Steve Wyche, Chief National Reporter for NFL Network and NFL.com

NFL Network's Steve Wyche joins Tom, Ken, and Sherry on STL In The Huddle for a hometown homecoming episode. A Parkway South High School grad and St. Louis native, Steve reflects on his journey from local newspapers (Miami Herald, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution) to NFL Network, sharing career-defining moments covering legends like Dan Marino, Michael Jordan, and Patrick Mahomes.

The conversation covers his recent induction into the Black College Football Hall of Fame, life as a grandfather balancing family and a demanding travel schedule, favorite St. Louis nostalgia (Imo's Pizza, Ted Drewes, Noggles), a pivotal high school football memory that shaped his path to college ball at Missouri, and thoughts on soccer's growing popularity in the U.S. following the World Cup.

A fun, heartfelt conversation full of hometown pride, football history, and behind-the-scenes media insight.

Transcript

Tom 0:00

All right, welcome back to STL In The Huddle. Uh, a real special guest tonight, one of our award winners of the Bob Bragg Media Award from 2021, uh, NFL Network's Steve Wyche. Steve, thanks for coming on tonight. How you doing?

Steve Wyche 0:14

Oh, thanks for having me on, man. I'm, I'm psyched to be with my St. Louis, my St. Louis homies. Uh, you know, Chet, it's not a little hometown. It's been, it's been a while. I've been out in LA for a long time, so this is good catching up

Sherry Farmer 0:27

How has it changed you?

Steve Wyche 0:29

How has it changed me?

Tom 0:30

him. He's

Steve Wyche 0:31

have to chip ice off the windshield. I'm liv- I'm living a much more comfortable, fit, fit life.

Tom 0:39

Sherry and Ken, I've gotta get this out of the way. All right, we're St. Louis people. Steve, where'd you go to high school?

Steve Wyche 0:46

Parkway South, baby.

Tom 0:47

There you

Steve Wyche 0:48

Patriots class of 1984. I think I was the eighth graduating class at Parkway South. Like, we're celebrating, right, the 250th this year, right? Parkway South, the Patriots, because it opened up in the bicentennial year.

Ken Leach 1:02

Hey, so what, Patriots? Is that what they, they're called? Okay, and, and Howard University was the Bison, right?

Steve Wyche 1:09

The bison

Ken Leach 1:09

O- okay, so they have a commemorative stamp, 250-year celebration, and it's the Bison. Isn't that ironic?

Steve Wyche 1:16

How about that, there's a common thread. We're, we're not even six degrees of separation, are we?

Tom 1:22

All right. All right, one more. W- I've gotta get this out of the way. Are you a JFL guy?

Steve Wyche 1:28

Yes. Played, I played for Bon Homme, right? I don't even think Bon Homme exists anymore, which, which is heartbreaking. But we played our games at, in the outfield, our home games at the Baldwin Baseball Stadium, uh, right, right over there. And I know the baseball stadium is still over there, but yeah, Bon Homme, it was great. Played on some great teams as well. Tough to beat

Tom 1:50

got, Ken and I were talking about this before the show. Ken played for LBA, I played for South County, and I said, "I think Steve was a Bon

Ken Leach 1:56

Steve was a Bonham guy.

Steve Wyche 1:58

South you guys were tough, dude.

Tom 1:59

Well,

Steve Wyche 2:00

Oh, man. I didn't like playing you guys

Tom 2:04

I, I remember playing a lot of those games at Bon Homme in the, uh, the outfield. that was crazy 'cause that was on their big main... That was their American Legion High and, and we were, we were tearing that thing up,

Steve Wyche 2:15

It's all right. regrew.

Tom 2:17

Exactly. Exactly. So Steve, how do you, how do you go from being a, just a, a humble St. Louis guy at Parkway South to, to j- just a dream gig on the NFL Network? That's so cool.

Steve Wyche 2:31

Yeah. Well, I, I'd like to consider myself still humble. I mean, those of us who grew up in the Midwest, um, you know, we learn certain qualities. I think you all probably w- would agree that we're very kind to people. help out our neighbors. You know, no one has to ask us to shovel the snow or to pick up the leaves, uh, you know, after the fall. We'll, we'll go- we just go ahead and do it. those qualities have always been, you know, part of who I am. And, you know, it was a long journey, but, you know, just the abbreviated version. Started out at University of Missouri, transferred to Howard, with a journalism degree. Um, was in the newspaper game for about 15 years, broke some really big stories. Um, and in 2008, when I was at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and doing some freelance work for ESPN, NFL Network called and, uh, offered me a job. And this was back when we were only in about 15 million homes. we had very few on-air talent. So I w- I did the jack of all trades, where the writing came in, writing for NFL.com and, you know, doing sidelines for games and pre-game and studio stuff. So, I was very prepared. You know, I was probably in my early 40s by the time I got there, so it wasn't as if just graduated college and was kinda gifted position. A lot of work went into it

Sherry Farmer 3:50

you are very versatile

Steve Wyche 3:53

Yeah, I mean, and look, it, it, it's, it's great because in today's media you have to be with so much of the scaling back of media companies, everyone's buying everybody and then the scaling back in terms of on-air personnel. So the fact that I wrote for so long, um, you know, at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the fact that I had that journalistic foundation, which started at the Treaty Newspaper at Parkway South, where I was the editor-in-chief there, that really helped. And so that, that versatility, again, in, in today's media world, um, which is, it seems like it's getting more vast, but it's actually shrinking, it really helps kinda keep me afloat a little bit because if you're just a singular aspect, just a host or, just something like this, you're, you're vulnerable, you know, unless you're just widely popular

Ken Leach 4:44

You know, I wanna say, uh, I saw you speak at the Missouri Athletic Club when you received your award for the National Football Foundation, you know, chapter. And it, it's in the top five I've, I've seen over 35 years. I really think you delivered a great message and very graciously. It was just awesome. But so how do you I know you're a big family guy, too. How do you juggle being an NFL guy, traveling all over the place, family? I mean, tell us what your secret is

Steve Wyche 5:10

Huge family guy. Um, all of us will, I'm sure, our experience, there's no such thing as a true work-life balance because a 9 to 5 job actually is an imbalance, right? Because it's, it's hard. You know, the fact that I, I don't really have set hours allowed me to, throughout my career, maybe take the kids to school because I have three sons within, born within five years. I'm a grandfather now. They're all grown. Um, but, I could, I could drop them to school. When I used to cover the NBA, drop them to school, go to the practice in the middle of the day, back to pick them up from school. then when I would go on these nine-day road trips, you know, and this was when I was working in DC, you know, I'm going to, to Portland and Utah and, and Seattle and places like that. You know, that's where my wife, who was a flight attendant, who flew more than I wa- I did, um, managed to step up. But again, like, like all of us who are parents, you don't, you don't get there without the help of friends and family and everybody else to support it. I mean, it is, it is an intense thing. But now that my kids are grown, I'm a grandfather and I travel. Yeah, I'm in studio a lot, but I've managed to kind of come with an inner peace as to where, since I no longer have to yell at my kids and tell them to pick up their socks and things like that, it's much easier. It's much easier in this phase of life.

Tom 6:32

A- and you know the grandkids can get away with that stuff.

Steve Wyche 6:35

Oh, absolutely.

Tom 6:36

yeah,

Steve Wyche 6:36

encourage it.

Tom 6:37

from experience

Steve Wyche 6:38

I encourage it

Sherry Farmer 6:40

Do you teach 'em new things too to bother their parents?

Steve Wyche 6:43

I just get them the loudest toys made, Like the xylophones that they can bang on, dinosaurs that roar. Hopefully they, they kind of perk up at about 2:00 in the morning out of nowhere and give a big dinosaur roar. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. Revenge is a beautiful thing.

Sherry Farmer 6:59

Speaking of grandkids, is there anything that you have learned from them or anything that, that you find fun that you wish would've been around when you were a kid?

Steve Wyche 7:08

I'm... I tell you this, I'm glad a lot of the things that around today were not available, um, when I was coming up. I mean, the, these kids, you know, their comfort is the iPad or like that. For us, it was a coloring book, right? It was go outside and jump in the pile of leaves that, you know, your, your parents just raked. And so I'm glad it was far more simple because these kids are gonna have so, they have so many more distractions and, and things like that. But, but what I learned from them is that, you know, seriously, and, and you hear this in lyrics and music and things like this, children, especially when they're not necessarily your own that you're raising and trying to shape, they're just so innocent. And so you're a little bit more of maybe the mistakes you made as a parent. Like, wow, okay, I see maybe what I did wrong. I see maybe what I did right or I could have done better. Um, but the most incredible aspect of it all is seeing your kids. Again, I have three sons, none of whom I ever thought would be mature enough to be a parent. Um, see them step up and just be so, like, perfect, It's like that's the coolest thing

Ken Leach 8:23

You know, the funny thing that I had a friend of ours, we got 10 of us that played for Navy, got together and went fishing, uh, two weeks ago in Florida. And one of the guys brought up a great story about how he was telling his grandkids. He said, "You know, when, when I was little, you used to watch, uh, TV used to go off at night at midnight." And they go, "What? They, you mean it, it went off?" You know, so it was kind of crazy. He goes, "Yeah, they played the national anthem, and it went off until the next morning." And I'm thinking, boy, we live in a different world, don't we?

