Brodie Croyle

[gobrodie]

This is my first of many posts.
I am a life long Chiefs fan. I visited Arrowhead just after it was complete, and saw part of a practice in 1971, and have been hooked ever since. My Uncle lives in North KC, and my cousin is a diehard season ticket holder. I live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, graduated from UA, and have lived and breathed Crimson Tide football for 35 years.
Brodie Croyle is the best quarterback to come out of Alabama since Joe Namath.
KC has landed themselves something very, very special in Brodie. He is an unbelievable talent, and I believe he was born to be a star in the NFL. He comes from an exceptional family. His parents own and run a ranch for abused and misfortuned youth.
Brodie Croyle has more character and mental toughness than most of us can relate to.
I have hoped for along time that somehow he could end up in Kansas City. I am excited out of my so called mind
that he did.
When the time is right, he is going to be the man in KC, and KC football will return to the glory they deserve.
The chiefs are eaten up with talent, and the future is bright. It appears the draft is going very well for KC.
Welcome this young man with your open arms, and know that you have a guy who has the potential to re-write the Chiefs record books and become a rich part of Chiefs folklore.
See you at Arrowhead.

[Guru]

Chiefster wrote:


A complete tragic failure; I really do think the Chiefs have a golden opportunity here to develop a QOTF in Croyle if they will just do it. Have Green take the lad under his wing and bring him along. I think when Green retires we should hire him as a QB coach.

Agreed, but I said that about Montana too. It never happened.

[RollTide]

If y'all wanna know about Brodie, read this. It talks about his childhood, his heart, but also his toughness. The article's from 2004 but everything in it still holds true. It's pretty long so start reading it when you know you can finish it. =)


He's Red, White and True
His bloodlines and upbringing prepared Brodie Croyle to handle fame and adversity; along the way he became the tough, persevering face of Alabama Crimson Tide football
Sunday, July 04, 2004
By THOMAS MURPHY
Sports Reporter

RAINBOW CITY, Ala. -- The Croyle family of Rainbow City all tell a poignant vignette they believe captures the essence of Brodie Croyle.

When Brodie was 5 years old, a boy his own age was dropped off at the Croyles' Big Oak Ranch, their safe harbor for abused and neglected children in northeast Alabama. The boy's name was Joey Snider and he came to the Croyles with nothing but the clothes on his back.

When Joey was introduced at the Croyle house, Brodie immediately responded. Snider remembers the moment from 16 years ago as if it happened yesterday.

"His momma had bought him some new clothes and he brought them in and laid them at my feet and said, 'These are yours,'" Snider said.

For devout Christians like John and Teresa "Tee" Croyle, who have embraced hundreds of abused children in three decades of work at Big Oak, their boy's unselfishness strummed a harmonious chord.

"He continually saw us ministering to other people around us," Tee Croyle said. "He just grew up seeing that you take care of other people, that their needs are important."

A dozen years later, in December 2000, Brodie Croyle was the same Southern-drawling, shirt-off-his-back-giving, hard-competing, fun-loving kid who grew up on the ranch with dozens of "brothers and sisters." Only by then he was a premier football prospect, the top-rated quarterback in the country by some analysts.

And he was caught in a dilemma.


Croyle had been a die-hard University of Alabama fan all his life, and now, on the eve of the announcement of his college commitment, he had reached a crossroads.

He was going to play football for Florida State University, he thought. The steady recruitment and the trust earned by then-FSU offensive coordinator Mark Richt, and the promise of playing in a passing offense, had swayed Croyle toward Tallahassee as his decision loomed.

Alabama remained a runner-up.


The reasons for that could be ticked off in short order. For starters, new Alabama coach Dennis Franchione was known more for his running tendencies. Also, the Croyles, a tight-knit family of four who hold personal ethics dearly, were already wary of Franchione. Finally, the possibility of NCAA sanctions were looming at Alabama.

Though his heart remained tethered to Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide was not the ideal destination for the kid who had smashed six major state records, including passing for 528 yards in one game at Westbrook Christian School.

