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For a decade and a half, Reggie White (1961 - 2004) dominated the National Football League as one of its most ferocious defensive players. White habitually struck terror into opposing offenses with his great strength, but he also possessed speed, stamina, and the ability to size up situations for maximum impact.
Former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan once called White the "perfect defensive lineman … probably the most gifted defensive athlete I've ever been around." After eight seasons with the Eagles, in 1993 White signed a four-year, $17-million contract with the Green Bay Packers; it was an unprecedented amount for a defensive player. Upon his retirement from the NFL in 2001, White was credited with a record 198 career sacks; he had been named to the Pro Bowl an impressive 13 times in succession (although he failed to play in 1994 due to injury). In 1999, the Green Bay Packers retired White's jersey number (92) after his retirement from that team.
Loved His Tennessee Home
White was born on December 19, 1961, and raised in Tennessee. He went to college there - at the University of Tennessee - and he called that state home his entire life. As a child he lived in Chattanooga, where he was raised by his mother and his grandparents. The family was deeply religious; they attended the local Baptist church regularly, and as a youngster White was inspired by the ministers and teachers he met there. He did not undergo a single, charismatic experience of faith, but rather found his ties to Christianity growing stronger over the entire period of his youth. His mother, Thelma Collier, told Sports Illustrated that when he was 12 years old he announced that he wanted to be two things: a football player and a minister.
Football was a welcome outlet for a young Christian who was teased and goaded by bullies. "When I was a child, I was always bigger than the other kids," White told Sports Illustrated. "Kids used to call me Bigfoot or Land of the Giant. They'd tease me and run away. Around seventh grade, I found something I was good at. I could play football, and I could use my size and achieve success by playing within the rules. I remember telling my mother that someday I would be a professional football player and I'd take care of her for the rest of her life."
White's strength and size indeed seemed to be Godgiven. He never lifted weights or conditioned himself rigor-ously, but he was always in shape. At Howard High School in Chattanooga, he played both football and basketball, earning All-America honors in football and all-state honors in basketball. Numerous colleges recruited him, but he chose to stay near home and enrolled at the University of Tennessee, whose team, the Volunteers, were glad to have him. He was a talented and determined athlete who spent his Sundays preaching sermons in churches all over the state. As a senior in 1983, he was a consensus All-American and one of four finalists for the Lombardi Award given annually to the outstanding college lineman. (He did not win.) During his years with the Volunteers, White earned the nickname "minister of defense." The named followed him into his professional career, which began in 1984.
For a while it appeared that White might never leave Tennessee. After graduating from college he signed a five-year, $4 million contract with the Memphis Showboats, one of the teams in the fledgling United States Football League (USFL). The USFL began as an alternative league for cities starved for professional football action. From the outset it was dwarfed by the better-known, better-staffed National Football League, and soon the upstart teams foundered financially. White viewed this financial instability with concern. He also wanted to prove himself against the best players in the game. He began the 1985 season with the USFL but defected to the Philadelphia Eagles. With his wife, Sara - whom he had met in church - he ventured north to join the NFL.
Jumped from USFL to NFL
White took a salary cut in Philadelphia. The Eagles signed him to a four-year, $1.85 million deal after buying out the remaining three years on his Memphis contract. At the time White was still an unproven entity, but his anonymity did not last long. He joined the Eagles after the 1985 season had begun, missing the first few games. When he finally did start, he made ten tackles and two-and-a-half sacks in his very first game. By season's end he had turned in 13 sacks in as many games, and he was named NFC defensive rookie of the year.
Curiously enough, White's singular gift for mayhem began and ended on the gridiron during his 15-year career with the NFL. The rest of his time was always been spent in pursuing humanitarian work inspired by his deep Christian faith. The citizens of Philadelphia soon discovered that they had won the services of more than just a star athlete. "I believe that I've been blessed with physical ability in order to gain a platform to preach the gospel," White told Sports Illustrated. "A lot of people look at athletes as role models, and to be successful as an athlete, I've got to do what I do, hard but fair…. I try to live a certain way, and maybe that'll have some kind of effect. I think God has allowed me to have an impact on a few people's lives." White spent hours and hours of his spare time preaching on street corners in Philadelphia's troubled inner-city neighborhoods. He gave money to dozens of Christian outreach organizations and spoke as a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. And he led by example. In the rough-and-tumble world of professional football, none of his opponents or teammates could ever recall hearing him curse or seeing him fight.
