Glanville takes on UFL - Known for taking risks, Glanville ready to take on UFL

HOUSTON -- As the kickoffs flutter and the quarterbacks watch their throws sail in the strong Texas winds, a familiar figure in black presides over a tryout in the shadow of the House of Pain he created nearly 25 years ago.
Wearing dark shades like Elvis, Jerry Glanville moves from hopeful to hopeful and places a reassuring arm around their shoulders. He appears content and invigorated at the same time. Eight years after he nearly died in a fiery stock car crash, the right sleeve of his United Football League polo shirt covers a squared skin graft that was removed from his thigh and reattached to his bicep.

Jerry Glanville believes his surviving a racing crash eight years ago was one step on his divinely mapped path. (Getty Images)

Months after the near-death experience, the coach received his calling when former president George W. Bush invited him to visit American troops in Iraq on a trip organized by the NFL Alumni Association. Glanville returned from overseas with a journal filled with pages of phone numbers from family members of the troops. Glanville estimates he called 70 families from the basement of his home in Dawsonville, Ga., to inform them their loved ones were still alive.
"I had no idea why the good Lord saved me," Glanville, 69, said outside a practice field at the Houston Dynamo's training facility. "The only reason I didn't die was He wanted me to go to Iraq. Every one of these [soldiers] from Texas asked me to come back and coach football."
In 2005, he heeded their advice when he returned to coaching for the first time in 12 years as the defensive coordinator at Hawaii. A year later he helped lead the Warriors to a victory in the Hawaii Bowl over Arizona State, before he became the head coach at Portland State -- his first head coaching job since leaving the NFL in 1993.
Glanville, who coached the Houston Oilers from 1986 through 1989 and the Atlanta Falcons from 1990 to 1993, lasted just three years, resigning after winning only nine of 33 games. Now Glanville has a shot at redemption as head coach and general manager of the UFL's Hartford Colonials. With the potential of an NFL lockout dragging into the fall, the coach known for his colorful antics in the late '80s and early '90s, could be thrust back into the public spotlight.
While most of the 119 players at last weekend's tryout have a slim chance of earning a roster spot, Hartford has already signed safety Jacob Patek, who played at Hawaii under Glanville. Determined prospects like former Grambling State defensive lineman Melvin Matthews drove several hours early Saturday morning to showcase their talents. Matthews participated in the Redskins' minicamp in 2009, but was released after his weight dropped to 285 pounds due to a three-month bout with ulcers.
"There's not many camps where you get to do football drills," said Matthews, who now weighs 305. "I'm happy they gave us the opportunity to do one-on-ones and show actual football skills."
The workouts were supervised by an 11-man coaching staff that has a combined 139 years of NFL experience -- three years more than the Patriots' 12-man staff. Glanville's cadre of assistants includes offensive line coach Larry Zierlein, wide receivers coach Harold Jackson and defensive line coach Tim Krumrie. Zierlein served in a similar capacity with the Super Bowl XLIII champion Steelers in 2009, while Jackson finished his playing career in 1987 with 10,372 receiving yards. Krumrie served for 15 years as a defensive line coach with the Bengals, Bills and Chiefs.
Glanville has not determined whether the Colonials will run the run-and-shoot offense he pioneered in the NFL until he further evaluates his personnel. Hartford could start No. 1 overall pick Jerrod Johnson or former Redskin and Raider Colt Brennan at quarterback.
At times with the Oilers, Glanville almost ran the run and shoot out of necessity, when the loss of Jamie Williams through free agency left Houston thin at tight end. At others, Glanville depended on a power rushing attack with backs Mike Rozier, Allen Pinkett and Alonzo Highsmith. In 1988, the trio combined for 1,981 yards as the Oilers finished tied for second in the AFC in rushing.
The audacious coach is open to trying anything, as five-time All-Pro linebacker Randy Gradishar can attest. While in Iraq, Glanville convinced Gradishar and Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones to join him for a lavish dinner one night in downtown Baghdad. The contingent received an invitation from an American intelligence official Glanville met at Western Kentucky -- the official served as an academic advisor for the football team there in 1967 when Glanville served as the Hilltoppers' defensive coordinator.