Croyle was out with friends on the eve of announcing FSU as his choice when John Croyle got wind that Richt, who had been at the Croyles' house that very evening, was on the verge of landing the vacant head coaching post at the University of Georgia.

"(Florida State) really was going to be my choice until I heard through the grapevine (Richt) was going to take that job at Georgia," Brodie Croyle said. "I still had my doubts about going to Florida State up until that point.

"That pretty much solidified it, that Alabama was it. As much as I wanted to go to Florida State, (Alabama) is where I always dreamed of playing."

But there was still some recruiting to do. John and Tee said they had gotten some strange vibes from Franchione during the recruiting process; they said Franchione had played dodgeball with a series of questions from Tee.

John, a second-team All-America defensive end at Alabama in 1973, said he believed Tee had sniffed out what they perceived as the phony in Franchione.

John and Tee, an Auburn graduate and math teacher at Westbrook Christian, tried to limit their influence on Brodie's decision. His only blood sister, Reagan, who was finishing a college career at Alabama that included a stint on the basketball team and her election as homecoming queen, dropped a few obvious hints about why Brodie should go to Bama.

"My dad never said one word about it," Brodie Croyle said. "If anything, when they hired Coach Fran, he was like, 'As much as you want to go to Alabama, I don't think you should.' I kind of had to sell him on it."

And so, on Dec. 7, 2000, 17-year-old Brodie Croyle became the first commitment to the Dennis Franchione regime at Alabama.

For better or for worse.


When will it end?:


On a sultry spring morning three months before Alabama's 2004 season opener, the 21-year-old Croyle said he wouldn't reverse for anything his decision to play at Alabama. Yet he admits his career has taken a turbulent course through three new head coaches, NCAA pitfalls and a season-long shoulder injury during a dismal 4-9 season in 2003.

"It got to the point where I'd call home and be like, 'When is this going to end?'" Croyle said. "It was one thing after another."

Croyle's enduring Christian faith, steel-coated family ties and positive outlook have helped him cope with a college career that has been packed with equal parts promise and pain.

His burdens find sympathy, his successes meet with joy on nearly a daily basis with his family, which now includes brother-in-law John David Phillips, the former Tide quarterback who works at the Big Oak Ranch with the rest of the family.

"There isn't a time when three days will go by that I haven't talked to all of them," Brodie Croyle said.

Friday mornings during football season are reserved as special father-and-son time. John makes the 100-minute drive to Tuscaloosa to have breakfast with Brodie, to talk about anything and sometimes not much at all.

Croyle has a 4-9 record as Alabama's starting quarterback, a dubious mark at such a proud program. But the record comes with NCAA-sized asterisks.

He played with a bum left shoulder for all but one half of one game last season. After a bone-jarring blow at Georgia that knocked him out of the game, he sat a week and then played for a month with two cracked ribs, an injury that was never disclosed to the public before now. He has thrown to a receiving corps that had very little height or explosiveness. He was directing the new Mike ShulDave Rader offense that the Crimson Tide had to take a crash course on in fall camp because of the sudden firing of Mike Price last spring.

"I kind of expected (taking some hits) going into last year," Croyle said. "We were still in the learning process, still trying to figure things out."

The Croyles' message for Shula: "Well, you've seen him play with one arm; just wait until you see him play with two," John Croyle said.

Shula is keenly aware he has a special player.


"(Brodie) has been great," said the Tide's second-year coach. "I see a lot of the things y'all don't have a chance to see, things on game day, with his demeanor and his thought process and things like that. If he continues to improve and mature, get stronger and bigger and do all those things, then I think he's got a chance to be real good."

The Croyles bristled when hearing criticism of Brodie as he battled through the chronic shoulder problems in 2003.

"I would get fighting mad because people would make comments about, 'He's not playing like anything,'" said Reagan Croyle Phillips. "That was hard for our family.

"I wanted to go fight anyone I heard say that. He could have used that as an excuse because his arm was hanging on by a thread."

Instead, true to his training, Croyle downplayed the injuries and ran out to compete on all but one Saturday last fall.

He was always ready to take yet another hit, as he did 22 times in a loss to eventual national champion LSU. He was always ready to compete.

