| Former back Ed Podolak runs real-estate business and hangs with Jimmy Buffett | | Date Created: Jan 04, 2005, 05:47 AM |
Chiefs runner in paradise
Former back Ed Podolak runs real-estate business and hangs with Jimmy Buffett
By MATT FULKS
Special to The Star
The Chiefs' 1971 playoff loss to the Dolphins in double overtime on Christmas day gave Ed Podolak an NFL record for all-purpose yards and a lifetime of fame.
Courtesy of Ed Podolak
Ed Podolak divides his post-NFL time between real-estate businesses in Aspen, Colo., and Costa Rica.
Thirty-three years ago this weekend, Ed Podolak became a nationally recognized name.
Sure, Chiefs fans already knew about Podolak, the running back out of Iowa who wore No. 14. But on Christmas Day 1971, Podolak compiled 350 all-purpose yards during ?the longest game? ? a Chiefs double-overtime playoff loss to Miami at old Municipal Stadium. Podolak's record stands today.
Podolak, whom the Chiefs drafted in 1969, has often joked about how people wouldn't have known about him if it weren't for that Christmas game. People stop him in airports. Reporters call him around this time of the year.
?I really enjoy a nice notoriety because of that,? said Podolak, 57. ?That was early in my career, so because of that, people tuned in to some of the things I did later. That was a springboard into recognition as I travel around the country.?
One of those times he was recognized developed quickly into a friendship with a well-known ?Parrot Head.? Actually, the original Parrot Head.
As Podolak describes: ?After I retired, I was at a bar in Aspen (Colo.) and Jimmy's manager came up to me and said, ?Ed, if I'm offending you in any way let me know, but Jimmy Buffett is a big fan of yours because of the Miami game and following your career after that. We're playing softball this afternoon, and if you'd like, he'd love to have you join us.' Little did he know that Jimmy's song, ?Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes' was my anthem when I was quitting football. I used to drive around in my car with the top down, singing, ?If it suddenly ended tomorrow, I could somehow adjust to the fall.' I knew all the words to Jimmy's songs.
?We hit it off right away. We became like brothers and have been ever since.?
Buffett even wrote a song for Podolak in the early 1980s called ?We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About.?
?The first time I went to meet Jimmy's mother in Daphne, Alabama, in the middle '80s, she said, ?Podie, I know you can't be all bad, even though Jimmy wrote that song about you. Because I'm sure it was his fault.' ?
After working with People's Bank in Kansas City during his playing days, Podolak bought part of a real-estate company in Aspen in 1971. Since retiring from the Chiefs and pro football in 1977, Podolak has been a successful real-estate developer in the Aspen area, where he's lived full time for more than 20 years.
A few years ago, Podolak, looking for a place to expand his business, fell in love with Costa Rica during a fishing trip. So, he started developing in that Central American country located between Nicaragua and Panama. Now he basically spends his winters in Costa Rica and the rest of his time in Aspen.
?I've been very fortunate,? Podolak said. ?I describe my life as selling lifestyle. If you don't live what you're selling, people won't believe it when you're trying to sell it to them. I kind of patterned myself after (Buffett) and the way he lives. He sells lifestyle through his music, and I try to do it through my real estate.?
Podolak recently returned to the United States from Costa Rica, where he has a 3-year-old ?boutique resort? called Club Del Mar, and a new condominium development, all in the surf town of Jaco Beach. As he points out, Jaco Beach is like the village of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui, circa 1975, before commercialism and the $10 cheeseburger in paradise.
?The places are practically the same, but this is affordable,? Podolak joked about Jaco Beach.
Podolak is also completing his 24th season as a radio analyst for Iowa football games, a gig he enjoys ?immensely.?
After being picked in the second round out of Iowa, Podolak did it all for the Chiefs ? rushed, caught passes and returned kicks. He led the team in rushing four times, receiving three times and punt returns three times. He finished his career with 8,178 career combined yards.
He also scored the first touchdown at Arrowhead Stadium, albeit in preseason, and was one of the first running backs whose face mask had the vertical bar down the middle.
But despite those accomplishments and distinctions, and the recognition he achieved from his record-setting game against the Dolphins on Christmas Day 1971, Podolak adjusted well to life after football. He's in a pretty good place, literally. His own Margaritaville, if you will.
?I live in Basalt (just outside Aspen), which is a small town very similar to where I grew up in Iowa. And Costa Rica is absolutely fantastic with terrific people,? he said. ?I don't see any reason to change any of this.? |
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