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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

BY JIM BAUMBACH/ jim.baumbach@newsday.com

January 13, 2008

Ottis Anderson finally accepted that his playing days were over in 1994, he said, after a full NFL season passed without him in uniform. But he wasn't ready to call himself retired. Not at age 37.

That's why he immediately went looking for a job, a new career. In a telephone interview with Newsday this past week, he explained that there was no way he could allow himself to sit around his South Orange, N.J., house watching television.

The turning point came when a friend of his who ran an insurance agency in New Jersey, Al Shikiar, invited Anderson to attend a convention in Atlantic City. Anderson's job was to sit in the company's booth, sign autographs and entertain anyone who stopped by. The insurance business, Anderson learned that day, "is a people business. And I love people."

So Anderson decided then this was what he wanted to do.

Ottis Anderson, Super Bowl XXV MVP for the Giants, wanted to sell insurance.

"I asked him to explain everything about the business and how I could get into it," he said. "He told me that if this is something you want to get into, then you have to go back to school, get your license, the whole nine yards.

"I was like, 'Go back to school? Oh my God, you've got to be kidding me!' "

In order to get his New Jersey insurance certification, he needed to take a class - and although no one ever asked him if he was the same Ottis Anderson who was a star running back in the NFL from 1979 through 1992, he's certain people wondered.

"A lot of people, they weren't sure, but the way they looked at me, I could tell some of them were like, 'OK, I've seen this guy on television, but he's in this insurance class? Why is he in this insurance class?' " said Anderson, who played with the Giants from 1986-92. "I always tell people you've always got to leave your ego and pride at the door. I didn't feel like it was something I needed to do. It was something I wanted to do because I thought it would be fun, and it has been fun.

"Plus you can make a lot of money in this, too, and you don't need to beat your body up."

That year Anderson began working in the insurance industry, and he still does the job today. His company, he said, began with a staff of six people and now has close to 50. It's been sold three times to different financial institutions, most recently to HRH, one of the nation's largest brokerage firms.

As vice president of public relations, Anderson said he works mostly with helping municipalities, schools and private business find the best way to offer their employees competitive benefits at a decent price.

"I think the biggest problem athletes have is when they retire, they don't know what to do, and they waste away," said Anderson, who will turn 51 Saturday. "You waste your mind and you waste your body. Well, this keeps my mind going and it keeps my body going and keeps you from getting old."

Anderson's also the president of the NFL Alumni Association's New York chapter, is developing his own clothing line called MoodaChainz - after the football term Move the Chains - and entertains Giants corporate sponsors with fellow former players Joe Morris, Stephen Baker, Howard Cross and Harry Carson.

Not too many days go by, it seems, without someone asking him about the two Super Bowls, which he's just fine with.

"Giants fans never forget the past," he said. And he's thankful to be a part of it.

Do you have a favorite missing person? e-mail Jim Baumbach with your suggestions: jim.baumbach@newsday.com