In my first ever interview I sat down and had a conversation with former NFL player Stephen Baker. Or as NY Giants fans would know him, the “Touchdown Maker.”
Stephen Baker was drafted in the 3rd round by the NY Giants in the 1987 NFL draft. He would have a 6 year career in which he spent all of those years playing for the Giants before his career was cut short due to a back injury.
I personally met Baker at a sports card show in White Plains, NY. I had a short talk with him, he signed a photograph for me, we took a picture together then we went our separate ways. I recently reconnected with Baker through Instagram to ask if he was interested in doing an interview.
Baker being the great person he was, obliged. Our interview was about 40 minutes long and I heard many stories of which I have never heard. I hope you find his stories and lessons as interesting as I did.
Here is our conversation with former NY Giants star Stephen Baker
GMenHQ: What was early life like growing up for you?
I grew up in San Antonio, Texas. So you know I was a Dallas Cowboy fan because that’s all we had out there… that and the Houston Oilers. We didn’t have much, actually we lived by the train tracks. My grandfather lived right up the hill, so to speak, in Texas. That’s how I got my love of football just by watching the Dallas Cowboys play every weekend. I remember loving that star they had for what it stood for as a kid playing Cowboys and Indians and all that nonsense. I used to play with the little electric football sets. They were on a metal grate, you’d plug it in, and it vibrates and the men would scatter in all types of ways and depending on what bottom you had on them you could turn them so they could go a certain way. But the play lasted probably 2-3 seconds and then you’d have to set them all up again. That was our Madden back in the day.
GMenHQ: I read that you did track in high school. What events did you do?
I was blessed with speed is what I always say when I’m speaking to the kids. And I always wanted to work at it to be even better. I was like, “man I’m already fast but I can be even better.” So I ran track. I did the field events, high jump, long jump, triple jump, and the quarter-mile, and I was on both the 4×100 and 8×100 relays. My favorite events were the field events. And when I did the high jump I was always limber and had an arch and you can see the picture behind me, I’m clearing that. Once I put my chin to my chest my legs would kick out. This was in Los Angeles when I was in high school. I was always fond of track and like I mentioned I ran the quarter mile too and I always said that that was the race that made a man out of you because the finishing part, the last 100 meters is all guts its a tough race. But I did all of this to make myself a better football player.
GMenHQ When did you first start playing football?
Well when I was in Texas I didn’t really have anyone to play football with. I was probably in like 3rd grade, I remember I used to hike the ball between my legs, catch it with the other hand, and throw it up, and run and go catch it. Then when I finally got into school- and this is a true story. The kids were out on the field playing and I wanted to play and I asked, “could I play” and they said “sure” and you know how it is as a new kid they put me on the line and they told me to block and I didn’t know how to block. On the first play the guy I was supposed to block ran right around me and hit the guy that was running the ball and busted his nose. They must have thought I did that on purpose so they put me back there. Now I saw what happened to him so when they pitched me the ball- I swear to God they pitched it to me, and I just stood there for a second, and then I just darted to the outside like the videos I’ve seen of Tony Dorsett and all these other guys. I just ran outside and I remember no one could catch me, and that feeling never left me. It was pretty cool because I just burnt everybody. Little did they know I was running for my life, I didn’t wanna get my nose busted like that other kid. That was my first introduction to football. Then growing up in Los Angeles I grew up in a single parent home for the most part and my mom couldn’t afford for us to play pop warner football because it cost too much at the time, so we played what you call streetball. Growing up in Los Angeles we would play neighborhood vs neighborhood. So every Saturday we would meet at a place called “The Field,” and guys from other neighborhoods would come and we would play games such as what you now call “kill the carrier” but we made it so simple, we said whoever gets the ball, just tackle them. So we’d throw the ball up and whoever got the ball you just had to run and tackle them. I think this is where I developed some of my running skills and not being afraid because we didn’t have weight limits back then. I did this a lot during my career and I honestly think it helped me learn to not be afraid being a 5’8, 150 pound guy playing in the NFL.
GMenHQ: When you first started playing football what was your first position?
I didn’t play organized football until I got into high school. But I always gravitated towards playing defensive back and wide receiver. When I played DB, I was a pretty good safety because no one could get behind me. There was one play in high school, I’ll never forget it, I used to watch the highlights all the time of hard hits when a receiver comes over the middle and gets laid out and I had my opportunity to do that. Now I came up on this tight end coming across the middle, and I’m telling you I came with everything I had and I hit him. He went down but it actually felt like running into a brick wall. And I said I don’t ever, ever wanna do that again. Now I was a full time wide receiver by the time I got out of high school, I didn’t want anything else to do with defensive back. I remember I asked LT (Lawrence Taylor) what is he thinking when he hit somebody. And he said, “I try to hit them so hard that I hurt myself.” Because then he knows he hurt the other person. I didn’t have that mentality.
GMenHQ: What made you decide to major in sociology and Physical Education.
Well I always loved sports. So I figured if I didn’t make it in the NFL, I’d be able to do something I enjoyed. I love Phys. Ed. I love being physical, I love working out, I love all forms of sports. I did soccer in high school, I did gymnastics, and I also ran track. And then the social part of it, growing up like I did and being able to inspire other kids to try to get out of a bad situation. You know just because you’re dealt a certain hand doesn’t mean you have to accept it. My mom did an excellent job keeping us grounded and keeping us away from all the nonsense. It’s ten times worse now in society but it was still bad when I was growing up. But like I said my mom kept us in the house, bought us the best video game system, now you’re too young to remember this but we had black and white TV’s and they had Pong where you’d hit a ball back and forth across the TV. Everybody in the neighborhood had that game. We had Intelevision. It was way before it’s time because you had little bitty men that could ski or play basketball. We had the best video game system in the whole neighborhood and it really kept us in the house and kept us grounded.
