One season into his pro football career, former Missouri defensive star Shane Ray has something most NFL players never attain – a Super Bowl championship.
Selected by the Denver Broncos in the first round of the 2015 draft, Ray registered 20 tackles and four sacks with the NFL’s best defense. He had two tackles and forced a fumble in the Super Bowl triumph over Carolina.
“It happened so fast and it was a crazy experience, but I’m just happy to be a part of it,” Ray told the Kansas City Star during his first visit back to Mizzou’s campus last Saturday.
“I really don’t think anything trumps being a Super Bowl champion,” Ray said.
The night of November 7, as black student unrest enveloped the campus, a group of black Mizzou football players announced they would boycott all team activities unless Timothy Wolfe, then university president, resigned.
The next day the Broncos lost their first game of the season, 24-17, on the road against the Indianapolis Colts. Wolfe resigned on Monday, November 9. It is a weekend Ray obviously still remembers.
“I’m not really on that standpoint of if it was right or wrong,” Ray told the Post-Dispatch while attending Missouri’s double-digit basketball loss to Texas A&M.
“I was more proud that if any collective group of guys could get together, especially a football team, and stand up for something and make a decision collectively, I mean that’s big,” Ray said.
“Those are college kids. I feel like they definitely made the impact they wanted to make and, them being my brothers, I definitely supported them and was proud of what they were doing. … It didn’t have to be a racial issue. If it was about the taste of the food in the dining hall and they got together about it … I was proud that they worked together to do that.”
Well, it was a racial issue and the fact that major-college scholarship athletes eat better than most everyone else on campus makes Ray’s comparison fairly weak.
But Ray should be commended for backing the players and is apparently on his way to a stellar NFL career.
Ernie McMillan to be enshrined
While it should have happened years ago, former St. Louis Cardinals offensive tackle Ernie McMillan will be inducted into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame on March 11 during the Legends of St. Louis football event at the Frontenac Hilton.
McMillan was drafted by the Cardinals in 1961 after a standout career at Illinois. During his 14 seasons with the Big Red, McMillan was selected to the Pro Bowl four times. He was a key member of the “Cardiac Cardinals” and one of the NFL’s best offensive lines under Coach Don Coryell.
The Cardinals won the NFC East in 1974 and ’75 and advanced to the NFC playoffs, losing respectively to the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams.
While younger football fans never experienced St. Louis football in the mid-1970s, “Air Coryell” was a true happening. The Jim Hart to Mel Gray connection was one of the most potent quarterback-receiver combinations in the NFL, and running back Terry Metcalf was one of the league’s most electrifying runners.
The anchor of the ’74 team was an offensive line which featured McMillan at left tackle, Bob Young at left guard, Tom Brahaney at center, Dan Dierdorf at right tackle and Conrad Dobler at right guard.
McMillan’s son, Erik, won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 1988 with the New York Jets and was selected to the Pro Bowl twice.
For more information on the Legends of St. Louis football event, visit www.stlshof.com.
So long to two fan favorites
The Los Angeles Rams cleared about $23 million in salary-cap space when they released middle linebacker James Laurinaitis, defensive end Chris Long and tight end Jared Cook two weeks ago.
I think Cook would have received the heave-ho regardless of the franchise’s move to L.A.
Laurinaitis, the team’s leading tackler, had actually been doing public relations work for the Rams and was looking for a home in Southern California.
Long admitted on Twitter that his last two seasons had been disasters, so he understood the move. He also said he would be interested in helping bring a MLS franchise to St. Louis.
My guess is that Laurinaitis and Long would still be Rams if the team was playing in St. Louis in 2016. Their race meant a lot to many St. Louis fans and would have played a role in that decision.
Meanwhile, the team is negotiating with Coach Jeff Fisher on a contract extension. This proves once again that “winning isn’t everything.”
Alvin A. Reid is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook and appears on ABC’s The Allman Report and several sports radio shows. His Twitter handle is @aareid1.
