Greg McMahon
Episode 292
2 SEP 2024
He has won both a Super Bowl and college football national championship. He is entering his second season as Tulane University’s special teams coordinator after having spent the 2022 season coordinating special teams for the USFL’s Houston Gamblers and XFL’s Houston Roughnecks. Prior to 2022, he spent five seasons with LSU, where he joined the staff as an analyst in 2017 and later took over as special teams coordinator. That followed his having spent eleven years with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, the first two as assistant special teams coordinator followed by nine seasons as special teams coordinator. During his time there the team won the Super Bowl in February 2010 over the Indianapolis Colts. He has spent decades around the game, first as a safety at Eastern Illinois and then as a coach at eight different schools over a 25-year period.
Notable guest quotes:
“My father was Catholic. When they were married in the late 50s my mother converted to Catholicism and we were raised in a very, very traditional Catholic family. We went to Mass every Sunday… all four of us kids went to Catholic school.”
“I loved and I feel very comfortable with my Catholic faith and so it really drove me to, like, when I was at University of Illinois, I never missed daily Mass.”
“When I went to LSU, I had to really find a church that has a 6 a.m. Mass because if it’s not 6 a.m. I can’t attend because I have to work. I have to do a good job, like all of us in our profession.”
“At Tulane we practice in the mornings, so our meetings start at seven, but I am very, the tougher things get the more I go to my faith.”
“I fell in love with the church on campus at the University of Illinois, the priests and going to daily Mass and so no it never ever affected me to not go to a Catholic university or work at one.”
“We have a staff meeting at four and I told coach I won’t be able to attend because I’m going to Mass.”
“To go to Mass weekly? My gosh, I mean that’s the way I was raised, I mean, when you went on vacation you always knew you were gonna go to Mass in Pennsylvania because we’re traveling or we’re gonna go to Mass, like, going to Colorado to see the Grand Canyon; well, we’re gonna go to, like, it’s just, you know, and our adult children, our grandkids, they know that Mass is a priority so it’s, I want to say it’s non-negotiable – we don’t even have to negotiate. It’s just the most important thing we’re gonna do.”
“I’ve got a very peaceful heart because I’ve always enjoyed people, I’ve always enjoyed relationships, I’m sure I get it from my mother and my father.”
“I got to constantly go back to my faith and stay connected and stay grounded because to me each day is driven by my faith.”
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