SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A year from now former Notre Dame Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown will help introduce a brand of football that actually encourages fans to rate the referees’ performances.
And has a 20-second play clock with no huddles, and bans kickers and punters (teams have to go for it on fourth down), and allows fans to eavesdrop on player-coach communications in real time through helmet communication systems, and allows offensive lineman to go out for passes.
“It’s going to be fun,” said the 56-year-old College and Pro Football Hall of Famer, who adds the title of commissioner of The Arena League to his still-evolving football résumé.
More fun perhaps than playing golf in a steady drizzle, which is why Brown was back in South Bend Monday as part of the second-annual Golic SubPar Golf Classic at Warren Golf Course, benefitting South Bend-area charities.
The Arena League — with start-up teams in Springfield, Mo.; Waterloo, Iowa; Duluth, Minn.; and Kansas City, Mo. — will be played indoors on a 50-yard by 85-foot field, will be six-on-six with players often playing both ways and a total of 15 players per roster. The season will run June through August, beginning in 2024.
Brown assured, he’ll still find time to follow traditional football — particularly that played by his alma mater.
“I’ll be back in town for every home game — until it gets cold, that is,” he said with a smile.
Brown was outspoken about Notre Dame’s need for speed after Clemson zipped past the Irish, 30-3, in a 2018 College Football Playoff semifinal in Brown’s home base of Dallas. He likes what he has seen so far in Notre Dame’s young receiver corps, which includes three fellow Texans (freshmen Jaden Greathouse, Braylon James and KK Smith).
“These guys are young, but they’ve got a veteran quarterback in Sam Hartman,” Brown said. “He’ll get them right, because that’s the great thing about having a guy who’s a veteran quarterback.
“He knows where to put guys and how to get the ball to them. So, I don’t think you’re going to see a bunch of young guys running around this year. I think you’ll see a good quarterback doing what he’s supposed to do.”
And if he does it well enough and Notre Dame wins enough the Irish could have their first Heisman Trophy winner since Brown won the school’s seventh in 1987.
“It’s been a long time, and Brady [Quinn] and Manti [Te’o] gave it a run, and Rocket [Ismail] should have won,” Brown said. “It’s hard for a receiver to win it anymore, because I was returning kickoffs and punts along with playing receiver. You don’t see that much these days.
“It’s usually one or the other. You do the returns or you play wide receiver. Coaches now don’t like players to do both. But quarterbacks win it a lot, and maybe this is the time a Notre Dame quarterback can do that again.”
Brown followed his Heisman Trophy-winning season by being picked sixth overall in the first round of the 1988 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Raiders. His Hall of Fame NFL career spanned 17 seasons, all but one of them with the LA/Oakland franchise.
He retired in 2005, but has had a full life beyond his playing days, including his family — wife Sherice and four kids — son/daughter twins Timmy and Timar, son Taylor and daughter Timon. Timmy is attending school in South Bend at Holy Cross.
“Was just there for a speaking engagement a couple of weeks ago,” Brown said.
Back in Dallas, Brown is the CEO of 81 Logistics group.
“It’s a fuel supply and transport business,” he said. “We’re trying to build on that right now.”
And soon trying to build out The Arena League from its original four teams.
“All this keeps me busy, but I still love talking about Notre Dame football,’ Brown said. “I like what [head coach] Marcus Freeman is doing, but this NIL thing is a beast and certainly turns heads. That’s concerning. But he’s in the top five recruiting right now, so that tells me he’s doing a heck of a job.
“As far as how they’ll do on the field this fall, ask me after the Ohio State game [on Sept. 23]. If we can find a way to win that, that puts us in an incredible position.”
---------------------------------------------------------------
• Talk with Notre Dame fans on The Insider Lounge.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Podbean or Pocket Casts.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports channel on YouTube.
• Follow us on Twitter: @insideNDsports, @EHansenND, @TJamesND and @cbowles01.
• Like us on Facebook: Inside ND Sports
• Follow us on Instagram: @insideNDsports
- SDE
- OT
- CB
- OLB
- OT
- OT
- CB
- S
- DT
- TE
