3C
SPORTSAI^c Charlotte $o«t
Thursday, August 3, 2006
A&T star at home again
Continued from page 1C
but injuries have plagued his
NFL career. He entered the
NFL in 2002 with Cleveland
as an undrafted free agent,
then was placed on injured
reserve with a knee injury
He was picked up by Chicago
in 2003, where he started 14
. games before breaking a leg.
When Mitchell returned to
the lineup, Mitchell was
moved inside before being
shipped to NFL Europe.
Mitchell said he feels good
to be back in the U.S. and
back in his home state to
fday football.
“It’s going to cost me a lot
more money for tickets to the
game, that’s for sure,”’ he
said
Mitchell hasn’t forgotten
the coaches who helped point
bim toward an NFL career.
He speaks regularly with his
A&T coach, Bill Hayes, now .
athletic director at North
Carolina Central and just
this week talked to his
Jacksonville High School
coach. Chuck Martin.
Long wait pays for Carson, Wright
Continued from page 1C
performance for the Cowbo}^. I joined the
Cowbo}^ to do one thing - well, to do two
things,” he said. “One was to help the club win
football games, and secondly was to help my
family My performance on the football field
was not thought about one day becoming a
haH of famer.”
Wri^t, who never played football in hi^
school, went on to play ti^t end, punter and
defensive end at Fort Valley Dallas drafted
him as a tight end in 1967, then switched him
to offensive tackle, where he started four of
the five Sup^ Bowls he pla}^ in.
Carson, a defensive lineman in college,
teamed with Lawrence Taylor and Carl
Banks to give New York one of the best line
backer combinations in NFL history He’s the
third Buddog to reach the hall, following
Marion Motley and Deacon Jones.
“Harry made a transition that was very dif
ficult in professional football,” said Dallas
Cowboys head coach Bill ParceUs, Carson’s
former coach with the Giants. “He was a
small college player, he never played on his
feet in college, he was a defensive lineman. I
can only think of two oth^ players in my
tenure in the National FootbaQ league that
have pla}^ with any success that made the
same transition, and thafis Matt Miden and
LeVon Kirkland, defensive tackle to nine-time
Pro Bowl linebacker.”
Carson’s athleticism helped smooth the leap
to pro hnebacka-. Timed at 4.65 seconds in the
40-yard dash as a collegian - the Giants con
verted the 6-2, 235-poimder into an inside
linebacker who was equady effective against
the run and pass.
“Everything I tried to do, that (then Giants
assistant coach Marty Schottenheimer) tried
to get me to do, I did ass-backwards, but I
think I got the same or better results. He just
sort of threw his hands up and just allowed
me to go out and play”
Ad the way to Canton.
“I think we knew all along that he was a
shoo-in for the Had of Fame,” former Giants
quarterback Phil Simms said “I’m just proud
of him and happy for him and look forward to
seeing that day down in Canton”
FORMER PANTHER IN HALL OF FAME CLASS
Minister of Defense mixed faith and
football to serve on, off the field
White
By Arnie Stapleton
rHEASSOC/ATED PRESS
Reggie White was one of
the few truly great athletes
who transformed his game
and changed the people
aroimdhim.
“Where do we begin? Great
player, great person, great
teammate,” Brett Favre said
as he reflected on the legacy
of his fiiend who will be
inducted into the Pro
Football Hall of Fame on
Saturday, a final, fitting trib
ute to the most honored and
perhaps most feared defen
sive end in NFL history
“It goes with
out saying that
he’s deserving
of this, and
just a shame
passed this
White, who
suffered fium
sleep apnea
and sarcoidosis, died a little
more than 18 months ago at
age 43.
When news of his stunning
death reached Mike
Holmgren in Seattle, the
man who helped lure the
Minister of Defense from
Philadelphia to Green Bay in
the biggest fi^-agent move
in league history said sim
ply “I am a better person for
having been aroxmd Reggie
White.”
Amen to that, said LeRoy
Butler.
“A lot of leaders wait until
you get to the locker room to
lead,” Butler said. “Not
Reggie. He’d go to your house
if he had to. You never need
ed to go looking for Reggie.
He came to you.”
White had his critics, to be
sure, especially after his infa
mous speech to Wisconsin
lawmakers in 1998 when he
blasted homosexuality and
used ethnic stereotypes
when describing the gifts
each race brings to the tapes
try of humanity
Wfliite apologized for
offending so many, but never
backed down fiom what he
considered his true calling: to
sack sin as much as quarter
backs.
