Carl Weathers was more than 'Rocky.' He was an NFL player − and a science fiction star.
In February for Black History Month, USA TODAY Sports is publishing the series "29 Black Stories in 29 Days." We examine the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials continue to face after the nation’s reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. This is the fourth installment of the series.
In the 1970s, years before Carl Weathers' Apollo Creed character would lose to Rocky Balboa, he was a member of the Oakland Raiders. Not in a movie. In real life.
Weathers played defensive end at San Diego State and went undrafted by the NFL but was signed as a free agent by the Raiders. He played in seven games in the 1970 season and as Weathers recounted to Sports Illustrated, one day he was called into the office of legendary coach John Madden, and told to bring his playbook.
"I don’t know what he meant by it, but I know how I took it," Weathers explained. "He said to me, 'You’re just too sensitive.' What the (expletive) do you mean I’m too sensitive? Not that it’s not true."
Weathers would go on to play in the Canadian Football League for the BC Lions but that comment from Madden would impact Weathers in a huge way.
"I couldn’t let it go, man," he said. "It kind of put a chip on my shoulder on one hand and it was like a wound on the other because as a football player, certainly, as a professional football player, the last thing you want to hear is that you’re too sensitive. On the other hand, without that sensitivity, how could I be an actor? How could I be an actor of any worth, really?
"That’s what we trade on. We trade on performances that delve into the humanity of us all. So on one hand, it felt like an indictment, like I committed a crime. And on the other hand, I guess it reminded me of something that was actually necessary in me to succeed and what I envisioned doing with my life as a performer, as an artist. So, God bless John Madden for seeing something in me and naming it what it actually is: a certain amount of sensitivity."
Weathers died in his sleep last week at age 76. His role in the "Rocky" movies is well chronicled, and his football life, while not as well known, was also impressive. But there's something else Weathers did that was just as important.
The movie "Predator" would make the top 20 or even top ten list of many science fiction fans. This is particularly true if you were a Black, hardcore sci-fi nerd like me, in my early 20s, watching the movie in all of its campy glory.
Even in 1987, when the movie debuted, there were few Black film stars in science fiction and Weathers' character, Dillon, was an equal to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch. The infamous handshake between the two characters has since become a goofy meme but at the time it was a symbol of their equality.
He'd go on to a role in the "Star Wars" spinoff "The Mandalorian" where he played the leader of a sort of bounty hunter union. He was really good in the series but it was his "Predator" role that put Weathers into science fiction high orbit. That's how good the movie was. That's how good Weathers was.
