By Mark Eckel | Engagement Insider
When Garry Cobb played linebacker in the NFL for 11 years, he had opinions on what defense his team should run to stop whatever the offense was doing. When Cobb retired from football and became a television anchor and sports talk radio host, those opinions switched to what the Philadelphia teams should be doing.
Now, years later, Cobb has different opinions and he is trying to get them heard as he runs for Congress in New Jersey’s 3rd District.
“I’ve always had opinions,’’ said Cobb, who played for the Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles, and Dallas Cowboys. “I’ve always had my thoughts both locally and nationally. There are certain things I felt very strongly about. I always paid attention to politics, but never seriously thought about running for office.’’
Until now.
Local politicians had come to Cobb throughout the years to gauge his interest in running, but each time he passed. After Jon Runyan, another successful NFL player turned New Jersey Congressman, announced he would not seek re-election, Cobb got a call again.
“When Jon stepped down, I met with the Burlington County Republican Party,’’ Cobb said. “That’s where it all started.’’
Cobb, however, is not running for Runyan’s soon-to-be vacant seat in New Jersey’s 1st District.
“First, I don’t live in that District,’’ he said. “And, to be honest, I wanted a more urban district. I feel I can be of more help there. Lawnside, Bellmawr, those parts of South Jersey are a lot like where I grew up.’’
Cobb was born in Carthage, North Carolina, but moved when he was young and grew up in Stamford, Connecticut with six siblings and parents, especially a father, who demanded his children get an education above all else.
“Pops didn’t finish school. He joined the service, and then went back under the G.I. Bill,’’ Cobb said. “But he made sure all of us went to college. And we all did.’’
Garry, the third oldest of the group, used his football skills, although baseball was his true love, to get a scholarship to Southern Cal. His two older siblings both went to Dartmouth; a younger one went to Cornell, another stayed closer to home at the University of Connecticut; another to business school, and the youngest to NYU. “Education was very important in our house,’’ Cobb said.
But it wasn’t everywhere around him. And that’s when his political views started to form.
“I saw programs that were supposed to help people, but what they were doing was pulling families apart,’’ Cobb said. “My extended family, some of my uncles and aunts, they could only get help if it was a single-parent family. So my uncle would leave. I saw how it affected some of my cousins.
“People were telling my parents to do the same thing. My dad would have no part of that. Listen, I would have never made it without my dad. His discipline shaped my life.’’
And his current views, which he plans to use as he runs for Congress.
“There are programs designed to help people who need help, and that’s good,’’ Cobb said. “But if it breaks up families, that’s bad.’’
Through his years on television and radio, Cobb has spent several volunteer hours with troubled youth in the Philadelphia and South Jersey area.
“You go and talk and they don’t want to listen, but you put a football DVD in and they see me play and now all of a sudden they’ll listen,’’ Cobb said with a laugh. “A lot of these kids, if they would have had a male influence in their life, wouldn’t be in trouble.’’
Cobb knows he can’t fix all that troubles the world, or even New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District. But he’s going to give it a try. He’s running unopposed in the June primary and will face a Democrat challenger, Donald Norcross, in the November general election.
“My whole plan is we need to help small businesses and we need to help families stay together,’’ Cobb said. “The economy around here is horrible. You have to create an environment where the small businessmen can thrive. You have to lower taxes, so he’s not getting killed there.
“And we have to show our kids they have a chance. I know kids who did everything right, went to school, went to college, did well in college and now they can’t find a decent job. We need to create more jobs for them.’’
Cobb was known as a very good quote as a player and as a radio personality with a sense of humor, so he couldn’t resist, even now as a politician.
“That’s the problem with most politicians,’’ he says. “They’re not worried about your job, they’re worried about their job.’’