LeRoy Butler played with one QB (Favre), faced cast of thousands. Who were those guys?
Ten quick notes on Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2022 member LeRoy Butler.
- Many Browns fans quit following the NFL in 1996 because their team had just been hijacked to Baltimore. It was the season LeRoy Butler and the Packers won a Super Bowl under Mike Holmgren, beating Bill Parcells' Patriots.
New England roughed up the new Baltimore team during an 11-3 hot streak to finish the '96 regular season. Patriots' QB Drew Bledsoe, in his fourth pro season, looked like a former No. 1 overall pick.
The Super Bowl coaching staffs were full of names intertwined with Browns history. Green Bay's head coach was future Browns President Mike Holmgren. Parcells' staff included Bill Belichick, Chris Palmer and Romeo Crennel, all of whom were Cleveland head coaches within the last 30 years.
Butler took pride in containing strong tight ends. New England tight end Ben Coates caught a short touchdown pass that gave the Patriots a 14-10 lead.
Butler recalls conducting a sideline meeting in which he said, "You guys are too good. Eventually we'll take over."
The Packers surged to a 27-14 halftime lead. New England made it 27-21 on a Curtis Martin TD run in the third quarter, but Desmond Howard returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards to blow the roof off the Louisiana Superdome.
Butler and the Green Bay defense gave Bledsoe a day of pain, which included four interceptions and five sacks in a 35-21 victory.
- Butler played cornerback at Florida State and remained at the position in his first two years with the Packers, under head coach Lindy Infante, defensive coordinator Hank Bullough and DBs coach Dick Jauron.
In 1992, Holmgren took over as head coach and installed Ray Rhodes as defensive coordinator.
"Ray moved me from cornerback to safety," Butler said. "It was confusing. I was only 5-11, 180 pounds. Then Ray left in 1995 to be head coach of the Eagles. Fritz Shurmur came in as coordinator and I did a lot of great stuff."
Bullough, who died in 2019, was a standout high school athlete at Canton Timken. Shurmur's nephew, Pat, was hired by Cleveland as head coach in 2011, when Holmgren was team president.
- The Packers won Super Bowl II under Vince Lombardi on Jan. 14, 1968. Butler was born on July 19, 1968.
Butler was in his seventh season with the Packers when they went to their next Super Bowl, beating New England on Jan. 26, 1997.
"I appreciated what it meant to the fan base," Butler said. "All those years, and they never saw another Super Bowl until then.
"We lost to Denver in the Super Bowl the next year. Then Mike Holmgren left, and Ron Wolf retired. We never got back to the Super Bowl until Aaron Rodgers and that group went in 2010. Now it's going on 12 years since that Super Bowl.
"You come to appreciate going to any Super Bowl. It was great to win one. It would have been great to win two. Winning two, I probably would have been in the Hall of Fame five years ago."
- There wasn't a lot of "O-H" in Butler's 12-year Green Bay run. He faced the Browns just twice.
In 1992 at Cleveland, Bill Belichick's Browns improved to 3-3 with a 17-6 win over the Packers. Browns QB Mike Tomczak won a dual against Brett Favre. Butler started at strong safety.
In 1995, with the Browns in a fog amid the news they were moving to Baltimore, the Packers won 31-20 in Cleveland. Butler returned an interception 76 yards to set up a touchdown.
The teams didn't collide again until Dec. 23, 2001. By then, Butler was on injured reserve in what turned out to be his last season.
- Butler played for a team that had one of the most stable quarterback situations in NFL history. Brett Favre was Green Bay's only starting QB in the final nine years of Butler's career.
In that span (1993-2001), Butler faced a passing parade of starters used by division rivals:
Lions—Rodney Peete, Erik Kramer, Andre Ware, Scott Mitchell, Dave Krieg, Don Majkowski, Charlie Batch, Frank Reich, Gus Frerotte, Stoney Case, Ty Detmer, Mike McMahon.
Bears—Jim Harbaugh, Peter Tom Willis, Steve Walsh, Erik Kramer, Rick Mirer, Steve Stenstrom, Moses Moreno, Shane Matthews, Cade McNown, Jim Miller.
Vikings—Jim McMahon, Sean Salisbury, Warren Moon, Brad Johnson, Randall Cunningham, Jeff George, Daunte Culpepper.
- When the Hall of Fame's Class of 2022 was revealed at the NFL Honors Show, Favre introduced Butler, saying, "Great players have a knack for being around the ball and producing big plays. That was LeRoy."
- During Butler's long wait to get elected to the Hall of Fame, he kept saying, "I thought All-Decade gets you in."
Butler's career (all with Green Bay) spanned 1990-2001. He was an iron man, missing only four games through his first 11 seasons. He intercepted 27 passes during the six straight seasons the Packers made the playoffs, 1993-98.
He became eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2007. He is the last first-teamer from the 1990s All-Decade first team, offense or defense, to get in.
The safeties, Butler and Steve Atwater, waited the longest. Atwater. eligible since 2005, became part of the Hall's Class of 2020.
- Unlike most members of an All-Decade Team, Butler actually played every year in the decade, with the same team.
The first-team All-Decade defensive backs for the 1990s were Deion Sanders and Rod Woodson at cornerback, Butler and Steve Atwater at safety. Their team breakdowns for the 1990s were: Sanders, five year with Atlanta, one year with San Francisco, four years with Dallas; Woodson, seven years with Pittsburgh, one year with San Francisco, two years with Baltimore; Atwater, nine years with Denver, one year with the Jets; Butler, once a Packer, always a Packer.
- Butler was the fifth defensive back picked in the 1990 draft, after James Williams, Ben Smith, Robert Blackmon and Vince Buck. Butler was picked four spots after Buck, who played college ball at Central State and spent six seasons with the Saints.
One spot after Buck and three picks before Butler, the Browns took running back Leroy Hoard at No. 45 overall.
- Butler was chosen for the Florida High School Association's All-Century Team in 2007.
Other Hall of Famers named All-Century were Derrick Brooks (Pensacola High School), Ted Hendricks (Hialeah), Steve Hutchinson (Coral Springs), Michael Irvin (St. Thomas Aquinas), Rickey Jackson (Pahokee), Deacon Jones (Eatonville Hungerford), Ray Lewis (Miami Booker T. Washington), Deion Sanders (North Fort Myers), Warren Sapp (Apopka) and Jack Youngblood (Monticello Jefferson City).
- Butler was a senior for the Robert E. Lee Generals in 1985. A petition drive that attracted more than 15,000 signatures led to renaming the school Riverside in 2021. Butler and fullback/running back Edgar Bennett were high school teammates before they played together at Florida State and with the Packers.
Their last year as college teammates was 1999, when Florida State recovered from an 0-2 start to win its last 10 games, one of a 24-10 rout of Butch Davis' No. 2-ranked Miami Hurricanes.
Bennett's best year when they were Packers teammates from 1992-97 was '95, when he produced 1,715 rushing-receiving yards. Now with the Raiders, Bennett coaches Butler's old position, wide receiver.
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: 10 quick notes on 2022 Pro Football Hall of Famer LeRoy Butler
