Remembering Joel Buchsbaum

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The time of year I miss Buchsbaum and Holovak the most


By John McClain on April 25, 2011 at 10:30 AM

From his apartment in Brooklyn, Joel Buchsbaum gained his vast football knowledge by analyzing videotapes for 12 to 14 hours a day.

This is the time of year when I miss Joel Buchsbaum and Mike Holovak the most.

I wonder what they would think about how big the draft has become and how much attention it receives. I wonder what they would think about it stretching over three days.

When I started covering the Oilers, there were two draftniks, as they used to be called – Buchsbaum, the NFL editor for Pro Football Weekly, and Jerry Jones’ Drugstore List. No, not THAT Jerry Jones.

There were others, I imagine, but those were the two I paid the most attention to, especially Buchsbaum, He was an institution in Houston because of his weekly appearance on KTRH.

Holovak, who spent 45 years in the NFL as a coach, general manager, personnel director and scout. Like Buchsbaum, he’s been gone a while, and the draft hasn’t been the same.

When he was the personnel director and general manager of the Oilers, I used to be fortunate enough to talk to Holovak almost every day during April. He took time every night to give me his opinion on players I asked about. He trusted me enough to tell me what he liked and didn’t like about prospects I thought the Oilers might draft.

Holovak had his philosophy. He wanted the scouts to scout and the coaches to coach. But he also said he didn’t shove a draft choice down a coach’s throat. He said if he liked the player and the coach didn’t, the coach wouldn’t play him.

Holovak also said if the coach liked a player and Holovak didn’t, the coach would play the player immediately to prove that he was right. So he tried to find players that he and the coach would agree on.

More often than not, Holovak was right. He was the personnel director and general manager during the run-and-shoot era (1987-93) when the Oilers made the playoffs seven consecutive seasons.

Holovak used to talk to Buchsbaum a couple of times a week, more in March and April as both prepared for the draft.

Like many of you, I listened to Buchsbaum every Wednesday night. I wish he had been on more, especially as we got closer to the draft. Because I worked at KTRH for 17 years, I knew him, and I was able to call him to pick his brain.

Before the 1998 draft, I went to Joel’s apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y. to spend a couple of days with him for a story I wrote in the April 15 Chronicle that year. I took pictures of him – the first time he had let anyone take his picture for a publication. Everyone wanted to know what he looked like first and foremost.

We did our draft show together the night the story ran. I remember one caller saying he wished we hadn’t run Joel’s picture “because it was like pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz.”

Joel died in 2002 at 48. He was so devoted to his work, the few times he left his apartment was to walk his dog or to visit his parents in the apartment building next door. He seldom ate. He was rail thin. He just didn’t want to eat because it took time away from watching film. He was allergic to so many things, he had a list of what he could eat on his refrigerator, and it made me ill reading it.

Joel’s favorite month of the year was April for obvious reasons. When the draft came, he would put on his only sports coat, hop on the subway and head downtown to Madison Square Garden, where he’d meet up with the PFW staff and a buddy from Brooklyn he swore knew more about the draft than he did.

Joel was so respected by NFL people, too. He was the only member of the media who had access to the floor area where the team tables and helmets were. I couldn’t get down there. But the NFL realized what a valuable commodity Buchsbaum was because he promoted the league in PFW or on his numerous talk shows, including his weekly appearances on KTRH and KMOX in St. Louis, where he started.

Jerry Trupiano, who had worked for KMOX when Buchsbaum started doing weekly shows on the station, moved to KTRH as sports director and hired him to come on every Wednesday. For twenty-three years, Joel informed and entertained us with his unparalleled knowledge of college football prospects and the NFL.

When I moved to KILT – Sports Radio 610 as we’re known now – I tried to get Joel to follow me. He politely declined. Never asked about money or exposure, just explaining that he couldn’t turn his back on KTRH. Loyalty was important to him.

About two months after Joel died, PFW editor Hub Arkush had a service for him at the Indianapolis scouting combine. It was a who’s who of NFL coaches, general managers, personnel directors and scouts. A lot of writers were there, too.

I was honored then and I’m proud to say now that I was one of two speakers invited by Arkush. The first was Bill Belichick.

Among the stories Belichick told about Joel was trying to hire him when he was the head coach at Cleveland and after he was hired by New England. As Belichick explained, Joe politely declined, saying he felt like he worked for every team as long as he was at PFW and covered the league.

For those of you who never got to hear or read Buchsbaum, here’s the ultimate compliment I can pay him. We all know how super-secret Belichick is. At the service in Indianapolis, Belichick told a story that showed how much respect he had for Joel’s personnel acumen.

Belichick said every year, the day before the draft, he called Joel and disclosed his draft board. Belichick said he actually made a few changes now and then based on Joel’s evaluations.

On Wednesday, I seriously doubt Belichick is going to be calling any of the current draftniks and revealing his draft board to get their opinion.

http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/04/the-time-of-year-i-miss-buchsbaum-and-holovak-the-most/


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When it comes time to start talking about the Draft I always think about Joel. The guy basically made the NFL Draft in to the spectacle that it is, but the NFL itself has all but forgotten him. I was missing his analysis this morning and came upon this article. I never knew the story at the end about Belichick disclosing his draft board. But then if there is any coach left in the NFL who would have respected a guy like Buchsbaum it would be him.
 
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