White blossomed in 1986 with the arrival of Buddy Ryan as the Eagles' head coach. Ryan had made a name for himself as a defensive coordinator and had worked with some great lines, including the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings. Quickly Ryan assessed White's potential and built the defense around him. Opponents tried to double- and triple-team White, but still he achieved more than 11 quarterback sacks each season. In his first season under Ryan, he made 18 sacks in 16 games. He was also named Most Valuable Player at the annual Pro Bowl after sacking the opposing quarterback four times in that game. In 1987 he led the league with an NFC-record 21 sacks, and most certainly would have broken the all-time record had the season not been shortened by a players' strike.
Emerged as Team Leader
That players' strike - a particularly bitter one - saw White emerge as a team leader. As one of the team-voted union representatives, White worked hard to keep his fellow Eagles united in the face of "replacement" teams and fan apathy. Didinger wrote in the Philadelphia Daily News: "One of the more memorable images of that 1987 season was White wearing a picket sign and blocking a bus loaded with replacement players as it attempted to pull into a South Jersey hotel…. [White] spoke loudly and passionately about the need for the veterans to stick together. Other teams broke ranks: the Eagles never did."
The hard feelings between White and the Eagles' front office probably began to develop during this strike season, intensifying as the years passed, but White's continued dominance on the field allayed any talk of trade or release. In 1988 he led the NFL in sacks for the second straight year. Between 1989 and 1991 he was joined on the defensive line by several equally ferocious teammates, including Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, and Jerome Brown. This potent defense - with White still as anchor - was widely considered the best in pro football by 1991.
Observers marveled at the way White roared into every play of every game without ever seeming tired or distracted. White told Sports Illustrated: "In high school and college you're taught to hit the ground on a double team. Here you're expected to take it on. I get double-teamed on every play, so I expect it. Sacks are great, and they get you elected to the Pro Bowl. But I've always felt that a great defensive lineman has to play the run and the pass equally well…. The so-called men of the game pride themselves on being complete players."
In 1989 White signed a four-year, $6.1 million contract that made him the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL at the time. The deal came at the tail end of considerable acrimony between White and the Eagles' ownership and management. Didinger described the relationship between White and the Eagles' brass, headed by owner Norman Braman: "They split on so many issues - the 1987 players' strike, the 1990 firing of head coach Buddy Ryan, the 1992 loss of free agent Keith Jackson - that in the end they had nothing to build on. There was no trust, no goodwill to serve as the foundation for constructive talks." Although he continued to play at the top of his game under new Eagles coach Rich Kotite, White became privately convinced that owner Braman was not pursuing a championship with any great vigor.
As the end of his 1989 contract approached, White grew more and more critical of Braman and his decisions. In the press White suggested that the Eagles' training facilities were inadequate. White spoke of the growing chasm between Braman and the Eagles players, using his own chilly relations with the owner as an example. Not surprisingly, White became one of the plaintiffs in a 1992 lawsuit against the NFL ownership to enlarge the powers of free agency.
Joined the Packers
Unrestricted free agency descended upon the NFL officially on March 1, 1993. Reggie White quickly became the most visible - and sought-after - unrestricted free agent after the 1992 - 93 football season. His contract with the Eagles had expired, and although he claimed that he would not mind staying in Philadelphia, he was not tendered another offer there. As it happened, Green Bay was one of a half dozen teams that bid quite openly for White's services at that time. He flew to Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Green Bay, New York City, and Washington, D.C., as an all-out war erupted to sign the powerful defensive end. Everywhere he went he was courted not only by team owners, management, and player personnel, but also by ordinary citizens who had heard about his community work and his Christian ethics. In the end, White signed with Wisconsin's Green Bay Packers. The Packers' offer was the most generous financially, with guaranteed earnings of $17 million over four years. Under the contract White became the most highly paid defender in the NFL and a pioneer in the heady new world of unrestricted free agent contracts.
