Saving Switzer

I talked to Barry Switzer this week for a Q&A about his guest-starring role on the TNT original series, "Saving Grace" this Monday night. Here's a brief synopsis of the episode entitled, "Do You Love Him?"

Holly Hunter stars in the series as Grace Hanadarko, an intense Oklahoma City police detective with a fiery spirit and audacious lifestyle. In this episode, the door to Grace’s Porsche gets knocked off when a drunk driver slams into it. The impact lets loose thousands of dollars in cash that had been hidden by a previous owner. Switzer is among the owners questioned. When he visits the station, the OCPD police detectives hail him as a hero, except for Butch, the former University of Texas football player. Grace allows Switzer to take a glory ride in the Porsche for old time’s sake.

Switzer called me from his car as he was driving to Oklahoma City from his home in Norman to board a private jet to Las Vegas, a trip he had no idea he would be making when the day started. "I'm calling an audible," said Switzer. "I'm calling my own plays these days."

I had heard for years how great Switzer was as a person and how he would have players eating out of the palm of his hand after meeting him, one of the traits that made him a great recruiter when he was at Oklahoma and helped him win over Cowboys players after the thankless job of taking over for Jimmy Johnson. That was quickly evident during our interview, which was supposed to be no more than 10-15 minutes but dragged on to 30 minutes as he began asking me questions about what college I went to and when I started writing.

By the end of our conversation Switzer had arrived at the airport and told me to call him again, giving me his phone number in the form of the uniform numbers of a couple of his former players. “Do know what number that is?” he asked.

“I do,” I said, reciting the decoded number back to him.“That’s right,” he said. “Call me anytime.”

I'm sure Switzer is more accesible these days, now that he's been out of coaching for 12 years (has it really been that long since the Cowboys last won a playoff game?) but before he left for Sin City I asked him if he would ever consider using his charm in the coaching arena again.

"No way," he said. "If I did that I wouldn't be getting on a private jet to Vegas right now."