Mark Brunell Battles Back -- Will To Win Helped Husky Recover From Misfortune

PASADENA, Calif. - Nobody is perfect, not even Mark Brunell.

Oh, he has many endearing qualities, say those who know him. A loyal friend and teammate. A good husband and father. Mentally tough. A strong work ethic.

"A meat and potatoes, peanut butter and jelly" kind of All-American guy, says Stacy Brunell, his wife.

It took a couple of Kringles (no relation to Kris) to reveal the other side of Mark Brunell.

"They don't view him as a `goody two-shoes,' if that's what you mean," says Ray Kringle, a church pastor in Brunell's hometown of Santa Maria, Calif.

Joel Kringle, Ray's son and Brunell's longtime friend, supported his father's statement by revealing the Spray Paint Incident that occurred back in elementary school.

"Mark and some friends found some cans of spray paint and they went kind of crazy with them by spraying the jungle gym at the city park," Kringle said. "They got in big trouble with the police and their parents."

Ah, then it was these early prankster roots that led to Brunell's darker side. As teammate and close friend Dave Hoffmann says, Brunell is "a little goofy," someone who "jokes and clowns around more than a lot of people think."

Take that April Fool's Day joke Brunell played on a teammate, Husky tackle Todd Bridge.

"He got a key to Bridge's car and drove it about a mile away from his house," Hoffmann said. "Bridge comes home and thinks the car is stolen. Mark keeps him going until Todd is actually dialing 911 to report it."

Those incidents aside, Mark Brunell is everything his parents, Dave and Sharon Brunell, could have wanted in a son.

"You know you can never figure out what you do right," said Dave, a coach and teacher in Santa Maria. "I have friends who I'm sure are just as good as parents as us and their kids end up to be jerks."

Brunell has ended up anything but. Look back at the loyalty he showed in rejecting a nearly no-strings-attached financial bonus from the Atlanta Braves, who selected him in the baseball draft last June; his attitude about his roller-coaster experience as a Husky that included a career-threatening knee injury, and his attitude about his quarterback rival and friend, Billy Joe Hobert.

The deal with the Braves, said Brunell, who had been a left-handed pitcher of promise before giving up the sport after high school, included a signing bonus ("probably less than $10,000") and even a stipulation that he wouldn't have to consider baseball until after this football season.

The money, said Brunell, would have made things "financially more comfortable" for his family.

"But I started this thing as a football player when I came to Washington in 1988 and I wanted to finish it as a football player," Brunell said. "I didn't want any distractions to affect this season. I didn't want to think, `Things aren't going well right now, I don't have my starting position, but I still have baseball.'

"I wanted to see the football thing through."

Brunell made the decision at a time when he was the No. 2 quarterback, a situation that didn't change until the sixth game of the season at Oregon - 18 months after his spring-practice knee injury had propelled Hobert into the starting role.

Stacy Brunell remembers her husband's reaction to being told he had regained the No. 1 job following a mediocre performance by Hobert against California.

"He walked around the apartment so pleased and so excited," she said. "And not because he got it but because all the hard work and all the extra time had paid off."

Brunell said the injury, in April 1991, resulted in him going from the top - being named Player of the Game in the 1991 Rose Bowl victory over Iowa - to the lowest point of his career in a matter of months.

"I look back on my injury as unfortunate because I missed my junior year, when I didn't get to start," Brunell said. "But I learned a lot from it. I learned about battling back from adversity. I think to say the knee injury was all negative is wrong."

If Brunell ever felt any animosity toward Hobert, who went unbeaten in 17 games as the starting quarterback, it never surfaced.

As frustrated as Stacy was over Mark not starting, she said he always took a more philosophical view.

"Mark can see further than most people," she said. "He can see the big picture. Being so patient this year . . . I couldn't believe it, either. He got frustrated, but never at Billy. And not at the coaches."

After Hobert was suspended from the team when it was learned he had used his potential future earnings as a professional to obtain $50,000 in loans, Brunell put Hobert's number, 12, on his game-day socks.

It was something Dave Brunell noticed after a game and asked his son what it meant.

"He said, `Dad, Billy Joe is my friend,' " his father recalled.

Brunell's nice-guy demeanor conceals what probably has been the key to his football success - an intense competitive nature in conjunction with the physical gifts of running speed and a strong arm.

"It doesn't come through in social situations, only when he gets on the field," said Joel Kringle, who has been friends with Brunell since the third grade.

"It can be basketball, or baseball or just screwing around on the tennis court. We'd just be hacking around but he'd hate to lose. In elementary school, we'd play dodgeball and we'd always win because he was on our team."

Brunell said anyone involved with athletics over time is competitive.

"I've been playing competitive sports since I was 7 years old and I think just over the years you get more competitive," Brunell said. "I've always wanted to be as good as I can be at my position, whether it's being a pitcher in baseball or a quarterback."

He said his first experience with defeat, in a Little League city championship game, made him think it was the end of the world.

"But I think defeat is good sometimes, when you're growing up," he said. "If you win every game, you can get a little spoiled."

Brunell was asked what he considered his career highs at Washington.

He mentioned the 31-0 victory over USC in 1990 that made up for mediocre performances in his first two starts - narrow victories over Purdue and San Jose State. And he mentioned the last two Rose Bowl games.

"Up there with all of the highlights is remembering these guys," Brunell said, gesturing toward his teammates.

"Not only the times on the field but the times off the field together. Those experiences are just as valuable as anything we've done on the field together."

What about being a student, quarterback, husband and now father to a 6-month-old daughter, Caitlin?

"For me, I love it," said Brunell, who finished school with the end of fall quarter. "I wouldn't have it any other way right now. . .

"And I try not to mix them (football and family life). I try not to bring football into my family and allow it to cause some tension.

"My family is No. 1 and I love them. I love being with them. I love the whole idea of having the responsibility of being a father and a husband."

And a quarterback.