Brunell a Huge Success in Uniting Jacksonville

After every home game, the Jacksonville Jaguars and their families and friends gather in a tent behind the south end zone for a little food and drink and lots of fellowship courtesy of quarterback Mark Brunell, who suggested holding the get-together to promote team unity.

Brunell is a deeply religious man who also has helped organize a weekly Bible study class for some of his teammates. He does not drink alcohol, but when he suggested sponsoring the postgame gathering to team officials, he recommended that beer be served for anyone who wanted to partake.

“He may not drink it, but it’s there,” said Michael Huyghue, the team’s senior vice president for football operations. “I think Mark just wanted to have something where everyone would feel comfortable--the religious guys, the not-so-religious guys. It’s just a good time to be with your teammates, and Mark didn’t want to be making any statements. He’s just a very special guy.”

The Jaguars and most of their opponents find out how special almost every week. The Jaguars (5-1) lost 17-16 last week in Buffalo, but they won their first five games. Brunell has directed three come-from-behind victories after Jacksonville trailed in the fourth quarter. He has completed 64 percent of his passes this season. Now the Jaguars are preparing for today’s game in Denver, a possible preview of the AFC title game in January.

The comparisons between Brunell, 28, and San Francisco’s Steve Young have been obvious for a couple of seasons. Each beats opponents with his arm, his legs and his head. Each is left-handed, wears No. 8 and has a squeaky-clean image. Each leads one of the NFL’s best teams, though the Jaguars are only four years old.

Brunell found himself in the middle of some controversy this past summer when some national attention was focused on Chicago Bears rookie running back Curtis Enis and his dealings with an organization known as Champions For Christ (CFC).

Enis, the Bears’ No. 1 draft choice and a holdout for most of the summer, fired his first agent and hired Greg Feste to represent him. Feste is good friends with fellow born-again Christian Greg Ball, who runs CFC but is not an ordained minister. At least two teams, including the Bears, asked the NFL to investigate an organization that reportedly asks its members--including Brunell, Jacksonville tackle Tony Boselli and Redskins cornerback Darrell Green--to donate portions of their salary to CFC.

“Each guy on this team is free to do whatever he wants to do,” Brunell said. “I read where some people had a problem with what was going on with our Bible study. But no one has ever said that to me, no one has ever said one word to me face to face. There’s no tension on this team. I don’t see any dissension in this locker room. If someone feels uncomfortable, I wish they’d say so. . . . Everyone in here is old enough to make their own decision.”

Dave Jamerson, a former Houston Rocket who is CFC’s spokesman, said 40 current NFL players attended the group’s national conference in Austin, Texas, last June. He said the group does not require athletes to specifically donate money, but that “a handful of players,” including Brunell, Boselli and Jacksonville linebacker Bryan Schwartz, pay 10 percent of their yearly salaries to the group.

“Our motto is to reach athletes and build leaders,” Jamerson said. “We’re evangelistic, and we want to reach athletes.”

These days, the Jaguars hardly look like a team in any sort of turmoil. Winning has a lot to do with that. But Huyghue, one of the NFL’s highest-ranking black executives, also gives much of the credit to Brunell.

“Religion has been a strong foundation that balances him,” Huyghue said. “Mark thinks that every skill he has is from God. It allows him to be comfortable with people, and particularly with the black players. I’m not talking about speaking in the vernacular or anything like that. It’s just a genuine graciousness that comes through to anyone who deals with him.”

Brunell was at the top of Jaguars Coach Tom Coughlin’s list when he began building the foundation for his football team in 1994. Brunell was a fifth-round draft choice out of the University of Washington, taken by the Green Bay Packers in 1993, the same year Drew Bledsoe and Rick Mirer were the first two picks in the draft. Brunell slipped because of concerns about his size (6 feet 1, 218 pounds) and a serious knee injury he suffered in 1991.

In Green Bay, Brunell didn’t play at all his rookie season, then earned the back-up spot behind Brett Favre in ’94. In 1995, the Jaguars traded a third- and a fifth-round pick for Brunell. This year, they extended his contract--for a total of $32.5 million--through the 2002 season.

Brunell shared playing time with Steve Beuerlein early in the ’95 season before taking over a 4-12 team. In ‘96, Brunell led the Jaguars to the AFC title game, where they lost to New England. Along the way, Brunell’s daring runs and brilliant passing helped the Jaguars bump the Broncos out of the playoffs, a favor returned by Denver last year when it sent the Jaguars home in a wild-card playoff game.

Brunell suffered what appeared to be a major and potentially season-ending knee injury in the second preseason game last year. But 45 days later, without surgery, he was back on the field as the team’s starter in the third game of the season, citing divine intervention for his seemingly miraculous recovery.

Wearing a knee brace most of the ’97 season forced Brunell to stay in the pocket, and gave him an even greater appreciation of the drop-back passing game. These days, he is not running nearly as much as he did in ‘96, when he gained 396 yards and became the first player since Johnny Unitas in 1963 to lead all NFL quarterbacks in both passing and running yards. But he will take off when he must, and, like Young, has no qualms about putting down his head occasionally for extra yards.

“He’s making a difference all over the field,” Jaguars wide receiver Keenan McCardell said. “He’s a guy totally at peace with himself. He realizes everything is going to come for him, so there’s nothing that really bothers him or pressures him. He’s really having a lot of fun playing.”