Electric Bootyloo

Bear Down Rick · Feb 16, 2008

Josh Booty booked on suspicion of drunken driving, tased by deputies

From the Associated Press

NFL free agent and FOX sportscaster Josh Booty was tasered by Orange County sheriff's deputies and ended up with a black eye Wednesday after being arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.

Booty, the older brother of USC quarterback John David Booty, was arrested by the California Highway Patrol after being pulled over on the 55 Freeway in Santa Ana, Sheriff's Department Lt. Hal Brotheim said.

During the booking process, Booty became belligerent when one of the deputies mentioned that SEC teams don't travel and deputies used a Taser to subdue him, Brotheim said.

"After being tased, he was fully compliant," Brotheim said.

Brotheim said Booty "fell to the ground, struck his head on the table on the way to the ground and sustained a black eye."

Booty was released several hours later with a citation advising him of a date to appear in court, Brotheim said.

In 2001, Booty became the 172nd pick in the 2001 NFL draft and spent three years as a backup quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. He also played baseball the Florida Marlins.

Terry O'Keefe · Feb 16, 2008

Was he hanging out with RoboQB, Todd Marinovich?

Life is a bitch. He was a high (1st rnd?) draft pick by MLB comming out of High School and also that years top rated (or top 5 at least) rated HS QB as well. Signed with LSU but went to MLB and got a big bonus, after 5 years he went back to LSU and no doubt expected a Chris Wenke type of renewal as a QB in college but the results were up and down. He was drafted as the article said and failed in the NFL. It must be tough to go through life as a failure not only in the NFL but also in MLB. I wonder what Drew Henson is doing now?

Terry

Terry O'Keefe · Feb 16, 2008

Bunch of great HS football players in that Booty Clan. Success beyond that hasn't been as good though.

By Dave Krider, NFLHS.com

The Booty clan of Shreveport, La., probably holds more places in the National High School Sports Record Book than any other family in the history of USA prep football.

After Josh Booty quarterbacked his final game at Evangel Christian in 1993, he held at least four national passing records. In today's pass-happy era, the 6-2, 210-pounder still ranks No. 5 in single-season average yards per game (365.4), No. 6 in career attempts (1,401), No. 9 in career completions (705), No. 10 in career yards (11,700) and No. 17 in single-season yards (4,385).

Younger brother Abram Booty was able to play his freshman year with Josh, then hooked up with Phillip Deas during his final three varsity campaigns. All he did was become the greatest pass catcher in high school history. The 6-2, 185-pounder set still-standing national records with 302 catches for 5,867 yards and 83 touchdowns.

He also ranks No. 4 in single-season yards (2,084), No. 5 in career yards per catch (19.4), No. 5 (tie) in single-season TD catches (28), No. 6 in single-season average yards per game (138.9), No. 6 in single-season yards per catch (21.4) and No. 10 in single-season yards per catch (19.1).

Whereas Josh was named USA Today's National Offensive Player of the Year over the likes of Peyton Manning, Abram did not even make All-America his senior year. Many big-name head college coaches showed up to personally recruit Josh, but mainly assistants were dispatched to recruit Abram. Still, Abram was considered one of the best high school wide receivers ever.

A third member of the Booty clan, John David, was expected to contend for National Player of the Year honors in his senior campaign at Evangel. However, when his father/quarterback coach, John Booty, left the staff, John David passed up his senior year of high school (he already had enough credits to graduate) in favor of attending the University of Southern California. He is now a sophomore and backs up Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart.

Despite not playing his senior year, John David (6-3, 185) ranks No. 42 all-time with 8,474 career passing yards.

The fourth - and youngest - son of John and Sonya Booty, Jake is a sophomore starting quarterback at Calvary Baptist Academy in Shreveport where his father, who is a minister, serves as athletic director.

There must be something magical in the Shreveport water that spawns great quarterbacks. John attended Woodlawn High not long after Terry Bradshaw graduated. When he first arrived at Woodlawn, John faced an uphill battle to start at quarterback because there already was a kid named Joe Ferguson at the controls. He played safety that year, then succeeded Ferguson as the starting signal caller and eventually made first-team All-State. Oh, and by the way, Woodlawn also had a pretty-fair basketball player named Robert Parish during that era.