The NFL alums boarded a convoy of seven or eight jeeps around 7 p.m. en route to dinner in a Baghdad "red zone." The vehicles darted through the barricaded and unlit streets, as the passengers stared at the ruins of war-torn buildings. While eating traditional Iraqi cuisine, they spent the evening surrounded by several Kurdish guards carrying M-16s, according to both Glanville and Gradishar.
"They wear machine guns like jewelry," Glanville said.
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He has not lost his love for racing in spite of a horrifying wreck during qualifying for the Channel-5 205, an ARCA race at the Kentucky Motor Speedway on May 9, 2003. Glanville lost control of his car between turns three and four when the back end of his No. 81 Fricker's-POW MIA Dodge hit the wall at 175 mph. As the car pirouetted before stopping near the infield, Glanville noticed a trail of fire heading toward him from the track.
The impact ruptured the car's fuel cell, causing flames to erupt from the rear passenger side and heavy black smoke to billow into the air. Glanville remained conscious as temperatures of close to 800 degrees melted the car's plexiglass rear windows. Within seconds, more than a dozen emergency workers arrived. One, Glanville says, initially refused to spray him with a flame retardant because of its potential to cause lung cancer.
"'Spray me!' "Glanville pleaded. "I pulled my shield down and he sprayed me three times or I wouldn't be here."
Glanville sprung from the car and crawled on the track with shoes that had turned to goo from the extreme heat. He has no memory of a 20-minute helicopter ride to the University of Kentucky's Albert B. Chandler Hospital. When he regained consciousness in the hospital's burn unit, he was unable to speak and desperately motioned for a pad and a pen from his niece Heather.
"'Get me a suction hose, I'm drowning in my own spit,'" Glanville scribbled. "I shoved it down there and all this black soot came out."
Once he was able to speak, Glanville says he signed for his release from the hospital against the advice of doctors and was discharged that night. The former coach says he took iodine baths to reduce the swelling for several days and underwent skin-graft surgery in Atlanta about a week later. It only took Glanville two months to recover, as he competed on the NHRA drag-racing circuit later that July.
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If Glanville's sideline demeanor appears different this summer than when he ran the Gritz Blitz in Atlanta or the House in Pain in Houston, his time in Iraq could be why. During the week-long excursion, he flew in a C-130 Hercules with members of the Pennsylvania National Guard, ate meals with the Army Special Forces and received a tour of the palace of Uday and Qusay Hussein from Navy SEALS. When recounting an encounter Gradishar had weeks after his return to the United States, Glanville perks up.
Gradishar, who now serves as the director of corporate communications for Phil Long Dealerships in Colorado, brought an album of the trip to a meeting at KCNC-TV, a CBS-affiliate in Denver. While Gradishar worked at soliciting sponsors for the 229th Army Birthday Ball in Fort Collins, a station employee leafed through the photos. Suddenly, her eyes became glued upon a familiar face: it was her son, a Navy SEAL, whom she hadn't seen in more than a year.
"I almost started crying," said Gradishar, a two-time All-American at Ohio State and 1978 NFL Defensive Player of the Year with the Broncos. "You go halfway across the world, come back and here's a picture of her son fighting in the war. It was just amazing."
UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue has faith in Glanville's abilities as both a teacher and coach, saying that Glanville is "more excited about this opportunity than any he's had because he still wants to do it," even as he approaches 70. Although Glanville repeatedly insists he's "not a hero, the troops are," he has undeniably been changed by the experience. Whether he's around an up-and-coming linebacker or a devoted soldier, there's just something that attracts Glanville to a youngster giving his all.
"You look at the kid next door and he's got his pants hanging off his butt, he's smoking a cigarette, he might have a tattoo and you say to yourself, 'Who is going to lead this country?' " Glanville said. "Guess what? We have the greatest kids in the world."
extracted from cbssports.com