Football Thug Becomes Relief Pitcher

James Trapp used to prey on people.

Now he prays for them.

The thug has turned thankful, touched by the Holy Spirit, he says, and is ready to start his new life as a Christian advisor for an NFL team. He has been serving an internship with the Atlanta Falcons and could eventually be promoted to team chaplain.

This is the same James Trapp who, as a Los Angeles Raiders defensive back, came off the sidelines at Denver and joined in an on-field brawl -- while in street clothes. The world-class sprinter who in college got into a fistfight on the medal stand, a melee in which the second-place finisher broke his plaque over Trapp’s head. The one who was nabbed kicking a prone Ed McCaffrey in the ribs after the Broncos receiver had caught a conversion pass.

Last week, after a similar incident, the NFL handed a record five-game suspension to a Tennessee Titans defensive lineman. Trapp can relate, or at least he could.

“The Lord has transformed me,” he said.

Feel free to write off Trapp’s story as yet another example of an athlete conveniently finding religion as a way to save face. He wouldn’t blame you.

“Everyone says they’re a believer until that tea bag hits the hot water,” he said. “Then you find out what flavor you really are.”

Trapp has known his share of hot water. He was Mr. Personal Foul during his 11 NFL seasons, drawing 15-yard penalties at every turn. That defined him even more than his blistering speed, which once earned him the title of NFL’s fastest man. He played from 1993 through 2003, with the Raiders, Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars.

“I was the epitome of an Oakland Raider from the ‘60s or ‘70s, and that’s why those people loved me,” he said. “They thought this guy doesn’t care, he’s going to say what he wants to say, he’s going to do what he needs to do. And that’s what I did.”

Trapp was no run-of-the-mill hothead. The Raiders sent him to an anger-management counselor, but that didn’t seem to work. He was among the league’s nastiest players, one who wore a self-described criminal scowl. In fact, he majored in criminology at Clemson and said he and his friends would have been great case studies for those classes. He figures he would have wound up in jail had he not been a pro football player.

“We lived in a glass jar as players,” he said, “but we had tinted windows.”

Trapp began to change when he got to Baltimore in 1999. He struck up a friendship with Rod Hairston, the team’s chaplain, and started attending Bible study, something for which he mocked his old Raiders teammates. One afternoon in chapel, Trapp did the unthinkable: He turned down an invitation to go bar-hopping with teammates. Instead, he went home and spent the night crying and praying, apologizing to God for never thanking him in the first place.

From that point on, Trapp and Hairston were inseparable.

“I ran copies off for him,” Trapp said. “Whenever he needed books to be read -- I was always an avid reader -- I would read. I would study. We just grew a bond there.”

The majority of NFL franchises have chaplains, who typically travel with the teams and are paid from player donations. It’s also typical for teams to arrange chapel and a Catholic Mass for players who want to attend church on the road.

The longer he stayed in Baltimore, the more involved with the church Trapp became. And, Hairston said, the interest was genuine.

“The things that drive and motivate most men in the NFL are notoriety, contracts, accolades,” Hairston said. “Those are the purposes for which most of these men live. But for a man who’s transformed, his purpose is to be pleasing to God in every way. That’s James through and through.”

Trapp, who also credits his agent with helping point him in the right direction, changed the name of his foundation from Trapp’s Corner, which he thought was too self-absorbed, to the Preparation for Opportunity Club. He called old teammates he had wronged. His marriage grew stronger. He stopped using foul language.

But he didn’t necessarily clean up his act on the field. When he was playing for Baltimore in 2002, after he intercepted a pass against Pittsburgh, he joined in a post-play skirmish. He ripped off the helmet of Steelers receiver Plaxico Burress, then hopped cleats-first onto his abdomen. Both players were ejected from the game.

“I still have my flare-ups, my issues,” Trapp said, thinking back on the episode, “because I’m not a perfect man.”

Trapp recently ran into former Raiders teammate Lionel Washington, now an assistant coach for Green Bay. Washington said he was “blown away” by what he saw and heard.

“If James can change his life,” Washington said, “anyone can.”

Ravens defensive back Chris McAlister said he wasn’t surprised by Trapp’s turnaround.

“His on-field antics and his religious beliefs are two different things,” McAlister said. “When he walks off that field, you wouldn’t know it was him out there.”

Maybe that’s why Trapp now cringes at the way he behaved as a player.

“You’re embarrassed,” he said. “In your heart of hearts, you weren’t thinking. You’re not out there to injure another player, because you wouldn’t want that done to you.”

So the player who once wore Silver & Black now lives by the golden rule. By all accounts, Trapp is a new man.

Maybe Albert Haynesworth will fall in line.

sam.farmer@latimes.com