Joining the Packers for the 1993 season, White left behind good will in Philadelphia, where he played for the Eagles through eight seasons. Philadelphia Daily News correspondent Ray Didinger called White "a man who made a giant impact … a symbol of hope, for the Eagles and for the city in general." Didinger added: "White is more than just a superb football player. He is an ordained Baptist minister whose tireless work in the community touched thousands of lives. He is a man who always wore his heart on his extra-long sleeve."
During his years with the Eagles, White had was named annually to play in the Pro Bowl beginning in 1986; he continued the tradition during his years with Green Bay through 1998, to realize the longest consecutive run of Pro Bowl participation on record. When the Packers won the world championship at the Super Bowl in 1997, White set a Super Bowl game record with three quarterback sacks. The Associated Press named White the defensive player of the year for the second time in his career after the 1998 season, and he announced his retirement soon afterward in 1999. Green Bay honored White's retirement by retiring his jersey number, which was 92, and he spent one year out of football and involved in his ministry.
White returned for one final season in the NFL, lured from retirement for the 2000 season by the Carolina Panthers who paid him one million dollars for the effort. He retired for the second time at the end of that season, leaving behind an NFL record of 198 career sacks after 15 seasons of play. White was voted by the NFL Hall of Fame to the NFL All-time Team in 2000.
Retired to Ministry
White's other career - carrying the gospel of Christ to those in need - lasted his entire life. He and his wife built Hope Place, a shelter for unwed mothers, on property near their home in rural Tennessee; they also founded the Alpha & Omega Ministry to sponsor a community development bank in Knoxville. "I'm trying to build up black people's morale, self-confidence and self-reliance to show them that the Jesus I'm talking about is real," White explained in Ebony.
One of the most trying moments in White's career in the ministry came in 1996, when his church was burnt to the ground, one of dozens of black churches torched throughout the South in a string of hate crimes. Throughout the off-season that year, White badgered investigators to discover the arsonist, lobbied lawmakers - including then vice president Al Gore of Tennessee - to speak out against racial violence, and raised money to help his and other black churches throughout the nation. In addition to this work, White pursued missionary work among teenaged gang members, abused children, and young women seeking an alternative to abortion. He also tithed a good portion of his NFL income to several Baptist churches. Reflecting on his work in the Philadelphia Daily News, the "minister of defense" concluded: "The Bible says, 'Faith without works is dead.' That is just another way of saying: 'Put your money where your mouth is.'"
White's life work came to an untimely end on December 26, 2004, when he was rushed to the hospital for what was termed a respiratory illness and soon pronounced dead. According to Jet, family spokesman Keith Johnson stated that White's death "was not only unexpected, but it was also a complete surprise. Reggie wasn't a sick man … he was vibrant. He had lots and lots of energy, lots of passion." In his local church and across the NFL, friends, former players, and fans of White spoke of their sadness at his passing. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue issued a statement which read in part: "Reggie White was a gentle warrior who will be remembered as one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history. Equally as impressive as his achievements on the field was the positive impact he made off the field and the way he served as a positive influence on so many young people."
Periodicals
Atlanta Journal and Constitution, August 29, 1993.
Ebony, December 1993.
Jet, September 15, 1986; April 26, 1993; January 29, 1996; November 1, 1999; August 21, 2000; March 19, 2001; January 17, 2005.
Los Angeles Times, October 21, 1989.
New York Times, April 7, 1993.
Philadelphia Daily News, June 7, 1991; April 7, 1993; April 8, 1993.
Sporting News, July 12, 1993; September 13, 1993; July 8, 1996; January 14, 2005.
Sports Illustrated, September 3, 1986; November 27, 1989; March 15, 1993; May 3, 1993; September 2, 1996; January 10, 2005.
USA Today, February 11, 1991; August 4, 1993.
Wall Street Journal, August 20, 1993.
Washington Post, March 14, 1993; March 18, 1993.
football player; minister; philanthropist
Personal Information
Born Reginald Howard White on December 19, 1961, in Chattanooga, TN; died December 26, 2005, near Knoxville, TN; son of Charles White and Thelma Dodds Collier; married Sara Copeland, January 5, 1985; children: Jeremy, Jecolia
Education: University of Tennessee, BA, 1983.
