From Blocking Passes to Passing Classes

The day Blake Moore took his LSAT's, he had every intention of beginning the paper chase immediately after graduation. The next fall, however, he found himself not in a classroom studying legal briefs, but in the locker room studying football plays.

Now, a first-year law student at Harvard, Moore is pursuing his original goal, but only after a detour on the field. For six years, Moore played professional football, first for the Cincinnati Bengals and then for the Wisconsin Green Bay Packers, in a career that included a trip to the Super Bowl. Not bad for an ex-Division III center who describes his college football experience as "no big deal."

Moore, who has played football since the seventh grade, did not choose his college for its football program. He left his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee 10 years ago to attend the College of Wooster in Ohio, not exactly a national football powerhouse. And neither was Moore, who began with a modest view of his own athletic prowess.

"I went there to get a good education, your basic liberal arts education," says Moore of his alma mater. Although he began college with thoughts of medical school, those quickly disappeared after a freshman year filled with lab courses, and he decided to study history instead. Football was little more than another extracurricular activity, an afternoon of snapping footballs and and pushing around sweaty, grunting bodies.

According to Wooster athletic director Al Van Wie, Moore was an obvious standout in college. "Blake was probably the true student athlete," says Van Wie. "He was a leader both in football and in campus life."

Moore says his attitude toward the sport in college was pretty relaxed. He recalls, "I enjoyed playing football at that level--it was a good outlet for my competitive nature. But it was no big deal."

Football became a much bigger deal after his junior year. As he explains, he himself was "getting bigger"--he weighed close to 250 pounds. Wooster's would-be attorney began to attract some national football attention.

No Nails for Lunch

"Some scouts started coming around," says Moore. But he adds, "I'm sure I was smaller and slower than a lot of the other people they looked at." His size just didn't measure up to that of kids from Division I schools who ate steroids for breakfast and chewed nails for lunch.

But at 6-ft., 5-in. and a trim 250 pounds, Moore was not pushed around by law school admissions officers. After he was ignored--as he expected to be--in that spring's NFL draft, the Phi Beta Kappa athlete made plans to follow his father's footsteps at Duke.

Given that Wooster's football team had only launched two professional players in its entire history--one to the NFL 50 years before, and one who became a Canadian league punter--he made school history when, before the end of the year, he was approached by pro scouts from the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns.

He chose to sign as a free agent with the Bengals, basing his decision on the teams' recent seasons. "I decided I'd have a better chance with Cincinnati since they were coming off a bad year," he says.

So in the summer of 1980, his legal aspirations temporarily sidelined, Moore started to train with the Bengals. At first he found pro camp very tough. "The only advantage I had over other people was mental," he says.

During Moore's four years for the Bengals, he played as a center, guard, and tackle. He appeared on Monday Night Football and played in the 1982 Super Bowl, when the Cincinnati team lost to the San Francisco 49ers. But the sporadic starter sensed an end when line coach Forrest Gregg--himself a legendary lineman--left to work with the Green Bay Packers.

"They got a new coach, but my days with the Bengals were numbered," he says matter-of-factly. "I was cut right before the [next] season started."

But three weeks into the 1984 season, Gregg contacted Moore, and the Wooster wonder tagged along with Gregg to the Green Bay Packers.

Green Bay Packers' offensive line coach Jerry Wampfler speaks highly of Moore's stint in Wisconsin. "He's a very intelligent guy. He was football smart, and he got a lot out of his ability," says Wampfler. "We put him at tight end on the goal line because he certainly wasn't noted for his speed, but when the ball was thrown to him, he caught it."

The Accidental Touchdown

The first of Moore's two career touchdowns--both with the Packers--happened almost by accident. Although he was only supposed to be a decoy, the other tight end forgot to enter the play, and Moore was left to receive the ball. "The quarterback threw the ball so hard that it wedged in between my face mask and shoulder pads, so I didn't have a chance to drop it," he recalls.

