He played the game in "that other league" at a level the geniuses in the old-guard's version of the NFL's front offices couldn't begin to comprehend. When he was weighed, he was found light by a good 30 to 40 pounds by NFL standards.
Who could possibly use a 200-pound linebacker?
The truth was that over on the wrong side of pro football's tracks where the AFL lived, the brand-new New York Titans could have used anybody who could make a tackle, catch a pass or kick a field goal. By 1963 when that team became the New York Jets, Larry Grantham was their best linebacker, an NFL all-star and the man who would call defensive signals in the amazing Super Bowl III upset of the Baltimore Colts.