Oct. 11, 2010

By Jerry Hill

Toward the end of a 13-year NFL career that included Super Bowl appearances with the St. Louis Rams and Chicago Bears, former Baylor offensive lineman Fred Miller knew it was time to "hang it up" when he was more interested in his sons' pee-wee football games than preparing for his own.

"I was entering a different stage in my life where I've done this and I've played football all my life, and I don't have the same excitement that I used to," said the 37-year-old Miller, who will be inducted into the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame during the Oct. 22-23 Homecoming weekend. "Football is definitely a game where you have to have that passion to go out every single down, every single play and give it your all.

"When I want to be around and go to my kids' football games instead of competing myself, then it's time for me to hang it up and find something else to do."

It was a wonderful ride for Miller, though, who came to Baylor in 1991 as an undersized, 6-foot-7, 240-pound lineman out of Aldine (Texas) Eisenhower High School.

"I knew I had to put some weight on, but it was an offensive system that was kind of geared for smaller type offensive linemen, and I shined in it," said Miller, a four-year starter (1992-95) after redshirting his first year.

Miller was part of legendary coach Grant Teaff's last recruiting classes and was starting at tackle by the end of his redshirt freshman season, when the Bears upset Arizona, 20-15, in the John Hancock Bowl in Teaff's final game.

"It's like everything else in life, you don't really appreciate it until it's gone," Miller said. "Especially as a young kid, not knowing if you could even play with these guys, I didn't really appreciate the type of man that coach Teaff was and the type of coach he was. Now that I'm a little older and I see how things transpired in my life and see how things came about, you get a chance to really appreciate it and say thanks to everybody."

A three-time All-Southwest Conference selection, Miller was a unanimous pick in 1994, when he led the Bears to an Alamo Bowl berth. Including the year he redshirted, Baylor was 34-24 in Miller's five-year stint and went to three bowl games.

Sixteen years later, the Bears are trying to end a bowl-game drought that actually started in Miller's senior season, when they weren't invited despite a 7-4 record.

"My last year there, I thought they were really close, just a couple athletes away," said Miller, a fifth-round draft pick by the Rams in 1996. "It just seemed like things went downhill after that. It's tough, especially when you play in the pros. You're swapping stories and watching games on Saturdays. And if you lose, guys are making fun of you. But I see good things happening at Baylor, and that's a great thing."

Although he started 164 games in a highly successful NFL career, Miller said without hesitation that the highlight came in Super Bowl XXXIV, when his St. Louis Rams knocked off the Tennessee Titans, 23-16, on Jan. 30, 2000.

"The year before, we were 4-12, and we turn it around and win the Super Bowl," Miller said. "It showed me the difference between a winning and losing team, a winning and losing attitude and how a coach can really affect that. Dick Vermeil came in and established a family-oriented atmosphere, and all the guys bought in within a couple years. Guys were playing for one common goal, there were no selfish attitudes on the team. It was such a tight, tight family unit, and I've never been on a team like that where every single person on the team was that close. It was just one big family."

Seven years later, when he made it back to the Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears, "it wasn't as big of a deal."

"Going to that second Super Bowl, I was like, `OK, I've been here before,''' said Miller, who started at right tackle for the Bears. "It just didn't have the excitement and pizzaz of my first one. The Super Bowl is definitely big with all the excitement and hoopla that comes with it. But once you've been there before, it's like playing another football game."

After playing through an ankle injury in 2007 and going through off-season surgery, Miller was released in February 2008. But he was brought back in September for his 13th and final season, playing in six games that year before being placed on injured reserve.

Since retiring, Miller has spent more time with his wife, Kimberly, and sons, 12-year-old Grant and 10-year-old Evan, coaching their youth league football and baseball teams.

"I think they enjoy it a lot more when I'm not jumping on them," Miller said.

While playing with the Tennessee Titans (2000-04), Miller and his wife gave $1 million to fund the Nurses for Newborns Foundation in Nashville, a non-profit dedicated to providing healthcare, education and parenting skills to at-risk families. At the time, it was the largest single-player donation given by an NFL player.

Miller and his wife, who both earned degrees from Baylor, have also given substantial gifts to Baylor to support athletic scholarships, the Bear Foundation, the practice facility and Grant Teaff Plaza at Floyd Casey Stadium and most recently to the Simpson Athletics and Academic Center.

"I think it's important for all of us to give back and be good stewards with what we have," he said, "and also to create opportunities for those coming after you. I know for myself, I didn't get to the point where I am without help. I want to create that same type of tool for others and really to say thank you to the university that's done so much for me. I met my wife there, I got a great education and played there. The coaches there believed enough in me to bring me there and offer me a scholarship and allowed me to make a life for myself. So I wanted to give back for what they did for me."

Eventually, Miller said he will look at possibly coaching or investing to "keep money flowing."

"But for right now, I did a great job saving some money, and I can enjoy watching my kids and playing around with them," he said. "And hopefully I get a chance to make a couple more Baylor games."

Tickets to the 2010 Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame banquet, which will be held on Friday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. in the Ferrell Center, are $45 each ($35 for Baylor letterwinners). Table sponsorships are also available for $450 and corporate sponsorships for $500. Contact the "B" Association's Tammy Hardin at 254-710-3045 or by e-mail at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu.