JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — He's a Super Bowl champion, the inventor of the 'Lambeau Leap,' and is an NFL Hall of Famer.
LeRoy Butler has been called a pioneer for his accomplishments on the football field but, the Robert E. Lee High School graduate (now Riverside High School) sat down with Good Morning Jacksonville Anchor Keitha Nelson in the middle of Blodgett Villas, a Jacksonville housing development on North Davis Street, to look back at his life before the fame.
"This is where I'm from, this is my DNA," Butler said. "This is my fabric."
The location for the sit-down interview was carefully selected.
"This is an upscale to where I was raised," Butler said. "The other one was so bad as far as crime and poverty, they tore them down and built some new ones."
Butler grew up in a single parent home in Jacksonville's inner city, with his three brothers and a big sister he calls his hero.
"Although we were in poverty, I never knew what that word meant," Butler said. "I just knew you were poor but, my mom had me thinking I was rich."
Reflecting on his time before he reached the NFL, Butler shared stories painting a picture of his will to win.
"I was extremely pigeon toed," Butler said while turning his two hands toward each other forming a triangle. "My feet were turned like this. And they gotta get 'em like this and they weren't cooperating."
Doctors had to break bones in both of his feet at just 8-months-old. By age six, Butler wore leg braces and at times, relied on a wheelchair to get around.
"It was rough because you see other kids going to the Jefferson Street pool and I couldn't go," Butler said. "You see other kids going to the ice cream truck, I couldn't go. I had to tell my sister what flavor I wanted and pray she brings the right flavor back."
From the porch, through a gate, in his wheelchair little LeRoy watched neighborhood kids play the game he loved.
"Me and my mom had a plan, she said 'I'm glad you chose the NFL because the NFL is the ultimate team sport,'" Butler said with a smile as he recalled his mother's words. "I'm thinking, if I'm disabled or [have been] slow my whole life, the 10 other guys can help me."
Butler would overcome his physical disability as a child and go on to help countless people beyond his teammates. He became the first All-American at the former Robert E. Lee High School, one of the 33 best Florida High School football players of all time, the creator of the 'Lambeau Leap,' a Super Bowl winner enshrined in the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame as well as enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
And amid all his accomplishments, before, during and now after his football career, Butler believes in giving back.
"My mom really brought it home," Butler said. "She said, 'a hero or somebody great is when you volunteer or help people you don't know.' Anybody can help their friends or family but, did you help somebody who you don't know?" Butler asked.
Bullied as a child, Butler now reaches out to youth with his Butler vs Bullying campaign, his Leap into Wellness Mental Health Summit and he serves as an ambassador for Changing Homelessness.
"It was easy for me Keitha because when you're living paycheck to paycheck and you depend on the government and you have anxiety about feeding your kids and that check may not come, you could be homeless," Butler told First Coast News when asked about his motivation for giving back.
He's been there, but has persevered through many obstacles ahead of him and now chooses to leave behind a blueprint, in which details include writing your own headline.
"But if you're delayed in writing it, they will define you," Butler warned. "Be a leader not a follower. But if you're going to follow, choose the right leader."
And he says there are no excuses either.
"Don't use poverty because I didn't use it," Butler said. "Somebody is going to make it, somebody is going to make it in your family, in your community, why can't it be you?" he asked.
Butler's mother, Eunice, died in 2016. He shared some of the remarkable advice she's given him over the years and hilarious stories with First Coast News. His full interview is streaming on FCN Plus, RoKu and FireTV.