Hall of Famer Tim Brown, aka Mr. Raider, always kept the faith

Tim Brown finished his career as “Mr. Raider,” having spent 16 seasons and 240 games with the organization. Yet, the face of the franchise didn’t exactly fit the mold of the meanest, nastiest team in the NFL.

Brown didn’t smoke, drink or curse. He grew up in the Church of God in Christ, and in 1996, after losing his way for a few years, became a born-again Christian. He openly talked about God, faith and Christianity.

His teammates loved him anyway.

“I think all those things happened, because I played great football,” Brown said. “You can be as good a guy as you can possibly be, but if you’re not playing great football in an NFL locker room, nobody is going to follow you. I think if I would have been a guy who was just a guy then I think it would have been totally different. I realized as much as I want to do this Christian thing and this God thing, that I had to play great football, because nobody wants a guy who doesn’t allow you to play good football. That’s just the fact of the matter. But it was rather enduring. It didn’t happen overnight.

“When I made my so-called change in 1996, it really took halfway through the season of 1997 before guys really locked in on what I was doing and realized that I was trying to do something that was really different. … When I came into the locker room and if certain conversations were happening, [Charlie Garner] would say, ‘Hey, Mr. Brown is here.’ They would at least allow me to pass through before they would continue their conversations. We were in the weight room when it was time for the receivers to lift when gospel music was put on and nobody said anything.”

It took a while for Raiders owner Al Davis to warm to Brown. Paul Gruber was the Raiders’ target in the 1988 draft, but the Wisconsin tackle went fourth overall to the Tampa Bay Bucs. The Raiders reluctantly selected Brown.

“We were trying our darndest to move up and take Paul Gruber and could never get there,” then Raiders general manger Ron Wolf said. “Al was not in the room when we picked Tim Brown. He was upset that we couldn’t get up there [to take Gruber].

“… Tim Brown went first [among the receivers available], then Michael Irvin, then Sterling Sharpe. I think you could have taken any one of those guys and would have been successful. Tim really filled a big need for us as a return guy as well as a starting receiver. It was kind of a no-brainer.”

Brown’s 1,070 catches for 14,734 yards and 99 touchdowns likely won Davis over. Brown’s gold jacket certainly would have.

Brown will become the 15th Raider in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday when he and seven others, including Wolf, earn induction. He received his gold jacket Thursday night during the Gold Jacket dinner.

Brown, a Woodrow Wilson High School graduate, also establishes a first: He is the only player from the Dallas Independent School District to gain enshrinement in Canton.

“It was just a matter of time for him to get there,” said Leon Hamilton, Brown’s high school coach.

Even in high school, Brown was known as Mr. Nice Guy.

Hamilton will talk about Brown’s athleticism, how Brown finished second in the long jump in his first meet as a freshman and began beating veteran varsity players deep as a sophomore. But Hamilton would rather talk about Brown’s character.

“What made him so good was his personality,” Hamilton said. “If you said, ‘Tim, there’s some trash over there in the corner, will you go get that?’ He was the first one to get the broom. He was just that kind of young man. He was a fine young man. He was the same every time you saw him. He didn’t brag. He just played, and he was nice. It was just an honor and a privilege to be around him.”

By Brown’s junior year of high school, everyone who saw him considered Brown special. It turns out they were right: He earned a scholarship to Notre Dame, in 1987 became the first wide receiver to win the Heisman Trophy and was made the No. 6 overall pick of the Raiders in 1988.

“His sophomore year [of high school], we knew he was doing really, really well,” said Don Kelly, Brown’s older brother and his presenter. “He could do things on the field that a lot of people couldn’t. So you started seeing it then. By the time he was in his junior year, you knew he was really, really special. There wasn’t any doubt. You have to let a lot of things kind of develop, and you can’t make people out to be something when they’re a sophomore. But when they’re sophomores and doing it and dominating when they’re playing juniors and seniors, then you start to know there’s something special there for sure.”

Brown never won a championship. Woodrow Wilson was 4-25-1 in his three seasons on varsity. Notre Dame went 25-21 in his four seasons there. In 17 NFL seasons — 16 with the Raiders and one with the Bucs — Brown’s teams were 139-133.

In 24 seasons of football at the varsity level or higher, Brown played on only eight winning teams. The 2002 Raiders lost to the Buccaneers 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII in Brown’s best shot at a title.

He signed with the Denver Broncos, who had John Elway at quarterback, in 1994, in search of a title, only to have the Raiders match the four-year, $11 million offer. He finished his career in Tampa Bay in 2004 in hopes of a last chance at glory, but the Bucs went 4-12.

“I was so focused on trying to finish my career and trying to get to the Super Bowl and win a Super Bowl that that was all that mattered to me,” Brown said.

Brown played with 22 quarterbacks in his pro career, with the best being Rich Gannon, the 2002 NFL MVP. Donald Hollas, Wade Wilson, Billy Joe Hobert and Chris Simms dot the list.

“I think I can get to like 14, 15 [naming them], and I won’t try now,” Brown said. “I sort of have to look up those other eight or nine guys.

“It was very difficult. At the same time, I was able to get done what I needed to get done to accomplish personal things. … I just never allowed myself to go there as far as thinking about what if I would have had Joe Montana or John Elway my entire career.”

It took Brown six years to earn induction into Canton. Six years of being a finalist. Six years of waiting.

But Brown always kept the faith.

This story was originally published August 6, 2015 at 1:29 PM with the headline "Hall of Famer Tim Brown, aka Mr. Raider, always kept the faith."