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Brian Spotts Leatherneck Club Interview

Athletics Department WIU Athletic Communications

Brian Spotts - Leatherneck Club Interview

Bryce Weiler interviews Brian Spotts in the latest installment of Leatherneck Club features

Bryce Weiler: Welcome ladies and gentleman this is Bryce Weiler interviewing Mr. Brian Spotts, a former football player at Western Illinois. Brian it's great to have you back on such a great weekend for current football players and former players of Western Illinois.
 
Brian Spotts: I'm glad to be back Bryce and appreciate you having me on your show, and I got to tell you it's going to be a very memorable weekend and one of its kind. I don't think it has ever been done before at Western. There are a lot of guys coming back, they are excited to be back and be involved. Coach Fisher and his staff have done a nice job of reaching out to people and get them back.
 
BW: In his first year as the head coach that is something coach Fisher has really focused upon. Fans and individuals don't often hear that from a head coach, really focusing on individuals getting back on campus. Some people might say that coach Fisher just doesn't focus on the players, he focuses on the current players and players from the past.
 
BS: That is correct. I attended the public forums for the head coaches that were interviewing for the job. That was one of the first questions I asked coach Fisher. I said you know its been a long time since anyone has reached out to the former players, I said what are your plans to do that? Coach Fisher said I will contact every former player individually if I have to but he said you cannot have a successful program at any university at any level if you don't have the former players involved.
 
BW: Now the football team also has a golf outing (on Saturday) and you have been a big supporter of getting things organized. Can you talk about that and why it's important to you?
 
BS: Well golf is always a great sport to be involved with but (Friday) I have about 70 guys playing golf, they are coming back early. I open it up to anyone that is coming back early to participate in that. Of course we have the tailgate and the spring game. The spring game is going to be very, very memorable for a couple of reasons, not only will we have a lot of former players back but the pregame ceremony is going to be very special. The Saturday event is a fundraiser for the football program and it is badly needed. This will show our support for coach Fisher's staff, the current team, and all those that are attending will have a great time I can tell you.
 
BW: So you have been a great supporter of Western Illinois sports and the various organizations here. You played here, that's important to you. Why else do you like to support the Athletic Department helping those to others who come after you to have success in life on and off the field?
 
BS: Absolutely! Being at Western back in the 70's when I played were some of the best times of my life. I made so many friends and a lot of those friends are going to be back on campus this weekend. Those are friendships that last forever. I can still remember the first five or six guys I met when I was a freshman coming into camp and we have been friends ever since. Anytime you can help out a program and get people involved, you want your University to be successful and the only way you can do that is support from former athletes no matter what sport they played.   
 
BW: How does it really help you to be able to get the former players back? It's great to come back, but it also shows the fans Western has the power to bring back players throughout the decades to support the current team and those beyond?
 
BS: Well we started this a couple months ago. Coach Fisher was hired and gave me a call, and said I'm going to need your help. We had a list of about 40 people and we took that list to almost 450 now. It's amazing how social media, whether you're on Twitter or you're on Facebook, you can find former players and usually when you find one there are 12 to 15 tied to them. I truly believe the number of people we have coming back - and we have them coming back from the 50's all the way to last year's seniors - I truly believe that the best form of advertisement is word of mouth. Once these former players come back and have a great time believe me they will be reaching out to their teammates. I've gotten e-mails from several former players thanking me for doing this. And they said it was long overdo. I'm talking about some of the great quarterbacks from Matt Barr, Steve LaFalce, Greg Lee - a former All-American that I played with and a draftee from the St. Louis Cardinals. They are so excited about being involved again. Coach Fisher has reached out to a lot of these guys one-on-one. If they got a phone number or respond to him he reaches out to them, which is a great tribute to him and his staff.
 
BW: What were some of the greatest lessons from playing football and how have you taken those in to the rest of your life?
 
