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Mike Croel

Issue date: December 5, 1994

Life for Mike Croel has been a long, uphill journey. Along the way the Bronco linebacker has combated racism, dyslexia and countless blocking schemes to become a Bronco starter and a promising artist. Croel's odyssey began in Detroit in 1968. At the age of five days, he was taken in as a foster child by Phil and Sue Croel, a white couple who would eventually adopt him. While Mike was still a baby, the Croels moved to suburban Chicago, where neighbors complained to them that the presence of their son might depress property values. In the early '70s the family briefly required FBI protection because of harassment by local residents.

''I was too little to remember much of that stuff,'' says Croel, ''but my parents had to handle a lot of baggage.'' Before he was grown, Croel did too. When he was six, the family moved to California and settled in the affluent Bay Area suburb of Los Altos, where, as Mike grew older, he was often stopped and questioned by police. In the seventh grade he was wrongly detained for several hours as a suspect in the robbery of a candy store. The police apologized and eventually issued him a special I.D. card so he could prove that he lived in the neighborhood.

When Croel was 16, the family moved again, this time to the Boston suburb of Sudbury, where he attended Lincoln-Sudbury High and starred in football and track. He accepted a scholarship to Nebraska, in part because it offered him a special program to help him cope with his learning disorder.

It was at Nebraska, where he majored in graphic design, that Croel developed his artistic talent. Today he keeps a studio in the basement of his Aurora, Colo., house and has sold several paintings at prices ranging from $500 to more than $1,000. He does not draw or paint during the season, ''but in the off-season I stay pretty busy,'' he says. Indeed, he finished 12 pieces after the '93 season. And with Denver in danger of missing the upcoming playoffs with a 6-6 record after Sunday's 15-13 win over Cincinnati, this offseason could be even more productive for him.

A self-described abstract artist who works with oils and acrylics, Croel says, ''I'm still trying to find myself in the art world.'' At the same time Croel is trying to rediscover himself as an outside linebacker. His five tackles against the Bengals brought his season total to 39 in nine games, an anemic figure when compared with his rookie-year stats. That season Croel, the No. 4 pick overall in the '91 draft, was forced into the lineup by an injury to starter Tim Lucas. He ended up with 84 tackles and 10 sacks, forced four fumbles and was named NFL Rookie of the Year.

Since then he has failed to meet Denver's high expectations. There are various explanations. When Croel was a rookie, the coaches kept things simple for him: His only job was to rush the passer. With added responsibilities, his effectiveness waned. Says one Bronco coach, ''He's a solid cover guy, but he's not what you'd hope to get from the fourth pick in the draft. Down the road, you might see Mike take a pay cut.''

Still, the resilient Croel insisted before the Cincinnati game, prosperity is just around the corner. ''The Bengals run weakside a lot'' -- in other words, toward him -- ''so I can be a big factor in this game.'' That he has not been a big factor in so many games this season dampens Croel's optimism not a bit. He is a portrait of resolve.

Issue date: December 5, 1994

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