“I hope that my life serving
God and doing what he called
me to do would overshadow
anything I did in football,”
White told The Associated
Press in 1998.
Preaching, praying or play
ing, White was fevent.
“He’d be picking quarter
backs up saying, ‘God bless
you,’ but he’d be whooping
the guy in finont of him every
time,” recalled Denver safety
John Lynch. “ReaUy I think
he’s as good a football player
as there’s ever been. This guy
was dominant. He had a
presence that was just bigger
than life.”
White took that same pas
sion fium the football field to
the pulpit, to inner-city
schools, to the streets, to the
homeless.
“He ministered to every
body, but his first ministry
was to his teammates,”
Butler said. “Because he
knew that if he could get you
to live right, the team was
better off.”
After an All-American
senior season at Tfennessee,
White began his pro career
with the Memphis
Showboats of the USFL in
1984. He joined the
Philadelphia Eagles, who
held his NFL rights, after the
USFL folded in 1985. For
d^t years he was as an inte
gral piece in Philadelphia’s
Gang Green defense.
WTfite combined size, speed
and strength like no defen
sive lineman before him, get
ting a league-high 21 sacks
in only 12 games in the
strike-shortened 1987 sea
son.
Buddy Ryan, who coached
the Eagles from 1986-1990,
agreed with Holmgren that
Wfliite was ‘probably the best
defensive lineman that ev^
played.”
W^en the NFL welcomed
unfettered free agency and
the salary cap in 1993, many
figured Green Bay the
league’s smallest outpost,
was doomed. Instead, with
White leading the way the
Packers esperienced a rever
sal of fortunes.
His selection of the Packers
also proved to other players,
particularly blacks, that
Wisconsin wasn’t a winter-
wasteland. Before his
arrival, Green Bay, a quar
ter-century removed from
the glory days of \Tnce
Lombardi, was known as the
fiigid outpost where other
teams threatened to send
their malcontents, the NFL’s
vay own Siberia.
‘Tf he hadn’t have come
over, we never would have
gotten Bruce Wfikefson,
Sean Jones, Ron Cox, Andre
Risen, Desmond Howard, all
these guys we won a champi
onship with,” Butler said.
“He changed us fix)m a place
nobody wanted to go to a
place where, by the mid ‘90s,
we had to turn floe agents
away”
White and his wife, Sara,
appreciated the unpreten
tious nature of Green Bay
While they were being wined
and dined at the finest
restaurants across the coun
try the Packete took them to
Red Lobster to make their
pitch
‘T told him. You’re already
a great football player. Come.
here and you’ll be a legend,’”
recalled former general man
ager Ron Wolf
He did, and a faded fran
chise shined anew.
Opponents game-planned
around White and his enor
mously powerful club move,
and so did the Packers.
‘You j\ist knew,” said Keith
Jackson, who played with
White in Philadelphia and
Green Bay “that if you need
ed a game closed out, he was
going to be the guy to close it
out.”
Thafs precisely what he
did in the biggest game of his
life, the Super Bowl following
the 1996 season, when he
sacked Drew Bledsoe a
record three times to secure
Green Bay’s 35-21 win over
New England.
White played 15 seasons
with Philadelphia, Green
Bay and Carolina. He retired
after the 2000 season as the
NFL’s career sacks leader
with 198, a mark that was
subsequently passed by
Bruce Smith. A two-time
NFL Defensive Player of the
Year, White was elected to
the Pro Bowl a record 13
straight times finm 1986-98.
“As intimidating as he was
on the field, he was probably
the biggest kid in the locker
room,” Favre said “And guys
were able to go up and talk to
him and it didn’t feel hke he
was too big.”
Jacl^on once boasted while
they were in Philadelphia
that he could block White 1-
on-1 and White accepted his
challenge. But at the whistle,
Jackson stepped to the side
and WTiite fell flat on his
face, got up laughing and a
lifelong frienefehip was bom.
Butler said White was a
locker room cutup who could
hold his own with Eddie
Muiphy or Chris Rock
“He was just a naturally
funny guy” Butler said, “a 6-
foot-5, 315-pound gentle
giant making everyone
laugh. I’m laughing right
now just remembering him.”
“You never
needed to go
looking for
Reggie. He
came to you.”
LeRoy Butler on
Reggie Whitte
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