The face of Bama football:


Three-and-a-half years and three coaches into his college career, Croyle has emerged as the face of Alabama football like so many quarterbacks before him.

His wholesome appeal and rocket right arm are magazine-cover magnets.


Alabama fans, desperate for a rapid turnaround for the beleaguered program, pin their hopes on the 6-foot-3 quarterback, whom recruiting expert Max Emfinger once compared to John Elway while tabbing Croyle his top quarterback prospect of 2000.

Tall, dark-haired and with an effortless grin, Croyle is a living legend around Rainbow City and Westbrook Christian, the school John Croyle took control of in 1990. When Brodie visits the non-denominational school near Gadsden, kids, teachers and administrators flock.

"You'd think it's like Harrison Ford walking up and down the halls," said Trinity Fisher, a family friend of 12 years who came to Big Oak Ranch at age 7 and now attends the University of Alabama. "But he's the same old Brodie. I don't think he's changed in that way."

Sure enough, there was grinning Brodie, sporting a sling within days of his shoulder surgery last winter, posing for pictures with ranch kids crawling all over him.

"The problem we generally have with someone that talented is that they're selfish," said Tony Osborne, Croyle's coach at Westbrook Christian. "We never had that problem with Brodie. He had the numbers but you never heard him talk about them. It was, 'Tell me what to do and I'll do it.'"

Catherine Logan taught Croyle in three classes at Westbrook Christian and found herself learning lessons from the teenaged football whiz.

"What impressed me about Brodie so much was how he handled all the attention, all the praise he received from every direction," Logan said. "Most adults couldn't handle that. Here he is, 16-17 years old and he's handling it like a pro. He just amazed me in that respect."

Born to play:


John and Tee Croyle knew they had a gifted athlete soon after the birth of John Brodie Croyle on Feb. 6, 1983.

John put 2-year-old Brodie on a bike without training wheels at the top of a slight incline.

"We put him on it and he just rolled down the hill," John said. "Tee was standing there and I looked at her and said, 'That ain't normal.'"

Around that same time, Reagan found out about Brodie's arm and aim.


"I made him mad when he was little," she said. "He was in diapers, maybe 2 (years old). He got so mad at me, he picked up an apple. I'll never forget, it was a green apple. And he chunked it at me and hit me right in the nose. He had a good aim, even at 2."

Yet the Croyles, acting on advice given by close friends like former Alabama coach Ray Perkins, didn't allow Brodie to play organized football until the seventh grade.

He was a standout soccer player, a good basketball player and an absolute ace baseball player during those early years. Croyle led his Little League team to a state championship and within two games of the Little League World Series back in 1995.

A pro baseball scout told John Croyle after Brodie's sophomore season that Brodie would almost certainly be a first-round draft choice with a seven-figure signing bonus. But the scout encouraged Brodie to drop football and concentrate full-time on baseball.

Wrong answer.


"I always loved baseball but it was kind of boring," Croyle said. "Too much standing around, not doing anything. Football's where my love was. I said, 'Thanks, but no thanks.'"

After leading Westbrook Christian's football team to the state title game as a freshman and tearing up the state record books as a sophomore in 1998, Croyle emerged as a hot item on the summer camp circuit.

Croyle outperformed the likes of Drew Brees, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at the Elite 11 camp in California. Soon he had scholarship offers pouring in from around the country.

But a personal setback, one of many that have tested Croyle during his athletic career, was looming.

With the stands at Westbrook Christian packed for the season opener in 2000, Croyle took a clothesline-type shot while his leg was planted and suffered severe ligament damage in his knee. He was out for the season before his senior year was properly started.

His mother described Brodie's injury recovery mode.


"First there's always the emotional part, where you feel things are bad," she said. "That doesn't last long, overnight. He wakes up the next day ready to come back. He knows it doesn't do any good to sit around and feel sorry for yourself."

Somebody broke a school rule the night of Croyle's knee injury by jumping over the fence between the field and the stands.

It was Joey Snider, now Brodie's best friend, rushing to his side.


"He just came up and stood by Brodie and cried," John Croyle said. "He didn't say anything, just cried."