Though they played some flag football, Josh and Abram were not particularly fond of football as youngsters. When the time was ripe, however, their father made sure that they gave the gridiron a try.

Being the oldest and a great all-around athlete, Josh fell in love with baseball at a very young age. He would play spring, summer and fall. "It was all I cared about," he admitted. "I was a total Little League nut. I would organize all the games. If it rained, I cried. All I cared about was Will Clark and Don Mattingly."

Josh first played organized football in seventh grade at Broadmore Middle Lab School. In eighth grade he transferred to new Evangel Christian, which had no team until the ninth grade. As a freshman, he really didn't want to play football.

Enter Denny Duron, Evangel's head coach, who launched the program in 1989. "They (Duron and his father) told me they would let me throw on every play and I said 'sweet,'" Josh quipped. "They said they'd put me nine yards deep in the shotgun. The first year we were 4-6 and we got beat up a lot. It did help strengthen my arm for baseball and made me more competitive."

The Eagles' record improved to 9-3 during Josh's sophomore year. As a junior, he came under the guidance of new coach Dennis Dunn, who calls him "a very special player. He was the best I had seen. He was big and strong and had a big gun. We had 18 kids and he was the only athlete. Denny (Duron) had to beg him to play football before I got here."

With only one great athlete on his team, Dunn "stayed with the spread (offense), which they had implemented. We used four or five wide receivers. In the early days we had no linemen, so we had to put the quarterback deep as we could in the shotgun. You had to have the ability to throw and run precise routes and all timing patterns. It depended on being very technical and enabled some average athletes to be good. It's been a great equalizer over the years."

The Eagles went 9-3 under Dunn that first season. They captured their initial state Class 1A title with a sparkling 14-1 record in Josh's senior year, 1993. He missed four games that final year with a broken hand.

One play that Dunn never will forget was a 55-yard touchdown pass Josh manufactured against Green Oaks. "He sprinted right, then reversed and ran to his left," the veteran coach described. "He hurdled a guy and then threw on the run to his left. It was an amazing one that really sticks out. When they (college recruiters) saw that, they shut the film off."

Interestingly, Evangel had no playbook.

Explaining the Eagles' explosive, wide-open attack, Josh says, "It became easy to put up a lot of points because we were so much better prepared. We had great offensive coaches. We ran no-huddle, five wideouts. No one had ever done that before in Louisiana. We had plays on wristbands. They let me call half of the plays my junior year. No one knew how to cover it."

Despite all his honors and records, Josh calls his biggest high school highlight "just watching us go from a terrible team to the best team in our class. All of my teammates grew up together (starting as freshmen). It kind of put us on the map."

Abram was even more of a hard sell than was Josh. "I had no interest in playing football," he says flat-out. "I was into video games. I wasn't really into sports at all. I remember my dad making me go out in seventh grade. I did not like the contact, to tell the truth. Our offensive line was terrible. We didn't have any receivers. I was just getting killed. We kept taking beating after beating and I broke my finger."

After playing quarterback in seventh and eighth grade, Abram entered his freshman year as - at best - a backup to Josh, who was a firmly-established senior. It seemed only natural, then, that he would move to wide receiver. After all, he had great leaping ability (38-inch vertical jump as a senior) and speed (4.41 40 as a senior) to go with strong hands.

While learning his new position, freshman Abram caught a treasured pass from Josh that broke the national record for career yards. It was part of an unusual sequence, as he had just dropped a pass and didn't expect to get any more thrown his way that night. However, Josh over-threw his receiver on the next attempt, then a senior dropped one. So, the rookie got another shot.

"It was probably the best run I ever had, because I wanted it so bad," Abram pointed out. "I broke four or five tackles. I was probably 150 pounds back then. I was just pulling guys - it was pretty cool!

