Mr. Clean

What an exciting trip it is when we get to know a little bit more about the positive people that make the game of football that much better. Please enjoy this podcast to learn more of the story of a gridiron great.

Our story starts in New Jersey as our sports hero, whom we will refer to as Junior until the reveal, grew up. He was the ninth child born of eleven in the large family. This family had many members but it was a tight-knit group, very close and loving but money in the home was always tight, and the neighborhood they lived in was tough. His father worked as a bus-driver while his Mom earned pay as a private-duty nurse. Junior had been born with little hair and his siblings had thier fun with his physical feature on Junior, even clipping an earing on him at times and dressing him up to look like the product icon. "Mr. Clean." Because of this many family and friends even often called him "Clean" as a nickname. Junior played games like other children do especially being fond of the game tag with his older brother and neighborhood friends. Clean even at a young age was a natural at the game, his athleticism and quickness allowed him to hunt down opponents when he was 'it' with the pursuit prowess of a cat. He also had the traits to escape easy capture or tagging by the other chidren, learning the avoidance tactics that could help him later in his football life. Junior did suffer from issues with his vision though throughout most of his life.

As a few years passed, Junior was known to be seen playing sandlot games of football with the older boys in his neighborhood. Often the field they played football on was a local parking lot complete with broken glass. Yes he loved the challenge of moving up to the next level of competiton and he did quite well in the environment of bigger and faster youths.  The notion of him being undersized in comparison to his fellow players seemed to push Clean to that next gear, and he developed an attitude and figured out ways to use what gifts and skills he had to compete with what many may consider superior opponents.

The family caught a financial break a few years later when they moved away from the projects as one of Junior's half-sisters bought a nearby house. His parents would later buy a modest house nearby to his sister's new homestead.

In high school the youngster developed a fondness for wrestling as well as beng a member on the school's football team. He was not the tallest of young men at his school but he had the foundation of solid muscle to give him a great core. Junior stood less than 5' 9" but yet he wrestled at the 170 pound weight class for much of his scholastic career and played linebacker and tight end on the gridiron.

On the mats he was often creditted with being the pivotal grappler that would often propel his team into winning matches. The 170 weight class is ultra competitive and often has some of the strongest opponent within it. Junior though was a fireplug in stature and strength, but as we said earlier he had the quickness of a cat, quite the advantageous combination for a wrestler. Junior captured the District Championships at his weight class in both his junior and senior seasons of wrestling. He was a stud athlete at both sports but major colleges looked at his small stature and his vision issues and decided not to take a chance on his by offering scholarships to the talented youngster. What they didn't realize was that what he lacked in size and perfect eyesight he more than made up with heart and ferocity.

Clean did get an opportunity though as he attended Montclair State University, earning a bachelors of science in industrial technology and setting the school's record books on their ear on the gridiron as a relentless walk-on playing the position of linebacker. He played four years for coach Fred Hill’s Red Hawks, amassing over 500 career tackles. Junior also set the single-season highwater mark of 142 takedowns and single-game record of 22 tackles. Junior was a dominant collegiate player as he was recognized as First Team All-NJ Athletic Conference three times and was the Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore, junior and senior.

Many including this youngster beleived he had the talent to take his football career to the next level, but yet again the so-called experts of the NFL strayed away from him because of his small stature. Scouts loved his high motor and sure tackling but his physical attributes worried them. Surely a man standing only 5'-9" could not be successful as a linebacker in the League. If you haven't guessed it yet, our man Junior is none other that the very talented Sam Mills Jr. He did make his way into the camps of both the Cleveland Browns and the CFL's Toronto Argonauts, but was not able to make the cut.

Sam took a job as a teacher at East Orange High School and helped coach the football team in the early 1980s for a couple of seasons. In 1983, he gave football one last shot when the United States Football League was formed. This last ditch effort to get a pro football career paid off too when he made the roster of the Philadelphia Stars and quickly became their leader both on and off the field. Sam’s size and quickness earned him the nickname Field Mouse as he thrived in the system of the Stars brilliant young coach, Jim Mora.

The Philadelphia franchise later moved to become the Baltimore Stars but throughout the tenure of this first USFL the Stars were one of the top teams, even winning consecutive championship titles in part because of Mora and the brilliance of Sam Mills on defense. After the USFL folded Jim Mora received offers to coach in the NFL and he finally signed on with the New Orleans Saints. Mora knew he needed to inject his new team with talent so one of his first moves was to sign the Field Mouse, Sam Mills to a contract and make him the leader of his defensive unit. In 1987, the Saints enjoyed their first winning season and its no coincedence that Sam made his first of four trips to the Pro Bowl. New Orleans continued to field strong teams for the next few seasons, and the heart of the team was its linebacking corps, also known as The Dome Patrol. Sam played alongside Rickey Jackson, Vaughan Johnson and Pat Swilling to form one of the best units in pro football history.

Getting a little long in the tooth the Saints did not resign the 35 year old Mills, but he still had some game in him. Sam quickly was hired on by an expansion team, the Carolina Panthers, who were looking for veteran leadership. Sam not only filled the bill on this front but helped the team earn its first victory with an interception against the New York Jets but also went on to have a great season, earning him a fifth Pro Bowl invitation. Better yet the upstart Panthers won 12 games and made the playoffs in their inaugural season and lost in the NFC Championship game stunning the League. In 1997 Sam Mill retired from playing racking up 11 career interceptions, over 1200 tackles and 20 sacks in the NFL. He continued his football journey as Carolina hired him on to coach their linebacking corp. In 2003 the legendary player received the news that no one ever wants to hear... he had contracted intestinal cancer. Sam continued to coach even though he had to undergo treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation treatments. 

Sam Mills passed away, on April 18, 2005, finally succumbing to the intestinal cancer that he battled for more than two years before losing the fight. The man that was often shunned for his size was also overlooked for far too long as being one of the best at playing the game of football in history. Finally in 2022 the Pro Football Hall of Fame accepted Linebacker Sam Mills Jr for enshrinement into their Canton, Ohio museum of legends. So there you have it, now we know more of the story of the legendary undersized backer from Jersey, with a big heart and desire to excel on the gridiron and at life, Sam Mills Jr.

The banner drawing is Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the Sports Reference's family of website databases, New Jersey Sports Heroes Website & Stathead.com