Steve Wyche 8:52

cartoon, cartoons on Saturdays were from like 6:00 AM to like 11:00 AM when we weren't watching the old Notre Dame highlights, you know, for the, the half hour or the hour show that they were on

Sherry Farmer 9:04

Yeah, it was like we had to be on time more and really around those things

Tom 9:08

Yeah, I, I couldn't miss the Bugs Bunny hour on Saturday mornings. You know, if I slept in, I missed it,

Steve Wyche 9:13

Mine was The Smurfs, 'cause you know, at Parkway South, we were s- like, when Parkway South was built, it was the last line of civilization pretty much before you got to Jefferson right? It was out there. So we didn't have lights. We played our games on Saturday afternoons. So I would get up at like s- like I never could sleep the night before. I'd get up and I'd watch The Smurfs just to kinda settle myself a little bit, and then I would walk like a mile, mile and a half to the stadium. I'd always get there like four hours early, 'cause, you know, I was a very aggressive player and I had to like really keep everything hemmed in, um, before we got there. But I mean, I'm like, thank God The Smurfs and Papa Smurf and all these little stupid things were there to kinda help me bring it down. 'Cause I was, if I was watching like the Roadrunner and the Coyote and like a little bit of violence, a little bit of frustration of missing out on the target right there, I might not have been, you know, as effective.

Tom 10:04

You know, that, that's good to hear because I, I tell you what, as a player, Kenny, I don't know how you were, but Steve, I was the same way. I had to, I had to bring it down. I would listen to real soft music. I, I, you know, I didn't wanna... And some of the guys I'm, uh, playing with are listening to, they got Ted Nugent cranked up and, and that kind of stuff. And I'm like, "I, I, I can't waste it. I gotta, I gotta tone it down." And then the kickoff, we just let it all go. yeah, it's, it's interesting how that works

Sherry Farmer 10:31

Well, so what are some of the things you miss most about being home in St. Louis?

Steve Wyche 10:35

Well, my brother...

Sherry Farmer 10:36

Imo's Pizza,

Steve Wyche 10:37

well definitely Imo's, uh, toasted, toasted raviolis wherever you go.

Ken Leach 10:42

Cruz.

Steve Wyche 10:43

Yeah, yeah, Ted Drewes. You, your, your kinda typical things, you know? It, like I said, growing up in Manchester when I was there, like it was s- it seemed like it was 100 miles away from everywhere. You know, very few of us had cars. You know, we would get our parents' cars and things like that. So I think part of it, you know, it's, it's almost like going back to the original Footloose with Kevin Bacon, was just like, you know, in the evenings just going and, and going out to the Castlewood cliffs and watching the stars fall. Like it w- it was just a very simplistic, um, part of life. But just some of the things, like when I go back, my brother lives in Tower Grove Park with his family, and my sister still lives in Chesterfield. You know, just some of the things, like driving by the old Bon Homme football field. You know, the old Ballwin ballpark where we used to play. Um, how much the city is, is much smaller, you know, the county I guess, is much smaller, um, than it seemed when, when I was living there. Still have some friends who are there. Um, Tom, I think you know John Carr and, and- Tom yeah, that's, that's my guy. You know, we sh- we vacation together from time to time. Um, but it, you know, it's, it was just, you know, some of the really, really good memories, uh, that I had growing up. Uh, and by the way, you may, people may sound crazy, I do miss White Castles. And Noggles. is not around anymore, right?

Ken Leach 12:06

No. Yeah

Steve Wyche 12:07

Oh, man

Tom 12:09

you able to finish off that Macho Man burrito

Steve Wyche 12:12

That was like a loaf of bread

Tom 12:14

It was, it weighed, we weighed it one night. It felt, 1:00 in the morning, we had nothing better to do. We threw it on the scale. It was three

Steve Wyche 12:19

Oh, I'm, I mean, I'm sure after I had some Jack Daniels and lemonade, I could probably finish it off, but not, not, not saying I could hold it down. But oh yeah, no, the noggles, man.

