Darryl Grant remembers veteran Washington Redskins defensive tackle Dave Butz being skeptical when head coach Joe Gibbs moved Grant from the offensive line to defensive tackle in 1982.
Grant, a San Antonio native who graduated from Highlands High School in 1977 and played at Rice, was in his second NFL season after getting selected by the Redskins in the ninth round of the 1981 NFL draft.
Grant, who had played on both sides of the line of scrimmage at Rice, was moved to defense after he had a “verbal altercation” with assistant coach Joe Bugel, the leader of the team’s offensive line, famously nicknamed the “Hogs.”
“He liked calling people (expletive deleted), and I didn’t like that name,” Grant said. “I pulled him aside and told him, ‘You’re going to have to find something else to call me, but you’re not going to call me (expletive deleted), OK? That’s just how it’s going to go.’ He wasn’t used to somebody saying that to him, especially a player.
“So Joe (Gibbs) called me into his office and I thought Joe was going to fire me after I’d had that incident with Joe (Bugel). But he said, ‘Look, we’re going to move you to defense.’ I said, ‘Well, cool. I’ll go over there.’ I didn’t have a problem with that.”
And thus began Grant’s nine-year career as one of the steadiest defensive tackles in the history of the Redskins.
As it turned out, Butz’s concerns about whether Grant could stick as a defensive tackle were unfounded. Grant started four games during the strike-shortened 1982 season and made one of the most memorable plays in Redskins playoff history in the NFC Championship Game, scoring on a 10-yard interception return to ice a 31-17 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
Sports Illustrated ran a photo of Grant spiking the ball in the end zone after his TD on the cover of its next issue, making it a souvenir copy for Redskins fans everywhere. Washington capped the 1982 season by winning its first of three Super Bowls under Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs.
Grant recalled this week how he earned Butz’s respect and forged a bond that endures to this day.
“I knew I could handle my business,” Grant said in a phone interview from his home in Centreville, Va., a Washington D.C. suburb. “When I showed Dave that I could handle my business, man, he was all good. He was all on my team then. I had to show him that I had some skills.
“Dave Butz still calls me and we talk for an hour, two hours. Dave and I didn’t really get along in the beginning because he thought, well, this is an offensive lineman. We are better friends now than we’ve ever been in our lives.”
Grant, 58, is among seven greats who will be inducted into the San Antonio Independent School District Athletic Hall of Fame on Aug. 25 at the Alamo Convocation Center. Grant is already a member of the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame, getting enshrined in 2007.
“This is special to me because it’s home,” Grant said. “I never knew where I was going, but I knew that I had to work hard. My parents instilled in me the value of a good work ethic, and my coaches brought out the best in me by just working the daylights out me.”
Grant’s mother, Willia Mae Grant, who turned 88 this week, was a teacher in the San Antonio ISD for 35 years. Grant’s father, Cleveland Grant, is deceased.
The other six members of the SAISD Hall of Fame’s Class of 2018 are:
- Fennis Dembo, an All-State basketball player as a senior at Fox Tech in 1984. Coached by Roland Lopez, the Buffaloes reached the state semifinals in 1984. Dembo went on to an All-America career at the University of Wyoming, where he became the Cowboys’ all-time leading scorer and rebounder. Like Grant, he made the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons and was a member of the 1988-89 team that won the NBA championship.
- Tai Dillard, a 1999 Sam Houston graduate who helped lead the Lady Hurricanes to the state tournament as a junior and senior. One of the best athletes in Sam Houston history, Dillard also lettered in volleyball, cross country and track. She played basketball at Texas for four seasons and helped the Lady Longhorns reach the Final Four when she was a senior. A two-time Big 12 All-Academic honoree, Dillard made the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll five times. She played for the San Antonio Silver Stars in the WNBA for two seasons.
- Delores “Delo” Dyer, who was a trailblazer as a high school girls coach. She became Jefferson’s first volleyball coach in 1972, when the sport became sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League. Dyer built a powerhouse in 16 seasons with the Lady Mustangs, who went 410-80 and won or shared 13 district titles during her tenure. Jefferson was virtually unbeatable in district play from 1978 to 1984, winning an amazing 92 consecutive league matches. Dyer’s best season was 1979, when Jefferson reached the state finals. Dyer worked for the San Antonio ISD for 35 years (1959-1994). Dyer is deceased.
