Solomon: After 50 years in football, Romeo Crennel leaves impressive legacy

Do not be surprised if you are at a Texans game next season and an NFL legend stops by for a bite to eat and a chat.

Soon-to-be 75-year-old Romeo Crennel has a bucket list that includes going to all of the cities where he worked in the NFL to tailgate before a game.

As a coach who was working on game days, he never got to experience that.

For just the third time since 1970, when he took a job as a graduate assistant with his alma mater Western Kentucky, Crennel will not be on the sideline or in the coaching booth at football games this fall.

Crennel and the Texans, with whom he worked for the last eight years in various positions, announced his retirement last week.

Within minutes, the congratulatory messages started pouring in.

Players, colleagues, bosses — many of the thousands Crennel came across in a 50-year career — reached out to tell him how much he meant to them.

In an interview for “Texas Sports Nation In-Depth” on AT&T SportsNet Southwest, Crennel said he has been moved by the response.

“It’s just pleasing and satisfying, because when I got into the business, I was kind of like the one and only,” Crennel said. “I try to be an example for the players. And then when they write and say the impact that I had on their lives, their development, that’s very satisfying because that kind of lets me know that I impacted those guys in a positive way and helped them along the way.”

He definitely accomplished that, says New England coach Bill Belichick, who coached alongside Crennel for 18 seasons with the Giants, Jets and Patriots.

“Certainly, he had a great influence here and many other places where I worked with him,” Belichick said. “He mentored so many other young coaches, not to mention hundreds of players. Just really a first-class guy.

“I personally owe a huge debt of gratitude to Romeo for what he did for me and for what he did for our football team. He was always extremely well-prepared, made great in-game adjustments, was an excellent teacher, great communicator, good motivator, had an excellent relationship with players, coaches, and was really a tremendous asset for every team that I was ever with him on.”

Crennel, the first Black coach at Western Kentucky, spent much of his career as the only Black coach on staff. He believed his performance could open or shut doors.

“I wanted to be an example,” he said. “Part of the reason to be an example was I wanted guys who came after me to have an opportunity. The way it was, the way it was structured, if I carried myself well and I did a good job, then that would give somebody else an opportunity.”

Crennel became one of the best assistant coaches of all-time and was part of five Super Bowl-winning teams, two with the Giants and three as the defensive coordinator of the Patriots.

Such an accomplished career for someone who didn’t plan on becoming a football coach.

Crennel grew up idolizing his father, Joseph, who was a master sergeant in the Army, spending time in Korea and doing two tours in Vietnam.

He planned to enter the Army as an officer, having seen his father’s military success. But his weight and flat feet prevented that from happening.

Crennel said he appreciated the discipline and structure from the strict environment in which he grew up. We’re talking about nightly military-type inspections.

“The thing about my dad is he ran the house like he ran his platoon,” Crennel said. “Everybody had chores that you had to do.

“When he came home, he would inspect to make sure that you did them. And he just didn’t inspect the big areas. He inspected the little areas. He would look in the corner … and under the sink. And no matter what time it was that he got home, if he got home at midnight or whatever, and he inspected (and found something not done), then you got out of bed and you finished the job.”

When Joseph Crennel was home, the Crennels moved to wherever he was based, from Fort Still to Fort Hood to Fort Knox, where Romeo finished high school. Otherwise, they were on his grandparents’ land in Madison Heights, Va., where the children fed chickens and hogs and tended to land, planting corn and potatoes, chopping wood and lugging buckets of water to the log cabin that had no indoor plumbing.

That hard work, that discipline, would contribute to Crennel becoming an excellent coach.

After not earning a football scholarship, in large part due to moving from school to school, Crennel walked on at Western Kentucky.

He started on the defensive line from Day 1. Then as a senior team captain and team MVP, he switched to the offensive line because that’s where the team needed the most help.

Then he started his coaching career there, as a graduate assistant for one year, then four years as the defensive line coach.

Crennel met his future wife, Rosemary, as a freshman. They were married the next year and had their first of three daughters by his senior year.

Some 50 years later, the man with eight grandkids and a host of honey-do tasks on tap, enjoys being able to take his wife to lunch daily instead of having to focus on OTAs.

But he admits he still wants to coach. Wait, isn’t this a column about retirement?

“If the right call comes along,” Crennel said, “I think that I would be interested. Because it’s in my blood. It’s been in my blood for all this time. And I think I’ve been halfway decent at it.”

Romeo Crennel has a half a century of being much better than halfway decent.