Tom 12:30

Yeah

Sherry Farmer 12:32

Well, now you are wearing a St. Louis Cardinal jersey or sweatshirt. I have to ask, what do you think about their jerseys right now? And I think it's for a limited time that they're saying the Lou. Do you ever use that term, the

Steve Wyche 12:47

All the time. All the time. All the time. Like people from St. Louis, 'cause it, it's kinda like our hidden thing. Like some people are like, "Oh, don't say Hotlanta or d-..." the Lou. Like everyone I grew up with, and especially once I kinda matriculated like to the University of Missouri, for the two years I was there, and I'm meeting kids from North St. Louis or from other parts of the city. 'Cause again, I just stayed in my little enclave of basically Manchester Ball and that kinda southwest county area. Um, they're like, "Yeah. Oh, you're from the Lou?" Yeah, so there we go. Like, that's our kinda universal code word

Sherry Farmer 13:25

Yeah. a loo, and I'm

Steve Wyche 13:26

Blue and proud.

Sherry Farmer 13:27

some

Steve Wyche 13:28

There you go

Ken Leach 13:32

Isn't that what they call the bathroom in England, though?

Steve Wyche 13:35

It

Ken Leach 13:35

Yeah, the loo. That's the only downside to it, I'd have to say.

Steve Wyche 13:39

Yeah, that's what

Tom 13:40

knew

Steve Wyche 13:40

some, people may call St. Louis that as well, but we won't take offense. That's right

Ken Leach 13:48

So tell me, Steve, on, on the soccer front, it's the nat- It's, they, they refer to it as football. We have our own football. Are we gonna be known as the National American Football League at some time, the NFL instead of, uh, NF- NAFL at some time or what? I mean, it's getting pretty popular. How are we gonna compete with that?

Steve Wyche 14:09

Well, uh, you're talking about the professional, you know,

Ken Leach 14:12

Football.

Steve Wyche 14:13

leagues? Well, well look, every year MLS teams spring up a couple new teams. It's, it clearly is gaining in the momentum. Look at how the broadcast networks are just paying billions to get the Premier League rights, to get the Bundesliga rights. in terms of the World Cup bringing, you know, the attention that it has to the sport, o- of course it's gonna increase the appetite. I, I do not think it's going to usurp, you know, the NFL or, or major college football or anything like that. But yeah, I mean, you can just look around the, the country. We have two teams out here in LA. I mean, I know in St. Louis it's very popular. My, my brother and sister-in-law are season ticket holders. So it's, it's going to... It's gonna be more of a niche, I think, sport in terms of like the NBA and, and college basketball or Major League Baseball, because it's just weird how American football is kind of the universal language that most Americans deal with, but soccer's the one that's the most affordable, the most relatable. You can kinda do it anywhere. Um, and I, and I love the fact that it is global. Like, I'm a big Premier League guy. Like, I will get up early. You know, I'm an Arsenal fan. Yay, we finally freaking won the Premier League. Um, but I, I, I didn't really love it like that until, like, 10 years ago when I was covering an NFL game and it was the Falcons were practicing. They were playing the Lions, and they were practicing at the Arsenal facility. And I'm like, "Wow, this is great." Somebody gives me th- you know, walks me through, gives me some gear, so I start paying attention. it was that simple for me. and, and now I'm addicted

Ken Leach 15:47

I love the fans the most, I think

Steve Wyche 15:49

Uh, absolutely. The fans agree. But what about, like, some of the stuff we're seeing from the World Cup? Like, Instagram is filled with all these, like, uh, the people from other countries. I had no idea street tacos this great, you know, all, all of these great... And the biscuits and gravy, like, they can't seem to stop talking about biscuits and gravy. Well, I just...

Sherry Farmer 16:08

and ranch dressing. I heard

Steve Wyche 16:10

ranch dressing.

Sherry Farmer 16:11

a deal right now to send over some ranch

Steve Wyche 16:13

The ranch dressing. I just got back from France, and they were not serving ranch dressing over there, so I can tell you it's not a thing

Tom 16:20

How

Sherry Farmer 16:20

What have we done?

Tom 16:21

how about the Scottish people drinking Boston Dry?

Steve Wyche 16:25

I'm not buying, I am not buying that

Ken Leach 16:27

No, there's no way.

