NFL Brawler by Ralph Cindrich

Author:Ralph Cindrich
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493019441
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2015-07-22T04:00:00+00:00

Steve Bono

The Veteran

STEVE BONO AND I SHARED SIMILAR ROOTS.

We were Pennsylvania boys anchored by old-fashioned values. There were blue collars in our bloodlines and tradesmen on our family trees. Everywhere we looked, there were people willing to roll up their sleeves, stick their hands in the grime, and pour themselves into the pursuit of an honest day’s work.

That hard-hat mentality hung in the air like a heavy mist in our hometowns. I grew up around the mines, mills, and farms of Avella, a rough-and-tumble town about 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh. Steve was from the opposite end of the state in Norristown, a working-class suburb roughly 20 miles west of Philadelphia. Bono’s father, Biagio, was a tool and die maker. His son was a two-sport star.

After graduating from Norristown High, Steve traded coasts and went to college at UCLA, where he excelled in both football and baseball, as a quarterback and a catcher. The Minnesota Vikings drafted him in the sixth round of the 1985 NFL Draft.

Bono’s first agents were Dennis “Go Go” Gilbert and Mike Trope. Gilbert reportedly got his first client when he was still in law school, after he saw Nebraska running back Johnny Rodgers on TV and rode an impulse onto an airplane and flew all the way to Lincoln to recruit him. But Gilbert would become best known for his big-name baseball clients (Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, George Brett). And neither he, nor Trope, who seemed to work behind the scenes, were very involved with Bono.

“I had them for my initial contract,” Bono remembers. “They sent me a bill and then just disappeared. I never heard from them again.”

Bono was looking for better representation and a high school friend led him to Cindrich and Co. before the end of his rookie season. Steve appeared in just two games during his first two years in the league and was cut by the Vikings after the 1986 season. The Pittsburgh Steelers claimed him on waivers, but cut him again before the next season began. His options were dwindling. His NFL career seemed to be running out of sand. But a second chance arrived when the NFL players went on strike in 1987.

Bono suddenly had a chance to play again—but only if he was willing to walk across a picket line. That sure as hell wasn’t easy for someone sympathetic to the working class, someone whose father was a tool and die maker and a longtime member of a machinists’ union.

His friendships made it tough too. Bono was good buddies with many of the players on strike, including his roommate at the time and all the quarterbacks he had just split reps with in Steelers camp.

It was a mess for me too. Some of the players I represented were on the front lines of the strike, sitting out games and surrendering their wages until their demands were satisfied. How the hell could I help their owners by getting one of them a quarterback?

The NFLPA, the union representing the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.