Former Jets athletic trainer Pepper Burrus was selected Friday to be honored as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's annual Awards of Excellence program.
Burruss, who started with the Jets as an assistant athletic trainer in 1977, spent 16 seasons with the Green & White. He helped earn the NFL's inaugural "Athletic Training Staff of the Year" award and played a key role in the emergency care of player Dennis Byrd, contributing to his miraculous recovery from a spinal injury.
When Bryd was partly paralyzed in a 1992 game vs. the Chiefs, Burruss helped hold his head and neck in place as he was transported to Lenox Hill in Manhattan. Byrd would walk again, and his No. 90 was retired during a halftime ceremony vs. the Dolphins in 2012.
Burruss, who transformed a childhood fascination with athletic logistics and emergency medicine into an extraordinary 42-year NFL career, joined the Green Bay Packers in 1993 as the head athletic trainer. He was credited with modernizing the team's medical operations and building a legacy of excellence. Over 26 seasons in Green Bay, he helped the Packers win two Super Bowl championships and mentored a new generation of sports medicine professionals.
Burruss was named the NFL Physicians Society's Outstanding NFL Athletic Trainer in 2012 and received numerous honors, including serving on the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee, throughout his career. He retired as the Packers' Director of Sports Medicine Administration.
"People see the glamour, but they don't see all the hours, particularly those away from the football field," he said in a Purdue alumni profile: https://www.purdue.edu/hhs/life360/2018-fall/HHS-alumni-score-for-professional-sports-teams.html. "People ask what kind of hours I work. I tell them that I work farmers' hours — dark to dark and I don't take days off. Offseason? We drop it down to about 50 hours a week. Then, add training camp, preseason games, 20 weekends that we play games during the season and the playoffs, if we make them. People say, 'Wow, you work more than 52 weekends a year!' That's not possible, of course, but they get the idea."
A cocktail dinner and awards luncheon to celebrate the careers of Burruss, Ed Block and John Norwig will take place in Canton on June 25-26. Last year, two longtime Jets football support staffers, public relations director Frank Ramos and equipment manager Bill Hampton Sr., were among 15 recipients of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's third annual Awards of Excellence.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame established the Awards of Excellence in 2022 to recognize significant contributors to the game in "behind-the-scenes" roles. The program honors career assistant coaches, athletic trainers, equipment managers and film/video directors and public relations directors. The five groups presenting the Awards of Excellence created their own selection committees and set their own criteria for choosing new members.
