MINNEAPOLIS — Greg Coleman retired from the Minnesota Vikings broadcast team earlier this year after spending 44 years with the organization.
“Once we were out of the playoffs (following a loss) against the Green Bay Packers, I think I gave them a two-week notice and they were shocked," Coleman said. "Sometimes you get a chance to write a chapter that you want to write, versus having things dictated to you."
Still he’s as busy as he's ever been.
“I’ve got a commercial to shoot, Thursday. A golf match on Wednesday. A keynote on Friday. I go to a keynote Monday morning. Fly to Canton Monday afternoon,” Coleman said.
Coleman’s relationship with football started as a player.
“I had a kicking coach down at Florida A&M, and he said ‘Baby, why you kicking the ball right to him,’ one day in practice," Coleman said. "I said, 'Well Pop, that's where he’s standing.' He said, 'Well baby, make him work for his supper. Kick it to the right, kick it to the left, and I guarantee if you do that on a consistent basis, they'll find a place for you at the next level.'”
During a tryout in 1978, Coleman impressed head coach Bud Grant by punting footballs into garbage cans from long distances.
“He said, 'Can you do that when you want to?'" Coleman said. "I said, 'Coach, all I need is an opportunity.' He turns around and walks in. I said OK, here we go again. We come out the next day for practice. He said, 'Oh, I forgot to tell you, you need to go and negotiate a contract, because you’re punting Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.' So it was October 8, 1978. My first game with the Green Bay Packers here with the Minnesota Vikings.”
Coleman became the first Black punter in the NFL. He played for the Vikings for 10 seasons. His feats got him inducted into Black College Hall of Fame in 2021.
“By me being one of those pioneers — those trailblazers — to give other young African American kids the hope that they can do the same thing,” Coleman said.
When Coleman joined the Vikings as a sideline reporter 21 years ago, he made it his mission to flip the field — just as he did as a punter — with the Pregame Preach.
“Hope is the gasoline that fuels your faith," Coleman said. "Without faith you have nothing. That's my belief. There has been a group of people who have given me the responses of some of those messages, and they suggest that just that words of hope, change their perspective, change their mind about what they were thinking about. That's what that's about.”
Coleman says he wants to live this next phase of life with perspective, patience and passion.
“Between the kids or grandkids, golf tournaments and other projects that we've taken on along with the professional speaking business, yeah, my life is pretty full," Coleman said. "I've got a full deck. Let's put it that way.”
However, he’ll still miss game days.
“There is nothing like purple nation, there’s nothing like the Skol chant," Coleman said. "I said that I was a passionate player, I was a passionate broadcaster, I’ll be a passionate fan.”
Although he will no longer occupy Vikings sidelines, he'll very much be active in the game of life.
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