As a testament to his talent, by the next morning, all the college coaches on Croyle's hot list had called to say their scholarship offers were still valid.

On the ranch:


The Croyles lived in a busy home at the Big Oak boys ranch until the summer before Brodie's senior year.

Needless to say, his life experiences were much different than most boys. A late afternoon of catch with dad or a morning of shooting hoops in solitude with his sister were almost nonexistent.

"He grew up with 1,500 brothers," John Croyle said. "He'd walk out in the front yard and we'd be pitching the football and in 10 minutes there'd be 20 boys to play. He'd go out in the back yard to shoot basketball and there'd be a tournament in 10 minutes."

The experiences toughened and softened him at the same time.


"Most of my best friends are guys I grew up with from Big Oak," Brodie said. "I didn't even want to go spend the night with people. If I did that, you'd wake up Saturday morning and do normal-people stuff.

"At the ranch, we could have played a whole basketball tournament, a whole pick-up game of whatever. From the time I was 11 or 12, I was playing pickup games against juniors and seniors in high school."

Said Reagan: "He wanted to prove he could do anything any of the bigger guys could do, that he was just as fast, just as strong. He could always throw the ball farther. That was never a competition."

But some of the older boys perhaps took out some of their teen angst on the son of the ranch's boss.

"It was kind of like revenge on my dad," Brodie said. "It was pick on Brodie time. Let's beat him up. You just had to deal with it."

Croyle came into the house scratched, bloodied and beaten on more than a few occasions.

"He got beat up a lot because he was the baby," Reagan said. "He got picked on a lot, so that made him tough. Made him real tough. He got thrown in the briar bush and he wouldn't rat on anyone. He was

fiercely loyal, which is one of his best qualities."


Said Osborne, the Westbrook coach: "Growing up around all those boys probably had a lot to do with him becoming tough because he didn't have any choice. You have to develop a mental toughness because they're going to pick on you."

Croyle also saw vivid examples of heartbreak and suffering in the lives of the children living at the ranch. One of his best friends, a black football teammate named Camaris, died in a car wreck during his senior year.

"Brodie doesn't look at white or black, poor or rich, smart or dumb, jock or not jock," the teacher Logan said. "He just looks at the person. ... That's so mature for a child his age."

Playing hurt:


Much like his star-crossed senior year in high school, Croyle's sophomore season at Alabama seemed equally hexed. But instead of a single cataclysmic event, Croyle wound up taking weekly doses of pain.

He separated his left shoulder in the first half of Alabama's opener against South Florida, diving to tackle a safety who was returning a fumble. From there, the season unspooled like a weekly orthopedist's nightmare.

Croyle's shoulder popped out of its socket several more times and yet he lost little playing time. He took two snaps in an ill-advised relief appearance at Georgia before taking a vicious shot from blitzing linebacker Odell Thurman.

"Cracked two ribs, hurt my shoulder again, split my chin up," Croyle said. "My chin must have slid somewhere it wasn't supposed to because it still pops. That's the hardest and most detrimental shot I've ever taken."

Croyle didn't lay the blame for that lick at the feet of a fledgling offensive system or his linemen. He hung it on himself.

"They just came with a field blitz and (Thurman) is my guy," Croyle said. "I sent Shaud (Williams) out in motion when I was supposed to send Tim (Castille). (Williams' longer route) is why I held onto it a little longer. ... That's my hot read."

Croyle and the Alabama coaching staff never mentioned the cracked ribs.


"He played four weeks with broken ribs and didn't tell anybody," John Croyle said. "There were times he was hurt so bad, he couldn't breathe. Not with the ribs, I'm talking about with the shoulder."

Phillips, a quarterback for the Tide from 1994-98, believes Croyle's misfortune of 2003 could be the cornerstone for something big.

"It could be the beginning of a great story for Brodie," he said. "Adversity makes a great way to overcome something.

"I think he already had a ton of respect from his teammates. But when you think about a team that was forged over adversity and then they see their quarterback, their leader, playing through a bad shoulder, that earns an absolute ton of respect from your teammates, from recruits watching on TV."

