By the winter of early 1996, Brigance had endured the end of the Stallions in Baltimore and after five years in the CFL wanted to see if the NFL was ready for him. The Browns, en route to Baltimore were looking for ways to sell tickets. They held a workout and Brigance, by his own admission, didn’t perform well.
Frustrated with his agent, he had a heart-to-heart with his wife Chanda, who challenged him to take control of his destiny. She told him to make the calls himself instead of relying on an agent. “Who could sell O.J. Brigance better than himself?” she reasoned.
Putting his pride and ego aside, Brigance got an NFL media black book with all of the team contacts and started with Arizona and Atlanta and went alphabetically through the league calling personnel people for a tryout. The calls always began with “My name is O.J. Brigance, and I’ve played five years in the NFL” and included “Can I send you a tape?” and “Can I come down and work out for you?”
He got two chances – one in Houston, his hometown where the Oilers were headed to Tennessee and a very lame duck, and the other in Miami, where head coach Jimmy Johnson remembered him from 1991 and loved that he’d been playing competitive football and thriving for five years. Brigance chose Miami because he thought he had the best shot of making the team there.
The Dolphins gave him uniform No. 45 at their steamy, hot training camp in late July 1996, and Brigance saw that as a sign that he wasn’t going to make the team because what linebacker would wear 45?
His biggest booster during that camp in Miami became special teams coach Mike Westhoff, who had been a part of the Baltimore Colts staff when Irsay brought the Mayflower vans to Owings Mills in March 1984. Westhoff saw Brigance’s speed, ability to shed blockers and find a ball carrier. He saw that O.J. was a hard worker and a film room guy. Along with another ham and egg special teamer Larry Izzo, Brigance made the team and thrived on the Dolphins’ third unit, becoming a two-time captain and a Pro Bowl alternate.
After injuries in 1998, he overcame back, elbow and ankle surgery to appear in all 16 regular-season and two playoff games in 1999. His Dolphins teammates named him their recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award. At the March 2000 banquet at Martin’s West, Brigance approached then-head coach Brian Billick and told him he’d love to come back to Baltimore, this time in an NFL uniform. Billick saw how warmly received Brigance was at the event and how the crowd remembered his contributions as a Stallions linebacker.
In June 2000, Ozzie Newsome signed Brigance, along with Dallas Cowboys special teams ace Billy Davis, to become a significant contributors on the Ravens’ special teams unit that would win Super Bowl XXXV just six months later.
The only touchdown the Ravens gave up at that Super Bowl in Tampa was when a special teams breakdown allowed Ron Dixon of the New York Giants to break a 97-yard kickoff return. That play always bothered Brigance because of what the shutout meant to Ray Lewis and the defense. Following the Ravens’ win, Brigance signed an above-market free agent deal to go to the St. Louis in 2001 and played in his second Super Bowl, coming an Adam Vinatieri field goal shy of a second ring.
Brigance appeared in one game as a member of Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots in 2002 and his playing career was over.
