By Jerry Ratcliffe

Published: May 3, 2008

When Brad Butler starred at right tackle for Virginia’s football team, he was dead serious about the game. However, he wasn’t a one-dimensional guy.
The big lineman caught sportswriters off guard when he talked about his interest in politics and issues outside the gridiron. Well, it wasn’t just talk.
Butler, who played right guard for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills last season, followed up on his other dream. When the Bills’ season ended on Dec. 30, he packed his bags and moved to Washington, D.C., for the next two-and-a-half months.
His destination?
Capitol Hill.
Butler went to work as an intern for former Bills quarterbacking great Jack Kemp, who went on to a successful career as a member of Congress, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and a vice presidential candidate. Now retired from political life, he directs Kemp Partners, a company that dabbles in strategic consulting, finance, real estate and more.
“No pun intended, but he’s literally a ‘Jack of all Trades,’ and is spread out everywhere,” Butler said of Kemp.
The former Cavalier tackle figured Kemp would be an ideal person to learn from and he wasn’t disappointed.
“Politics is my first passion, but finance, economy and taxes are my second,” Butler said. “That’s something Jack was familiar with on all fronts. He took me under his wing and it was a very humbling experience to have someone of his stature that could encourage someone young like myself to get involved in politics and more.”
Kemp would spend lunch with Butler, invite him over to his home to talk politics and the like, showing him the ropes.
Part of Butler’s duties as Kemp’s intern was to attend congressional hearings on issues important to Kemp Partners, take notes and report his findings.
“For instance, if we represented a widget company and there’s a hearing on the safety of widgets, I would be the one that would go to Capitol Hill and sit there and cover the hearing and file a report on things that pertained to our company,” Butler said. “I might go sit in on a meeting with different congressmen and take notes from them. I got to see how things unfold on the Hill.”
What struck Butler’s funny bone was that a lot of times around Washington, he would have to explain that his connection to Kemp was that his boss was a former AFL star, one of the top quarterbacks of his time - he played in five of the 10 AFL championship games before the league merged with the NFL and had his number 15 retired by the Bills.
“They’d ask what my connection was to Jack and I would answer that I played for the Buffalo Bills, and they still didn’t get it,” Butler said. “Finally, I had to tell them that Jack was one of the greatest of Buffalo’s players.”
While in D.C., Butler didn’t waste any opportunities. He spent time with former Redskins quarterback Heath Shuler, now a congressman from North Carolina, and hung out with “Meet the Press” moderator Tim Russert, a big Bills fan. Make that Buffalo Bills, not congressional ones.
With that experience behind him, Butler is gearing up for another NFL season, but is already planning ahead. He wants to spread himself out into the aforementioned areas, and might even attempt Wall Street next offseason.
“What’s great about the NFL is you have a few months off and you can follow your passion,” he said. “I’m young and single, so I can live wherever I want to learn about something. In college, you have your bowl game and then a couple of weeks later you’re back in the weight room. The NFL encourages you to take two months off and take care of your body.”
He has also attended a couple of two-week courses at Harvard and Pennsylvania that feature business schools where players can go for a short period and explore figuring out what they want to do post-football.
Butler attributes all these avenues of interest to life at the University of Virginia.
“I was able to develop strong feelings that you need to get out there and experience things from my education at UVa,” Butler said. “While I was there, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, you’re a football player.’
“You could be involved in clubs and work at internships and join fraternities. I did all those things and it helped develop me into a better person. I think it has helped my career in the NFL.”
Butler is especially grateful to Virginia professor Dr. Larry Sabato, who generously allowed him to work as an intern and follow his passion of politics.
“That really meant a lot to me,” Butler said. “He served as a mentor and had enough time to take me under his wing. In a time when so many people are negative about politics, he has tried to remain positive about it and encouraged young people to get involved, which I think is one of the most important things you can do as a citizen of this country.”
Just as important as Sabato was to Butler’s development, so were Cavaliers head coach Al Groh and line coach Ron Prince, now the head coach at Kansas State.
“One of the big recruiting points that attracted me to UVa was that coach Groh was an NFL coach,” Butler said. “Being in his system for four years, how he practiced, how he conducted meetings, how he played the games, made the learning curve from college to the NFL a lot smaller for me than a lot of other guys because I was already accustomed to the NFL characteristics of Virginia’s program. I think that will help Chris Long and Branden Albert now that they’re coming into the league.”
Butler’s entry into the NFL wasn’t quite as easy as Long’s and Albert’s. He blew out his shoulder and became somewhat frustrated during the Combine and other workouts when he had to sit idly and watch other players run 40-yard dashes for the scouts.
“It really taught me patience because I had to sit there and let teams poke and prod at me and try to figure if I would be able to play in the NFL,” he said. “It was a great learning lesson in life.”
In Buffalo, Butler has been reunited with a couple of former Cavaliers, linebacker Angelo Crowell and offensive lineman Pat Estes.
“It’s neat to play along with them,” he said. “It’s a little eerie playing against former teammates such as D’Brickashaw Ferguson [of the New York Jets]. But walking off the field with a former UVa alum and catching up with them is cool.”
Meanwhile, Butler keeps plugging along, trying to reach his goals as a pro football player and off the field.
Some day, after football, we might see him running a corporation, or sitting in Congress.
“You need to figure out what you’re going to do after football or whatever you do in life,” Butler said. “You’ve got to create side bets because you never know what’s going to happen. I mean, here in Buffalo you could slip on a patch of ice and be done. That’s why those side bets are so important.”
Our bet is on Butler. It’s not only a safe one, but a smart one.