Mark Brunell by Pete Prisco

Author:Pete Prisco [Prisen, Pete]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781613212523
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Published: 2012-06-05T00:00:00+00:00

The training-camp depth chart, for the first time in his NFL career, told the story he had waited so long to see. There on the line next to QB was Marks name—first. Not second. Not listed as a backup.

Mark Brunell, full-time starter.

Finally

“I’m comfortable with it,” he said then.

He had little choice, but that’s the way Mark wanted it. Remember the competitive desire that was spawned by his wrestling matches with his younger brother? That’s what would drive him again.

“You want all the pressure on you,” he said. “If you can’t handle the pressure, you don’t have any business being a starter in the NFL.”

In 1996, Mark would prove he had every business being a starter, capping a dream season in the Pro Bowl. It would be a season in which he took every snap of every game—the only quarterback in the league to do so—in leading the Jaguars to within one game of the Super Bowl.

Mark led the league in passing yards (4,367) and led all quarterbacks with 396 rushing yards. He became the first quarterback to lead in both categories since Johnny Unitas in 1963.

It wasn’t a season without adversity, however.

The Jaguars may have made it to the AFC Championship Game, but at one point they were 4-7. Included in that slow start were some tough games for Mark. One loss to St. Louis was perhaps the low point in his career, even to this day, in terms of performance.

Mark completed 37 of 52 passes for 421 yards, but drive after drive came up empty inside the Red Zone. Mark was intercepted five times, all inside the Rams’ 12 as the Jaguars lost, 17-14, to fall to 3-5. After the game, Mark was visibly upset, getting testy with the media.

“I feel responsible for this one,” Mark said. “A quarterback's job is not to throw interceptions.”

Mark became the target of angry fans, many of whom supported Beuerlein in 1995. “Mark Brunell is putting up impressive numbers,” one fan wrote. “But is he colorblind?”

The next night, while filming a TV show, Mark was the butt of a cruel joke. Someone from a local radio station presented Mark a box of five jelly-filled turnovers—one for each of Mark's interceptions.

Needless to say, times weren’t good for Mark.

That’s where the competitiveness came out again. Instead of folding, he responded to the critics, bouncing back with a huge season. Three weeks after the St. Louis debacle, he arrived as a team leader.

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