The common consensus held that Croyle would not play against Georgia on Oct. 4 after suffering yet another shoulder separation on a hit from Arkansas' Tony Bua the week before. Reserve quarterback Spencer Pennington took most of the practice snaps that week.

The Croyles settled into their seats for that game at Athens' Sanford Stadium with less anxiety than normal.

"We were kind of relaxed, enjoying Spencer's mother being in turmoil for a change," Tee Croyle jokingly said about their close family friends.

Pennington started, yet as the Crimson Tide fell further and further behind in a downward-spiraling second quarter, Croyle was working on Shula by every means possible.

"I was in his ear the whole time," Croyle said. "I was over there getting on the phone with coach (Dave) Rader. I was trying to get coach (Sparky) Woods to go talk to him."

The Croyles watched in disbelief as they saw Brodie pester his way onto the field.

"I think we were all about to throw up when we saw him strapping his helmet," Reagan said.

"We know Brodie. We knew what he was doing," Tee said. "Everybody blames coach Shula but it's not his fault."

Said Reagan: "Coach Shula was probably like, 'If you shut up, I'll put you in.'"

Croyle went in with Alabama trailing 30-3 and left shortly thereafter with more injuries (three) than snaps (two).

Did Croyle's warrior mentality work against him in that game? John Croyle can hardly entertain the thought.

"He has no white flag," he said. "He doesn't know where one exists. There was one game, he was sitting there and Dr. (James) Andrews said, 'You're not going back in.'"

Brodie insisted on staying in the game but Andrews demanded he show he could raise his left arm over his head before he did.

"I don't know what he held between his teeth but he did it," John Croyle said.

Big Man on Campus:


There are few more scrutinized positions in the state than the starting quarterback at Alabama. If he stays healthy, Croyle -- who would rather be on a tree stand or hunting wild hog than in front of TV cameras -- will have had that distinction for three years.

Life under the microscope -- with thousands of people angling to ogle -- can be brutal but Croyle has spent most of his life in the public eye.

"His daddy had to deal with the public all the time," Tee Croyle said. "He's benefited from seeing how his father handled everything, though he's far surpassed his father in having to deal with things.

"We live in a fishbowl at the ranch. Everything we say and do is scrutinized and judged, right or wrong. He understands he's a public figure and he has to live his life different than other people.

"We're also a private family and that's one of the reasons we're so close. We've had to gather in because of the way we've had to live."

Croyle -- who, ironically, wanted to play receiver until he reached the seventh grade -- has a tough assignment as a de facto front man for Alabama football. It is made more difficult by all the tempests that have rocked the program since Croyle hopped aboard in the winter of 2000.

"It's tough and it's a shame that he has so much pressure on him," said former Tide quarterback Andrew Zow. "But he took the job, he wanted that job. He has to deal with it. As a quarterback, you've got to have thick skin and I think Brodie does."

Croyle also realizes he has significant room to make himself better and he's starting with his body this summer. He intends to play at 210 pounds this season, about seven pounds over last year's weight. Alabama coaches also aim to improve on his footwork and his recognition of defenses.

If there's one non-physical area where Croyle needs improvement, it's in his decision making. Too often he has tried to force passes into small gaps or make low-percentage throws instead of throwing a ball away.

It goes back to the no-white-flag aspect of his personality. Croyle believes he can make even the most difficult throws.

Croyle will begin his junior season with a title he'll carry whether he likes it or not: Big Man on Campus. He's recognized practically anywhere he goes. And even though he has a girlfriend, it doesn't stop young ladies from zeroing in to ask for an autograph or to have their picture made with him. Or to make various other offers.

Croyle walked out to his truck after a game last year and found 38 notes, some with pictures attached, from would-be female suitors.

"I just think it's kind of funny, whatever," Croyle said in a tone that makes it seem a blush is on its way. "I've never let it go to my head, or even close to it."

But the hero worship hardly stops there. The Croyles hear consistent stories of parents naming their children after Brodie. His close friends and confidants are peppered with schemes to present to Croyle to have him appear here or there.

