Howard, Desmond 1970–

views updated May 21 2018

Desmond Howard 1970–

Professional football player

Made Pact With Father

Began “Magic”-al Journey to Heisman

Struggled for Respect

Super Bowl Hero

A New Team, A Few Regrets

Sources

Desmond Howard’s long struggle for respect as a professional football player came to brilliant fruition in 1996-97. Signed by the Green Bay Packers to a low-paying one-year contract, Howard proved to be a key player as the Packers battled their way to Super Bowl XXXI. Once the 1997 Super Bowl was under way, Howard wrote his name in history by tying a record for total return yards and breaking the old Super Bowl record by scoring a 99-yard touchdown on a kickoff return. The Packers won the Super Bowl, and Desmond Howard became the fourth player in sports history to win both the coveted Heisman Trophy and a Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award.

Awards and honors—indeed success itself—seem miraculous for the likes of Howard, who, at five-foot-ten and 180 pounds, is anything but a typical pro football player. Howard compensates for his lack of height and weight by reading defenses well (especially on special teams) and by capitalizing on his agility. “You can feel and hear those 11 rhinoceroses coming to get you,” he quipped in the New York Times. “I look at the ball, I look at them, I look at the ball, I look at them—about three times. I look at them to know where they are, not because I’m that frightened. I… have confidence that I can go once I get the ball,” he continued. That confidence, amply displayed in Super Bowl XXXI, has won Howard a rich and lengthy contract with the Oakland Raiders, where he continues to dominate special teams and also serves as a receiver.

Howard was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1970 and grew up there. His father, J. D., was a former semi-pro basketball player who had toured with the Jolly Jokers, a team similar to the Harlem Globetrotters. While Desmond was growing up, his father worked at a tool and die plant and his mother ran a day care center out of the family home. He learned responsibility early by helping his mother with her young students.

Made Pact With Father

When Howard was 13 his parents split up. He went to live with his father because his mother was trying to run her school and finish up her college degree. The parental decisions about Desmond were arrived at amiably, and both mother and father continued to be supportive and available for him. In fact, his father

At a Glance…

Born Desmond Kevin Howard, May 15, 1970, in Cleveland, OH; son of J. D. (a tool and die maker) and Hattie (a school administrator) Howard, Education: University of Michigan, B.A., 1992.

Professional football player, 1992-. Drafted fourth overall in 1992 by the Washington Redskins; played for Redskins, 1992-95; played for Jacksonville Jaguars, 1995-96; played for Green Bay Packers, 1996-97;joined Oakland Raiders as unrestricted free agent, 1997.

Selected awards: Heisman Trophy winner and “College Player of the Year” citation, both 1991; named Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, 1997.

Addresses: Home—Boca Raton, FL. Office —Oakland Raiders, 1220 Harbor Bay Pkwy., Alameda, CA, 94502.

began working more overtime in order to provide tuition for Desmond to attend private school. Desmond got to pick his own high school, and he chose St. Joseph’s, a Catholic academy with rigid discipline and good sports teams. Young Desmond showed talent in both football and track and field.

Howard was quite conscious of the sacrifices his father was making on his behalf. “It wasn’t cheap,” he told Sports Illustrated of his education and upbringing. “You learn what you owe,” he added.

When Howard was in tenth grade, he and his father struck a bargain. J. D. declared that if Desmond would concentrate on his school work and his sports for a year—no dating, minimal socializing—he would earn a huge reward during his senior year. J. D. said in Sports Illustrated: “Most athletes go home from practice and sit down to dinner while their mamas pat them on the head. You do a little bit more.” Desmond took the advice to heart. He came home from football practice and went running. He missed his prom because it conflicted with a track meet. The hardship paid off. As a senior at St. Joseph’s he earned all-state and All-America honors with 18 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on the season. He finished high school with three varsity letters each in track and football, as well as one in basketball.

Not surprisingly, college recruiters began courting Howard earnestly during his senior year. One of the 20 major universities that sought Howard was the University of Michigan, a football powerhouse that also boasted high academic standards. Howard chose Michigan. Interestingly enough, another St. Joseph’s teammate made the same choice—quarterback Elvis Grbac. Grbac and Howard had worked together successfully in Cleveland, and they would continue to be headline-grabbers in Ann Arbor.

Began “Magic”-al Journey to Heisman

Desmond Howard was two things at the University of Michigan: a star football player and a serious student with a strong interest in social issues, especially as they pertained to African Americans. While most of his Wolverine teammates chose to live in sports dormitories, Howard preferred having his own apartment off campus. In interviews he tended to speak less about football than about psychology and activism. “I want to destroy stereotypes about the black male athlete,” he stated in Sports Illustrated “It’s a mission of mine to break down stereotypes about our behavior, our social life, our literacy, our academic situations,” he continued. Indeed, Howard has put his ideals into practice, earning a degree from Michigan in communications studies and taking graduate courses in social work with a goal of earning his Ph.D.

On the football field Howard let his actions speak for themselves. His teammates called him “Magic Man” because he seemed able to do everything from returning punts to flagging down touchdown passes in double coverage. While he enjoyed being called “Magic Man,” he kept the concept in perspective: his wasn’t the sort of magic that came from pure luck, but rather the kind that required practice and dedication. “To work at something until it looks easy defines my relationship to the word magic,” he explained in Sports Illustrated “It’s the one aspect where I deserve the nickname,” he added.

Howard began attracting attention as a college junior, when he averaged 29.6 yards on kickoff returns and pulled in 63 catches for 1,025 yards and 11 touchdowns. Soon after his senior season began, the pundits pegged him as the player to watch for Heisman Trophy honors. He did not disappoint them. He set an NCAA record as a senior with at least one touchdown catch in 10 consecutive games, and at season’s end he had accounted for 23 total touchdowns and 138 points—a new Michigan record. Among the memorable moments during his senior season were a touchdown catch on a fourth down that helped the Wolverines to beat Notre Dame for the first time in five years, and a 93-yard punt return for a touchdown against arch-rival Ohio State. In an early season game against Boston College, Howard accounted for four of the five Michigan touchdowns.

With Elvis Grbac and Desmond Howard as the offensive keys, the Michigan Wolverines won the right to represent the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl, held on January 1, 1992. Shortly thereafter Howard was honored with the Heisman Trophy and a College Football Player of the Year citation from The Sporting News. He decided to turn professional, even though he could have played another season at Michigan (he was a red shirt freshman). After earning his college degree, he made himself available for the 1992 pro football draft.

Struggled for Respect

Howard was the fourth player chosen in the first round of the 1992 NFL draft. The Washington Redskins, coming off a championship season, had traded upwards to vie for him. Expectations were high that Howard would move into the pro ranks with all the skills he’d shown as a college player, but from the very beginning of his career with the Redskins he played mostly on special teams. His first professional touchdown, for instance, came on a 55-yard punt return against the Atlanta Falcons. His best year with Washington was 1994, when he served as a starting wide receiver and pulled in 40 receptions for 727 yards and five touchdowns. Those numbers were not spectacular enough for the Redskins, who placed Howard on a list of players who were being made available to the new expansion teams.

The Jacksonville Jaguars signed Howard to a one-year contract in 1995, planning to use him as a wide receiver and on special teams. Howard struggled, however, sustaining a sprained ankle and a concussion during season play and turning in only one touchdown with 26 pass receptions for 276 yards. Jacksonville released him at season’s end.

The spring and summer of 1996 must have been a tense time for Desmond Howard. He was invited to the Green Bay Packers training camp with no guarantee of a contract and faced the prospect of proving himself all over again. A reputation preceded him, according to Mike Freeman in the New York Times, who wrote: “[Howard] was criticized… for his lack of energy bursting off the line of scrimmage and a lack of overall toughness—not to mention his falling asleep in meetings.” The Packers liked what they saw in training camp and signed Howard to a one-year contract for $300,000—or just a bit over the NFL minimum annual salary. Howard swallowed his pride and accepted the offer. “Obviously I never quit on myself,” he explained in the New York Times.

