This story originally appeared in the latest issue of the Viking Update Magazine. For subscription information on the website, visit VikingUpdate.com or call 1-888-979-0979.
“There is a ton of peer pressure on kids today. There is more violence. There are more gangs. There are more drugs. Families aren’t together. You’ve got no fathers in these teenagers’ lives. These kids need to understand that life is bigger than the tunnel vision they are looking through.”
— John Swain
As a fourth-round draft pick in 1981, John Swain’s chances of surviving training camp and making the Minnesota Vikings’ roster were far from guaranteed. For proof, all he had to do was pick up a team media guide and read the names of Mike Townsend, Harold Henson, Bruce Adams and Leonard Willis, all fourth-round washouts from the previous seven years. Swain, though, didn’t care about the past. His plan had him sticking in Minnesota.
Perhaps to prove that point, the young cornerback jammed all of his belongings in his Buick Riviera and drove from the sandy beaches of Miami to the brown grass of Mankato, Minn. with no intention of being sent back home. In the ensuing 30 years there have been a few side trips for Swain, but he remains firmly entrenched in Minnesota and his plan today is far more important than intercepting passes in a purple jersey.
Swain is a molder of young men in his dual role as a school success program assistant and head football coach at Patrick Henry High School in north Minneapolis and as the founder and executive director of The Next Level Foundation, an organization dedicated to uplifting youth throughout the region. All of his diverse responsibilities reflect a long-term commitment to kids.
“I’ve always had the passion to bring kids up. The kids are the future,” Swain says patiently over the phone as he awaits a game of golf with good friend and former Vikings teammate Melvin Brown. “I think they don’t know how to be successful. I think they spend their time and energy going north, east, south and west and getting bogged down because they are not going in one direction. I think I bring the vision and the confidence and the mentorship to young folk to be successful. That’s my joy.”
Swain remembers being 17 and convinced that he would one day devote his life to helping troubled youth. Heavily recruited out of Carol City High School in Miami, Swain decided to stay close to home and accept a full scholarship from the University of Miami in part because of the school’s academics. From day one on campus, he never wavered on his course of studying sociology, and he graduated in four years.
When his NFL career ended in the late 1980s, Swain immediately put that degree to work, accepting a position as a corrections officer for Hennepin County Home School, a residential treatment facility for youth offenders in Minnetonka, Minn. He eventually added to his duties by assuming a part-time job supervising probation officers at the juvenile service center in Dakota County. About six years ago, he accepted the school success program assistant role at Patrick Henry, where he has found that no two days are the same. In fact, his job today is more difficult than covering an elite receiver while trying to melt the icy stare of Bud Grant.
“For sure it is. It is demanding,” he says. “We’re dealing with classes, patrolling hallways, putting pressure on kids to get to class. There are fights at times. There is gang involvement at times. In the meantime, we’re trying to build a rapport and better relationship with these kids. It can be hectic.
“There is a ton of peer pressure on kids today. There is more violence. There are more gangs. There are more drugs. Families aren’t together. You’ve got no fathers in these teenagers’ lives. These kids need to understand that life is bigger than the tunnel vision they are looking through.”
A few years after arriving at Patrick Henry, Swain says school officials “got on him” to increase his involvement with the kids and become the head football coach. As an assistant at St. Paul Central from 1989-2000, Swain had plenty of experience coaching at the high school level. But the job at Patrick Henry had to wait for old No. 29 to take care of some business: helping his son J.J. earn an athletic scholarship.
Swain coached J.J., a cornerback, by serving as defensive coordinator for four years at the Academy of Holy Angels, a Catholic high school in Richfield, Minn., that also boasts Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr. as an alumnus. The work paid off. J.J. is now a starting cornerback at the University of Northern Iowa. Swain beams when talking about J.J. and his other three children—Terrence, who works for a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines; Natalie, a morning news anchor for the ABC affiliate in Midland, Texas; and Cherrelle, a recent Howard University grad who is serving as vice president of The Next Level Foundation.
“I’m very, very proud of our kids. Family is key,” says Swain, who has been married to his wife Stacy for 27 years. “You’re as strong as your family.”
A day after J.J. signed his letter of intent to attend Northern Iowa, Swain’s “family” grew when he agreed to become the new head coach at Patrick Henry, a program that produced just two wins in the previous two years.
“Developing young men is most important, but in the meantime I want to get some wins as well,” he says with a chuckle. “This is a rough community and we’re dealing with lots of issues, but someone still has to step up and show leadership and guide these young men to the next level.”