Religion: Baptist.
Memberships: Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Career
Memphis Showboats (USFL), professional football player, 1984-85; Philadelphia Eagles (NFL), professional football player, 1985-93; Green Bay Packers (NFL), professional football player, 1993-98; Carolina Panthers (NFL), professional football player, 1999-2000. Alpha & Omega Ministry, founder (with wife, Sara) and president, 1988-2004; Hope Place, founder and president, 1991. Served as a spokesperson for Nike; active in fund-raising and blood drives for Children's Hospital of Chattanooga and Eagles Fly for Leukemia.
Life's Work
For a decade and a half, Reggie White dominated the National Football League as one of its most ferocious defensive players. White habitually struck terror into opposing offenses with his great strength, but he also possessed speed, stamina, and the ability to size up situations for maximum impact. Former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan once called White the "perfect defensive lineman...probably the most gifted defensive athlete I've ever been around." After eight seasons with the Eagles, in 1993 White signed a four-year, $17-million contract with the Green Bay Packers; it was an unprecedented amount for a defensive player. Upon his retirement from the NFL in 2001, White was credited with a record 198 career sacks; he had been named to the Pro Bowl an impressive 13 times in succession (although he failed to play in 1994 due to injury). In 1999, the Green Bay Packers retired White's jersey number (92) after his retirement from that team.
Loved His Tennessee Home
Reginald Howard White was born and raised in Tennessee. He went to college there--at the University of Tennessee--and he called that state home his entire life. As a child he lived in Chattanooga, where he was raised by his mother and his grandparents. The family was deeply religious. They attended the local Baptist church regularly, and as a youngster White was inspired by the ministers and teachers he met there. He did not undergo a single, charismatic experience of faith, but rather found his ties to Christianity growing stronger over the entire period of his youth. His mother, Thelma Collier, told Sports Illustrated that when he was 12 years old he announced that he wanted to be two things: a football player and a minister.
Football was a welcome outlet for a young Christian who was teased and goaded by bullies. "When I was a child, I was always bigger than the other kids," White told Sports Illustrated. "Kids used to call me Bigfoot or Land of the Giant. They'd tease me and run away. Around seventh grade, I found something I was good at. I could play football, and I could use my size and achieve success by playing within the rules. I remember telling my mother that someday I would be a professional football player and I'd take care of her for the rest of her life."
White's strength and size indeed seemed to be God-given. He never lifted weights or conditioned himself rigorously, but he was always in shape. At Howard High School in Chattanooga, he played both football and basketball, earning All-America honors in football and all-state honors in basketball. Numerous colleges recruited him, but he chose to stay near home and enrolled at the University of Tennessee, whose team, the Volunteers, were glad to have him. He was a talented and determined athlete who spent his Sundays preaching sermons in churches all over the state. As a senior in 1983, he was a consensus All-American and one of four finalists for the Lombardi Award given annually to the outstanding college lineman. (He did not win.) During his years with the Volunteers, White earned the nickname "minister of defense." The named followed him into his professional career, which began in 1984.
For a while it appeared that Reggie White might never leave Tennessee. After graduating from college he signed a five-year, $4 million contract with the Memphis Showboats, one of the teams in the fledgling United States Football League (USFL). The USFL began as an alternative league for cities starved for professional football action. From the outset it was dwarfed by the better-known, better-staffed National Football League, and soon the upstart teams foundered financially. White viewed this financial instability with concern. He also wanted to prove himself against the best players in the game. He began the 1985 season with the USFL but defected to the Philadelphia Eagles. With his wife, Sara--whom he had met in church--he ventured north to join the NFL.
Jumped from USFL to NFL
White took a salary cut in Philadelphia. The Eagles signed him to a four-year, $1.85 million deal after buying out the remaining three years on his Memphis contract. At the time White was still an unproven entity, but his anonymity did not last long. He joined the Eagles after the 1985 season had begun, missing the first few games. When he finally did start, he made ten tackles and two-and-a-half sacks in his very first game. By season's end he had turned in 13 sacks in as many games, and he was named NFC defensive rookie of the year.