Tom 16:28

that's what I'm

Steve Wyche 16:29

I, just think we're kinda leaning into a, uh, a trope right there because those folks in Boston can get down too. We're really selling the Boston natives and the Boston residents short thinking that they could be out drinking. But I love the fact that the Scots came over here and they not only were drinking all this beer, but they raised, like, a ton of money give to, like, Boston area charities. Like, it, it's just amazing to see how all of these folks have really leaned in just so much of society and come in probably thinking one way. Just like if, when we go to other countries, we think it's like this, and then understand it's completely different.

Ken Leach 17:01

E- even the Japanese, they, they're staying and they're picking up trash at these places

Steve Wyche 17:06

And and they've done it for years. And I love how Jameis Winston's on Fox, like joining the, uh, the trash, picking up with them, saying, "Look, it's not that hard, people." But, uh, the... What's cool about the US too is, you know, New York, know, New York Stadium is vastly different from, from SoFi Stadium. And, you know, all the stadiums across North America are so vastly different. So people who are, who are bouncing and hopscotching really getting like an incredible of life in a, in a much bigger continent than if this were being played on, you know, in, in Europe or some places like that

Ken Leach 17:42

It's cool. I love it. Norway going up the escalator while they were rolling, that was

Steve Wyche 17:47

Isn't

Ken Leach 17:47

awesome. Yes, I love it

Steve Wyche 17:49

Isn't that awesome?

Tom 17:53

All right, I've got a question, Steve. You- you've, you've been, uh, I mean, you rattle off a lot of newspapers that are not low-end newspapers. I mean, you've, you've had some great jobs, okay? I've gotta ask you this question, but I'm gonna set it up. You remember the Chris Farley episode where he's interviewing Paul McCartney on Saturday Night "Remember when you were in The Beatles?" It's like, and he just, you know, he can't, he can't stand it. All the experiences you've had, what is your Chris Farley interview that you go, "Oh my God, I'm sitting with this guy or this gal. Holy cow."

Steve Wyche 18:28

No, you're gonna, you're gonna ma- you're gonna make me sound a little vain here, um, 'cause there's been a few. I mean, initially because I was young it was Dan Marino when I was working in Miami, you know, and Don Shula, right? So Don Shula was still coaching Marino. That's someone who has got the ultimate level of respect for, so I'm going in there and here's, you know, Shula and then Dan Marino. It's like, wow, you know? And then I moved from the NFL to the NBA, now I'm going to Pat Riley. Um, this is still when I was working down in Miami, you know, Pat Riley and Alonzo Mourning and all of these great people. And then I go to work in DC and I'm still covering the NBA. I break the story of Michael Jordan coming to work for the Washington Wizards. And so for three years, I am there with the daily with Michael Jordan. And to this day, like we, we can never We can never overstate his level of fame and celebrity. It is absolutely insane how much people wanted to touch him. Remember, he was pretty much pre-internet. He, his career ended as, as the internet was kind of coming to life. There was no social media. So like I was like the most read guy at the Washington Post except for our political reporters because of him. It's-- And so like those were some of the really cool ones. I mean, today, like I never, I never... It never gets old. Like, you know, when I get to sit with Patrick Mahomes or him and Travis Kelce together, like they're, they're awesome. Or I, I get to, know, sit with Sean McVay. know, there's just so many guy-- And, and I never take it for granted. I mean, I ne- every day is like, okay, I'm 60 years old now, and I'm talking to, you know, a 30-year-old player or a 39-year-old head coach. And one thing in my industry, you know, when I start out, I'm, I'm covering people like I covered college athletic in high school, so I'm not much older than them. Then I'm, I'm the same age as them, Then I'm barely older than them, and now I'm old enough to be their father. And so you go through all of these different phases, and you go through all of these different levels of understanding. You know, but I've managed to like never be like preachy. I'm always curious what the young, what the young folks are thinking now because, you know, they're, they are our future. They're the ones who can tell us about AI and, and all of these things that I may not be savvy with. So I'm absolutely fascinated every time I, you know, I get to sit down with a Kyler Murray or, or whomever like that. And it's... So again, it never gets old. I know you asked me kind of this and that, but to this, to this day, man, every time I get to like chat with one of these guys, like we just did-- I just interviewed with Casey Concepcion, The rookie wide receiver at Texas A&M who went to Cleveland. He's got this, this, uh, pretty significant speech impediment. And, you know, he's really... He was promoting, you know, this, this kind of speech therapy thing he was doing, and it was this kind of really cool like seeing someone as brave as him taking this on, using the platform that he has playing in the NFL, and he's yet to play a down, to kind of talk about that. So I mean, like, I'm like, wow, like this is, this is real life, man. This is a guy who's like twenty-two or twenty-three years old who's probably had to go through a lot of stuff. I'm sure he's had to go through a high school coach like, "Well, you can't play quarterback 'cause you can't get the call out. So you might as well play wide receiver." So he's tried to go through things like a lot of us haven't had to go through that we don't think about until we get in a situation like when I get to sit down and talk with someone like that

