TOP PHOTO: Big Josh Etter and legendary NFL Coach Jerry Glanville catch up at WLAF on Wednesday afternoon. Both men, turning 82 this year, grew up in Ohio.

By Jim Freeman

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – Former NFL Coach Jerry Glanville, the man in black, paid a visit to the old radio station on Wednesday afternoon. Glanville, who coached the Houston Oilers and Atlanta Falcons, came by WLAF yesterday for a surprise visit.

The first thing Glanville asked Bill Waddell as soon as he walked in was “Have you seen the new Elvis movie yet?” The legendary coach is a huge Elvis fan and once left tickets at will call for Elvis before a pre-season NFL game in the 1980s.

Coach Jerry Glanville, sun glasses, kept Jim Freeman, Bill Waddell and Big Josh Etter laughing during his visit on Wednesday to WLAF.

Yesterday, he shared his NFL (not for long) story about the time he broke in a rookie referee that was made famous on NFL films. Glanville told the rookie that if he kept making calls like that that he wouldn’t be around long. He then told him that NFL stood for “not for long.”

Football stories were the order of the day when Coach Jerry Glanville paid a visit to Big Josh Etter on Wednesday at WLAF in La Follette.

I just had to ask him about his Waffle House comment that appeared in Sports Illustrated when he was coaching the Atlanta Falcons. The coach explained that it was draft day, and he had to comment on each player drafted to the media. The Falcons picked a rather unknown player, Darion Conner out of Jackson State. “One reporter asked why did you draft such an unknown player from such a small school, and I said, because he’s tough, real tough, tougher than a Waffle House steak,” said Glanville. “The president of Waffle House, located in Atlanta, was in my office the next day, because that comment made the front page of USA Today,” Glanville added with a laugh. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 07/07/2022-6AM)

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