Tim Brown: Football Legend, Proud Christian

Hall of Fame inductee: "You have to take a stand on who you are."

By Chris Turner Published on March 6, 2015

CHRIS TURNER — Tim Brown is considered one of the best wide receivers in football history. After becoming the first receiver to win the Heisman Trophy in 1987, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish star was drafted sixth overall by the Los Angeles (now Oakland) Raiders. When he retired from the NFL in 2004, Brown was ranked second in all-time receiving yards, third in receptions and tied for third in receiving touchdowns. In August, Brown will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

I was recently able to ask Tim Brown some questions regarding the changing NFL culture, his illustrious career and his relationship with God.


Chris Turner: Congrats on the Hall of Fame. How does it feel a few weeks later?

Tim Brown: It feels great — incredible honor.

CT: You played wide receiver at a time where it was more physical than it is today, and you were able to stay relatively healthy over your 17 years. Can you explain that?

TB: I tore my knee up in the first game of my second year and missed the rest of the season, but other than that, over the next 15 years I only missed one game and I could’ve played, but the Raiders staff didn’t let me.

CT: Any reasons why you stayed healthy after that? Were you just disciplined in taking care of your body? Fortunate?

TB: You can name all those reasons right there, and you can throw “crazy” on top of it. There are some times I played and probably shouldn’t have played, and times I practiced and probably shouldn’t have, but certainly I did what I thought was an incredible job of taking care of my body. I had two massages every week, I had two chiropractor appointments every week. I didn’t drink, smoke or party or any of that crazy stuff. I knew that Wednesdays and Thursdays were hard working days, so I made sure on Tuesday and Wednesday nights I got eight hours of sleep. I’d get in bed at 8:00. There was nothing more important than my job at that point. My family was doing well, everything was in its proper place and once I stepped inside the Raiders’ facility it was all about the business at hand.

CT: Do you see any changes between your generation and this new generation? Are there any differences in work ethic between now and then? Do kids take it as seriously?

TB: I think the difference is we had to work much harder to keep everything going. I believe now the money has influenced how hard these kids work and how hard they’ll push themselves to be a good player. I was telling my wife the other day: My last year in the league when I was in Tampa we were playing a game and this rookie was getting mouthed you this and you that, and he came to our sideline and said, “I just cashed a $12 million check yesterday.” (Laughs) Then everybody shut up. If you look at that guy he’s probably made $100 million over his career, but he’s probably not as good as he could’ve been. So many players are great athletes that could be great football players but they just end up being good.

I’m not blaming them. We played the game for financial security to get ourselves to a certain point, and then it became the legacy we wanted to leave. From that standpoint, if I was in their position where I could get a $12 million check, maybe I don’t go over the middle. Maybe I don’t go full speed in there. Maybe I say, hey man, stop me at the numbers. You hope that these young guys see the Hall of Fame stuff going on and they want to leave that type of a legacy.

CT: You see a lot of diagnosed injuries in regards to football today. What are your thoughts on athletes who are parents coming out and saying they won’t let their kids play football?

TB: If a kid’s athletic, there’s no sport that’s going to be safe. If your kids play basketball it’s quite possible he’s going to catch an elbow in the head, or he’s going to hit his head on the court at some point. If you play baseball — my son pitched — he threw the ball and a line drive came right back at him. Fortunately he had the instinct to get his glove up, but it could’ve caught him right in the forehead. My point is: Athletics is a risk. Pretty much anything today is a risk. But if you have people that are fundamentally sound that risk goes down.

Think about the great hitters in the NFL, late 1980s to the early 2000s.  You look at Dennis Smith and Ronnie Lott and all these great guys; we didn’t hear a lot about concussions back then, because they knew how to hit you. They weren’t head hunting, they were trying to hit you in the chest. Not with their helmet, but with their shoulder pads. I saw Ronnie Lott knock out one of my teammates by hitting him in the chest. The point is the NFL — instead of fining guys, and they have tried — needs to teach these players how. Now guys are leading with their head, and we were taught to get your head across the body and catch them with whichever shoulder, but they don’t teach that anymore.

CT: I would like to transition now into your personal and spiritual life. You’re an outspoken Christian. Can you tell me how you came to Christ?

TB: Well, I was born and raised in church. I always knew there was a lot more to this thing than just catching balls. It’s taken me some time to get to where I can speak on where I am at this particular point. There are lot of things you have to go through; you have to make sure that you’re ready and know that you’re ready. You don’t want to be letting people down. I’m not saying you’re going to fail — and you’re not going to fail — but I certainly didn’t want to be failing in big ways like I was before. I had been taught very well, and I knew what was expected of me, so it was really a matter of getting to a point where I knew it was something I wanted to do and sticking to it.

