Sutton thankful for shot with Grizzlies

Turns out it didn't, until the University of Montana came calling.

Just a few short years later, Sutton finished up a five-year career with the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League. And his gratitude to UM coach Larry Donovan and his staff for giving him a chance is never ending.

Currently Sutton lives in Corona, Calif., where he is a senior recruiter for International Rectifier, a semiconductor company. He's been with IR for six years and is in charge of staffing at the company's Temecula site.

Prior to that he was a "head hunter," or recruiter, for a variety of companies. It was a brother-in-law who got him interested in the field shortly after he retired from football.

"It turned out to be really great for me," Sutton said, noting that he was unsure of what direction to take once he left football.

The bubbly, always-smiling personality Sutton displayed during his two years with the Grizzlies has paid benefits in his current line of work. One of the things he enjoys about his current job is that it changes daily and he gets to deal with a wide variety of people.

He and Kimberly have been married for some 19 years and are raising three very talented children, a son and two daughters.

Sutton's pro career started slowly with a half-year stint with the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League. After that, he spent two years in the fledgling U.S. Football League, which unfortunately disbanded after the 1985 season.

Sutton played for the Pittsburgh Maulers in 1984 and the Birmingham Stallions in 1985.

After the league folded, he returned to UM to continue working on his radio-television degree.

Sutton's agent at the time was Missoula realtor Ken Staninger, relatively new to the business of trying to move clients into pro football. But Staninger got him a shot with the Rams, and he made it pay off.

Going into college, Sutton was not even thinking about playing pro football. Playing at the college level was his ultimate goal. But as he developed, and as he watched other players he was familiar with get their shots, he started to think he could do it.

"I always understood my size could be a detriment," Sutton admitted, "when you're 5-8 - maybe - and 160. But I always said if I got a shot, I'd do what I can make their decision the toughest they ever had."

Like others who have gone pro, Sutton figured out that football is, first and foremost, a business at that level. He also learned that he, like every other player, had to figure out where he fit in.

"I always knew I was going to be toward the tail end as far as making a roster," Sutton said, "and that I was not going to be some star. I figured if you kept working hard, if you did enough things on the field, you could definitely make a little career for yourself."

And that he did, primarily on special teams, playing every game like it could be his last, often returning punts and kickoffs for the Rams.

Sutton's NFL career was shorter than he hoped. He tore a knee ligament in 1990, the Rams let him go after he went through rehab, and he failed his physical when Buffalo invited him to try out during their 1991 training camp.

"I was resigned that that was pretty much it," Sutton recalled. "When the general manager told me I didn't pass, my first question was, 'when's the next flight to LA?'"

It took Sutton more than a year to find a job, in part due to a slow economy at the time. He put a resume together, but it was pretty much all football and no actual work experience. Thanks to the tip from his brother-in-law, he was able to get his foot in the door of the recruiting business and get the training he needed.

In the meantime, Sutton and Kimberly had gotten married after meeting in southern California. By the time he failed his Buffalo physical, their son was about six months old, and he was anxious to get home to his new family.

"It really didn't bother me," Sutton said of the Buffalo experience. "It was kind of like, 'okay, good, that's over with, now I can move on.'"

As a high school athlete Sutton participated in football, basketball and baseball. His father actually encouraged him to pursue baseball at the college level. But he felt more comfortable with football.

"I knew the game, and like I tell my son now, I had football smarts," Sutton said of his decision.

He got into the game when he was 11, shortly after his family moved from Oakland, Calif. to Union City, about 20 minutes away.

Coming out of high school, Sutton was disappointed that he had no Division I scholarships offers, so he chose to go to Chabot Junior College in Hayward, Calif.

He mostly sat on the bench his first year there, but he blossomed the second year, earning defensive back of the year honors in his conference and leading the league in both interceptions and punt returns.

The result? Still no Division I scholarship offers.

But Montana had just hired Larry Donovan as head coach. The Grizzly staff got into recruiting a little late, and Sutton was still available.

"If they had been an established program, maybe they wouldn't even have come down there," Sutton said.

Sutton had played safety through high school and junior college, but made the switch to cornerback once he got to Missoula. It wasn't a problem, since he had always felt he would be at corner someday, had practiced the position a lot during summer workouts with college players, and knew most four-year programs wanted bigger people playing safety anyway.

As he wrapped up his Montana career Sutton didn't hear from any pro teams that seemed interested. It was a year after he finished playing Grizzly football that he connected with Staninger, whose primary client at the time had been ex-Grizzly Guy Bingham.

Sutton, looking back, thinks the fact that Staninger had all former Grizzlies as his clients back then probably gave him the time he needed to find them places to try out.

Sutton takes a lot of pride in his family.

His son, William, is 17 and headed to Arizona State on a football scholarship to play defensive tackle at 6-2, 270 pounds. Sutton isn't sure where William's size came from, but said by the time he finished his senior year at Corona Centennial High School, he was rated the top high school defensive tackle in California and had a dozen scholarship offers.

Michelle is 15, and already has started at guard in basketball as both a freshman and sophomore. At 5-7, she'll be participating in summer leagues to further hone her skills, and already has started receiving information letters from college programs.

Twelve-year-old April might be the best athlete of the three, and currently concentrates on track and soccer, although Sutton said she could do well at basketball, too.

He said she's ranked number one in the nation in her age group for the 800-meter run and also runs the 400.

April already has participated in both the national Junior Olympics and U.S. Track and Field age group meets, finishing second as a 10-year-old.

"We've just always tried to keep them active in things," Sutton said about his kids, adding that both daughters also have appeared on television shows and filmed commercials.

It keeps both Mickey and Kimberly active and on call.

"If they call you today and tell you that they need you in LA at 5 o'clock, I'm at work, she's at work, (and) we've gotta get there," Sutton said. "You may go to an audition, you're there for five minutes, and then you're on your way home and you don't even know if you got it (the job) or not."

Sutton blames his kids' active lives for the fact that he hasn't been back to Missoula for more than 10 years.

"There's just no time," Sutton said, noting that the kids are busy year round. "It seems like these never-ending activities."

But Sutton still follows the Grizzlies as best he can.

"It's come a long way," Sutton said of UM's football program.

During a recruiting visit to UCLA with William, Sutton ran into former Griz player and coach Tim Hauck, who was able to catch him up on things in Missoula.

Asked about his time at UM, Sutton said he enjoyed the entire experience.

"It put me in a situation where I had to adjust to doing things maybe I wasn't used to doing," he said, "where you have to go out and meet people half way. I met some great people there that I'm still friends with today. It was just a positive experience."

The rivalry with Montana State, which was totally new to Sutton when he arrived in Missoula, stands out as his fondest memory with the Grizzlies.

"When I first got there, I heard people talking about how big it is," Sutton recalled. "And you never really actually know until you go through it."

He also enjoyed the effort that went into trying to turn the Grizzly program around. The first year was tough, with some lopsided losses and a 3-7 record, but the 1981 team was 7-3, including a pair of one-point losses to end the season.

"It was nice to come back and have a really good year with basically the same group of players that you struggled with so mightily the year before," Sutton explained. "There's no substitute for hard work. Regardless of what you did the year before, we put in the work. Like I tell my kids, if you put in the work, good things will happen."

Learning to adjust became part of Sutton's journey after he left UM.

"I enjoyed living in different parts of the country," he said. "I got a chance to see different places. I think that's just a full-life experience, and I've tried to pass that down to my kids now.

"I just have a great appreciation for people living in different areas."