When you picture a professional football player, needlepoint probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But Rosey Grier proved that creativity doesn’t have to fit anyone’s expectations.

Roosevelt “Rosey” Grier became famous as a professional football player, including his years with the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams. At 6’5″ and around 300 pounds during his playing days, he was an imposing figure on the football field.

But away from football, Rosey had a wonderfully unexpected passion: needlepoint.

From the Football Field to Needle and Thread

Rosey Grier enjoyed needlepoint, knitting, crochet and other forms of needlework at a time when these hobbies were generally associated with women.

And he wasn’t shy about it.

In 1973, he published Rosey Grier’s Needlepoint for Men, encouraging other men to discover the craft as well.

But there was another part of Rosey’s needlepoint story that I especially love.

Needlepoint Helped Him With His Fear of Flying

Rosey Grier had a fear of flying, something that could be especially difficult for a professional athlete who needed to travel.

Needlepoint became one of the ways he relaxed and calmed himself while flying.

He would stitch on airplanes, giving his hands and mind something else to concentrate on. He later spoke about needlepoint as something that relaxed him and helped take away his fear of flying.

Think about that for a moment: a nearly 300-pound member of the Los Angeles Rams’ famous “Fearsome Foursome,” sitting on an airplane with needle and canvas in hand because stitching helped him feel calmer.

For those of us who stitch today, that probably doesn’t sound strange at all.

We know that feeling.

You begin concentrating on the next stitch, then the next. Your breathing slows. Your attention moves away from whatever has been worrying you and toward the canvas in front of you.

Long before we regularly talked about crafting as a way to relax and quiet a busy mind, Rosey Grier had discovered it for himself.

A Needlepointer Ahead of His Time

Rosey’s story also challenged another idea—that needlework somehow belonged only to women.

Here was a professional football player openly enjoying needlepoint and eventually writing an entire book about it.

His message feels remarkably modern:

If something brings you joy or gives you peace, why should it matter whether someone thinks you’re “supposed” to do it?

Needlepoint doesn’t care who you are, how old you are, what career you had or whether you’ve ever picked up a needle before.

Needlepoint Is for Everybody

One of my favorite things about needlepoint is that there really is a place for everyone.

You can stitch a tiny ornament or spend months on an elaborate canvas. You can follow traditional stitches or experiment with metallic threads, silks, beads and unexpected colors.

And sometimes we stitch simply because it feels good to sit quietly and make something.

Rosey Grier’s story reminds us that needlepoint can be more than the finished piece. Sometimes the real gift is what happens while we’re stitching it.So the next time someone tells you needlepoint is just for little old ladies, you can smile and tell them about the 6’5″ NFL defensive lineman who carried his needlepoint onto airplanes.

Now that is one impressive Needlepointer !

Happy Stitching, BeeBee