LeRoy Irvin is a Los Angeles Rams legend who grew up in Augusta Georgia. LeRoy had multiple highlights in his eleven-year career like being drafted in 1980, two-time All-pro selection, and being selected twice to the Pro Bowl. When asked about his best highlight, LeRoy Irvin had a different answer, though: “Getting drafted into the NFL. When I was in high school I made the all-state all-star game. No one recruited me.
My high school had to lie to the coaches from Kansas in order for them to recruit me. The coaches at Kansas had just been hired from the University of Alabama. Back then there was no internet or social media. The new Kansas coaches only knew about players in the southeast. While they were at Alabama they were recruiting a guy from my hometown he went to Lucy Laney high school.
So the Kansas coaches went to Lany to recruit Michel Ferguson. Laney HC Dupree told them Michel was going to Alabama, but he told them there is a kid at Glenn Hills hs named LeRoy Irvin. He said you might be able to get him. When the Kansas coaches came to Glenn hills Our coach Joe Ollif told them he wasn’t sure if I would go to Kansas Since everyone was recruiting me. He lied long story made short. My greatest day was getting a scholarship to Kansas University.”
LeRoy Irvin had the opportunity to play with NFL legends and Hall of Famers like Jack Youngblood who played in the Super Bowl with a broken leg, Jackie Slater who received the Bart Star award, and the great Eric Dickerson who broke many rushing records in the NFL and actually did an interview with me (thanks to LeRoy Irvin, read that interview here). Some of those great players were great friends with LeRoy as he lets us know how it was like to be around those great group of players and guys: “We had a great locker room we got along well. Very cohesive. We did things in groups and hung out after practice and in the offseason.”
After having ten amazing seasons with the Rams where he had 34 interceptions, 2171 total yards, and nine total touchdowns, Irvin was cut. He later signed with the Detroit Lions to finish his career, when I asked him what happened when he was given another chance to live out his dream he had this to say; “There were several teams that wanted me but Detroit gave me the best chance to start. I started all 16 games but knew I was done at the end of the season and retired.”
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Irvin is still a die-hard Ram and continues to support his team, so I asked for his opinion of the current Rams and how he thinks this season could go for them; “The Rams are in the driver’s seat but must play better during the month of December. They have been winning but not looking good. They need to play better and the secondary needs to improve. They are in the driver’s seat and we hope they stay there. This could be their year.”
LeRoy is obviously extremely confident in this Rams team as any fan of the superior Los Angeles team. However, he did have some honest and 100% correct opinions on this Rams team that has started to struggle as of late.
As the 2018 season comes to an end and playoff pictures become more clear, the races or the leagues’ most prized awards are as crowded as ever. I asked Leroy who he thought would win MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and Coach of the Year but surprisingly, he didn’t predict all Rams stars as I had thought. He listed the winners as this;
“Aaron Donald MVP
Aaron Donald defensive player of the year
Patrick Mahomes offensive player of the year
Pete Carroll coach of the year.”
Even though Leroy Irvin didn’t select all Rams, he did show them some love as he though Donald would have a great night watching the award ceremony. The MVP race is close and with Donald having an absolutely amazing year, he could be a dark horse to win over top mentioned players like Drew Brees, Patrick Mahomes, and Andrew Luck. He also said he thinks Donald will win DPoY which if Donald is able to pull off the win for MVP, it’s almost guaranteed that he will walk away with both the MVP and DPoY trophies.
Huge thank you to LeRoy for not only this interview but help with multiple others, if you’d like to follow my other interviews and articles follow my Instagram @sears___ or on Twitter @sears_58.