Curiously enough, White's singular gift for mayhem began and ended on the gridiron during his 15-year career with the NFL. The rest of his time was always been spent in pursuing humanitarian work inspired by his deep Christian faith. The citizens of Philadelphia soon discovered that they had won the services of more than just a star athlete. "I believe that I've been blessed with physical ability in order to gain a platform to preach the gospel," White told Sports Illustrated. "A lot of people look at athletes as role models, and to be successful as an athlete, I've got to do what I do, hard but fair.... I try to live a certain way, and maybe that'll have some kind of effect. I think God has allowed me to have an impact on a few people's lives." White spent hours and hours of his spare time preaching on street corners in Philadelphia's troubled inner-city neighborhoods. He gave money to dozens of Christian outreach organizations and spoke as a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. And he led by example. In the rough-and-tumble world of professional football, none of his opponents or teammates could ever recall hearing him curse or seeing him fight.
White blossomed in 1986 with the arrival of Buddy Ryan as the Eagles' head coach. Ryan had made a name for himself as a defensive coordinator and had worked with some great lines, including the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings. Quickly Ryan assessed White's potential and built the defense around him. Opponents tried to double- and triple-team White, but still he achieved more than 11 quarterback sacks each season. In his first season under Ryan, he made 18 sacks in 16 games. He was also named Most Valuable Player at the annual Pro Bowl after sacking the opposing quarterback four times in that game. In 1987 he led the league with an NFC-record 21 sacks, and most certainly would have broken the all-time record had the season not been shortened by a players' strike.
Emerged as Team Leader
That players' strike--a particularly bitter one--saw White emerge as a team leader. As one of the team-voted union representatives, White worked hard to keep his fellow Eagles united in the face of "replacement" teams and fan apathy. Didinger wrote in the Philadelphia Daily News: "One of the more memorable images of that 1987 season was White wearing a picket sign and blocking a bus loaded with replacement players as it attempted to pull into a South Jersey hotel.... [White] spoke loudly and passionately about the need for the veterans to stick together. Other teams broke ranks: the Eagles never did."
The hard feelings between White and the Eagles' front office probably began to develop during this strike season, intensifying as the years passed, but White's continued dominance on the field allayed any talk of trade or release. In 1988 he led the NFL in sacks for the second straight year. Between 1989 and 1991 he was joined on the defensive line by several equally ferocious teammates, including Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, and Jerome Brown. This potent defense--with White still as anchor--was widely considered the best in pro football by 1991.
Observers marveled at the way White roared into every play of every game without ever seeming tired or distracted. White told Sports Illustrated: "In high school and college you're taught to hit the ground on a double team. Here you're expected to take it on. I get double-teamed on every play, so I expect it. Sacks are great, and they get you elected to the Pro Bowl. But I've always felt that a great defensive lineman has to play the run and the pass equally well.... The so-called men of the game pride themselves on being complete players."
In 1989 White signed a four-year, $6.1 million contract that made him the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL at the time. The deal came at the tail end of considerable acrimony between White and the Eagles' ownership and management. Didinger described the relationship between White and the Eagles' brass, headed by owner Norman Braman: "They split on so many issues--the 1987 players' strike, the 1990 firing of head coach Buddy Ryan, the 1992 loss of free agent Keith Jackson--that in the end they had nothing to build on. There was no trust, no goodwill to serve as the foundation for constructive talks." Although he continued to play at the top of his game under new Eagles coach Rich Kotite, White became privately convinced that owner Braman was not pursuing a championship with any great vigor.
As the end of his 1989 contract approached, White grew more and more critical of Braman and his decisions. In the press White suggested that the Eagles' training facilities were inadequate. White spoke of the growing chasm between Braman and the Eagles players, using his own chilly relations with the owner as an example. Not surprisingly, White became one of the plaintiffs in a 1992 lawsuit against the NFL ownership to enlarge the powers of free agency.
