We celebrate one of the NFL toughest Defensive Backs, Mike Haynes who played for both the Raiders and the Patriots during the hard hitting 1970s and '80s.
Mike Haynes
One of the top Shut Down Corner Backs in Football HistoryMike Haynes
Michael Haynes was born on July 1, 1953, in Denison, Texas. His birth and infancy were experienced in the Lone Star State, however, the family moved West and this young man grew up in Southern California. Mike attended Thomas Star King Middle School in Los Angeles. After the fundamentals of early education were instilled he advanced to John Marshall High School, where he excelled in football and track and field.
Haynes barely was ever taken off of the field as he played both sides of the ball as he was a dual star for the John Marshall High School Barristers, playing quarterback on offense and cornerback on defense. Despite having the talent of Haynes on the roster the Barristers ended with a dismal 0-7-1 record during Mike’s senior year.
It wasn’t all horrible memories though. Near the beginning of his final high school season in 1971, he went to get a mid-practice dring of water. At the cooler, he saw another boy in street clothes standing to greet him. Haynes asked him why he wasn’t wearing his practice gear.
The lad a bit nervous talking to the team’s star player grinned and answered, “Because I’m 12 years old.” The chance meeting as mundane as it sounds was really kind of epic. The Barrister water boy that season was none other than future Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl-winning head coach Andy Reid, learning about football humbly as a hydration specialist.
The emptiness of the losing gridiron season could be overshadowed by Haynes and the track and field team at the school that senior year. Haynes became the record-holding long jump holder at John Marshall High School, a mark that still stands over fifty years later. The monumental leap in his final regular-season track meet measured 23 feet and five inches. The talent of Mike as well as his teammates saw the Barristers take home the league championship in track.
To memorialize the legendary athlete that attended their school, John Marshall High opened up Mike Haynes Stadium in 1981 to pay tribute to the two-sport star.
After scholastic graduation in LA, Mike accepted an offer to attend Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. He quickly became the team’s top defensive back from 1972 to 1975. The skill of this promising cornerback was part of a Sun Devil defensive unit that went 9-2 in Hayne’s Freshman year. The team wrapped up the season with an impressive 49-35 victory over the Missouri Tigers in the Fiesta Bowl. QB by the name of Danny White throwing for 266 yards against a tough Tigers defense.
With experience Mike was even better in year two at college and so was the ASU football team, winning double-digit games. On the season the Sun Devils allowed opponents only 171 points! Arizona State again completed the campaign by winning in the Fiesta Bowl, their victim in 1973 though was the Pitt Panthers in a 28-7 trouncing.
The team lost some core players and backslid to a 7-5 record in 1974, but Haynes was stellar, posting 11 interceptions as he was gaining the reputation of being a ball hawk in the secondary as well as gaining the honor of returning punts for the Devils. The fine defensive play from him and the ASU defense allowed Mike to return a school-record 45 punts during the 1974 campaign.
Many would-be satisfied with a junior season like Haynes had, but he had saved his best college season for his senior year. In 1975 Mike returned two opposition punts to the house for scores and his normal stingy pass defense.
The biggest thing that Haynes admittedly took from his final year may have been the advice from his ASU Head Coach Frank Kush. Coach pulled Haynes into the office mid-season and showed the young player a newspaper headline where one of the NFL’s premier defensive backs George Webster had been released by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The message that stardom in the NFL is short-lived and it is a “what have you done for me lately,” type of employment. The life-changing conversation persuaded Mike Haynes to finish up his ASU student experience with a degree in business as a career backup plan. He groomed his aggressive playing style while attending Arizona State University where he earned a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001 per the National Football Foundation website.
As luck would have it Webster would again find NFL employment and it would be on the same team that would draft Mike Haynes, the New England Patriots. As a professional career Haynes ended up turning in the resume of a Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback as he played not only for the New England Patriots but for the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders as well. Mr. Haynes was a 9 time Pro Bowl selection including earning First-Team All-Pro honors twice in his 14 seasons in the League. He also won the Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 1976 and eventually earned a Super Bowl ring while with the Raiders.
Credits
A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: Pro Football Hall of Fame, Pro Football History, Pro-Football-Reference, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com