- Clifford Johnson, a 1966 Wheatley graduate who was a football, baseball and track standout during the days when the Lions competed in the Prairie View Interscholastic League. An outstanding baseball catcher, Johnson bypassed college after getting drafted by the Houston Astros in 1966. After six seasons in the minors, Johnson made his Major League debut with the Astros in 1972. He played catcher, first base and outfield early in his career before becoming a full-time designed hitter. Johnson had a 15-year career with seven different teams in the majors, and played on the New York Yankees’ World Series champions in 1977 and 1978. He held the MLB record for pinch-hit home runs (20) until it was broken in 2010. Johnson is the younger brother of the late R.A. Johnson, a Jefferson graduate who was inducted with the SAISD Hall of Fame’s charter class in 2015.
- David Vela, a standout football, basketball and track athlete at Burbank in the late 1970s. Vela was an All-City wide receiver and played on the Bulldogs’ district championship team in 1978. Burbank finished the regular season 10-0 before losing to Churchill in the first round of the playoffs. No other Bulldogs football team in school history has gone undefeated in the regular season. Vela also played on the 1976-77 Burbank basketball team that advanced to the state semifinals. He continued his football career at Southwest Texas State, and played a key role on squads that won NCAA Division II national championships in 1981 and 1982. Vela had a short stint with the Los Angeles Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 1983, and ended his career with the San Antonio Gunslingers of the USFL in 1984 and 1985.
- Julius Whitter, a 1969 Highlands graduate who in 1970 became the first African American football letterman in the history of the University of Texas. Whittier was the only black on the UT freshman team in 1969 and the only black in the football program that season. Freshmen were ineligible to play on the varsity in those days. The Longhorns won the 1969 national championship, finishing 11-0. A tight end, offensive guard and linebacker during his four-year career at UT, Whitter was a member of the 1970 team that won a share of the 1970 national championship. He helped the Longhorns win Southwest Conference titles in 1970, 1971 and 1972. A standout in the classroom as well, Whittier earned a graduate degree at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in 1976 and became an attorney. He worked as a criminal defense attorney before becoming a senior prosecutor in the Dallas County district attorney’s office.
Grant played for head coach Paul Martin at Highlands before going on to Rice, where Ray Alborn headed the Owls’ program the last three seasons of Grant’s college career.
“In the last two months, I’ve talked with Paul Martin and Ray Alborn,” Grant said. “They called me, so that means something very special to me that they would even want to communicate with me. We talked and had great conversations. They took an interest in me, paid attention to me. I worked hard and it was that work ethic that helped me get to the NFL.”
Grant played 10 seasons with the Redskins, from 1981-90, and was a mainstay on defenses that helped the franchise win two Super Bowls and reach a third during that span. He played in 141 games with the Redskins, recording 27 sacks and two interceptions. Grant’s best season was in 1984 when he finished with a career-high eight sacks. Grant played one season with Tampa Bay in 1991 before retiring.
Grant was part of the 1981 Washington draft class that included offensive tackle Mark May (first round), offensive guard Russ Grimm (3), defensive end Dexter Manley (5), wide receiver Charlie Brown (8) and tight end Clint Didier (12). The 1981 draft class formed the core that helped the Redskins become one of the league’s elite teams in the 1980s.
“We came in there and we dominated,” Grant said. “We became starters very quickly. We were young kids, but we were beating people. We didn’t care about the pressure. We didn’t know any better.”
Grant said it’s no coincidence that the Redskins’ first two Super Bowl victories came in strike seasons. They won their second Super Bowl after the 1987 season.
“We were the only team in the league that didn’t have anybody cross the picket line both times,” Grant said. “I had a little bit of gangster in me back then. I said, ‘If anybody crosses that line, I’m going to kill you.’ I was that serious about it at the time. I was very strong in my belief. If you don’t stand up for something, you’ll lay down for anything. I was willing to risk everything because I could do other things than just play football.
“Nobody crossed the line. I’m proud of that. We had a tremendous bond, a brotherhood, that will never be paralleled. Not even with their own relatives. We went through a lot of stuff together. We played for each other. It was a special time. I loved playing at RFK Stadium and our fans were great.”
Grant had nothing but good things to say about Gibbs, who went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996. He is the only coach in NFL history to win three Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks.
“Joe allowed you to be yourself,” Grant said. “That’s the biggest thing. He had rules and regulations, but I always told people he deserved to be in the Hall of Fame because he had to deal with so many different characters. He could manage that.
“Not every coach can manage that. I couldn't have played for (Mike) Ditka. I couldn’t have played for Buddy Ryan. There are a lot of coaches I couldn't have played for because they would not have understood me, because I’m a wild boy. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.”
