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“Blue” -- NFL Player turned Lawyer
By Mike Detillier
What a football ride it was for Randall “Blue” Gay. The former Brusly High School standout was part of the 2003 LSU football team that won the BCS National Championship and during his rookie season Gay started for the New England Patriots team that won the 2004 Super Bowl XXXIX.
In 2007 Gay was on the New England Patriots team that went 16-0 during the regular season only to get defeated in Super Bowl XLII (17-14) by the New York Giants, which ended their chance to become the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to finish a season undefeated.
In 2008 Gay signed with the New Orleans Saints and was a member of the 2009 Saints’ Super Bowl XLIV championship team.
Gay was released by the New Orleans Saints in 2011 and he began his new career in law.
“To be honest I have competed all my life, and the law is about competing too, only one on one with another lawyer,” Gay said. “I didn’t want to be one of those guys just sitting around for a couple of years and figuring out what to do with the rest of my life so I went back to college and gained my law degree. I had taken the LSAT (Law School Aptitude Test) while I was still playing, so it was always in the back of my mind. I love it and life is always about challenging yourself to do other things.”
But football is always around for Gay, so he put down the legal briefs and became one of the camp counselors for the Pro Football Camp put on by Dr. David Elias and Ortho-LA at Nicholls State.
“I still love football and reflecting back it’s still crazy for me to think that I was part of a National Championship team at LSU, I played in two Super Bowls with the Patriots and then I came to the Saints and won another Super Bowl title here. Most players don’t win more than one title and I won two, and a national championship. I have been blessed to be around great coaches and players. It is the winning formula of finding good people who work hard and really care about one another.”
Gay had some strong feelings about the 2016 LSU Tigers.
“You have the best football player in the country with Leonard Fournette, they have the best group of wide receivers in the country, it’s DBU-great defensive backs, a stellar couple of players upfront in Arden Key and Davon Godchaux and a strong offensive line coming back. I played on the 2003 Tiger team that won the BCS title and I say with conviction that the 2016 team is more talented. I will debate anyone at any time on that fact. You have to figure out a way not to lose against Alabama, Ole Miss and Arkansas in November. No question, Nick Saban is the best coach in college football and in my opinion the best college football coach ever. In 2016 the Tigers have to win the SEC. Way too much talent not to. Pressure on a team is a good thing. People expect you to win and then you go out to prove to everyone you are that good.”
The former LSU cornerback heaped high praise on two quarterbacks he played with in the NFL in Tom Brady and Drew Brees.
“In my opinion Tom Brady is the best quarterback to ever play the game and Drew Brees is right behind him,” Gay said. “There are quarterbacks with stronger arms and physically more gifted, but nobody will outwork them. They are the two hardest working guys I have ever been around. If you get to the facility at 4:30AM to work Brady and Brees get there at 3:00AM. If you leave at 4:30PM to go home, Brees and Brady stay there until 7:00PM. They are not always on the town and going to every event they get invited to. They are working at their craft. They are the best because of how hard they work.”
Gay also reflected on the 2009 Super Bowl winning team with the New Orleans Saints.
“It was a special time for someone who grew up watching the Saints, but to be honest we knew we were a championship team even before the preseason started. We made a few pickups in the off-season of some veterans, but the biggest pickup was Gregg Williams as defensive coordinator.
He brought some toughness, a physical brand of football and the bravado we needed. Some Saints fans don’t want you to talk good about Coach Williams, but without him we don’t win the Super Bowl. With Drew (Brees) running the offense we knew we were going to put up points and we got turnovers with Darren Sharper and a great pass rush with Will Smith. It’s so hard to believe what has happened to both of those guys who meant so much to our defense. We knew in the preseason we were good, but the whole football world knew we were that good when we beat the New England Patriots on that Monday Night game. We shocked the world that year.
It was a great feeling to be in the Dome and win those games and then you heard that constant roar from the crowd. I heard it in the SuperDome and in Tiger Stadium, nothing like that sound.”
The former top defensive back gave his thoughts on the 2016 version of the New Orleans Saints.