BS: Well I can tell you that football is a sport, and whether you win or lose there's a lesson, and of course you go into the season expecting to win games. We had a very good team in 1979 my senior year and we lost three games by nine points to start the season. Man you talk about something deflating, it can deflate you but at the same time you can either feel sorry for yourself or you can pick yourself up, surround yourself with your teammates and decide to be successful. After we went 2-3 to a tough loss at Northern Michigan by three points late in the ball game, the next week we had #1 Eastern Illinois, the defending national champions in Division II. ABC decided to pick the game up as the 'Game of the Week'. To this day whenever I need a pick up I watch that game because if you listen to the announcers in that game they don't give Western a prayer because Eastern Illinois had 20 of 22 starters return from the national championship team. Well they forgot one thing they had to play Western Illinois. Even though it was at Eastern we upset them 10-7 that day. I tell you what we struggled after that because we lost a lot of guys in that game but at the same time we didn't quit the rest of the season and we fought hard that's for sure.
 
BW: You mentioned those things that you learned, and I think that sometimes for football players on the current team or just recently graduated or individuals who recently graduated college it takes them some time to really realize how valuable their time in college can be. To learn both on the academic side as well as lessons in the game of life that can take them throughout the rest of their life.
 
BS: Yes. I came to Western Illinois as a defensive back in 1976 and because of injuries and stuff I played special teams as a freshman. My sophomore year I came to play as a starting corner. I hit a late growth spurt between my sophomore and junior year playing winter ball, and I ended up playing middle linebacker my last two years. To be able to go from one position where you're defending against the pass to defending against the run 70 percent of the time, plus the growth that I had and the size that I put on, that was a huge adjustment for me. Anybody who makes those types of changes in their life or in a season or a career can be pretty hard to over come sometimes. I spent my time in the weight room and I did what I had to do and the results paid off. I led the team in tackles two years in a row, I had a high number of interceptions as a middle linebacker. I attributed that to my playing days as a corner, from reading the quarterbacks eyes and different things like that. I even got some pro tryouts because of that, and because of my work ethic. Whether you have work ethic in athletics or the professional world today those are valuable lessons.
 
BW: What's the greatest lesson or item that a current football player from Western Illinois can take away from the field and from Western Illinois
 
BS: I think one of the most important things that a player can take away is the relationships he's built with his teammates and the work ethic the coaches demand and expect. This coaching staff, what I like about them the most is their energetic level, and any time you have a coaching change going into your senior year for example, things are going to change. I had the same situation with Bill Shanahan. My head coach after my junior year decided to resign and go into business for himself, so I got a new head coach and you have to adjust the way you do things and their expectations. A lot of times that's not a bad thing because now you're changing, and in the work world as well. You may not always have the same boss that you like, you have to adjust the way you work and do things for the new person.
 
BW: Those are all things you're doing with the golf outing this week and the spring game, coach Fisher bringing back former players as well.
 
BS: And I agree, you look at the response we had, the amount of former NFL players that are coming back and the memorabilia we have to auction off. We've got former players that have donated their beachfront property townhomes for auction, and that's never happened before. I will tell you we're really not painting the picture because you have an NFL board down in the locker room of guys that were drafted. But that doesn't paint the picture of how many guys that had pro tryouts because there's a lot of guys that were drafted as free agents that were All-Americans here that when you get drafted as a free agent you're still in camp and you've got a shot to make an NFL roster. I'm trying to get those guys listed somehow because that will paint the picture of how many quality athletes we've had in this football program.
 
BW: It's good that you're tying to do that because it shows that if a player can't make the NFL or if he gets a tryout or was on the practice squad with the team he still has a successful time learning just as someone who played in the NFL.
 
BS: And I agree with that. You know at some point you have to change modes and figure out I'm not going to play in the NFL. I need to find my career and decide what I'm going to do when we hit that 'Y' in the road. The bottom line is not everyone can play in the NFL, not everyone can play pro golf. If everyone could everybody would be doing it. The whole thing is that one percent of college football seniors make it in the NFL. If you realize that, everyone has aspirations as a young kid. I want to play in the NFL or the NBA, or the Major Leagues. It just doesn't always happen. You have to be able to change gears and focus on what you can do and do it well.
 
BW: I've enjoyed visiting with you here Brian and hearing all of your thoughts on life and the game of football so thanks for chatting with me.
 
BS: Well I appreciate it Bryce and thank you and Go Leathernecks.
   
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