By Jason Rollinson
Michael Bishop was a Heisman Trophy finalist and a backup quarterback for the New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers, where he spent countless hours talking to superstars Tom Brady and Brett Favre.
He won six championships at the collegiate and professional football levels.
But this Willis native didn’t make it happen without making good choices.
“If I hadn’t got my education and stayed out of trouble, I wouldn’t have got an opportunity to play professional football,” Bishop told students Friday during the finale of weekly Black History Month lectures at the Huntsville Transitional Discipline Academy.
He told the students that their behavior will follow them wherever they go.
“Now is a good time to make changes and head for the right path,” he said. “When Kansas State was looking at signing me, the coach brought up something that happened in the seventh grade. You can’t keep focusing on what happened in your past. You just have to do what it takes to make yourself better now.”
Bishop was an All-American in baseball and football and was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 1995.
He opted to attend Blinn Junior College for two seasons and helped the Buccaneers post back-to-back undefeated national championships.
“My first struggle in college was seeing guys that were stronger and faster than I was,” he said. “It’s kind of intimidating to be in a locker room and being the smallest one in there.”
After graduating from the two-year school, Bishop was sought by several Division I programs as a wide-receiver, but his passion was to play quarterback.
Kansas State coach Bill Snyder brought him in to Manhattan, Kan. and Bishop led the Wildcats to an 11-1 season including a win over Donovan McNabb’s Syracuse team in the Fiesta Bowl.
During Bishop’s senior season, the Wildcats went undefeated through the regular season but lost to Texas A&M; in the Big XII Championship.
Bishop, the first cousin of Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Jamie Foxx, won the Davey O’Brien award (given to the top quarterback in the country) but lost in the Heisman Trophy race to University of Texas running back Ricky Williams.
After posting a combined collegiate record of 46-3, he was drafted by the New England Patriots in the seventh round.
“Kids come up through poverty, but it’s nice to tell them that if I made it, they can too,” he said. “Certain athletes feel that they always have one strike against them. Motivation and positive thinking helps them to overcome those struggles.”
Bishop spent two years in New England and a one in Green Bay.
“Me and Tom (Brady) were great friends when I was there,” he said. “We were in the same situation. I was Drew Bledsoe’s backup and Tom was fourth-string. The first guy gets all of the reps in practice, so that gave the other quarterbacks a chance to sit back and talk about life. We hung out at night, shot pool together and went to many of the same places. Brady was a cool guy though.”
His time as a Green Bay Packers was shorter though.
“Brett Favre is the most outstanding guy in the NFL,” he said. “He’s down to earth and has a great family. He does his job on the field, but at the end, he’s just a normal guy. I had an opportunity to sit and watch film with him. He’d talk about nothing and was surprised to learn so much. Life after football was really important to him as well.”
Bishop settled down in the Canadian Football League, where he has been since 2002, while also staying involved in the Arena Football League during the CFL’s offseason.
He won four championships with the Toronto Argonauts, narrowly missing out on a fifth this past season with a loss in the championship.
“When I first went to play football in Canada, I spoke to Warren Moon,” he said. “We both had a lot in common as we both had struggles. He didn’t get an opportunity to play in the NFL at first. He played in the CFL for 10 years, and people told him that he couldn’t be quarterback in the NFL. He got better each year and proved them wrong and made it into the Hall of Fame.”
Bishop offered the students more advice about life.
“There’s always going to be challenges you’ll face in life,” Bishop said. “There will always be someone who tells you you can’t do it – you’re too short; you’re not fast enough. But I was able to turn it around on them. I showed up and performed.”
He then told the class about the kids he associated himself with while in high school.
“When I was in high school, I hung out with five guys,” he said. “Every last one of them were great athletes. But I’m the only one who’s not locked up. They all had an opportunity to go to college and play football but they got in trouble in high school. Two of them didn’t even make it out of high school. Another one spent his whole high school career in alternative school. When I go home, I hear guys say that they could’ve done this or that, but they made bad choices and decided to sell drugs and get in trouble.”
However, Bishop knows his days as a professional football player are numbered.
“I got my sociology degree at Kansas State and if I wasn’t a football player, then I’d be some type of counselor working with juvenile kids or a psychologist,” he said. “Even after football, I’ve got something to fall back on because I knew how important getting an education was.”
HTDA counselor Chris Tyson said her ties to Bishop go back to junior high, where she was his physical education coach in Willis.
“I’ve known Mrs. Tyson for a long time,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a school setting or somewhere else. (Talking to the kids is) a way to give back. Some of them may not have a mother- or father-figure at home. At the end of the day, I may not reach all of the kids, but making a difference in the lives of one or two makes it well worth it.”
