Leonard Marshall Q&A: Rookie Card Memories, Massive Memorabilia Collection, Helmet Swaps
Leonard Marshall was a defensive force at Louisiana State University.
Selected 37th overall in the 1983 NFL Draft by the New York Giants, Marshall spent a decade with The G-Men as a key member of the Big Blue Wrecking Crew.
Marshall was a three-time Pro Bowl selection, a two-time second team All-Pro and a two-time Super Bowl champion. He was inducted into the New York Giants Ring of Honor and has a strong case for Pro Football Hall of Fame consideration.
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In this exclusive interview, the Giants great talks about seeing his early trading cards, his massive man cave and collection of items from his career, the LSU fanbase, and much more.
Tony Reid- You were first featured on a card in 1983. It was a Sunbeam Bread card from your time at LSU. And then your rookie card came in 1986 in that great Topps set. Do you remember seeing yourself on a trading card for the first time and what were your thoughts?
Leonard Marshall-Well, it was pretty cool. I thought. I said, here's a kid from the Bayou of Louisiana. Never in my life would I've imagined to have had the career that I had as a player, but to now see yourself your rookie year on a trading card, I thought that was pretty cool, especially in an era where there was no social media.
TR- Speaking of those cards, you had a number over the years to this day, do you have a collection of cards? Did you hold on to any over the years and do you have a favorite?
LM-I do. I have one that credits me with my third Pro Bowl, which was in 1991. I was an alternate to Charles Mann and I ended up going to the game, but not playing in the game. Charles Mann got hurt in the Super Bowl against the Buffalo Bills. And I ended up going to the game as an alternate, which was a strike season. I ended up going to Hawaii. That card meant a lot to me because that season I had 11 and a half sacks. It was my third MVP trophy with the Giants. Now mind you, I'm on the same team with Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson and I win that MVP, so that card meant a lot to me.
TR- You were as good as anybody on those stacks Giants teams. You were as much of a force on that team as anyone. So, with your 12-year career, Pro Bowls, Super Bowls, team MVPs, do you have an office or man cave where you have any of your trophies, jerseys, and great items like that displayed in your house?
LM-I do. I've got about 1,600 square foot basement that I turned into a man cave with 105 inch TV screen, a big Samsung in the basement. I got a custom bar downstairs and a real nice sitting area, a treadmill and all that other stuff, pool table, all that crap down there so that when I start feeling sorry for myself, I go down there and I bring myself back to reality.
TR-So what's your favorite item or what's your favorite piece in the man cave?
LM-I have a piece that, I call it a three-legged stool. It's a picture of me, Harry and Lawrence together. Someone created this piece. They took images of us as players at specific moments in our career. One of them is me kneeling before the game against the 49ers in the NFC Championship game in 1991, and there's one of Harry laying on the field after we beat the Denver Broncos. And then there's one of Lawrence sitting on a helmet getting ready to go on the field to play a game. It's a great picture. I’m to the left, Harry's in the middle and Lawrence to the right. It epitomizes what we meant to each other as players and really tied into the whole Hall of Fame thing and everything else with us in our careers.
TR-Very cool stuff. You were a star at LSU, which has a crazy passionate fan base. We all know what the Giants fan base is like, especially from that era. Do you have a most memorable fan story from your career?
LM-My favorite fan story from my career at LSU was the first time I walked out on to the field. We played USC my freshman year. I had never been to the stadium. The largest crowd I ever saw in high school was about 2,500 people. And that was playing a school like Istrouma out of Baton Rouge or Katy out of Lafayette. I walked out of Tiger Stadium one night and we had 91,000 people and we're playing University of Southern California. They got Charles White and Marcus Allen in the backfield. Charles White was the tailback and Marcus Allen was the fullback. And they had this huge offensive line with Anthony Munoz and all these guys that went on to become big time NFL players. I walk out in that stadium, I turn around and I looked around, I said, this is the first time I've ever been intimidated. There's 91,000 people in this place and they're all here to watch a bunch of guys play football. That was mad cool.
And then I come to New York and in 1986 we were the toast of the town.
The Mets won the World Series. We won our first Super Bowl. I walk out to the field, we're going to play the Washington Redskins. And before the game, we were all hyped up because we really wanted a ticker tape parade if we won the Super Bowl that year. Mayor Koch made the announcement that no matter what happens, if the Giants win a championship, New York City and American Express is not paying for a parade for them. Well, the fans in New Jersey decided to turn that stadium into a ticker tape parade for us. We beat the Redskins 17 to nothing. We're the first team to beat an NFC direct rival three times in the same season and that turned that stadium into a big bowl of graffiti and we never forgot that as players. It was a great moment and something I'll never forget.
TR- The jersey swap is the new generation's new tradition to pay homage and pay respect to opponents. I know that wasn't quite the case back in the day, but if you could go back and swap a jersey with an opponent, who would you want to share that respect or honor with?
LM-Well, I swap the helmets. We did helmets back in my day, so I swapped helmets with two players that I really admired. One was Gerald Riggs, the running back from the Atlanta Falcons. And the other one was my friend who played left tackle for the Chicago Bears and who faced me the year that they won the Super Bowl. And that's my buddy Jimbo Covert, who was also a Pro Football Hall of Famer. So real good guys, real good man, real quality friends and guys from the game that I had the utmost respect for and that continue to maintain that same respect for me.
Tony Reid spent more than a decade covering combat sports at the highest level. He has written hundreds of articles and conducted hundreds of interviews about sports collectibles for such publications as Beckett, Sports Collectors Digest, and Sports Collectors Daily. Reid worked full time at a sports card shop in Central Pennsylvania for a number of years. A lifelong collector, Tony treasures his rookie card collection of star players in baseball, basketball, and football. If you want to discuss the greatness of Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson or Ken Griffey Jr., you can reach him at @tonyreidwrites on all social media platforms