Ken Leach 22:00

Wow. You've met some great people. Um, we, I remember we played Pittsburgh one time when it, when I was with Navy or Navy football, and we were at Pittsburgh actually winning the game, and then their starting quarterback went down, and some freshman named Dan Marino comes walking in, and we're thinking, "Oh, we got this game," and he just shredded us.

Steve Wyche 22:24

He's just ripping it

Ken Leach 22:25

Oh my gosh. Unbelievable

Tom 22:28

of those deals on the scouting report. They go, "Look, whatever you do, the starting quarterback."

Ken Leach 22:31

We had no idea.

Tom 22:32

behind him's tough, you know?

Steve Wyche 22:34

It, yeah, it's, it, it's interesting when you see things like that. You know, when I was at Missouri, I was red-shirted down there, and this is back when it was the Big Eight. Oklahoma had Brian Bosworth and Tony Casillas. Troy Aikman was on the team. You know, Nebraska had Mike Rozier and Turner Gill a- and all of these guys and, you know, it was just really, really cool kinda see that and using the, the experience I had for the two years at Mizzou now, like through my career, you know, as a journalist, being able to ask questions in a way where I know some of these guys understand, okay, I'm asking a question where they're like, "Okay, Steve knows what he's talking about," a little bit because I've been there. It was a long time ago. But I mean, that, that helps as well. Just kinda like the story you just told about Marino

Tom 23:14

right. So, so do we, do we have time for one more question,

Steve Wyche 23:17

I've got time, you guys asking me to do this

Tom 23:20

Sherry, what do you think? How we looking?

Sherry Farmer 23:21

And well, no, I think, Especially like, and, and now I have a question for you too, um, Steve, because, you know, with all the experience you have, how difficult is it for you now to read someone else's work, for you to watch someone else's interview? Do you find yourself like, "Oh, I wanna help them. I wanna..." Or, "Ah, are they doing?" With everybody becoming, um, social influencers

Steve Wyche 23:46

It's weird. I rarely find myself doing that because certain people have really mastered like, hey, if all I'm doing is being a, a- an Instagram reporter, like some people have really nailed it. Like that, that's their thing. Other people it's like, it's not my thing, but I don't really judge people for like, oh, not upholding their journalistic integrity like a lot of, a lot of, uh, folks do. Like the one thing we find in today's world is there's echo chambers all over the place, right? And people wanna see what they, you know, hear what they wanna hear, see what they wanna see. If it is a young person, there's several young people that I mentor, and I'll be like, "Hey man, every time I'm watching you, it sounds like you're reading to me. Be natural. The camera is a friend. Talk to the camera. If you're reading a prompter, read it or four times before you go on air so you can just have a conversational cadence." something I had to learn to go through. Like I don't read prompter. I hate, I hate teleprompter, right? It's, it's, it's a crutch I just don't go with. I use, you know, what I have, knowledge, know, my preparation, and let's go. If I mess up, I mess up, but my stuff is authentic and nobody prepares more than me. And, and so again, there's no... There, there's some people actually I may not agree with it. I may not, but I just, I have realized that, again, there's more than Neapolitan ice cream out there. You got 33 flavors, 51 flavors for people, and somebody likes what this person is doing, whereas other people may not

Ken Leach 25:17

Do you know Mike Claiborne by any chance?

Steve Wyche 25:19

I don't

Ken Leach 25:20

Okay, so he's, he's an announcer here in St. Louis. A great guy. You ought to meet him. You'd really like him. You guys, I... Can you see these personalities together? Um, he, he had said when we had him on the air, it was a great line. He said, "Hey, let's just have a conversation." And we did, and it was an excellent episode. So yeah, I hear you, what you're saying. It's good advice

