Ed O’Neill revealed in a recent interview that he very nearly turned to a life of organized crime before turning to acting.
The 77-year-old actor was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, originally seeking a career as a professional football player.
After playing college football at Ohio University and Youngstown State University, he was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969, but ultimately cut from the team.
The Modern Family star said he, ‘didn’t have a clue’ what to do next, admitting on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s On Me podcast that he considered organized crime.
‘Youngstown was not a good place to live. There was nothing there for me,’ O’Neill admitted on the podcast, a month after stating he was going to return his honorary doctorate to Youngstown State University after they selected a Trump-backing Congressman as the school’s new President.
Ed O’Neill revealed in a recent interview that he very nearly turned to a life of organized crime before turning to acting
The 77-year-old actor was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio , originally seeking a career as a professional football player
‘The only thing that I had that I could have done, and thank God that I didn’t, was organized crime,’ O’Neill said.
‘I had friends in organized crime,’ he said, referring to a friend named Jim from his hometown of Youngstown.
‘[Jim] called me and said “Hey take a ride with me. I want to talk to you.” We’re driving and he said, “How you doing? You know, you, you got cut, you got no money.” I said, “No, I’m broke. You know, I don’t know what I’m going to do,”‘ O’Neill said.
‘He started talking to the bartender. He says, “I’m looking for this kid, his name is whatever, Demko, his name is Jimmy Demko, do you know him?” And the guy says, “No, it doesn’t ring a bell,”‘ O’Neill recalled.
‘He gives him 20, and he says, “Look, he’s an old friend of mine, I haven’t seen him in years, you know, I’m looking to reconnect, but I’d like to surprise him. So if he comes in again, you can call this number. You can reach me,”‘ O’Neill added.
After they left the restaurant, Jim explained that sort of thing – trying to find certain people – would be something he could do as work for him, a job offer he nearly couldn’t resist.
‘We left and he said, “You can do this kind of stuff for me, you know, I’ll protect you, I’ll give you easy stuff. Just you collect here. You do that. You run, you drop something off here and there. You know, you may have to lean on a guy. You’re good at that. You can make some good money,”‘ O’Neill explained.
‘I said, “Let me think about it, Jim. Cause I’m, I don’t know. I might be leaving town to pursue this acting thing,”‘ he continued.
When he returned home to his father, who saw who was driving the car, he asked him a question that set him on the path to acting.
‘The only thing that I had that I could have done, and thank God that I didn’t, was organized crime,’ O’Neill said
After they left the restaurant, Jim explained that sort of thing – trying to find certain people – would be something he could do as work for him, a job offer he nearly couldn’t resist
‘I said, “Let me think about it, Jim. Cause I’m, I don’t know. I might be leaving town to pursue this acting thing,”‘ he continued
‘He said, “I saw you take a ride with Jimmy … I just want to ask you a question. Can you do time?”‘ O’Neill recalled, adding he told his father he couldn’t do time
‘He said, “I saw you take a ride with Jimmy … I just want to ask you a question. Can you do time?”‘ O’Neill recalled, adding he told his father he couldn’t do time.
‘He said, “You couldn’t do time. You’d have a hard time being in jail, right?” I said, ‘No, I don’t think I could do time.” He said, “OK,”‘ which solidified his decision to pursue acting.
O’Neill added that when he was cut by the Steelers, it was the first year of legendary coach Chuck Noll’s tenure, where he was competing against fellow rookies and future Hall of Famers “Mean” Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood.
The actor revealed that, years later when he found success as an actor, someone reached out with a message from Noll.
‘I got a message from somebody from him after he was finished, and he just said, “Tell Ed O’Neill I’m so happy for him,” because he actually said (when he was cut), “Well, I wish you the best of luck. I think you’re gonna be OK.”‘