Bill Romanowski was on the Howard Stern Show yesterday and it was GOOD!

Promoting his new book yesterday on the Howard Stern show.
Bill "ROMO" Romanowski was very intelligent and fascinating to listen to.

His first acting performance was in the recent film
The Longest Yard where he and other actors:
(Adam Sandler, Courteney Cox, Chris Rock, Burt Reynolds, Bill Goldberg, Terry Crews, Dalip Singh, Kevin Nash, Steve "stone cold" Austin, Brian Bosworth, James Cromwell, William Fichtner and Rob Schneider) did a excellent job and delivering a very entertaining movie.



Actor - filmography

The Benchwarmers (2006) (post-production) .... Karl


The Longest Yard (2005) .... Guard Lambert



Filmography as: Actor, Himself, Notable TV Guest Appearances

Himself - filmography

Super Bowl XXXVII (2003) (TV) .... Himself (Oakland Raiders)




Issue: 2000
Photo by Mark Abrahams
Bill and Julie Romanowski


Bill Romanowski (4 Super Bowl Rings - 2 with AFC and 2 with NFC)

Height
6' 4" (1.93 m)

Played with four teams in his NFL career: the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos, and Oakland Raiders.

Two-time Pro Bowler: 1996 & 1998.

Playing career lasted from 1988 thru 2003.





Bill Romanowski Interview
All The Longest Yard dirt from the dirtiest player in the game.
by Jon Robinson

May 25, 2005 - Bill Romanowski smacks the man with the ball, stands over him and spits in his face.


No, we're not having any JJ Stokes flashbacks, this is The Longest Yard, a remake of the Burt Reynolds classic where Romanowski, one of the most feared and infamous linebackers to ever play the game, now plays the role of the most feared prison guard on the yard. A place where night sticks aren't for protection, they're for making a point. And a place where he's teamed with former wrestlers Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kevin Nash to maintain order from inmates like Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Goldberg, Bob Sapp, Michael Irvin, Nelly, and even the original leader of The Mean Machine himself, Burt Reynolds.

I had a chance to attend a press screening for The Longest Yard, and as a fan of the original, was extremely surprised at how much I enjoyed the remake. I was also surprised, sitting down with Romanowski a few days later, how calm and intelligent the man seemed. Not that I expected him to throw me through the table or spit on my recorder, but after watching the legend play for more than fifteen years, and play with a level of intensity unmatched in his era, it was almost shocking to find the man under the helmet so subdued, so chill.

From dirty plays to dirty players, here's what the future Hall of Famer had to say about his transition from the gridiron to the big screen.

IGN Sports: One of the scenes from The Longest Yard that sticks out in my mind is the fumble pile. You have guys with cigarettes burning people to get the ball down there and it made me think about what really goes on in the NFL. How dirty does it get when you're trying to recover a fumble?

Bill Romanowski: It gets nasty. When guys are going after that ball at the bottom of the pile, sometimes it's twisting, breaking fingers just to get the ball. Sometimes it's spitting, sometimes it's grabbing, sometimes it's punching…you name it, it happens.

IGN Sports: What's the funniest thing you've heard of someone doing to get the ball?

Bill Romanowski: I've heard of guys grabbing the private parts of somebody and trying to twist it, maybe even try to pull it off. [laughs] It gets nuts.

IGN Sports: Who was the dirtiest player in the NFL who you think would fit right in with the convicts?

Bill Romanowski: One of the dirtiest guys, and off the field he's probably one of the cleanest, and that's Steve Wisniewski. Be careful when standing around a pile because he was going to take you out. That's what he was like.

IGN Sports: Did you ever think, back in the day watching Happy Gilmore, that one day you'd be in a movie with Adam Sandler?

Bill Romanowski: I never thought that that would happen. I was so focused for so long playing football, then my last offseason of training, I'm on my way to the track and I had a premonition. It all of a sudden came to me that I was going to be in movies. The next offseason I get the call, and that call was from Happy Madison and they wanted me to read for the part.


Romo gets in the face of Kevin Nash.



IGN Sports: Watching the movie, it looks like it would be a fun set to be on. You've got comedians, wrestlers, football players, rappers. It's like a who's who of bad asses.

Bill Romanowski: It was incredible. You couldn't wait to get there in the morning, that's what it was like. It's not everyday you get to remake a classic. When you think of a football movie, you think of The Longest Yard. What an honor to be a part of it, and to be a part of such a great group of guys. I knew of a lot of the guys, knew of the wrestlers, but getting a chance to meet them was something else. They say wrestling is fake, but you look at the battle scars that they had from the ring, these guys went through h-e-l-l.