"By my sophomore year, I just exploded. I got faster and my route-running came along. I learned what everybody was doing - the defense and other receivers, too. You have to be in the right offense and have the right quarterback. I was really fortunate.

"The catches and yards records may be broken, but for the TD record to be broken in my lifetime, I would be very surprised. That's the one I'm most proud of."

Abram also is quite proud that he caught at least one TD pass from Josh, Deas and Brock Berlin, whose careers at Evangel spanned 12 years. Berlin, also a National Offensive Player of the Year, ranks No. 4 all-time with 13,902 career passing yards, while Deas ranks No. 11 with 11,324. Clearly, the Eagles have known how to air it out from the very beginning.

Abram and Josh forever will form a mutual admiration society. Abram calls Josh "a tremendous influence because of the competitor he was. He just wants to win all the time. I just looked up to him. He did some amazing things and inspired me to be the best I could be. He still is the best pure athlete I've ever been around."

In turn, Josh calls Abram "phenomenal. If he hadn't hurt his back (at LSU), he'd be in the league (NFL) for 10 years. When he was healthy, you couldn't stop him. He was a volleyball-type leaper. They double- and triple-covered him and he still would catch 10 or 15 balls a game."

We haven't even mentioned Josh the baseball player yet. He had excellent speed and could throw a baseball close to 95 miles per hour. In fact, his right arm is legendary around the Evangel campus because one day he stood at home plate and threw a ball 385 feet over the 15-foot center field wall. No one before - or after - ever has matched that feat.

As a senior the three-time All-State shortstop batted a lusty .429 with 20 intentional walks and was perfect in 25 stolen-base attempts. Courted from coast to coast by the premier college football programs, Josh reverted to his first love and signed with the Florida Marlins (No. 5 overall pick in the draft) for what was then a record $1.6 million bonus.

In his third year of pro baseball, Josh started the Marlins' season opener at third base. Before his career really could get kick-started, however, he was sidelined when Jeromy Burnitz slid into him and shattered the thumb on his glove hand. When the Marlins refused to guarantee him a spot on the major league roster for the next year, Josh elected to attend LSU and join the football team for Abram's junior year.

Abram already had two outstanding years at LSU. In his third game as a freshman, for example, he helped the Tigers upset No. 1-ranked Florida with four catches for 101 yards. He set an LSU frosh record with 10 catches in the final game against Arkansas and made all-SEC. He also played well as a sophomore, but wound up having back surgery that next spring and never was quite the same. He admits to still having "constant back pain" today.

He tore his quad two games into his senior year and elected not to finish the season. After leaving school without his degree, he wound up attending Division II Valdosta State in the fall of 2001, but continued to have back trouble. He even worked as a male model for awhile. Later he had a brief tryout with the Cleveland Browns, but failed to make the team. He was offered a chance to play in NFL Europe but turned it down.

A year after starting the opener for the Marlins, Josh started at quarterback for the LSU Tigers. His second year, LSU was 8-3 and won the Peach Bowl. That next spring he declared for the NFL draft, was drafted by Seattle in the sixth round and traded to the Cleveland Browns, where he served as a third-string quarterback for three years.

The Browns cut him in 2003. At age 30, Josh says firmly, "I still believe I should be playing. God has given me so much athletic ability that I don't want to waste it. I really believe I could play another 10 years in the NFL."

Meanwhile Josh serves as an account executive for Land America, a title company in Orange County, Calif.

Abram, age 28, currently is co-owner of an insurance company, Health Benefit Services, and serves as a volunteer coach at Calvary Academy.

Abram already is building the next generation of quarterbacks. He has a son, General, age three. "When I was 12," he explained, "I was big on the Army. I had in mind that I was going to name my boy General. I stuck to it and my wife (Amy) let me do it."

Before anyone can say "quarterback," the first member of the third-generation Booty clan undoubtedly will be called Field General.

Looking back, grandpa Booty says, "One brother set a milestone and the others tried to hit it. It was just fabulous and a lot of fun. We never dreamed anybody could have that kind of success. Nobody thought they could ever touch Joe Ferguson."
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