Right away Howard sensed the exciting possibilities of working for the Packers. Far from being a first-year team, Green Bay looked as strong as any NFL contender, and predictions were that the team might have a Super Bowl season. Howard was relegated to special teams, but he certainly didn’t complain: he simply performed at the height of his powers throughout the season whenever the ball fell into his hands. For Howard, 1996 was a “season of redemption.” He declared in the New York Times: “I haven’t felt like this since Michigan, to be honest with you.... I feel as though I’m really contributing to my team’s victories and reaching our goals.”

Super Bowl Hero

In order to get to Super Bowl XXXI, Green Bay faced a playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers. If Howard’s resurgence had been something of a secret to the public at large throughout the season, it went public that day. Before Packers quarterback Brett Favre even took the field to call a down, Howard had given Green Bay a 7-0 lead, by virtue of a 71-yard punt return for a touchdown. Just two series later, Howard grabbed a 49er punt at the San Francisco 47-yard line and ran it 40 yards to the 7. In short order the Packers had another touchdown. Green Bay went on to beat the formidable 49ers by a score of 35-14.

The trash talk began soon thereafter. When the New England Patriots qualified for the Super Bowl, Patriot safety Corwin Brown—a Michigan teammate of Howard’s—predicted that he was going to “smash” Howard during the Super Bowl and then strike a Heisman Trophy pose over Howard’s body. If Desmond Howard needed any more incentive to get his juices flowing for the big game, Corwin’s remark did the trick. “I had stuff like that in the back of my mind before the game,” Howard later admitted in the New York Times “And during the game too,” he confessed.

Whatever was on Howard’s mind during Super Bowl XXXI, he turned the traditionally dull and anticlimactic championship into an exciting, dramatic game. Howard’s 244 yard performance tied a Super Bowl record set in 1995, and his spectacular 99-yard touchdown on a second half kickoff return was the longest score in Super Bowl history.

That 99-yard kickoff return touchdown meant more than just six points for the Packers. It effectively put victory out of reach for New England. “It was a back-breaker,” Howard conceded to the New York Times after the game. “They had just scored, they had the momentum. Then we have my return, and that was basically the game,” he continued. The Packers won 35-21.

The Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award went to Howard. He was only the fourth player in history to win both the Heisman Trophy and the Super Bowl MVP, the other three being Roger Staubach, Jim Plunkett, and Marcus Allen. Immediately he was thrown into the post-game hysteria that inevitably accompanies a Super Bowl victory: phone calls from President Clinton, television appearances, victory parades in Green Bay and Disney World, and personal appearances all over America.

Howard also faced a situation that can only be called a dream come true: he was an unrestricted free agent with a Super Bowl ring and an MVP award. His days of playing for $300,000 a year were over.

A New Team, A Few Regrets

Howard loved playing for the Packers, but both he and the team knew that his Super Bowl success would take him out of Wisconsin. The Packers wanted to keep him, but they couldn’t fit a much higher salary into their budget. Other teams were interested in purchasing Howard’s services as well—including the New England Patriots. By March of 1997 Howard had chosen a new team from among the bidders, the Oakland Raiders, who signed him to a four-year, $6 million dollar contract. “It’s really a no-brainer that I want to go back to Green Bay,” Howard told the Sporting News “But I would be a fool to not test the market. Things have changed for me. I bring more than being a return man and a receiver. I am the Super Bowl MVP, the Super Bowl record holder. I mean, 800 million people saw what I did. Those are things on your resume that should earn you respect,” he asserted. He added: “I swallowed some pride [in 1996] when I signed for $300,000. Now it [is] time to give me what I really am worth.”

