Packers great Leroy Butler was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year.
What took so long and how does he feel about the honor?
Butler was this week’s guest on WTMJ Conversations with Libby Collins.
Listen in the player above.
A portion of the conversation was transcribed below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters, Inc.
Transcription provided by eCourt Reporters, Inc.
LIBBY COLLINS: Obviously, the Hall of Fame — and congratulations once again —
LEROY BUTLER: Yeah, thank you.
LIBBY COLLINS: — on your induction, but why did it take so long?
LEROY BUTLER: I don’t know. Man, I don’t — you know what, I don’t know, but I remember — my mom passed away in 2016, Libby, and I remember her saying — and we worked on my speech in 2009, 2010, I remember her saying — well, two things real quick, I made All-Decade Team, I remember Lee Remmel said to me, walk by my locker, he says, “You made First-Team All-Decade, I said, “Really?” I didn’t really know what it meant. He said, “You may even make the Hall of Fame one day.” I said, “Oh, come on, that’s like the pinnacle of your life. I mean, I’m never going to do that.” He said, “No, no, you’re going to make it. I don’t know when, but you’ll make it.” So, I wish he was one of the few people that could have been there when I got that knock.
But I remember my mom saying, “You waited your whole life to make it to the pros, I mean, if you have to wait, it’s okay. Just be the same person whether you get that call or not or that knock or not.” Because then, they would knock on the door back then, you go to a place and sit in the hotel. Talk about anxiety. If you didn’t get a knock, you got a phone call.
So, I remember the first time I was a semi-finalist, I was so happy. And then the first time I was a finalist, me and my wife, Genesis, we had a ball. I mean, we went to Miami for the Superbowl, we were one of 15 finalists. I was so excited, I forgot that I — but in the back of my mind, I said I probably won’t make it. But I got a chance to see Roger Staubach that week, that was like the Hall of Fame to me.
LIBBY COLLINS: Did you tell him about the T-shirt?
LEROY BUTLER: Of course, I said, “Man, you’re the GOAT to me, you’re everything.” I mean, I gotta picture with him. I was so excited. And my wife, who, you know, is from Milwaukee, but she loves Florida, so — and I think in the back of her mind she was thinking, if we make it, great, but if we don’t, this is a great experience for both of us. And we got a phone call not a knock, but I said, “We’ve met Roger Staubach.”
So, the next year, had the pandemic, didn’t make it, but I was a finalist. This year, I didn’t know. I really didn’t know.
LIBBY COLLINS: You really didn’t.
LEROY BUTLER: No.
LIBBY COLLINS: Did it come as a surprise?
LEROY BUTLER: It really did because I know it’s so hard to make. And then I was thinking I’m the only All-Decade player First Team that’s not in, you know, from ’90 to 2000. So, I thought it would happen soon, but I had no idea. I had no idea.
LIBBY COLLINS: Do you think it took so long because you are known as a really nice guy?
LEROY BUTLER: You know, that’s a —
LIBBY COLLINS: You don’t have that big ego, you’re not — you’re not wearing the chip on your shoulder like a lot of the other guys who made it before you. Is it because you were just too darn nice that it took so long?
LEROY BUTLER: That’s a — I never thought of it that way, but you may have — it may be something to that, because I think they’re thinking, “He can handle not getting in; other guys can’t. He’ll be fine. Let’s get in John Lynch, Atwater.” Me and Steve Atwater are like best friends. And my mom never wanted me to disparage their careers, the guys that got in before me, Troy Polamalu, Brian Dawkins, all the safeties of the last, I’d say, five, six safeties, Charles Woodson, who’s my brother, and any of those safeties that got in, eight of them that got in before me, Ken Easley. So, I was the same guy, same guy.
