FEELING THE ‘LUV’
Bitter at the game for a time, Robert Brazile caps his reconciliation with football: ‘I’m finally home’
Outside linebacker Robert Brazile gave a fist pump of approval Saturday night when his bust was unveiled in Canton, Ohio, where he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Brazile, “Dr. Doom,” was presented by his father, Robert Sr., 86. His mother, Ola Mae, also 86, was in front of the stage cheering for her oldest son.
On a clear and warm night at Tom Benson Stadium, Brazile was enshrined with six more members of the Class of 2018: Ray Lewis, Randy Moss, Brian Urlacher, Brian Dawkins, Jerry Kramer and Bobby Beathard.
Terrell Owens boycotted the induction and choose to give his acceptance speech Saturday afternoon at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he played college football.
Likely the last Oiler inductee
Brazile said last week he had practiced his speech every day for the past few months. He was the first to the podium Saturday night.
“When I told my wife Brenda that I didn’t know how to start this speech, she looked at me and said, ‘I don’t think starting the speech will be your problem,’ ” Brazile said.
With family members, friends and teammates applauding from their seats in Brazile’s section, he made what probably was the last acceptance speech by an Oiler.
Brazile paid tribute to Oilers who preceded him into the Hall of Fame, including Earl Campbell, Ken Houston, Elvin Bethea, Curley Culp, Mike Munchak, Warren Moon and Bruce Matthews.
Brazile, a first-round pick in 1975 and a proud member of the Luv Ya Blue Oilers, came to Houston the same year as coach Bum Phillips. Brazile wore the belt buckle that Phillips, who died in 2013, gave him to wear at his induction.
After not missing a start during his 10-year career (1975-84), earning Pro Bowl recognition seven times and being voted first-team All-Pro five times, Brazile waited 34 years after his retirement to be elected into the Hall of Fame.
Brazile reminisced about growing up in Alabama, “Where my mother was my first coach.”
He also talked about competing with his brothers for bath water and putting electrical tape on the back of his home-made jerseys with numbers and names of his favorite linebackers — Dick Butkus and Willie Lanier.
Brazile played at Jackson State, where he became teammates and best friends with running back Walter Payton, also a first-round pick enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
“At that time, Walter was bringing scouts from all over to our practices,” he said. “This turned out to be great for Walter and me because we were making history — two first-round draft picks from a historically black college or university.
“We got phone calls that we had been drafted by the NFL. The ’75 NFL draft phone call was important because it brought me in contact with Bud Adams and his family. It gave me a second father, Bum Phillips.”
In his speech, Brazile looked back at his career and how it ended during the 1985 preseason. Hugh Campbell was the Oilers’ coach. Brazile remembers getting a knock on his hotel room door telling him the head coach wanted to see him.
“The head coach told me that I was not going to start,” Brazile said. “They had decided to go with the younger players — the ones I had mentored the whole summer. (It) destroyed me. I fell out of love with football for the first time in my life.”
Brazile returned to Alabama to teach, coach and donate his time and effort to the community. He coached a lot of players who earned college scholarships and went on to play in the NFL.
“That’s why people from Mobile like to say, ‘There’s got to be something in the water.’ ”
Brazile didn’t stay bitter at football for long.
“After coming home (to Alabama), it would be phone calls from people like Bum and Debbie Phillips, Amy Adams Strunk, Eddie Biles, Dan Pastorini, Kelleyne Mackey, Rob Lynch, Billy ‘White Shoes’ Johnson, Carl Mauck, Gregg Bingham, DeWayne Benson, Vernon Perry, Kenny Burrough and other teammates that would bring back the love I once had for football,” he said. “All of these phone calls were important because they would keep the Luv Ya Blue’ family together after the Oilers moved to Tennessee (1997) and became the Titans.”
Fateful knock on the door
Brazile, who was nominated for induction by the seniors committee, thanked the Hall of Fame, the Class of 2018, the voters and everyone who supported him.
“Last August, when the phone call came from Dave Baker (Hall of Fame president), the Senior HOF Committee, and a few Hall of Famers — I began to have hope that football might be ready to love me back,” said Brazile, one of two senior nominees with Kramer.
Brazile learned he finally had been elected into the Hall of Fame when Baker knocked on his hotel room door in Minneapolis the day before the Super Bowl.
“When Dave knocked on my door in February, all of my dreams came true,” Brazile said. “And, after all these years, I’m finally home.”
john.mcclain@chron.com twitter.com/mcclain_on_nfl