Respect and an expanded role: that is what Howard expects with the Oakland Raiders. His career is far from over. However he performs in years to come, he has already proven himself splendidly: in college with the Heisman Trophy, in the pros as a Super Bowl MVP. “I haven’t changed,” he stressed in the New York Times “But the situation has.... People didn’t know what I could really do. But I did,” he concluded.

Sources

Newsweek, February 10, 1997, p. 54.

New York Times, January 5, 1997, p. sports 3; January 27, 1997, p. C7; January 28, 1997, p. B12; January 29, 1997, p. B16.

Sporting News, March 17, 1997, p. 11.

Sports Illustrated, September 23, 1991, p. 14; December 9, 1991, p. 90.

—Mark Kram

Contemporary Black Biography Kram, Mark

Howard, Desmond

views updated Jun 11 2018

Desmond Howard

1970–

Professional football player

Professional football player Desmond Howard made a name for himself doing things his own way. Winning the Heisman trophy in 1991, Howard embarked on a professional career as a special teams player. Despite a rocky start with the Washington Redskins, Howard's long struggle for respect as a professional football player came to brilliant fruition with the Green Bay Packers in 1996–97. Signed by the Green Bay Packers to a low-paying one-year contract, Howard proved to be a key player as the Packers battled their way to Super Bowl XXXI. Once the 1997 Super Bowl was under way, Howard wrote his name in history by tying a record for total return yards and breaking the old Super Bowl record by scoring a 99-yard touchdown on a kickoff return. The Packers won the Super Bowl, and Desmond Howard became the fourth player in sports history to win both the coveted Heisman Trophy and a Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award.

Awards and honors—indeed success itself—seem miraculous for the likes of Howard, who, at five-foot-ten and 180 pounds, was anything but a typical pro football player. Howard compensated for his lack of height and weight by reading defenses well (especially on special teams) and by capitalizing on his agility. "You can feel and hear those 11 rhinoceroses coming to get you," he quipped in the New York Times. "I look at the ball, I look at them, I look at the ball, I look at them—about three times. I look at them to know where they are, not because I'm that frightened. I … have confidence that I can go once I get the ball," he continued. That confidence, amply displayed in Super Bowl XXXI, continued throughout the rest of Howard's career.

Knew Parents' Sacrifice

When Howard was 13 his parents split up. He went to live with his father because his mother was trying to run her school and finish up her college degree. The parental decisions about Howard were arrived at amiably, and both mother and father continued to be supportive and available for him. In fact, his father began working more overtime in order to provide tuition for Howard to attend private school. Howard got to pick his own high school, and he chose St. Joseph's, a Catholic academy with rigid discipline and good sports teams. In school, Howard showed talent in both football and track and field.

Howard was quite conscious of the sacrifices his father was making on his behalf. "It wasn't cheap," he told Sports Illustrated of his education and upbringing. "You learn what you owe," he added. When Howard was in tenth grade, he and his father struck a bargain. His father declared that if Howard would concentrate on his schoolwork and his sports for a year—no dating, minimal socializing—he would earn a huge reward during his senior year. J.D. Howard noted in Sports Illustrated: "Most athletes go home from practice and sit down to dinner while their mamas pat them on the head. You do a little bit more." Howard took the advice to heart. He came home from football practice and went running. He missed his prom because it conflicted with a track meet. The hardship paid off. As a senior at St. Joseph's he earned all-state and All-America honors with 18 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on the season. He finished high school with three varsity letters each in track and football, as well as one in basketball.

Chose University of Michigan

Not surprisingly, college recruiters began courting Howard earnestly during his senior year. One of the 20 major universities that sought Howard was the University of Michigan, a football powerhouse that also boasted high academic standards. Howard chose Michigan. Interestingly enough, another St. Joseph's teammate made the same choice—quarterback Elvis Grbac. Grbac and Howard had worked together successfully in Cleveland, and they would continue to be headline-grabbers in Ann Arbor.

Desmond Howard was two things at the University of Michigan: a star football player and a serious student with a strong interest in social issues, especially as they pertained to African Americans. While most of his Wolverine teammates chose to live in sports dormitories, Howard preferred having his own apartment off campus. In interviews he tended to speak less about football than about psychology and activism. "I want to destroy stereotypes about the black male athlete," he stated in Sports Illustrated. "It's a mission of mine to break down stereotypes about our behavior, our social life, our literacy, our academic situations," he continued. Indeed, Howard put his ideals into practice, earning a degree from Michigan in communications studies and taking graduate courses in social work.

On the football field Howard let his actions speak for themselves. His teammates called him "Magic Man" because he seemed able to do everything from returning punts to flagging down touchdown passes in double coverage. While he enjoyed being called "Magic Man," he kept the concept in perspective: his wasn't the sort of magic that came from pure luck, but rather the kind that required practice and dedication. "To work at something until it looks easy defines my relationship to the word magic," he explained in Sports Illustrated. "It's the one aspect where I deserve the nickname," he added.

Howard began attracting attention as a college junior, when he averaged 29.6 yards on kickoff returns and pulled in 63 catches for 1,025 yards and 11 touchdowns. Soon after his senior season began, the pundits pegged him as the player to watch for Heisman Trophy honors. He did not disappoint them. He set an NCAA record as a senior with at least one touchdown catch in 10 consecutive games, and at season's end he had accounted for 23 total touchdowns and 138 points—a new Michigan record. Among the memorable moments during his senior season were a touchdown catch on a fourth down that helped the Wolverines to beat Notre Dame for the first time in five years, and a 93-yard punt return for a touchdown against arch-rival Ohio State. In an early season game against Boston College, Howard accounted for four of the five Michigan touchdowns.

At a Glance …

Born Desmond Kevin Howard on May 15, 1970, in Cleveland, OH; son of J. D. (a tool and die maker) and Hattie (a school administrator) Howard. Education: University of Michigan, BA, 1992.

Career : Washington Redskins, professional football player, 1992–95; Jacksonville Jaguars, professional football player, 1995–96; Green Bay Packers, professional football player, 1996–97; Oakland Raiders, professional football player, 1997–99; Green Bay Packers, professional football player, 1999; Detroit Lions, professional football player, 1999–2002.

Awards : Heisman Trophy and "College Player of the Year" citation, both 1991; named Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, 1997.

Fourth Draft Pick

Howard was the fourth player chosen in the first round of the 1992 NFL draft. The Washington Redskins, coming off a championship season, had traded upwards to vie for him. Expectations were high that Howard would move into the pro ranks with all the skills he'd shown as a college player, but from the very beginning of his career with the Redskins he played mostly on special teams. His first professional touchdown, for instance, came on a 55-yard punt return against the Atlanta Falcons. His best year with Washington was 1994, when he served as a starting wide receiver and pulled in 40 receptions for 727 yards and five touchdowns. Those numbers were not spectacular enough for the Redskins, who placed Howard on a list of players who were being made available to the new expansion teams.

The spring and summer of 1996 must have been a tense time for Desmond Howard. He was invited to the Green Bay Packers training camp with no guarantee of a contract and faced the prospect of proving himself all over again. A reputation preceded him, according to Mike Freeman in the New York Times, who wrote: "was criticized … for his lack of energy bursting off the line of scrimmage and a lack of overall toughness—not to mention his falling asleep in meetings." The Packers liked what they saw in training camp and signed Howard to a one-year contract for $300,000—or just a bit over the NFL minimum annual salary. Howard swallowed his pride and accepted the offer. "Obviously I never quit on myself," he explained in the New York Times.