Steve Wyche 25:40

Yeah, I mean, no, no longer are you hearing the TV voice deliver... Like, people are speaking who they are. that's why someone like... Yeah, and that's why someone like, like Mina Kimes, I think the sun, know, rises and, and falls with her. I think she's absolutely brilliant. She's brought this incredible, you know, analytical thinking. I'm coming from way over here. Like, man, I wish I would've thought about that, and she's just talking to me. And it's like, man, she's great. And the casting of that NFL Live show is, like, so spectacular because you have all these different people. And I, and I just kinda like where things are at that point with that instead of we have to hit the certain rhythm, we have to hit this, we have to talk in a certain tone and keep it moving. Um, some shows do that, but I'm just much more people wanna be... They wanna feel like they're part of the conversation

Sherry Farmer 26:33

Yeah, I've s- and I've spent many years in radio, and it's like anytime you hear silence, it, it, I, I would like have nightmares about it. I'd be like, "Oh my gosh, something's wrong. We're off the air. Oh my gosh." And I panic when I, when I get quiet. So

Tom 26:46

just, yeah, exactly. So I, I've gotta ask you, uh, getting back to the football aspect of things, you know, go back to your, to your JFL days, your high school days, your college days, what is it? What's the, the, the, the one memory you look back on, you go, "Man, that was it." What was the best moment you had in football?

Steve Wyche 27:07

That's a great one. Well, God, I, I probably have to say my junior year, okay? Like, I was So Parkway South, again, is a new school, and the class ahead of me, undefeated as freshmen, undefeated as JV. As juniors, they took the varsity to, like, two rounds of the playoffs. They ended up losing to Parkway West. So this, this group of, of players was really, really good. Small dudes, all, like, 170, just tough, pipe-bendin' type right? And so I come in the next year, and, and the way they played, they played straight option football. Well, I was always a quarterback. And so now the coach, like, "Hey, we got this great big dude. He can run it. He can throw it all over the yard. We're changing the offense." Well, I was the only new guy, and we lose our first three games, and it was me because, you know, they changed blocking schemes. A 170-pound guy is not gonna be able to block a 220-pound guy. That's why the option football worked. And guy's gonna play assignment football, you know, he played at Navy. And so we're 0 and 3, and we were supposed to be really good, and everyone is looking at me. I'm the first Black quarterback at my high school, one of the few Black people in Manchester, Missouri, and I am walking around in absolute fear. Real popular kid, and I'm walking around like I'm the reason why, and everybody hates me, and I'm hearing all the whispers from the parents. And, and so one day the coach was like Uh, we played Lafayette, and I was horrible, man. I think I threw, like, three interceptions. I was just panicking. I flipped out. The coach went, "We're making a change," and I was like, "Thank God." So they moved me to defensive end, position I've never played since I was nine years old. We're playing Webster Groves. They're 3 and 0. They've got, like, three D1-A guys on there, night game, and I have the game of my life, right? I am just as disruptive as anybody as you've ever seen on the field. I am blowing up passes. I'm forcing fumbles. I'm getting sacks, and we win the game. We upset 'em. And I'm like, man, if I could just rekindle that stroke of absolute luck, of not knowing what I'm doing, playing my heart out because I really felt like I was letting my teammates down, um, the coach having faith in me not to just completely bench me. Like, wow. And then the next day I start getting letters from, like, Michigan State and Florida State and everybody in, Missouri, so that kinda set me on my path. But just how of bad luck turned into dumb luck, um, really that's one of those things, you know, butterfly effect moments, like, wow, that was really, you know, some childhood, teenage, like, wow, this just absolute joy, man.

Tom 29:52

That, that's awesome. And, and you know, you know this as well as anybody, playing defensive end a- and doing it for the first time, you didn't have a- you didn't have to think about anything. went out and played football, you

Steve Wyche 30:04

I, I was making mistakes all over the place. If I'm sure if I went back and looked at the film, you know, I wasn't reading the tight end's head and collapsing down and, you know, I'm let my inside linebacker get blown up, but I'm making a play. So it was, but it was, it was tough, and I eventually learned it, and that was, that was my position. You know, that's what I ended up going to Missouri to play. I wasn't very, very good. But, you know, just total dumb luck

Tom 30:29

And you had, uh, it was Coach Powers,

Steve Wyche 30:31

Warren Powers.

Tom 30:32

Okay

Steve Wyche 30:33

Yeah, I still keep in touch um, wide, wide blank Jim Donnan. know, the old, he ended up coaching at Georgia and Marshall. Jim Donnan was our quarterback coach, so he would see me all the time on scout team. And to this day, I would call him, Jim's probably in his early 80s, and I'll call him like, "Hey man, I'm watching this team doing this option look, this and that. What are they trying to do here? Here's the clip," and blah. And he's telling me this and that. So I'm, he's on air ma- I, I'm going on air and he's making me feel smarter. So that's just even like some of those connections. You know, he went on to be the OC at Oklahoma when they were winning all those national championships with Jamel Hollow and those guys and, and so, you know, those are some of the cool relationships that I have.

