Hall of Famer Willie Roaf Talks Aaron Donald, Drew Brees & More with Rich

Willie Roaf started 5 and 0 as a rookie and figured the National Football League was going to be fine. Then he lined up across from Kevin Greene.

The Saints had come out of a bye, Roaf said, after a week of practice so hot it took the legs out of the team. Pittsburgh was next. Greene spent the afternoon winking at him and slapping him on the backside between snaps, and Roaf could not figure out what the man was doing.

"I ended up giving him a couple sacks," Roaf told Rich. "After getting off to that great start, that Kevin Greene game was my welcome to the NFL."

Practice had not prepared him, and not for lack of talent on the other side. Roaf went against Ricky Jackson and Wayne Martin daily, but Jackson was in year 13 and had his own program. Little kicker shoulder pads. One-on-one pass rush was the only drill he cared about. Roaf wondered why the guy would not practice hard and understood it years later.

The nickname Nasty covered both halves of the job. Roaf and his linemen got after people on Sundays and tortured each other the rest of the week, planting fake rats in lockers to make guys jump. There was also the teammate who drank apple juice before meetings, with consequences the meeting room absorbed. Rich and Chris both assumed that story was headed somewhere else. It was not.

Roaf's Saints career began with Jim Mora Sr. as head coach and Jim Mora Jr. on the staff in his first coaching job. The draft that produced Roaf was Jim Finks' last one. Finks got lung cancer, and Roaf never met the man who drafted him. Wade Wilson, signed out of Minnesota, was the first quarterback he protected.

Sixty seasons in, Drew Brees becomes the 12th Saint enshrined in Canton. Roaf never played with him, but he faced him twice a year in Kansas City, when Brees was a Charger. One of those Chiefs teams went 10 and 6, lost to Brees, finished behind in the division and missed the playoffs.

Ask Roaf who the most popular Saint is and he gives you two: Brees and Ricky Jackson.

The other subject at the hotel this week was the idea of Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald on the same defensive line, which came up at a table where Roaf was sitting with Ogden and Pace. Three men who played outside, one problem with no clean answer.

Roaf's answer came fast. "The coach is probably going to tell me I have to deal with Garrett more one-on-one. They're going to double Donald," he said. "You can't double both of them. There's no way." He would chip Garrett with a back or a tight end on the way out, but somebody is pulling one-on-one duty for four quarters. Smart offenses, he figures, keep those two on opposite sides.

For the record, power gave Roaf more trouble than speed. Long-armed rushers who could shift him, guys like Chuck Smith and Jason Taylor, pulled him a few times a game. Pure speed he welcomed.

At the Hall of Famers-only luncheon, Mike Singletary spoke for 20 or 30 minutes about what the group can do outside that room. Bobby Bell has now attended 43 straight years and got a painting of himself. John Riggins came back for the first time since 2002, saying he did not feel he deserved to be in there. The room disagreed.

With 125 Hall of Famers in town, the most ever gathered at once, Roaf keeps showing up to absorb it.