Born in the 1930s, Rosey Grier was a big guy at 6’5″ and 300 pounds. He was a professional football player for eleven years. After his NFL career, Rosey served as a bodyguard for his friend and former US Senator Robert Kennedy. When a gunman assassinated Kennedy in 1968, he was at the scene and helped subdue the attacker. He also sang and did radio talk shows.
While his career was fascinating, what intrigued me the most was his hobby.
Rosey loved needlepoint. It’s a form of embroidery where one stitches yarn through an open-weave canvas. This hobby calmed him and reduced his fear of flying.
However, his hobby was controversial. It didn’t conform to the muscular image of a big football player. His friends and other NFL players mocked him. He received harassing phone calls.
All this bothered Rosey, but he kept doing what he enjoyed. He managed to convert some of the football players who made fun of him to give needlepoint a try. He published a book called Rosey Grier’s Needlepoint for Men in 1973.
“Getting a little more interested? Read on, brother! Next, I’m going to tell you how to make your way around the needlepoint store,” he wrote in a book chapter.
A reviewer insightfully commented on Rosey’s book on Amazon:
“He looked at a hobby usually taken up by female dead in the eye and said, ‘Why not me?’”
