Haynes family backs Dons with Dad’s football mentality
Wherever Cathedral Catholic High’s football team goes for its first game in the state tournament, Mike and Gigi Haynes plan to be there.
Husband and wife, garbed in red and gold, will cheer from the stands.
They’ll clap and whistle. They’ll stand and holler.
“I’m probably not your typical former pro football player going to a game, sitting there and going ‘Yeah, yeah, cool, nice,’ ” said Haynes, a former NFL cornerback who won a Super Bowl with the 1983 Raiders and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997.
“I’m a typical fan,” he said. “I love the game. I’m really into it.”
Haynes, 68, knows football’s hazards and marveled this week as he recalled aspects of his own career when less was known about brain science, but he said rule changes have reduced considerable risk.
He allowed his four boys to play football, saying the sport has a lot to offer.
“The mindset in sports is everything. It is everything,” said Haynes, whose youngest son, Rex, is a senior receiver with Cathedral. “So, you want to be great. Well, what do you have to do to be great? What kind of discipline do you have to have?”
Added Haynes, who also supported a son’s soccer career: “If the coaches are telling you you need to get so many hours of rest, then do you have the discipline to get that rest? Do you have the discipline to tell your friends, ‘No, sorry, guys, I can’t go with you — I’ve got to go home, get dinner, finish my homework, get a good night’s sleep.’ Do you have that kind of discipline?”
Haynes appreciated the show Carlsbad and Cathedral Catholic’s players, coaches and teachers put on Saturday night in the San Diego County championship game that decided the Open Division.
Some 6,500 fans showed up at Escondido High, stretching beyond the stands.
“The atmosphere, it was electric,” said Haynes, who before 72,290 fans in Tampa intercepted a Joe Theismann pass in the Super Bowl and saw friend Marcus Allen, the Lincoln Prep alum and Raiders running back, win the game’s MVP award.
“Huge crowd on both sides of the field, a lot of excitement,” he said of Saturday’s event. “I enjoyed Carlsbad’s band and the dancers doing their thing. Very exciting pregame, and even postgame. It was the best crowd for a game I had been to this year.”
On its first possession, Carlsbad gave Dons fans a jolt. Quarterback Julian Sayin threw a strike to Matt Moore, who caught the ball in traffic and evaded a few Dons defenders to score the game’s first touchdown.
Answering, Lucky Sutton popped a long touchdown run behind Cathedral’s powerful line.
The Dons built a big lead and closed out a 48-19 victory that left Haynes impressed with both teams.
“Their quarterback was really talented,” he said. “I can’t believe the guy’s a sophomore. How can you have that much talent as a sophomore? He’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.”
If Cathedral had too much power, Carlsbad matched the Dons in grit and kept Haynes on edge.
“Carlsbad gave you the feeling they had the ability to come back,” he said, “because it would take only a couple of big plays, and that guy (Sayin) had the accuracy to do it. They were moving the ball.”
The Dons showed off their own passing game. Rex, a 6-foot-4 speedster, caught two touchdown passes from Charlie Mirer and made an impressive, lunging snag.
If he were 17 years old again, Haynes would do sets of one-armed pushups every day if it allowed him to play for Cathedral.
The school provides excellent football coaching and facilities, he said.
Haynes praised the attention to detail of Cathedral coaches headed by Sean Doyle. He said Rex and his teammates are learning lessons he didn’t learn until he went to Arizona State and played under Frank Kush, a harsh, relentless coach whose tirades Haynes can still repeat.
“I wish I were playing today,” he said. “I wish I had coaches like the ones my boys have had. I would have learned the importance of playing to win, where everybody’s playing to win. I was playing to win. The goal is you play to win. That’s the goal. It’s not, ‘I’m playing to have a good time.’ Heck, no.”
The pairing and venue for Cathedral’s next playoff game won’t be announced until Sunday. Two safe bets: The Dons will be well-prepared, and Mike and Gigi will be in the stands, wearing red and gold.