Where Are They Now: Willie Colon, Football

Recruited out of Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, New York, Willie Colon was a rock along the Hofstra football offensive line, playing for the Pride from 2001 to 2005.

An imposing offensive lineman throughout his time at Hofstra, Colon earned numerous accolades his senior season as the Pride ranked second in the Atlantic 10 Conference in offense and 15th in Division I-AA (now FCS). Most notably, Colon was named a First Team I-AA All-American by the Walter Camp Foundation, the Associated Press and the American Football Coaches Association. Colon was also named to Don Hansen’s Gazette Northeast Regional First Team as a senior.

After playing for four years at Hofstra, Colon was selected in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. As the starting right tackle following his rookie season, Colon was a key member of the 2008 Steelers team that won Super Bowl XLIII. Colon would go on to play in 62 games for the Steelers from 2006 to 2013.

After leaving the Steelers following the 2013 season, Colon would sign with the New York Jets and go on to play in 38 games before retiring. In total, Colon started in 100 games from 2006 to 2015.

Willie is currently married with one child, and following his professional football career, has joined Barstool Sports as a radio host for the Barstool Breakfast radio show. Willie is also the owner of Bricks & Hops Beer Garden in the Bronx.

What made you decide to attend Hofstra?

I was originally set on going to the University of Massachusetts. At the time, the head coach they had there was recruiting me heavily, and I really liked UMass because of their basketball team. They had a really good team that was a strong competitor in the Atlantic 10 Conference, and then Hofstra came along into the recruiting process. My high school coach, CJ O’Neil, who went to Hofstra and played for Hofstra, started telling me ‘Hofstra’s a really good team, they’re close to home, they had just won the Atlantic 10’, it started feeling like a no-brainer. 

But even with all of that, I was still set on going to UMass because they were coached by Mark Whipple, who had won a national championship there. I was really divided between Hofstra and UMass, and around that time my mother fell sick with lupus. I didn’t want to be away if something went down, and I really wanted to be able to get to her quickly. Being in Boston, and being a kid who had never driven a car or had a license, it didn’t sit well with me even though I really wanted to play at UMass.

I had my official visit with Hofstra, and had met offensive line coach Kyle Flood, who would go on to become head coach at Rutgers and is now at Alabama, and Dan Quinn, who is now head coach at Atlanta. I sat down with them and I felt really good about them and Hofstra. When it came down to it, I never went on my UMass visit.

What is your favorite memory from playing at Hofstra?

During my time at Hofstra, one of the teams that I had never beaten was Delaware. In my senior season, we were traveling to play at Delaware and both our starting quarterback and second-string quarterback were hurt. So our third-string quarterback started the game and it was pretty much a mud bowl because of all the rain, but we grinded out a win over Delaware. 

Looking at a schedule, you always look for what team was going to give you fits, and for us it was Delaware. So for me, before I hung it up at Hofstra, beating Delaware was big. And the way we beat them in dramatic fashion was special.

I’d also say being named a Walter Camp All-American sticks out from my time at Hofstra. I went to Connecticut for the ceremony and I was with Reggie Bush, Tamba Hali, Calvin Johnson and a host of other guys who were projected to be first-round picks in the NFL Draft, and to be a part of that group with a bunch of guys that I had seen playing on TV was special.

What was the process like heading into the 2006 NFL Draft? And how did it feel to be picked by Pittsburgh?

As you’re getting ready for the draft, you’re visiting a lot of teams and going through workouts, you still don’t know if you’re going to get picked. My focus was on trying to be in the best shape I can and also being ready if I didn’t get the call. I was staying at the house of my quarterback Bobby Seck, struggling during that process between training and trying to figure out how I was going to pay him rent just to have a room at his place, still not completely sure if I was going to get picked. It was a lot of pressure.

For a lot of people training and preparing for the draft, you just don’t know. I had visited probably 30 or 31 teams before the actual draft, and the team that was probably the least interested in me was the Pittsburgh Steelers. I didn’t think the Steelers had any interest in me at all. When I had landed in Pittsburgh, I was only there for what felt like 25 minutes. I had walked into the facility and met with Russ Grimm, who was one of the original Hogs from the Washington Redskins and was the offensive line coach for the Steelers, and the Steelers had just won a Super Bowl. So they were pretty much all set at my position. I talked to Russ for a little bit, I talked to [Steelers Head Coach] Bill Cowher for all of 10 to 15 minutes, and I was out the door. 