And my wife actually found out before me. I did a Packer Hall of Fame tour, Libby. So, I’m on the tour with my wife and she disappears. I was like, where is she. Because I’m so addicted to her. I’m like, I want her always near me like as a — because I like to joke on her, for the most part. I didn’t see her. I said where is she at. So, I see her down the hallway at Packer Stadium in the suites. I got 40 people I’m taking on a tour. So, I see her, and she says, “Oh, everything’s fine.” I said, “Okay.” Because I’m thinking something’s wrong with my son or the daughters. That’s when they called her. And they said, paraphrasing, “Your husband has made it, but don’t tell him.”
And come over here, you can tell the rest of it. Come over.
LIBBY COLLINS: We’ve got Genesis in the studio, by the way.
LEROY BUTLER: You got —
LIBBY COLLINS: Yeah.
LEROY BUTLER: Because this is amazing how she found out and how I wasn’t supposed to know.
So, you can pick it up right when they called you.
GENESIS BUTLER: So, they had — first, they had — they’d sent me a text, and at that time, we were driving up to Green Bay. And we’re in the car together, all my texts go through the car. So, I just happened to pick up my phone, and I’m looking, I was like, oh, my gosh, who is this. And I’m looking, he’s like, don’t text while you’re driving. I said, I’m not texting while I’m driving. So, I’m like, I put my phone down real quickly and said — and we had stopped at the gas station, and I’m texting back, okay, we’re on our way to Green Bay, “Can I call you when I get there,” and they were like, “Oh, yeah, of course, you can call us.” I said, “Okay.” So, I’m nervous and I’m wondering what’s going on. They just said, “Do not show LeRoy.” So, I said, “Oh, my gosh, what is going on.”
So, when we get there, he’s on a tour and I’m calling. I’m not in the area, but they were like, you know, “Go far away from him as you can.” So, when I get on the phone, I said, “Okay, I’m far, I’m all the way down — he’s at a tour and I’m all the way down the hall so he cannot hear me or see me.”
So, they were saying, “Okay, so, we just want to let you know that LeRoy Butler has made the Hall of Fame.” And I said, “Oh, my gosh.” I said, “Okay, okay.” And so, they said, “We need you — your house, we have to set up the knock.” So, I said, “Okay.” And they were saying, “Well, what his schedule was,” so he picks up the children, he has Spectrum. So, they said, “Okay, so we’re going to give — we know that you don’t have a lot of time right now because we don’t LeRoy to suspect anything, and we’ll let you go. So, we’ll get more details later on in the week as we lead up to it, but congratulations and we need you to keep this a secret for seven days.”
LIBBY COLLINS: Oh, no.
LEROY BUTLER: But see, Libby, this is when the Packers, next day, lost, so I’m distraught. I mean, I’m just talking to myself. And I’m at the Radisson, I’m, like, I’m so upset. She could have said, in a perfect world, you know what, to calm him, I’m just going to let him know he made the Hall of Fame, but she didn’t. She just let me go through all the pain.
And then when she’s planning, she didn’t tell me, she didn’t even give me any indication. Because I remember like, went through who was it, because I trust my wife. She can go be on the phone, it don’t bother me. As long as it wasn’t nothing wrong, I’m fine with it. But it could’ve been an opening there to say you know, let me just tip him off, this will make him feel better because the Packers lost. But she was so amazing to say, you know what, I’m not going to ruin this for him, because I want the knock to be a big deal, which it was.
So, she knew — for how many days did you actually know until that knock? Said she knew for seven days. So, every day I’m complaining about the Packers losing, I’m in a bad mood, but I’m more measured, because I’m thinking to myself, we got — I’m a finalist so eventually they’re going to call us and let us know something about going to L.A. or something. And I’m like, everything leaks, even Watergate leaked. It’s going to leak out who made it. But nothing, no — I kept checking social media, I mean, I’m calling —
LIBBY COLLINS: All you had to do was ask Genesis.
LEROY BUTLER: Well, I had no idea to ask her. I just — so, it was — it was special, it really was, setting the whole thing up. So, I was very, very excited.
