plastered both times. Seems like anything he did... party, hunt, work-out, seek a different path... he did to the fullest. No half measures. And at some level Gibbs recognized that and came to terms with it. Because on Sunday he was true to his nature and played to his fullest. And I haven't heard any teammate criticize Riggins in all the years.

[veteranskinsfan]

I watched it this weekend. I really enjoyed it. I like the fact that Gibbs when he went to Kansas thought he would bring Riggo back then trade him. The best thing that happened to Riggo was his second wife I bet. It seems like now he is finally at a peaceful place in his life.
I learned a lot about him that I did not know. I had forgotten he had played with Namath. I remembered he had played with the Jets. I like when he handed his dad the football and gave the flowers to his mom during the stadium ceremony. He had a lot of issues with his dad for sure.
He has stayed in great shape for a guy his age.

[GothSkinsFan]

Yeah right
Give him the Hogs to block for him and a franchise level qb like Theismann and there would be no debate.
Glad I missed this. Sounds like another NFL Films mythmaking instead of reality. Riggins sat out 1980 because he was "heartbroken" over the loss to Dallas. GTFOH.

Are you really 42? Did you see Riggins 60+ yard TD sprint in 1979 against Dallas (that being the tragedy referred to above)? Riggo just flat out outran the D. He might've gone in untouched. Riggo also played pinball with the D, including linebackers. Check out the 1982 playoff run. There's no way Portis ends the game against Dallas with that Riggo drill.

[deejaydana]

The guy didn't seem to avoid taking hits on the field of battle. Some of the DBs in this documentary he just straight up abuses physically.