An American Football Player Found Calm in a "Feminine" Hobby
Story #17 of my 5,000-story project
Born in the 1930s, Rosey Grier was a big guy at 6'5" and 300 pounds.
He was a professional football player for the New York Giants and Los Angeles Ram. After eleven years, he retired due to an injury.
After his NFL career, Rosey served as a bodyguard for his friend and former US senator Robert Kennedy. When a gunman assassinated Kennedy in 1968, he was at the scene and helped subdue the attacker.
Nicknamed the gentle giant, Rosey pursued various interests after he recovered from the assassination. He sang and released a single. He did radio talk shows. He became an ordained Protestant minister. He started a nonprofit organization that served inner-city youth.
While his career was fascinating, what intrigued me the most was his hobby.
Rosey loved needlepoint. It's a form of embroidery where one stitches yarn through an open-weave canvas. This hobby calmed him and reduced his fear of flying.
He once joked that his unique interest was a great way to start conversations with women.
However, his hobby was controversial. It didn't conform to the muscular image of a massive football player. His profound interest in embroidery defied the heteronormative norms. Friends and other football players mocked him. He received harassing phone calls.
All this bothered Rosey, but he kept doing what he enjoyed. He managed to convert some of the football players who made fun of him to give needlepoint a try.
He published a book called Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men in 1973.
"Getting a little more interested? Read on, brother! Next, I'm going to tell you how to make your way around the needlepoint store," he wrote in a book chapter.
A reviewer insightfully commented on Rosey's book on Amazon:
"He looked at a hobby usually taken up by female dead in the eye and said, 'Why not me?'"
‘Smile all you want,’ I tell them, ‘but if you try it once, you’ll keep on coming back for more,’ and that’s the truth brother. — Rosey Grier
