Tommy Casanova still purrs with the Bayou and the 1970s at 67 years young, a three-time Pro Bowl safety that gave field vision new meaning when he retired at age 27 on the eve of the Bengals’ 1978 training camp to become an eye surgeon.
“Oh yeah,” Casanova says this week when asked if he’s still operating in his hometown of Crowley. La. “What ya got? We’ll cut it off.”
Casanova is one of these guys they use to make movies. He’s Dennis Quaid in Everyone’s All-American, except with the happy ending. He’s Moonlight Graham in Field of Dreams, except he got plenty of at-bats in the bigs before he became a doctor.