CT: How hard is it when you’re young, though? You come out of college a Heisman trophy winner, fairly well known and you make some money and you’re young. How do you deal with the external temptations?

TB: Well for me, I had a pretty simple philosophy. When I got saved, one of the things I asked God for was the spirit of discernment. I needed to know who was around me and why they were around me. Not that I was out in public trying to read people’s minds, but people would always tell you who they are. They would always tell you what their intentions are when they’re around you. So for me, when I’m around people, I can always tell when the enemy is present. If I tell a young lady that I’m happily married and that I love God and she is still coming at me, I have to understand that she is the enemy. It’s just that simple.

If I tell a brother I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and he says “Come on Tim, man, you gotta have a drink with me,” well, then I know this person is the enemy. Not that I say anything to them, but now I know who I’m dealing with and how to react to them. I don’t have to lie to them or rebuke them in the name of Jesus or anything like that. I just know who I’m dealing with. I always get that out there, that I’m not going to do those types of things. That’s how I handle those situations. I don’t find myself being tempted by things, because to be tempted means you’re allowing yourself to be taken in by this thing and I think over the years, I’ve learned how to not get myself in that situation.

CT: Were you able to influence anyone throughout your time in the league? When you were a veteran did some of the younger guys look at you and see the way you did things? Were you able to influence anyone in that way in regards to Christ?

TB: I think that there were certain players, I won’t name names, but they came up to me and said they really appreciated how I handled myself in a spiritual manner in the four or five years they played with me. I believe the things that I did early in my career were just a setup or a platform for me, to have a testimony to be able to tell these young guys, look, yeah I was in L.A. doing “XYZ,” so you guys are in the same spot I was in. If God can take me from what he took me from, he can take you from where you are now. I think that was always my testimony.

I wasn’t one of those Bible-thumping guys that came in preaching. You have to be a little careful about how you spread your God around the locker room because it can turn some guys off. But when you have guys coming and asking you questions, then they’re willing to listen to whatever you have to say.

Tim Brown Heisman

CT: So was that your philosophy?  To lead by example and then they’ll come to you because they know you’re real?

TB: That’s exactly right. You have to take a stand on who you are. But I don’t think you broadcast that to the locker room. If you’re doing things for the right reason, God is going to put you in situations where his will (is going to) be done. You don’t have to put yourself on Broadway … God will put you there when he knows you’re ready and not before.

CT: Now that you’re done with football, what is next for Tim Brown as an individual person? Is it testimony? Speaking?

TB: I plan to do those things, but one of the things that has been in my heart for years is the education of young people. I think I’m going to be given some real opportunities to not [just] mentor young people, but to be in a position to encourage them to seek education first and foremost in their life. I want to take this big responsibility and accomplishment God has given me and turn it in to something years from now people can say, “Well, he did good on the football field, but look at what he did off the field.” That’s what I’m trying to accomplish at this point.

CT: What would you say to someone like myself, for example? I’m 22. As far as just approaching life in general in business, athletics and just staying faithful to God through a big transition phase in life?

TB: Right, I tell people that stage in life is the most difficult because you have so many things coming at you. You’re trying to figure this thing and that thing out, and good Lord let’s not throw the women thing in there: “Oh my God I love her so much, I’m too attracted to her.” (Laughs). It’s real, man. I believe God is faithful through all of that. The one thing we always have to do, is seek the Bible. The Bible gives us all the direction, but we don’t always want to do that because it might mean I’ll have less fun and it won’t be as easy if I do that. In the end, I can tell you some of the things I did when I was 18-20 years old I can’t get out of my mind. It can affect my relationship with my wife, because I can’t do those things I used to do. You can’t get those things out of your head. I wish I would’ve done things differently. You can’t “misremember” things like Roger Clemens said. I wish I could … it would’ve made my relationship with my wife better. What I advise young men to do is to seek God and read the Bible.


One of the things that stood out to me the most, even over the phone, was that Tim Brown came across as a very humble man. He sees what the NFL did for him as an opportunity to pursue a bigger plan of God’s.

It’s not easy being a Christian, but it’s definitely worth it. As we see in 1 John 5:3 – “In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands.” If a man who achieved everything as an athlete can humble himself before the Lord, I think I can, too.

 

Chris Turner is a student at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

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