A former record-setting NFL running back arrested for heroin possession on the West Side last week denied he had the drug and said he was locked up after he refused to sign an autograph for the arresting officer.Mack Herron, who played for the New England Patriots in 1973 and 1974, was arrested Friday on the 1600 block of South Drake after police said they saw him drop a tin-foil packet containing $10 worth of heroin outside an abandoned building.
In a phone interview with the Chicago Sun-Times Tuesday, Herron, 62, acknowledged his past troubles — police say he’s been arrested 20 times for drug-related crimes and drug problems reportedly led to his ouster from the NFL — but he said he’s largely clean now.
“I’ve had past problems, but I’m over that,” Herron said. “I ain’t gonna lie to you, I did heroin when I was depressed. ... But I haven’t been arrested since 2007. I made mistakes. I’m not perfect — but I’m trying to do better. And now I’m here to help my family,” said Herron, who lives with his mother and sister near his childhood home in Lawndale.
Herron, a star football player for Farragut High School in the 1960s, struggled with drug problems over the course of his career — which peaked in 1974 when his 2,444 all-purpose yards shattered a record once held by Gale Sayers. But he was out of the league after the 1975 season, and has been in and out of jail on drug charges in the decades since.
The devout Muslim, though, insists his troubles were behind him — until Friday, when he went to visit the mother of a friend who had a stroke.
“She wasn’t home,’’ said Herron. “ … I was in the vacant lot next door because I went to take a leak, and I was coming out of the lot to go home and that’s when the police stopped me.”
Herron claims a police officer picked up a piece of tin foil from the ground and asked Herron where he got the drugs. Herron says he told the officer he didn’t know what he was talking about — and was promptly arrested.
“ ‘I aint even got time for this. I’ve been places you’ve never been,’ ” Herron said he told the officers, referring to his NFL career. “But he didn’t believe that, so I said, ‘Go Google it,’ and they did — and then he believed me and wanted an autograph. But I said, ‘No,’ and then he got attitude with me.’’
Herron says when police told him to empty his pockets, he showed them half a marijuana joint he had on him.
“I aint denying I smoke weed, I tell my psychiatrist the same thing … but the joint didn’t even show up on the report — and the police officer didn’t even read me my rights. That’s still part of the constitution isn’t it?”
A Chicago police spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.
At the police station, “they all wanted autographs — but I said ‘I aint giving nobody autographs,’” recalled Herron.
Herron’s fame was a hit in his jail cell, too.
“One of the guards said who I was and the other guys in jail, they was wearing me out because I’m so short and they couldn’t believe I did all this,” said the 5-foot-5 Herron, who was nicknamed “Mini-Mack’’ in the NFL.
Herron spent three nights in Cook County Jail before posting ten percent of his $25,000 bail.
“I borrowed money from about 10 or 12 people. … I don’t know how, but I’ve got to pay them back,” said Herron, who doesn’t work. “I’m pleading not guilty and going to fight this as hard as I can.”
Herron receives $600 a month in public aid and Social Security benefits. He says he’s been fighting the NFL to get a pension for his three years in the league.
He also cuts lawns in the neighborhood and said he tries to mentor kids.
“A lot of the people I cut lawns for don’t even know I was a football player. I don’t broadcast it, but if someone asks I’ll talk about it,” said Herron.
Herron, who has diabetes and other pains from years of playing football, says his health is bad and he suffers from depression.
“Some days I don’t feel like I wanna be in this world,” he said.
He said he beat his drug habit without getting treatment.
“I prayed that God would help me. I didn’t have to go no place else — I asked him for help,” he said.
In the past, Herron has received financial help from Mike Ditka’s Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, which aids retired players.
“I haven’t talked to Mike Ditka in a while,” said Herron, “but he’s been one of the only coaches to help me. “I love Mike Ditka. I’d do anything for Mike Ditka.”