In his first season, Swain encouraged 15 kids who had never played before to “get off from the wall” and become part of the team. That team showed stark improvement, winning three games and sending three players off to college with scholarships. For the 2010 season, the former Viking expects more. He implemented a summer conditioning and lifting program in a new weight room, outfitted with about $30,000 worth of equipment donated by the foundation of current Vikings linebacker 
As for his coaching philosophy, Swain has a rich reservoir to draw from. In the NFL, he played for three Hall of Famers—Bud Grant, Don Shula and Chuck Noll—as well as a potential Hall of Famer in Tony Dungy, who served as his defensive coordinator in Pittsburgh.
“Bud Grant was pretty silent. He had those big blue eyes and he would just look at you and you would get it,” Swain says. “Shula was very verbal. He would tell you whatever the hell he thought and you had to eat it. Chuck Noll was similar to Shula, but you would be able to have a little more dialog with him. Tony was so laid back, kind of like Bud Grant. He would never get too emotional or verbal. But he would give you the ‘A-OK’ sign.
“I took a little from all four of those coaches and put them into my own repertoire of what I think I need to be like as a head coach. As I analyze myself going into this second year, I’m pretty hyper. I get pretty intense, but what I’ve learned as a corrections officer and supervisor of probation officers, I know how to break you down and build you back up. We always leave with a good feeling.”
Swain says his players are aware of his time in the NFL. The school even has a few action shots of a much younger Swain scattered throughout its halls. However, the coach doesn’t dwell on his time in the limelight with his charges. For them, that’s too bad because Swain would have quite a story to tell.
Fast, sleek and athletic, he was a multi-sport star growing up. He especially shined at football and basketball. In high school, Swain proved to be quite versatile on the gridiron, playing quarterback, receiver, running back and defensive back. Twelve interceptions as a free safety and a trip to the state playoffs his senior year put him on the radar of many Division I scouts. Swain chose Miami, where the start of his career would mirror the beginning of his time in Minnesota a few years later.
“From day one, Miami switched me to cornerback and I was playing behind John Turner, who was three years ahead of me,” Swain recalls. “During two-a-days, John Turner tweaked his bad ankle. I played the first game of the year against Ohio State for John Turner because of his ankle. I held my own and the remainder of the year I was the nickel back as a true freshman. John Turner gets drafted by the Vikings in the second round and I go on to start the next three years at cornerback.
“I get drafted by the Vikings and sure enough I’m behind John Turner at corner. During two-a-days, John Turner tweaks that same bad ankle. First game against Tampa Bay, I start for him again because of that ankle. Then I went on to be the nickel back the rest of my rookie year.”
Swain says he was happy to be drafted by the Vikings, although he expected to go higher than the fourth round. He took it as a good sign that he was the only defensive back chosen by the club in 1981 and says “my mind was made up” that he would earn his keep before embarking on his cross-country trek to training camp. Once there, he immediately knew the pro game was a different beast.
“At the college level, you have one great receiver and one adequate receiver,” he says. “I can remember playing the University of Florida and they had Cris Collinsworth (a college All-American before he became a Pro Bowler with the Bengals and an Emmy-winning sports broadcaster) on one side and an average guy on the other. Once you get to the pros, you’ve got two Collinsworths. Everybody is good. The speed is greater. The routes are stronger. You have to be on your A-game or two deep balls later you may be looking for a job again. If you aren’t mentally tough, you won’t last long.”
Subbing for Turner in his first NFL game, Swain remembers getting beat deep by a Doug Williams to Kevin House connection.
“He must have thrown the ball 75 yards in the air,” Swain says. “There are times you will get beat, but you have to have the attitude, the swagger, that you know what you did wrong and you’re going to go back out and take care of your business. My adjustment was to line up two yards deeper. Instead of lining up seven yards from him (House), I lined up about nine yards away.”
Swain performed adequately the rest of that game and his entire rookie season, which ended with the Vikings losing five straight to finish 7-9. By his second year, Minnesota had to make room for him in the starting lineup.
“I started making so many plays, they took John Turner and moved him to safety and put me at corner,” Swain says. “I was happy to finally be playing with him instead of behind him.”
Like in his rookie year, Swain intercepted two passes in the strike-shortened 1982 season, which ended for the Vikings in the second round of the playoffs against the eventual Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins. The following season, an 8-8 campaign, proved to be Swain’s finest for Minnesota as he finished tied with Turner with a team-high six interceptions.
“I tried to be the best I could be and be prepared,” Swain says. “My speed was key. I had good height. I was close to 6-2. I was a 4.4 sprinter. My upper-body strength was decent. I was a smart player too. I looked at film. I studied receivers.”
No amount of homework could have prepared Swain and the rest of the Vikings for 1984. Bud Grant had retired and the purple reins were handed to untested young assistant Les Steckel. The team went from mediocre to awful, losing 11 of its final 12 games to finish 3-13.
