I’ve been reading a lot lately about football players wanting to become actors–Jason Taylor was on Dancing with the Stars, hoping to kick start a career in show business. And Terrell Owens recently appeared on an episode of some ridiculous show starring Flava Flav, which I won’t bother looking up the name of–and apparently thinks 1) he’s too good for Dancing with the Stars, and 2) he’s going to go beyond acting in just comedies.
Football players crossing over into acting isn’t really new–several former players have gone on to careers on the small and big screen, some with some fairly decent success. Of course, to my knowledge, they were already retired when they made the move. So, over the next few weeks, we’ll look at a few of those players who made the crossover.
These won’t be guys who rode the pine for a season or two in the NFL, and moved on to acting when no team wanted them any more–obviously, they had to be known enough to actually have cards. Nor will it be guys who tried to gain some attention on a reality show (looking at you, Jesse Palmer and Ryan Hoag), nor big name stars who tried to expand their horizons on Dancing With the Stars.
Of course, if you’re reading this, you most likely read the title, which means that you already know that the first player we’re going to look at is Gary Hogeboom–who was a reality TV star. So why him, and not the others?
Well, for one, he was retired long enough, and wasn’t so much a star, that many people were probably finding out about Hogeboom for the first time when he appeared. For another, he wasn’t trying to make a bigger name for himself–in fact, he tried to hide his name from his opponents, so they didn’t think he was a rich former football player trying to make a bigger name for himself. Third, Survivor is about the only realtiy show that I can stomach on occasion, for some reason. And fourth, while I have a list of 8-9 guys to feature, right now I only actually have cards of two of them that I’ve found–so I’m firing up eBay, and starting with Hogeboom.
Hogeboom played qurterback for the Dallas Cowboys from 1980-1985, the Indianapolis Colts from 86-88, and the Phoenix Cardinals in 1989, before finishing his career on the Washington Redskins roster (but not appearing in any games) for the 1990 season.
As a backup to Danny White, many teammates and fans wanted the Cowboys to switch to Hogeboom by 1983, after White failed to get the team past the NFC Championship game three consecutive years. It didn’t hurt that Hogeboom was bigger, stronger armed, and more personable than White–who also had stood up for the owners during the 1982 players strike.
In 1984, Hogeboom was named the starter at the beginning of the season, but was benched in favor of White during the season. He started 10 games that season, and two more in 1985, before moving on to Indianapolis in 1986, where he would start 12 games in 3 seasons, including, interestingly, playing with replacement players during the 1987 work stoppage.
He last played in Phoenix in 1989, where he started 13 games and threw for career highs in yardage (2,591), touchdowns (14) and interceptions.
Of course, these days, he is most known for his appearance on Survivor: Guatemala in 2005, where he was the 12th player (of 18) voted out, lasting 30 days out of 39.
The card featured for Hogeboom is his 1987 Topps card, which was his second Topps regular issue card (after his 1985 rookie card). The card is a common, booking for $0.10, and I have no idea where I got it–although, based on the condition, it likely came in the box I snagged on eBay a couple years ago in a moment of nostalgia.
I actually like the photo on the card, as it appears he actually took the time to go into the upper deck at the RCA Dome (or whatever it was called then), in full pads, just to take a picture for a card. Gary really is a team player, apparently–I’m guessing most guys today would tell the photographer in no uncertain terms where they could take their camera.
Check back next week to see which football-turned-Hollywood star is featured. A hint? Well, he certainly isn’t wetter than anyone who reads the blog.
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Boy, I haven’t thought about Hogeboom in a long time. I remember the debate, White or Hogeboom. I was for White by the way.
I was huge for White. Of course, after many years of nothing in Chicago, we would have taken either.
Is Gary really up in the stadium or was he “inserted” there?
I was surprised to see that (according to Wikipedia) so many wanted Hogeboom–I seem to remember White being a fan favorite. Of course, I wasn’t even 10 yet.
John, you may have a point–he may have been cut and pasted into the stadium. Which makes me wonder where he would have had the photo taken in the first place, that they would have bothered with doing that.
Well , one thing I remember about him is that the only time I saw him come into industrial marketing class while we were attending CMU is when there was an exam. He always came in after the exam had started and personally handed an exam!