“Drew Brees is still one of the best quarterbacks in the business, no question about it. For another year the Saints will be real good on offense, but I really don’t think they have enough top defenders, especially to rush the quarterback. Cameron Jordan is a good player, but everything else is a question mark upfront. Delvin Breaux is a special player at cornerback. He has the tools to be an All-Pro and Keenan Lewis is really good too. Hopefully Keenan can stay healthy. If you can’t get to the quarterback on a consistent basis even with Brees you are going to win one, lose one, win two, lose two. They look like a .500 team because of the lack of talent upfront at defensive end and at linebacker.”
While Gay reflected on the great moments he still vividly remembers one game he played in a losing effort.
“It is always in the back of my mind the Super Bowl loss when I was with the Patriots to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII. We had them. Now, that day their pass rush with Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck was awesome. Eli Manning was almost sacked on a third down and five yard play late in the game and he just threw up a pass in the middle of the field. When I saw it launched I thought Rodney Harrison would intercept it. David Tyree catches the ball virtually on top of his helmet. Four plays later Manning hits Plaxico Burress for the winning touchdown. It still haunts me today. No one had ever gone 19-0 for a season. The Dolphins went 16-0, but nobody ever went 19-0. In my mind we were the better team, but it was just not meant to be. But that game launched Michael Strahan into another world. He was a media star in New York, but he became a national media star after that game. Mike is very talented and he made the most of his opportunities. But that was a game we lost out on history.”
OH, OH…Big Mistake
In the 50th Anniversary Year for the New Orleans Saints one of the very first moves the Saints made did not turn out like the team thought it would back in 1967.
It was one of many throughout the first 20 years of futility on personnel moves.
Owner John Mecom and then-director of player personnel chief and soon to be general manager Vic Schwenk traded the first overall pick in the 1967 draft (Bubba Smith-Defensive End from Michigan State), offensive center Bill Curry and a third round pick in the 1967 draft to the Baltimore Colts in exchange for veteran quarterback Gary Cuozzo.
In the early days of training camp in 1967 it was obvious to then-Saints head coach Tom Fears that the team had made a major mistake in dealing so much for Cuozzo and that Billy Kilmer, who the Saints picked in the 1967 Veteran Expansion Draft- would be the starting signal-caller.
Fears confided to then-ABC sports director New Orleans’ Buddy Diliberto that he did not want to trade for Cuozzo, but instead wanted then-Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton.
Years later Buddy D. told me the story about Fears’ comments.
“I hope this turns out better than I think it will, but we got snookered in the deal to acquire Cuozzo,” Fears told Diliberto. “Gary was a good back-up quarterback on a great Colts team, but we need someone who can move around some and Cuozzo is a statue in the pocket. I really wanted Fran Tarkenton and went to bat for us to acquire him, but John (Mecom) listened to one of our minority owners (Bedford Wynne). We spoke to the Vikings about Tarkenton before they traded him to the New York Giants. The cost to acquire Tarkenton would have been more, but he is one of the best in the business and he can get away from pressure. Cuozzo can’t. Wynne heavily influenced Mecom that Cuozzo was a big-time player and that is not the case.
At this point I am convinced Billy (Kilmer) is the better quarterback for us and I am hired to win games. This will not go over well with Mecom, but I will have to start Kilmer. I feel bad for you too Buddy (Diliberto). You will have to do the entire season on television with our back-up quarterback.”
A few months earlier Diliberto had convinced officials from the local ABC channel in New Orleans to sign Cuozzo up to a one-year contract to break down the game each week on Monday nights.
“At that time Tom Fears, Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung had signed with WWL-TV (Channel 4) and I knew in other markets quarterbacks like Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas, Len Dawson, Joe Namath and Roman Gabriel had their own shows and so I thought we should lock up Cuozzo,” Diliberto said. “The Gary Cuozzo Show, boy was I wrong, and most of the year I had to do the show with the back-up quarterback.”
Billy Kilmer never let Buddy D. forget about it.
Follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeDetillier