ELKHART — Tim Brown had a life-changing experience at age 13, a lesson that has lasted throughout his life, including a 17-year playing career in the NFL.

The former University of Notre Dame player who won the Heisman Trophy as a senior in 1987 was in Elkhart Tuesday morning at Elkhart Memorial High School as the featured speaker at the 20th annual Community Leader’s Prayer Breakfast.

“My Dad and I had an incident,” the 45-year-old native of Dallas, Texas, said. “Dad was a construction foreman. He worked from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. He also owned a nightclub and would go there after dinner. He worked hard and he played hard.

“One night he came home a little tipsy. It was about midnight and I was lying on the couch watching television. Dad thought I had fallen asleep so he turned the TV off. I got up off the couch and told him I was watching that. He thought I was coming after him and he said ‘If you ever come after me I will kill you.’ He went outside and I knew he had two guns in his car.

“I’m not sure he realized what he said until he got outside. But those were life-changing words for me. I decided right then that if alcohol could make a father say he was going to kill his son I was never going to touch it. I’m probably the only guy who played 17 years in the NFL that can make that statement.”

Not that the temptations weren’t there.

“I played for the Los Angeles Raiders in the 1980s,” he said. “I was around a crowd that included people like Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson. Believe me the better the player you are, the prettier the women get. By the time I was 24 or 25 I could not look at myself in the mirror. I knew I was not the man God wanted me to be. It was then I decided to not put myself in those types of situations so I would not have to deal with the temptations.”

Brown even started noticing changes in some of his teammates.

“I would come into the locker room and if guys were talking about something they didn’t think I would approve of they stopped talking,” he said. “They might not have stopped doing those things, but they had enough respect for me to stop talking about them when I was around. The guys knew if I was in the weight room there was going to be nothing but gospel music on.”

Brown is like all humans, however, not perfect. He shared a time when he slipped.

“It was Sept. 28, 1998,” he said. “I was having a bad game, dropping a lot of passes. A defensive back laid me out and I dropped another pass and I said a couple of words that I shouldn’t have. It occurred to me that this is not the type of person God wanted me to be. I can honestly say that day at about 2:45 p.m. Pacific time was the last time I uttered a curse word.

Brown pointed to another time in his life when he now realizes God was looking out for him and had a plan for his life.

According to Brown he had a rather uneventful playing career at Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas as the team posted a 4-25-1 record during his playing time that included three seasons as a starter.

His highlight moment came when Woodrow Wilson played rival Skyline High School that featured a player by the name of Dante Jones who went on the play for a couple of NFL teams, including the Chicago Bears from 1988 to 94.

“Notre Dame was there watching Jones,” Brown said. “I scored four touchdowns in the game on a 96-yard kickoff return, an 84-yard punt return, a 69-yard pass reception and a 67-yard run. I scored every possible way. It was the only time in my entire playing career that lasted 27 years I scored four touchdowns in one game.

“I look back now and realize that God let me score those TDs so Notre Dame would recruit me and start me on the plan that God had for my life. The game was on Thursday night and my high school coach told me the people from Notre Dame were at his doorstep Friday morning. It was all part of God’s plan for me.”

Brown’s career at ND didn’t exactly begin the way he wanted. Gerry Faust was the Irish coach when Brown arrived at the school.

“Coach Faust in the opener put me back to return the kickoff,” he said. “I said a prayer and asked God if coach wanted to put me back there to let us lose the opening coin toss.

“Well we won the toss and I remember thinking I will be OK as long as the kicker doesn’t squib the ball. He did and I picked it up. After about three steps I bumped into someone and fumbled the ball. I went back and took off again. After a few more steps I realized no players from the opposing team were chasing me. I then realized it was because I didn’t have the ball.

“The important lesson that came out of that incident was that Coach Faust didn’t give up on me and neither did my teammates.”

Brown’s life changed again in 1986 when Lou Holtz replaced Faust as the Irish head coach.

“Two days into spring practice Coach Holtz pulled me aside and told me he thought I had the potential to be the best player in the country,” Brown said. “I thought at first he was crazy and since he had coached at Arkansas and I was from Texas I knew he was. But about two weeks later I began to think he might be right. Again it was all part of God’s plan. Had Coach Holtz not come into my life I would not be where I am today.

“I had already planned my life out. Upon graduating from Notre Dame I was heading back to Texas to marry my high school sweetheart and start a career in business. Playing in the NFL had never even entered my mind until Coach Holtz came along.”

Holtz knew what he was talking about as Brown went on the set an NFL rookie record with 2,317 combined yards gained in 1988. The nine-time Pro Bowler is also one of three players in NFL history to gain more than 1,000 receiving yards in a season for seven consecutive years (1993-99).

“None of that would have happened without Coach Holtz,” he said. “I still see him on occasions and he always has a lesson for me.”

The part of Brown’s original life plan that did work out was marrying his high school sweetheart. The couple has been married for 15 years. They have four children, including eight-year-old twins.

“I told my wife she would never have to worry about me cheating on her, because I would never be able to love her as much as I love God,” he said. “When she first heard that she said ‘So I’m playing second fiddle to God?’ But when you think about it God is a pretty good one to be playing second fiddle to.”

Brown is currently the founder and president of Locker 81 FS, which is a fund-raising program for youth sports organizations and schools through the use of prepaid Visa debit cards.