LeRoy Butler

How about a story of overcoming much adversity in life and physical limitations. The Story of LeRoy Butler has these elements and more that helped shape his Hall of Fame career.

To play twelve seasons in the NFL is quite an accomplishment. To play on a Super Bowl-winning team, invent one of the top touchdown celebrations of all time, did something in his NFL career that no other DB had done, and was a repetitive NFL All-Pro during the course of those dozen years in professional football is utterly amazing! These are just some of the accolades of Strong Safety LeRoy Butler.

A Rough Start

Let’s start at the beginning of his football story though. LeRoy Butler III was born in Jacksonville, Florida on July 19, 1968. He grew up there in J-ville in the Blodgett Homes housing project, according to LeRoyButlerInc.com. His parents separated when he was very young, and LeRoy and three siblings lived with their mother Eunice in a small apartment in the projects. The family had plenty to deal with as they lived in poverty, in a crime-ridden area of the city, and LeRoy had a physical issue. The boy’s feet were severely pigeon-toed to the point where the only correction was surgery, so at a mere eight months of age, physicians had to break the bones of Butler’s feet to resolve the condition, in what had to be an excruciatingly painful procedure. It was not something that healed quickly either as the boy spent most of his early childhood in a wheelchair, and then as he became school-aged he needed to wear leg braces to walk. Not a normal healthy childhood at all for this young man. The bleak expert prognosis was that he would probably never walk normally.

As fate would have it, one day while sitting in his wheelchair an eight-year-old LeRoy was accidentally knocked out of the chair and separated from his braces when his older sister ran excitedly from the family home. Shaken, LeRoy gathered himself and found that not only could he walk normally without apparatus assistance to collect his items, but he could run. In fact just moments later, amazingly he joined in a neighborhood kickball game!

Less than two years removed from needing the wheelchair, Butler was playing on the local youth football team. He played through the ranks of that level of ball, learning the fundamentals of the game, and had become an exceptional player. So good that Jacksonville gridiron high school powerhouse Robert E. Lee High School Generals recruited him to come and play football. The General’s football coach was none other than the winningest scholastic coach in Florida history, Corky Rogers, whose teams were winners of 8 State titles. Butler was one of Lee High School’s top players as he was a unanimous All-America pick, and he was heavily recruited by colleges all across the country. 

The youngster suffered more tragedy in his life when he witnessed a good friend die. The boys were at a bus stop when they witnessed a shootout during a police chase. They ran away from the incident but soon LeRoy discovered that he was running alone. His friend had succumbed to a stray bullet to the head that killed the youth per a story on GoLongTD.com. The strength of faith and the support of his loving mother, uncles, and grandmother helped the youngster overcome the tragedy and the circumstances of the environment he lived in.

College Star

LeRoy carefully weighed all of his options and finally accepted a football scholarship to Florida State University. He was part of a talented secondary for the Seminoles as Butler shared the defensive backfield for two years with two-sport superstar Deion Sanders. Butler was a three-year starter, under the direction of Head Coach Bobby Bowden. During his collegiate career, he recorded 194 tackles and 9 interceptions.

Perhaps the highlight of his time at Florida State was his role in the "puntrooskie" play. The ‘Noles were pitted against rival Clemson in a 1988 contest. There was but a minute and 30 seconds left to play with the score tied at 21, and FSU was backed up to its own 21-yard line, facing fourth down. From the sideline, Bowden called for the fake punt play that he had drawn up earlier and the team had practiced for. The snap instead of heading to the punter went to up back Dayne Williams and he took it and then slipped the ball to Butler, who ran 78 yards before being taken down. It had caught the Tigers flatfooted and had set up the game-winning field goal for the Seminoles.

Going Pro

LeRoy was selected by Green Bay in the second round of the 1990 NFL Draft. Butler admitted that whenn Linde Infante had called him about the GB selection, the new Packer told his new boss that he wasn't quite sure where Wisconsin even was! He soon figured it out and where his place was in the NFL too. During the 12 seasons with the franchise, he played in 181 regular-season games, 14 playoff games, and won a Super Bowl ring after defeating the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl XXXI at end of the 1996 season.  His career stats are off the charts as he recorded 953 tackles,38 interceptions,553 return yards, 12 fumble recoveries, 3 defensive touchdowns and 20.5 sacks. This made him become the first defensive back in the history of the League to reach the 20 sack/20 interception milestone. Butler was either the leader or tied for the top spot on the team in interceptions in five different seasons with the Pack. Butler is also credited with being the player that created the famous Lambeau Leap, where Packers players celebrate by jumping into the stands after a big play such as a score.

To complete his career resume, as previously mentioned, he was selected All-Pro four times, and was selected to the Pro Bowl four times (1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998). He was named to the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team by the Pro Football Hall of Fame and later inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 2007. He was not only a good teammate when he played but still shows support to fellow former players, even being an ear for them to sound their problems to and preventing some suicidal thoughts. LeRoy Butler III, that poor kid from the ghetto that wouldn’t ever be able to even walk normally, defied the odds and became one of the top athletes that Professional Football has ever seen and possibly even a better human being.
 

The banner photo is of Zach Laskey rushing with the ball at the 2014 ACC Championship Game, contributed by Thomson200.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com