Carl Weathers Was a Raider Before Becoming Apollo Creed
Actor and former linebacker Carl Weathers became the latest former player to light the Al Davis Memorial Torch last Sunday before the Las Vegas Raiders defeated the Houston Texans, 38-20, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
The Raiders posted on their Twitter page: “Special thanks to former Raider and acting icon @TheCarlWeathers for lighting the Al Davis Memorial Torch yesterday!”
Weathers, now 74, was signed by the Oakland Raiders as an undrafted free agent defensive end out of San Diego State in 1970 after also playing at San Francisco State, and was moved to linebacker. He spent two seasons with the Silver and Black, and three more with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League before turning full-time to acting.
The 6-2, 220-pound Weathers played in eight games over two seasons with the Raiders and two more in the 1970 post-season after they captured the AFC West title, but we don’t know how many tackles he made because they were not an official statistic in the National Football League during that time, and about all we know is that he recovered a fumble.
During his three seasons north of the border with the Lions, Weathers played in 18 games, and again all we really know is that he recovered one more fumble before he retired to concentrate on his second career, which he dabbled in while playing pro football.
When Weathers was with the Raiders, future Hall of Fame Coach John Madden went to see him play the lead in “Othello,” and reportedly told him afterward to pursue his second career because Madden didn’t believe he was tough enough to be an outstanding pro football player.
“I was good enough to fool ’em, but never dedicated enough to become a great player,” Weathers recalled of his pro career. “Up to a point, everybody can capitalize on the fact that nobody knows what’s going on. I could make coaches believe I could do what they wanted me to do, but that’s not the same as pushing yourself. The great ones are willing to work harder.
“I was still looking to hop out of football as soon as I made some headway with acting. I forced the issue by exaggerating a little. In L.A., I lied about having acting credits up in San Francisco. How can they bother to verify your claim that you studied at ACT (the American Conservatory Theater) or worked as an extra in ‘Dirty Harry’? They can’t. But if you run scared, you’ll never get what you want.”
As a junior in high school, Weathers moved with his family from Louisiana to California and fell in love with sports, and later, acting.
“I was knocked out by California,” said Weathers, who played multiple sports at Long Beach Poly High School. “The parks! I’d never seen anything like the parks they had. There were all these kids, they had all different colors. You could check out a game, or a ball, and they’d actually trust you to return it after you were through. It was green and sunny and I was just one of the kids.
“I finally thought I was a jock and owed myself a shot at pro ball. At the same time, I didn’t want to study the things you had to if you wanted to be a P.E. major. So I found myself thinking of the theater arts department. I started doing a few small things in class and discovered I had a proficiency for it. My reading was awful, but I got a walk-on in: ‘A View from the Bridge.’ For the rest of school, I kept on cultivating football on one hand and acting on the other.”
Weathers acted in local productions and as a Hollywood extra during his playing days before getting parts in films directed by his friend Arthur Marks, both “Bucktown” and “Friday Foster” in 1975, in addition to appearing in the sitcom “Good Times” that year.
While auditioning for the role of “Apollo Creed” in 1976, opposite star Sylvester Stallone for the movie “Rocky,” Weathers criticized Stallone's acting, which reportedly led to him getting the role of the supporting actor.
“With ‘Rocky,’ it was breaking new ground and we delivered something that was so magical in so many ways.”
Creed reprised the role of Apollo Creed in “Rocky II” in 1979, “Rocky III” in 1982, and “Rocky IV” in 1985.
Despite playing for the Raiders and in other films, Weathers will be Apollo Creed forever.
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