When Steve Thompson graduated from the University of Washington in 1968, news in regards to the NFL wasn’t on tv 24/7, and the phrase web was a typo.
That’s why it is comprehensible that the defensive lineman did not know who was teaching a staff on the opposite facet of the nation. And why he deserved a cross when the Jets selected him within the second spherical of that yr’s NFL Draft.
“This was a day of round television screens and lots of snow,” Thompson mentioned. “We lived in Seattle and the 49ers and the Ram, those were the only games that we could get. And occasionally a Cowboy game. In fact, the only team that actually came and scouted me personally was the Cowboys. I thought, ‘Man, I’m going to be a Dallas Cowboy.’
“And then the Draft got here and I get a cellphone name. Weeb Ewbank referred to as and I did not know who Weeb Ewbank was from Adam. He mentioned, ‘I’m the coach of the New York Jets. We simply drafted you within the second spherical.’ Sometimes guys would hearken to (the Draft on) the radio. I wasn’t. Didn’t even understand you would.
“So I was really shocked. I told my wife when I hung up, ‘I was drafted by the New York Jets.’ She said, ‘The Jets? Who are they?’ I said, ‘Well, they’ve got a guy named Joe Namath. He’s a really good quarterback. That’s all I know.'”
Thompson did not know way more in regards to the staff when he reported for Training Camp at Hofstra. Fortunately, he met a couple of veteran gamers who would take him underneath their wings.
“One really became a good friend, Winston Hill. He was on the offensive line and I was up against him quite a bit because I was playing defensive end, so there was a lot of back and forth between us,” Thompson mentioned.
“I got to know him and Paul Crane, a couple of other Christian guys. I was a Christian and met with some of the guys in kind of a Bible study occasionally. But Winston Hill, and then eventually, Earlie Thomas. He became a really good friend. In fact, it was kind of a big deal because he was black and I, of course, was white, and they asked, ‘Who do you want to room with?’ I said, ‘I’d like to room with Earlie Thomas.’
“For some purpose, the black guys and the white guys did not room collectively. I had no concept that there was any purpose why that ought to be. And so we picked one another to be roommates.
“One of the newspaper guys interviewed me and said, ‘So what’s it like being a roommate with a black guy?’ And I just said, ‘Wow, it’s crazy. He jumps up in the air and puts his pants on before his feet hit the ground. He can do amazing things.’
“Of course, the man realized I used to be pulling his leg. But it was simply sort of humorous as a result of what are you speaking about? ‘What’s it like rooming with a black man?’ I had no thought why there can be any points, and we turned finest pals.”
Thompson could not have joined the Jets at a better time. Posting an 11-3 record in 1968, only the second winning record in their nine-year history, they beat Oakland for the AFL Championship, and then upset the NFL champion Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, 16-7.
What was the key to the team’s success?
“The veterans, they’d been collectively for numerous years. Namath was on the peak of his recreation. Weeb Eubank actually had an ear to Namath and listened to him. Some coaches do not hearken to their quarterbacks, do not actually play to their strengths. And we had Matt Snell and Emerson Boozer, two nice guys working the ball, nice receivers, and an offensive line,” Thompson mentioned.
“And the truth that we had been 17-, 18-point underdogs (within the Super Bowl) was an enormous deal. And the entire thing with Namath guaranteeing that we’ll beat the Colts was a number of enjoyable. Because, I imply, he was a coach on the sector. Guys simply listened to him, and he was so dedicated to profitable. Lots of people thought he simply wasn’t a critical soccer participant, however he was essentially the most critical man on the staff.
“He was able to show us by watching the film of Baltimore, where we could beat them, some of the defensive things we could do to stop them. He was convinced that they were so good at what they did, that they wouldn’t change anything that they’ve done. And they didn’t. We knew exactly what they were going to do. We played to our strengths and their weaknesses.”
With the Jets for 5 of his seven years in professional soccer, Thompson additionally spent one season with Portland within the World Football League and one with British Columbia within the Canadian Football League.
“Playing in the Super Bowl was the highlight of my junior high, high school, college, and professional world. And I wear my Super Bowl ring all the time,” Thompson mentioned. “I’m enjoying the afterglow of it as much as I did then. I mean, I was a rookie and didn’t appreciate then what a big deal it was to play in that. That game really impacted the AFL-NFL merger and just kind of set the stage for the whole future with television and so much of what was going to come.
“Playing in a Super Bowl, it simply frequently is a optimistic affect in my life. It’s all the time one thing that folks need to hear about and need to ask me about.”
Making their home north of Seattle, Thompson and his wife, Starla, have seven children and 28 grandchildren. Following his playing days, he was a business consultant in the wood products industry for 10 years.
“And then I went into the ministry and have become a pastor on the Foursquare Church, which is a Pentecostal denomination, and did that for nearly 30 years,” Thompson said. “I had my very own church in Marysville, Washington and we referred to as that Victory Foursquare.”
And now until Thanksgiving, Thomas who earned a doctorate in Transformational Leadership from Bakke Graduate University two years ago, will be doing ministry work on Wall Street.
“A Christian, as I studied the Bible, I see all through historical past, the folks which can be recorded within the Bible, that they had conversations with God. They had goals. They had angelic visitations. They had been directed from above. And I’ve discovered over time to wish and pay attention, after which report the issues that I actually sensed God was talking to me,” Thompson mentioned.
“And now I really feel this route to come back to Wall Street and assist people who work within the inventory market to listen to God’s voice, to hearken to God, and to deal with different folks’s cash in a manner that’s honorable, simply, righteous, truthful. Greed, selfishness and competitors, all these sorts of issues have given Wall Street actually a foul identify relating to are you able to belief these folks?
“I really feel like I want to help them. I’m 77 and I’m like a grandpa to a lot of these younger people. I like to be able to talk to young men and women and help them in their faith journey. I love to hear their stories. I love to share my stories. I love to pray with them. I love to listen to the Lord for them.”