IGN Sports: There were some funny locker room pranks in the movie. How prevalent were pranks in the NFL?

Bill Romanowski: There's always something funny going on. That's the one thing about the locker room, you never know what's going to happen next. In San Francisco, there was one time that someone put some of their dog excrement in the cleats of another player. In training camp, every day, there's some kind of joke going on.

IGN Sports: It seems like the media likes to categorize players as angels or demons. They vilify some players like they can't do anything right, but at the same time there are players like Joe Montana and Favre who can never do anything wrong. Are the Montana's just as dirty as everyone else? Would Joe poke me in the eyes to get a fumble?

Bill Romanowski: [laughs] I don't know if I'd say that they're as dirty as everyone else, but the bottom line is, they want to win. They definitely partake, I know Joe liked to partake in the fun in the locker room. He liked to have a great time just like everyone else.

IGN Sports: What was your favorite scene in the original that you were able to recreate?

Bill Romanowski: One that I enjoyed was when Ray Nitschke came in the locker room and called out the guys with the warden. He sticks his fist through the wall, but I got to ram my head into a locker instead.

IGN Sports: There's a scene where Stone Cold is hit so hard he, well, craps himself. Have you ever seen anything like that happen in real life?

Bill Romanowski: The closest I ever heard of that happening was a situation my senior year when I had a really bad flu. I was having some serious issues before the game, so I filled my pants with a towel just in case because I was playing with a really bad stomach flu.



IGN Sports: What are your three favorite football movies of all time?



Bill Romanowski: The Longest Yard was definitely one, North Dallas Forty was another. Those are my two favorites, then throw in the new Longest Yard as number three. Any Given Sunday sticks out in my head, but it definitely wasn't a favorite.

IGN Sports: You get to spit on an opponent in the movie. Is that something you wanted to add in to pay homage to JJ?

Bill Romanowski: I do know that history and it was one of those events I can't say I'm proud of. It did happen and I hold myself accountable for it, but this is Hollywood, I didn't really spit on the actor, I just acted like I did. [laughs] There are a number of instances like that in the movie, it's like they take everything that has ever happened in sports and they put them all in the movie. That's why it's Hollywood. And in a way, it's making fun of myself.

IGN Sports: You played on so many great teams in the NFL. If you had to pick one team, which was your favorite?

Bill Romanowski: It would be hard to pick the best one, but one of my favorite memories, believe it or not, was ending with the Raiders. Going to the Super Bowl with a bunch of older guys who most other teams didn't want, guys who everyone said couldn't do it anymore, and we all came together as a team. We got to the Super Bowl, we just didn't finish the dance. Great memory, great football team.

IGN Sports: Nelly was the hardest person to tackle in the movie, but who was the hardest person to tackle in real life?

Bill Romanowski: There were two: Barry Sanders and Charlie Garner. Charlie Garner had moves that could just make you look so bad, and Barry Sanders, what else can you say, he's one of the greatest of all time.

IGN Sports: Do you have any other acting gigs lined up after The Longest Yard?

Bill Romanowski: I'm doing a movie right now called The Benchwarmers. It's a movie that Adam Sandler wrote and it stars Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Jon Heder. It's a baseball movie…a little different getting out of my football element. I'm a coach of a jock baseball team and we take on these three nerds. It should be a lot of fun.

IGN Sports: Back to football for a second, who do you see as the best linebacker today?

Bill Romanowski: Ray Lewis. In my mind, he brings the intensity, the passion that I tried to play with each and every day when I touched the field. He's someone I really enjoy watching, and someone I look up to.

IGN Sports: Where does that intensity, that fire in your eyes when you're on the field come from?

Bill Romanowski: I think to play the linebacker position, there is a certain mindset you need to have, and it's a mindset that came to me at an early age. They teach you from the time you strap a helmet on and put shoulder pads on that you're supposed to hit people as hard as you can, and that's the fun of playing football. You have to be tough, you have to be mean, and that's just something that stuck with me.

IGN Sports: Do you have any Super Bowl predictions for this year?

Bill Romanowski: New England. That's my prediction, that's the only prediction. They're the ultimate team.

IGN Sports: Do you ever go out and wear all of your Super Bowl rings at the same time?

Bill Romanowski: [laughs] Never wore them all. From time to time I'll put a couple of them on…depends on the occasion.