Despite such successes, Moore began to think of leaving the game. "After I got picked up by the Packers, I realized how transient football was," he explains. During the off-season, he looked for jobs with law firms. Although he ended up playing for two more years, he decided to pursue his original ambition, and reapply to law school.

"We hated to see him leave, but we knew where his long term interests lay," Coach Wampfler says. "I hope I never have a need for an attorney, but if I do I'll know where to come."

Initially Moore simply intended to reapply to Duke; but he says his wife and college classmate Cindy Weiler encouraged him to set his sights higher, and he decided to apply to Harvard Law. After admittance, Moore deferred entrance to play one last season of pro ball.

As he takes a study break in the lobby of Harvard's Langdell Library, Moore explains that in many ways his football career helped him prepare for the competitive atmosphere of the law classroom.

"Football has been very beneficial," says Moore. "Playing pro sports is the pinnacle of competition--every single day you're evaluated, yelled at, and every Sunday, it's out there on the field. And when you've been embarassed in front of a million people, going to a law school class is not that bad."

He says there are even some similarities between athletics and academics. "If you're in a class and you're called on, you have to think on your feet," he says. "It's a lot like football--you've got to make the decision and not worry about it."

While Moore says that he always planned to continue his education, he also notes that his decision to leave football was influenced by his abilities. "I wasn't really good enough to play pro ball--I just worked at it real hard," he says. "I expect to do more in the real world."

Both Moore and his former coach agree that he probably would have stuck with the game if his career had seemed any more promising. "As it turned out," says Wampfler, "our starting center got hurt, and he would have been playing a lot." Moore says that even if he'd had brighter prospects on the field, saying no to Harvard would have been difficult.

A Sub-Zero Hero

Moore says that one of his most memorable football moments was playing in the coldest game in NFL history--the Bengals vs. the San Diego Chargers in 60-degrees-below-zero Cincinnati weather. "That was an exercise in torture," says Moore. "I had my feet wrapped in plastic and scuba gloves on. The only consolation was that the San Diego guys were worse off."

He also played in the all-time snowiest game, when the Packers played Tampa Bay as 10 inches of snow accumulated. "We could laugh because we were winning," he remembers.

"The funniest guy I played with was a Harvard grad, Pat McInally ['75]," says Moore. "He'd do anything for a laugh--once Pat walked in to roll call with nothing on but a belt."

In part because he is older than most other first-year students, 28-year-old Moore says he finds it easy to discipline himself to keep up with his heavy workload. "Compared to having a real full-time job, it's not that hard," he says.

He says he is also glad to be back down to a "realistic weight," having dropped 60 pounds since his NFL peak of 275.

Moore currently is taking a standard first-year slate of courses, including Contracts, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure and Property. Moore says he likes all his professors, but he especially enjoys Civil Procedure with Visiting Professor David Trubek "because he's a Wisconsin guy. I used to go in [to class] humming the U. Wisconsin fight song."

Family Comes First

Despite his full schedule, he tries to spend as much time as he can with his wife and two children, and this limits his involvements on campus. "I won't take on activities if it means crazy hours. My family's first," Moore insists.

Although he emphasizes that he was never a "blue chip player," Moore says that his football salaries were good and enabled him to save enough to support his family and pay tuition bills during his stay in law school. He expects, however, that "in the long run, law will be more profitable for me."

Cindy Weiler says she is relieved that her husband's football career ended with no injuries, and she is pleased with his return to academics. "Personally, I think he's finding law more rewarding than football. In law he can be utilizing his talents more consistently," she notes.

Although he is still unsure what area of law he will pursue, Moore does not rule out the possibility of future involvement in the world of sports. "I wouldn't mind getting back into ball full-time on the management side, but that's really tended to become a grubby business," he says. He adds that he is not at Harvard to become a player agent.

Moore says that he does not miss football, having played the game long enough to "get it out of his system." But he does miss the physical competition; so he keeps active by playing squash and has organized an intramural basketball team within his section at the law school.

And no matter how heavy the law school workload is, Moore has certain priorities that just won't budge--every weekend, he takes time out to watch his ex-teammates on TV.