Achieved MVP with Packers

Right away Howard sensed the exciting possibilities of working for the Packers. Far from being a first-year team, Green Bay looked as strong as any NFL contender, and predictions were that the team might have a Super Bowl season. Howard was relegated to special teams, but he certainly didn't complain: he simply performed at the height of his powers throughout the season whenever the ball fell into his hands. For Howard, 1996 was a "season of redemption." He declared in the New York Times: "I haven't felt like this since Michigan, to be honest with you…. I feel as though I'm really contributing to my team's victories and reaching our goals."

In order to get to Super Bowl XXXI, Green Bay faced a playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers. If Howard's resurgence had been something of a secret to the public at large throughout the season, it went public that day. Before Packers quarterback Brett Favre even took the field to call a down, Howard had given Green Bay a 7-0 lead, by virtue of a 71-yard punt return for a touchdown. Just two series later, Howard grabbed a 49er punt at the San Francisco 47-yard line and ran it 40 yards to the 7. In short order the Packers had another touchdown. Green Bay went on to beat the formidable 49ers by a score of 35-14.

The trash talk began soon thereafter. When the New England Patriots qualified for the Super Bowl, Patriot safety Corwin Brown—a Michigan teammate of Howard's—predicted that he was going to "smash" Howard during the Super Bowl and then strike a Heisman Trophy pose over Howard's body. If Desmond Howard needed any more incentive to get his juices flowing for the big game, Corwin's remark did the trick. "I had stuff like that in the back of my mind before the game," Howard later admitted in the New York Times. "And during the game too," he confessed.

Whatever was on Howard's mind during Super Bowl XXXI, he turned the traditionally dull and anticlimactic championship into an exciting, dramatic game. Howard's 244-yard performance tied a Super Bowl record set in 1995, and his spectacular 99-yard touchdown on a second half kickoff return was the longest score in Super Bowl history.

That 99-yard kickoff return touchdown meant more than just six points for the Packers. It effectively put victory out of reach for New England. "It was a backbreaker," Howard conceded to the New York Times after the game. "They had just scored, they had the momentum. Then we have my return, and that was basically the game," he continued. The Packers won 35-21.

Became Free Agent

Howard also faced a situation that can only be called a dream come true: he was an unrestricted free agent with a Super Bowl ring and an MVP award. His days of playing for $300,000 a year were over. Howard loved playing for the Packers, but both he and the team knew that his Super Bowl success would take him out of Wisconsin. The Packers wanted to keep him, but they couldn't fit a much higher salary into their budget. Other teams were interested in purchasing Howard's services as well—including the New England Patriots. By March of 1997 Howard had chosen a new team from among the bidders, the Oakland Raiders, who signed him to a four-year, $6 million dollar contract. "It's really a no-brainer that I want to go back to Green Bay," Howard told the Sporting News. "But I would be a fool to not test the market. Things have changed for me. I bring more than being a return man and a receiver. I am the Super Bowl MVP, the Super Bowl record holder. I mean, 800 million people saw what I did. Those are things on your resume that should earn you respect," he asserted. He added: "I swallowed some pride (in 1996) when I signed for $300,000. Now it (is) time to give me what I really am worth."

Respect and an expanded role: that is what Howard expected with the Oakland Raiders when he signed a four-year contract with the team in 1997. Despite leading the league in kickoff returns and yards returned in the first year of his contract, the Raiders opted to sign other players that could offer more versatility, and Howard was cut in 1999. The Green Bay Packers picked him up briefly in July, but by December Howard had signed with the Detroit Lions, where he stayed on special teams as a kick returner until his retirement from the NFL in 2002. In his retirement, Howard appeared occasionally as a game-day contributor for college football on ESPN.

Few athletes have achieved Howard's level of success and even fewer remain marketable more than a decade after leaving their sports. Howard's athletic accomplishments had such resonance that fourteen years after his retirement he was selected to appear on the cover of the EA Sports NCAA Football 06 video game, which offered players a chance to race for the Heisman trophy. "The Heisman is huge," Howard said in an interview with EA Sports. "It's really ironic, because that's the one that people really tie me into the most. They recognize me from that the most."