I really didn’t think Pittsburgh was going to be the landing spot for me. Truth be told, I thought it was going to be Miami. I had talked to Miami multiple times, went down there and worked out for them. At the time their head coach was Nick Saban, and I had met with him and their offensive line coach, Hudson Houck, who coached with the Cowboys during their three championships in the 90s, so I really thought I was going to land in Miami.

So the day of the draft came, and I got the call from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bill Cowher was on the other end of that call and it was such a surreal feeling; it was kind of like being outside of my own body. To actually get selected, where I was selected and how I was selected, I will never forget that.

In 2008, you won the Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers in what many consider to be one of the best Super Bowls ever. What was that experience like?

It was a surreal feeling, because our defense was lights out with a bunch of future Hall of Famers, but from the offensive side we still kind of had some little blips along the way. We had lost our right guard Kendall Simmons due to an ACL tear, and our left tackle at the time had went down because his back had been plaguing him the whole season, so he had to go on the IR. Those two were big parts of the 2005 Super Bowl, so you’re losing two veteran leaders amongst an offensive line group that needed leadership. We had to rely on a guy by the name of Darnell Stapleton – who was an undrafted guy out of Rutgers – at guard, and Max Starks had to move from right tackle to left tackle, a position switch that is incredibly tough. This is on top of having a center by the name of Justin Hartwig who had just joined the team that season.

And we had to play Baltimore three times that year just to get to the Super Bowl. We had to play them twice during the regular season and then in the AFC Championship. Baltimore is still known for its defense, but they had a Hall of Fame defense that year. They were just nasty, mean and rugged with outstanding players all over the place. It was a bloodbath, we got after each other; in those kinds of games, you had to dig deep and find that part of you that made you fight for football. For us to beat Baltimore three times that year, and then to win the Super Bowl the way we did, made for a storybook year.

I tell everybody that if you were to ask me what I take the most from that season and that run, it was the journey. The Super Bowl was great, but it was how we got there and the way we got there and what it took to get there, that’s what made that year special.

You signed with the Jets in 2013. What was it like signing with the team that Hofstra shared a campus with?

Overall, me going home to the Jets felt right. I was only a free agent for literally 20 minutes before my phone rang, and it was [New York Jets Head Coach] Rex Ryan. He pretty much said ‘Listen man, you ready to come home?’ And it was history after that.

How did you get into sports media? How has the transition been from professional athlete to national radio host?

FOX was going to give Jason Whitlock his own show and I had the opportunity to audition with him and another woman named Julie Stewart-Binks. They were testing the pilot in San Francisco when they were hosting the Super Bowl, and unfortunately the show didn’t get picked up. So after that I came back home to do some things for ESPN, doing things on Fridays and Saturdays. During this transition, I was also flying out to Los Angeles, just trying to climb up that ladder. I had tried out for the co-host position with Ryen Russillo, and I thought I had done fairly well but I didn’t end up getting that position.

After that didn’t work out, I came back to working Saturdays at ESPN making other appearances periodically at ESPN. And soon after I got a call from Stewart-Binks, who was working with Barstool Sports at the time, and she said she was going to start up a morning show called Barstool Breakfast and that I should audition. So I went to their headquarters and it was me, Julie and a young comedian named Francis Ellis, and we did an hour or so. We just went back and forth and had fun with it, and I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of because it was different and felt a little more casual. Sure enough, I had gotten the call that they liked what I had to say and they offered me the job. 

It was difficult at first, and I was honestly still a little bitter from how things ended with my playing career, but I give a lot of credit to my wife for helping me and giving me the motivation to pursue this. Working under the Barstool brand on Sirius Radio has been amazing, and it’s allowed me to expand my brand and give people the chance to see me for who I am outside the helmet. 

What does it mean to you to be a part of the Hofstra family?

Being a part of the Hofstra Pride family means you’re still able to tell people that you exemplified greatness during your college career. We might not have won any championships, but the guys who played on that field for Hofstra were great players. I’m proud to have shared the field with them, proud of the coaches I played for, of the school I called home, and I’m proud that a lot of the guys that are still around are able to support Hofstra and come to basketball games and lacrosse games.

What is one piece of advice you would give to current Hofstra student-athletes?

One of the things I learned in the process of trying to be a professional athlete is dreams without action are just thoughts. A lot of people have aspirations to do great things, but they’re not willing to do the little things when no one’s around. Things like waking up early to make it to workouts, eating right, getting sleep, all that is what sets you apart from everyone else.