Allen Iverson On College Football And His Sitdown With John Thompson

By now it’s pretty well known that Allen Iverson was at one point one of the best high school football players in the country. He chose basketball, obviously, but his gridiron legend still lives on thanks to YouTube highlights. And this week, when he sat down with Slam Online to talk about the re-release of his “Question” Reeboks, they started off by talking college football, of all things.

It’s pretty great.

From Slam:

”I remember when I got there—football was my first love—when I used to walk to the gym, I had to pass the football field. It was a DIII team, but I had to pass the football field every day. I would try to do all kinds of thing to psych myself out, mind you I’m 19 years old.

I would walk a different way to the gym, so I wouldn’t have to see the football field, so I wouldn’t have to see the players. I remember I didn’t want to walk the long way, so I used to walk and close my eyes and stuck my hand out till I got to the door so I wouldn’t have to look at the field. That is how bad I was missing football. I was playing basketball, but I was missing football that much.

One day I had the courage, I dunno—I guess it was eating at me so much. I lost my mind and went to the weight room and said, ‘Coach, can I talk to you for a minute?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you can speak to me. What’s going on?’ I said, ‘Look, what do you think about me playing football?’

He said, ‘I’ll tell you what I think about you playing football. If you don’t get your skinny black ass the eff out of my face…you better.’ (Laughs) Just like that. I never thought about playing football again after that. I mean, he made it clear that this is not why I was here.

“If you don’t get your skinny black ass the eff out of my face ...” SO. AWESOME.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

In conclusion, it’s always important to remember that John Thompson was the most badass coach of all time, and there’s no such thing as a bad interview with Allen Iverson.