Maybe it was the chance to keep his hand in the game that led Mike London to give up a potential career in law enforcement to coach football.

Maybe it was the chance to help kids after a few years of facing the daily despair on the mean streets of Richmond.

Or maybe it was having a gun aimed at his face at point-blank range that persuaded him that a live role model is better than a cold statistic.

London, the newest addition to the William and Mary football coaching staff, has come full circle. Raised in a stable, loving, family environment, he has gone from the security of a college campus as a player at the University of Richmond, to the harshest form of police work, back to the relative serenity of coaching, first at Richmond and now at William and Mary.

``You hear about guys kissing their wife and kids goodbye in the morning and thinking it may be the last time they see them,'' London said. ``You really do think about that sometimes. That's why I don't take anything for granted. I appreciate everything I have.''

As for a comparison between police work and coaching football, he jokes: ``Nobody shoots at you when you're a football coach.''

London, a 30-year-old native of Hampton who attended Bethel High, was hired at William and Mary in late February. He replaced longtime Tribe defensive assistant Don McCauley, who left to take a coaching job in Italy.

View/Submit Comments for this story

Defensive duties were juggled when London arrived. Defensive coordinator Phil Janaro, who had been coaching the secondary, took over the linebackers for McCauley. Russ Huesman, who had worked with the defensive linemen, took over in the secondary, and London was given the defensive line.

London received glowing reviews as the Tribe completed spring football last Saturday.

``He's a very solid individual,'' head coach Jimmye Laycock said. ``That's the biggest thing I look for in a coach is what type person he is. I think he's fit in very well.

``He's got a good understanding of football, and because he's had kind of a varied background, he's dealt with people in different situations. And I think that helps.''

It's a safe bet that he's the first assistant coach Laycock has hired who's been shot at.

``Like I said, he has a varied background,'' Laycock joked.

London played defensive back at Richmond, where he majored in sociology and criminal justice and graduated in 1983. Tryouts with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and USFL's Chicago Blitz were cut short because of injuries.

``I had a family,'' said London, who married in his junior year at Richmond and now has four children. ``I figured it was time to get a real job.''

He returned to Richmond and joined the police force in late 1984, figuring to put his education to work. He spent a year as a patrolman and volunteered to work in and around the city's housing projects.

He was promoted to detective after only a year-and-a-half, and much of his time was spent undercover and in surveillance, dealing with repeat offenders.

London has a hundred ``war'' stories. Among the most chilling was a night when he and his partner tried to stop a van that allegedly was involved in a robbery.

With badges and guns drawn, they approached the van. The driver stomped on the gas pedal and tried to run over them, so London and his partner gave chase on foot.

``I'm running alongside reaching in and try to yank the driver out the door,'' London said. ``I look over and see there's a gun pointed right at my face. A gun barrel looks a lot bigger when it's pointed right at you than it normally does.''

The driver never got off a shot.

``To this day I don't know if it wouldn't fire or if he couldn't get off a shot or what the reason was,'' London said.

When Jim Marshall got the head coaching job at Richmond in 1989, London thought he might want to change jobs. London had played for Marshall when he was an assistant under Dal Shealy.

``I still had football in my veins,'' said London, whose family is tied to the game. He is the oldest of four children, and both of his younger brothers also played. Gary was a defensive back at East Carolina in the mid-'80s, and Paul was an all-district quarterback at Bethel last year. He will play at the University of Virginia in the fall.

London spent the next two years as a part-time assistant for the Spiders. But with a young family he needed a more secure position, so he went to the football coaches' convention in January looking for a full-time job.

Louis Anderson, a longtime high school coach in the Richmond area, had gotten the Virginia State head coaching job and was set to hire London as an assistant. But a delay in the paperwork left London hanging when he learned of the William and Mary opening. He applied, and the bureaucratic wheels moved more quickly at W&M.

``I'm fortunate,'' London said. ``I've seen the other side, where people don't have opportunities. Hey, I was blessed to have what I have, and I want to take advantage of my opportunities and get where I have to go.''