Brown Gives All-Purpose New Meaning

It’s always a heartwarming story when the individual you don’t expect much of becomes a big star.

The walk-on with the eyeglasses who becomes the school’s all-time All-American. The Indian pony they lead in on a rope who wins the Kentucky Derby. The understudy who goes out on stage as a nobody and comes back a star. The last-minute substitute on the card who knocks out the champ. The mild-mannered, 4-eyed newspaperman who turns out to be Superman. The 98-pound weakling who kicks sand in the bully’s face.

It’s a sure-fire formula in story and song. Horatio Alger got rich on it. Hollywood sold it to the world. Disney copyrighted it.

And now it’s happened to, of all people, the L.A. Raiders.

The Raiders didn’t draft until sixth in the order last season, so they didn’t expect too much. But you make do.

I mean, Aundray Bruce, the linebacker, was gone; Bennie Blades, the cornerback, was gone. So were Rickey Dixon, Paul Gruber, the Boz and Neil Smith, the pass-rusher.

So, the Raiders sighed and took what they could get. In this case, it was Timothy Donell Brown, of the Dallas, Tex., Browns, a nice enough young man, soft-spoken, dependable. He’d gone to Notre Dame, which was good, but he was a kind of what-is-it quantity on the football field, which wasn’t.

Then, too, he had won the Heisman Trophy. Now, for those of you who think this would be a big plus, you haven’t been paying close attention. Heisman winners have historically been something less than sensational in the pros.

Pat Sullivan, Steve Spurrier, Johnny Rodgers, Terry Baker and Archie Griffin never lit up any pro scoreboards. Even the last Notre Damer to win it, John Huarte, never started a season in the pros.

Besides, there was the notion that for a Notre Damer to win it, all he had to do was be able to frost a glass and not fumble too much.

The Raiders took Tim Brown sort of because he was there. When you see a new Cadillac going for $10,000 below list, you buy it, even though you don’t need it.

Tim Brown was more than just a Heisman winner. He was only the third non-running back, non-quarterback ever to win the award. He had won it despite instructing the publicity department he wanted no gimmick promotions or handouts beyond the bare bones of his achievements on the field.

Still, the Raiders weren’t sure what to do with him. He’s probably the only guy in history who ever won the Heisman returning kicks. His flashiest statistics were running back punts and kickoffs. Against Michigan State last season, he returned consecutive punts 76 and 61 yards for touchdowns as Notre Dame beat the eventual Rose bowl champion, 31-8.

He pioneered a new category, all-purpose player. He ran the ball, 98 times in his college career; he caught passes, 137, and he ran back kicks, 106. He scored 4 touchdowns as a running back, 12 as a wide receiver, 3 returning punts and 3 returning kickoffs. He averaged 167 yards a game in his senior or Heisman season. He had 5 touchdown plays called back for penalties, including a 97-yard kickoff return against Penn State.

It’s hard to believe that five teams could find five better players than this in the draft. It’s hard to see where the skepticism came from. But it persisted.

Before the draft, the pro scouting combines assembled the prospects at an informal tryout camp in Indianapolis. The rumor mill said that Tim Brown was shifty but not fast. So, Tim Brown went down to Indy and ran off some fractions for their stopwatches that would have put him on the pole.

He ripped off a few easy 4.38s and 4.35s for their timers, then put his sweats back on and went home. He disdained the vertical-jump stuff, the agility drills. He figured 8 years of top-flight football had amply demonstrated his agility. And he had been a top sprinter and quarter-miler in high school.

It’s hard to believe the Raiders didn’t have high hopes for this terrific Tim. But kickoff specialists are a dime a dozen in the National Football League, and this rookie wide receiver was coming onto a team that was crawling with experienced wide receivers, some of the best in the business. How do you even make a team that has James Lofton, Mervyn Fernandez and Willie Gault--to say nothing of Todd Christensen, Trey Junkin and backs coming out of the backfield such as Marcus Allen?

Even Brown’s Heisman didn’t stand out. There were three of them on the team.

It’s hard to think of a Heisman-Notre Dame luminary, the most celebrated college player of his season as a surprise in his pro debut. But Tim Brown has made a lot of NFL owners look frowningly at their general managers.

He is not only the Raiders’ leading pass receiver, he is the conference’s leading rookie receiver. He has 38 catches for 617 yards and 4 touchdowns.

But that’s only a small part of his effectiveness. He has returned 46 punts for 436 yards and 30 kickoffs for 878 yards. He has 47 yards rushing from scrimmage. He needs 295 all-purpose yards in the remaining 2 games to set an NFL single-season record for a rookie. The record, 2,272 yards, is held by Gale Sayers.

Says Raider Coach Mike Shanahan: “He makes the whole team play better when he’s got the ball because they know he can do something with it.”

Who would have thought you’d get a star like this out of a Heisman? Here’s a guy who started at the top and went up, who rose above the adversity of reputation. Before him, all-purpose used to signify a guy who did a lot of things--with mediocrity.

Tim Brown does so many things so well, the Raiders should just be glad he never took up baseball.