Kyle Turley: I Heard Dan Marino Got High Before Games
Former NFL lineman and first-round pick Kyle Turley was making the radio rounds on Thursday to promote a party he’s co-hosting at the Super Bowl on behalf of Gridiron Greats. The outspoken hot head already made headlines earlier in the day for ripping Brady Hoke who left Turley’s alma mater (San Diego State) to go coach at Michigan. That interview on XX Sports in San Diego had nothing on the interview he did with the Dan LeBatard Show on 790 the Ticket in Miami, as I learned via Steve Cofield.
Because Turley was promoting a Gridiron Greats party, he was asked about his partying habits. The conversation turned into one about weed, and one of the hosts asked Turley semi-jokingly, “Did you ever roll some [weed] before a game?” His answer blew the toupees off the old folks’ heads in South Florida:
“No, I never got the balls enough to do that. I heard Dan Marino did, down there in Miami. That’s a rumor, but I don’t know — you’d have to ask Danny. All those old pictures of him and his old hair, I wouldn’t pass it by him.”
Naturally the hosts were shocked, so they followed up asking for more details.
“It’s locker room talk,” Turley continued. “I’ve heard a few things. I was going to do it one time in my prime, but definitely not when I wasn’t in my prime. It never happened — I was facing too many guys I needed to take care of so I wanted to be at my best. Not that I wouldn’t have been at my best — I’ve actually heard from guys that it actually slows things down so you can see things a little better and that’s where the whole Marino thing came from. And I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it’s something I heard that that was something that he was able to get relaxed before the games and not be too edgy and calm and collected and be able to see things more clearly on the field.”
Turley ended his talk about Marino there, but mentioned that some of his old coaches would talk about doing bumps of coke and drinking bottles of Jack before games, justifying it by saying you have to be in the right mentality to play that crazy game. I honestly don’t disagree. You have to be a bit off mentally to run around on those NFL fields with 250lb slabs of muscle hitting people left and right.
As far as the Marino rumors go, I can’t say this is the first time I’ve heard them. Where there’s smoke, there’s often fire. Even if you can’t attend the party in Arlington in February, at least this interview was worth a donation to the Gridiron Greats, right?