Long-time friend Trinity Fisher was asked to make a proposal to Croyle to show up at a "Brodie Croyle" party, complete with a life-sized cutout of No. 12.

Fisher enjoys the status her friendship with Croyle provides but she doesn't push it. When Croyle has offered her a short ride to her dorm, she politely refuses.

"The girls would die if he dropped me off at my dorm," she said. "I don't want to put him through that."

Eye on the prize:


On the field, Croyle has had days of brilliance, like his first career start at Arkansas in 2002. On the heels of a wet and sloppy relief outing against Southern Miss, in which he went 4 of 15 for 15 yards and two interceptions, the redshirt freshman flashed in the Ozarks. Croyle hit 12 of 24 passes for 285 yards and two touchdowns and showed a steady hand in guiding a 30-12 rout of the Razorbacks.

"I couldn't have asked for it to have gone any better for us," Croyle said. "After the week before, when I had thrown for 20 yards against Southern Miss, I was kind of like, 'We need to try to have a good game, try to win the fans back to our side.'"

Croyle's frustrating 2003 season still included a handful of personal passing records, such as a school-record-tying 16 touchdown passes and a sophomore-record 2,303 passing yards. It also included a 4-9 record with some heavy heartbreaks for a program stunned by one tough blow after another.

Croyle embodied the spirit of the team. Down but not out. Wounded but willing to tough it out to rediscover past glory and feed that ravenous Tide appetite for championships.

"We're going to go after the SEC (championship)," Croyle said. "The national championship is always your main goal. We know we have some steps we have to take before we can get there but at the same time you don't want to wait around for it."

Croyle said he does not look back and wonder what could have been if he hadn't committed to the Crimson Tide.

"I'm glad it worked out this way and I got to go to the school I loved," he said.

Satisfaction can also be heard in the voice of his mother.


"I'm proud of who he is and what he does but I'm more proud of what he is inside," Tee Croyle said. "In the end, that's the only thing that matters anyway."

[Guru]

Awseome read. Thanks RollTide and Welcome to the crowd.

MODS - Just a thought, can we make the width of the Board a little bit wider to account for the occasional long article post? IT would make it easier to read. Just my opinion though. :-)

RollTide, I am not complaining about the size of your post because I think it was great and worth the time to read it.

[RollTide]

Sorry about that. I would've just posted the link to the article but it doesn't exist anymore. It's one I saved a while back. I'm Lauren, by the way. I first posted after y'all drafted Brodie. :-)

[Guru]

RollTide wrote:
Sorry about that. I would've just posted the link to the article but it doesn't exist anymore. It's one I saved a while back. I'm Lauren, by the way. I first posted after y'all drafted Brodie. :-)

Don't be sorry. I don't know about everyone but I prefer to have the entire article within the thread rather than click a link.

[Chiefster]

Guru wrote:
Awseome read. Thanks RollTide and Welcome to the crowd.

MODS - Just a thought, can we make the width of the Board a little bit wider to account for the occasional long article post? IT would make it easier to read. Just my opinion though. :-)

RollTide, I am not complaining about the size of your post because I think it was great and worth the time to read it.

Agreed; however, it is an issue that the Administrator will need to address as a site design issue. We working out some ways to improve the forums, but these things take time, and patience by all would be much appreciated. Oh, and stick around guys I believe further improvements will be forth coming. :-D

[Guru]

Chiefster wrote:
Agreed; however, it is an issue that the Administrator will need to address as a site design issue. We working out some ways to improve the forums, but these things take time, and patience by all would be much appreciated. Oh, and stick around guys I believe further improvements will be forth coming. :-D

Get a move on will ya!!! :-x :-D 8-)

[Chiefster]

RollTide wrote:
Sorry about that. I would've just posted the link to the article but it doesn't exist anymore. It's one I saved a while back. I'm Lauren, by the way. I first posted after y'all drafted Brodie. :-)

Hey nothing to be sorry about; folks such as yourself that contribute great articles to our boards are very welcome to do so. :-)

[KC-Krazo]

Ive never read it before. thanks. I,m pretty shure you coverd everything though.We all should have a friend like Brodie.

[Guru]

Most definitely!!!