Ken Leach 31:13

Lastly, I wanna congratulate you on the Black College Football Hall of Fame. That's awesome. Was that an honor or what?

Steve Wyche 31:21

It, it's beyond an honor, you know. And a lot of people are like, "Why is there a Black College Football Hall of Fame?" Let me clarify. This is to recognize people who played coach or contributed to historically Black colleges and universities. And you know, since I graduated from Howard University and I'm a big advocate for a lot of those programs, it's cool. But just imagine this, you talk about Okay, you talked about the Chris Farley moment. from the gym, I get a call. It's James Shack Harris, right? The legendary quarterback. Used to be with the Rams. The first Black quarterback to ever start a season as a starting quarterback in pro football back with the Buffalo Bills in the AFL. He calls me, "Hey, man. Where are you?" coming back from the gym." "Hang on a second. I'm patching in Doug Williams." Doug, so Doug's calling me, right? So I got these two legends. Doug Williams is my hero. He is my absolute hero. And they're calling like, "Hey, you know, what do you You know, I'm on the selection committee for the, for the Hall of Fame, right? I pick the guys going in, so I'm th- I'm thinking we're talking about the class. Like, "Hey, there's one more guy we're putting in, Steve White," and this. And I'm like, "Who?" And it took me, like, a minute. I'm driving, I'm driving through LA like, "Wait a second. Let me find a place to pull over. What are you talking about?" And they sandbagged me and, and, and put me in. So it was really cool because the guys I went in with as well, um, like Nick Collins, the former Packer safety. He would've been in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he, you know, he had a neck injury after six years. He's in the Packers Ring of Honor. Imagine that, Packers Ring of Honor, you only played six years. That's how good he was. You know, Tyrone Poole, Super Bowl champion. Just a lot of great You know, Jimmy Smith, the great Jags wide receiver. So to be that group, but sit in the same room with, like, Doug Williams and James Shack Harris and Mel Blount and Larry Little and Art Shell, you know, all these legends is like, come on. Like I, like I said in my speech, I'm devaluing the property. Um, and, know But what, what was really cool though is, like, you know, my, my brother and sister came down from St. Louis. You know, my mother is still alive. She lives in Atlanta. And that's where I actually said to myself, "Man, this kid, you know, from Manchester, Missouri, like, one of the only Black kids in my town." A lot of real positive things happened, but a lot of reality types of things, you know, I had to go through as well, and I wouldn't be here had I not experienced any of that. Like, it really made me who I am. It's one of those things you, you never really sit back too often and say to yourself like, all the, all the good, the great, the bad, like, it made you who you are. And I'm, I'm here on this incredible, getting this incredible honor because of growing up in, you know, in Manchester, Missouri the way I did. I, I, I really, I, I would not wanna grow up in any other way, any other place, with any other friends, people who didn't like me. Um, you know, it all, it all really stitched, you know, the quilt together at that moment Oh, there's a lot. Remember, there's, there's 37 Pro Football Hall of Famers who went to HBCUs. So there's a lot of great ones there

Tom 34:16

Man, oh man. Steve, I tell you what, I can't thank you enough for coming on

Steve Wyche 34:19

I can't thank you enough for asking me, man. This means a lot

Sherry Farmer 34:22

Yeah, it's good to get to know another St. Louisan.

Steve Wyche 34:24

There you go

Tom 34:25

Well, you know, you know, it, it was a long shot. Steve and I met, uh, at the awards banquet. I, 'cause I got the, the Jim Otis Award that just happened to be sitting next to each other and just kinda hit it off and, and, and, you know, became Facebook friends and, and chit-chatted from time to time and, and I hit the like button on all his grandkids and kids' stuff, and he did the same on mine. And, you know, I thought, "You know what? This is a great guy. We need to get him on here." And, uh, man, you did not disappoint us at all tonight, Steve.

Steve Wyche 34:52

when we met Tom, we did an honor for Bob Brigg. I mean, that's a guy I grew up reading. like, wow, what an honor, you know, to, to, you know, to follow such a great journalist, you know, and, and so many great journalists who've come from our great city. So, you know, really, really big time. I'm so glad you guys had me on. It's, it's such a pleasure. And if I come into town, we're gonna have to make our own, like, homemade noggles.