John Costacos Interview
With Easley , I did a whole bunch of research at the library and read somewhere that somebody called him “ The Enforcer ” in college , which was really appropriate . Kenny Easley was someone nobody wanted to get hit by . So that was one of two or three ideas we had for him . I said , “ What if we play up on the fact you ’ re a tough guy that nobody wants to mess with ?,” and he really liked it .
So then it was like , “ Uh oh , now what do we do ?” That was November 1985 , so we had a bunch of time because we knew we weren ’ t going to shoot it until the following spring and release it during the ‘ 86 football season . We had time to figure all of that out , which we did . In the meantime , I met with Lester Hayes down in L . A . I said , “ Hey , we ’ re doing a poster of Kenny Easley . What do you think if we did a poster of you ?” He loved it and gave us his number . They called him “ The Judge ,” so we wanted to do something along those lines . When you have two NFL Pro Bowlers who say yes and want to do this , it was just like , “ Wow , there ’ s more here .” Then we were constantly working on concepts for other players in case this took off . Like , what would we do for this guy ? What would we do for that guy ?
We had an idea for Jim McMahon , which was to call him “ Mad Mac .” I wanted to send the letter off and my brother thought that we had already bitten off more than we could chew , and he was right . We didn ’ t even know what we were doing , and he was like , “ Can we please just know what we ’ re doing first ?” I remember that debate . It was really the smart way to do it , but on the other hand , we realized that we could probably get Jim McMahon .
The 1985 Bears were this big three-ring circus of Jim McMahon , “ The Fridge ,” Ditka , Walter Payton and Buddy Ryan , and McMahon was the ring-leader . We sent the letter to him and he said yes and we totally lucked out , but we had to shoot it within two weeks . I called my brother and said , “ The good news is we got Jim McMahon . The bad news is we have to shoot it in nine days .” We had just met these two Greek guys at this convention , and they were our brand new friends in Chicago . They took care of getting everything . They were fired up ! I said , “ Look , here is what we ’ re going to need : five trucks for the background , thirty guys to be extras , navy blue football helmets with no logos , a generator , a permit to use the stadium , and a live bear cub . Ok ?” These guys were awesome . They called back a day later and said they had everything but the bear cub , but thought they could get one in Milwaukee .
So now we have our three shots and have to figure out what to do . We printed the Mc- Mahon poster as quickly as we could , and then we printed the Easley and Lester ones shortly after that . We went into the 1986 football season with those three posters .
When did you realize you had something special ?
We knew we had a good concept and there was some potential , but didn ’ t know how much . Confidence and ignorance is a good combination . Confidence that we could do this and ignorance to the things that could get in our way . We had a good blend of that . I think we knew we were on to something when a star as big as Jim McMahon signed on . He was the bad boy and had just won the Super Bowl . Steve Largent was arguably the best receiver in football at the time . Kenny Easley was the best safety in the game , and if you ask me , arguably the best of all time . When we got Jim McMahon , that ’ s when we knew we were really on to something .
54 | Classic Kicks | classickicks . com | Volume 1