“I think he had great ideas in terms of building the team as a family and folks sticking together,” Swain says. “On the flip side, he wanted to be too close into your life. He wanted to know if you went to church, what you were going to do after practice. He went in and got rid of some top-notch players and tried to do it his way.”
With Grant coaxed out of retirement to right the Vikings ship, Swain had high hopes for 1985. Those aspirations were squashed after the final preseason game against the Denver Broncos when the veteran was a surprising cut, the result, he says, of one play and one comment.
The play found Swain out of position on a hitch to Denver receiver Steve Watson. Swain remembers failing to take on a blocker which would have forced Watson to the inside where he would have been contained. Instead, Watson went to the outside for a big play. Soon after the down, Swain says he verbalized his thinking, namely getting steamrolled in a preseason game wasn’t good for his health and an injury could hurt his prospects for the regular season. Eventually, the veteran’s rationale found the ears of new defensive backs coach Pete Carroll, who didn’t appreciate Swain’s attitude.
“I don’t know if Pete Carroll overheard it or what, but he took offense and he went to Bud Grant to get me out of Minnesota,” Swain says. “Pete Carroll perceived that I took the easy way out. But, hell, I wanted to be able to line up for the next play as well. I still have a little animosity toward Pete Carroll today. I didn’t think a comment could cost me my job. That changed my life. But everything happens for a reason.”
To replace Swain, the Vikings brought back Carl Lee, who was previously released.
“I believe if I was with the Vikings from 1985 to ’89, I would have been another Carl Lee,” Swain says about the cornerback who became a three-time Pro Bowler. “That’s when the Vikings had Chris Doleman and Keith Millard (a devastating sack duo that made the Vikings defensive line one of the best in the late 1980s). You don’t have to do a lot when you got those studs up front. We didn’t have any kind of pressure like that.”
The move by the Vikings shocked Swain, but he was picked up by the Dolphins 24 hours later. He played half the season for Miami before the return to health of some younger defensive backs forced the team to cut him. From the Dolphins, Swain moved to Pittsburgh, where he played the next year and a half. After failing to agree to contract terms with the Steelers following the 1986 season, he went to training camp with the Packers and was among the final cuts. Swain received one more opportunity when the Dolphins called during the 1987 players strike and asked him to cross the picket line.
“I was out of work, and I needed to go prove myself again,” he says.
He played in one game with the replacement Dolphins and the contest was his final one in the NFL. A deep thigh injury sustained against Seattle prompted him to retire.
“I knew I had a degree where I could go do something else,” says Swain, who finished his career with 14 interceptions in 77 games. “I think for a lot of players, football is their life. They don’t have degrees. What are they going to do after football? That wasn’t a problem for me. It was a smooth transition.”
That transition returned Swain to Minnesota, where he began his position with Hennepin County Home School. Asked why he chose the land of 10,000 lakes rather than his native Sunshine State, Swain pointed to the Twin Cities connections established during his playing days and quality of life.
“I love it here. Minnesota is a great place to build a family,” he says.
Swain, who turns 51 on Sept. 4, plans to spend more time with his family when he retires from his school success program assistant job and head coaching duties at Patrick Henry in three years. He also will be able to devote more energy toward The Next Level Foundation, which he began in April of last year. The foundation seeks to point seventh through 12th graders to success by focusing on education, athletics, conflict resolution, self-esteem and controlled theory, a philosophy that teaches individuals—rather than external forces—are responsible for their own actions.
During the past year, the foundation distributed college scholarships and sponsored a two-day camp where participants enjoyed not only intense football drills but also numerous motivational workshops.
“That was the difference between our camp and others that just take place on the field,” Swain says. “These kids need to understand that there is life after football.”
John Swain knows all about that.
EXTRA POINTS WITH JOHN SWAIN
On his relationship with the Vikings today …
“I have no hard feelings toward the organization. I’m a season-ticket holder. I’ve done autograph sessions before games with other Viking alumni. It’s a top-notch organization. If I have one beef—it’s with Pete Carroll.”
On his first contract …
“I got a $25,000 signing bonus, a $3,000 reporting bonus and salaries of $30,000, $35,000 and $40,000 for my first three years. After my second year, they gave me $100,000 not to go to the USFL.”
On the toughest receiver to cover …
“James Lofton. He was 6-3 and ran a 9.6 (-second) 100. He was mentally tough and had great hands. He was the best receiver during my era.”
On former Vikings he remains close to …
“I still keep in touch with Melvin Brown, Rufus Bess, John Turner, Curtis ‘Boo Boo’ Rouse and Steve Jordan.”
To support The Next Level Foundation, visit www.thenextlevelminnesota.com