Joined the Packers
Unrestricted free agency descended upon the NFL officially on March 1, 1993. Reggie White quickly became the most visible---and sought-after---unrestricted free agent after the 1992-93 football season. His contract with the Eagles had expired, and although he claimed that he would not mind staying in Philadelphia, he was not tendered another offer there. As it happened, Green Bay was one of a half dozen teams that bid quite openly for White's services at that time. He flew to Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Green Bay, New York City, and Washington, D.C., as an all-out war erupted to sign the powerful defensive end. Everywhere he went he was courted not only by team owners, management, and player personnel, but also by ordinary citizens who had heard about his community work and his Christian ethics. In the end, White signed with Wisconsin's Green Bay Packers. The Packers' offer was the most generous financially, with guaranteed earnings of $17 million over four years. Under the contract White became the most highly paid defender in the NFL and a pioneer in the heady new world of unrestricted free agent contracts.
Joining the Packers for the 1993 season, White left behind good will in Philadelphia, where he played for the Eagles through eight seasons. Philadelphia Daily News correspondent Ray Didinger called White "a man who made a giant impact...a symbol of hope, for the Eagles and for the city in general." Didinger added: "White is more than just a superb football player. He is an ordained Baptist minister whose tireless work in the community touched thousands of lives. He is a man who always wore his heart on his extra-long sleeve."
During his years with the Eagles, White had was named annually to play in the Pro Bowl beginning in 1986; he continued the tradition during his years with Green Bay through 1998, to realize the longest consecutive run of Pro Bowl participation on record. When the Packers won the world championship at the Super Bowl in 1997, White set a Super Bowl game record with three quarterback sacks. The Associated Press named White the defensive player of the year for the second time in his career after the 1998 season, and he announced his retirement soon afterward in 1999. Green Bay honored White's retirement by retiring his jersey number, which was 92, and he spent one year out of football and involved in his ministry.
White returned for one final season in the NFL, lured from retirement for the 2000 season by the Carolina Panthers who paid him one million dollars for the effort. He retired for the second time at the end of that season, leaving behind an NFL record of 198 career sacks after 15 seasons of play. White was voted by the NFL Hall of Fame to the NFL All-time Team in 2000.
Retired to Ministry
White's other career--carrying the gospel of Christ to those in need--will last his entire life. He and his wife built Hope Place, a shelter for unwed mothers, on property near their home in rural Tennessee; they also founded the Alpha & Omega Ministry to sponsor a community development bank in Knoxville. "I'm trying to build up black people's morale, self-confidence and self-reliance to show them that the Jesus I'm talking about is real," White explained in Ebony.
One of the most trying moments in White's career in the ministry came in 1996, when his church was burnt to the ground, one of dozens of black churches torched throughout the South in a string of hate crimes. Throughout the off-season that year, White badgered investigators to discover the arsonist, lobbied lawmakers--including then vice president Al Gore of Tennessee--to speak out against racial violence, and raised money to help his and other black churches throughout the nation. In addition to this work, White pursued missionary work among teenaged gang members, abused children, and young women seeking an alternative to abortion. He also tithed a good portion of his NFL income to several Baptist churches. Reflecting on his work in the Philadelphia Daily News, the "minister of defense" concluded: "The Bible says, 'Faith without works is dead.' That is just another way of saying: 'Put your money where your mouth is.'"
White's life work came to an untimely end on December 26, 2004, when he was rushed to the hospital for what was termed a respiratory illness and soon pronounced dead. According to Jet, family spokesman Keith Johnson stated that White's death "was not only unexpected, but it was also a complete surprise. Reggie wasn't a sick man...he was vibrant. He had lots and lots of energy, lots of passion." In his local church and across the NFL, friends, former players, and fans of White spoke of their sadness at his passing. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue issued a statement which read in part: "Reggie White was a gentle warrior who will be remembered as one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history. Equally as impressive as his achievements on the field was the positive impact he made off the field and the way he served as a positive influence on so many young people."
Awards
Named Southeast Conference Player of the Year, 1984; named NFC rookie of the year, 1986; named NFL defensive player of the year by Associated Press 1986 and 1998; named to 1980s All-Decade Team Pro Football Weekly, 1991; named defensive player of the year byPro Football Weekly, 1991; named to NFL Pro Bowl, 1986-98; Pro Bowl MVP, 1987; White's Jersey Number (92) retired by the Green Bay Packer's, 1999; named to NFL's All-time Team, 2000.
Works
Selected writings
Further Reading
Periodicals
— Mark Kram and Tom Pendergast
Quotes:
"I have a lot of respect for tough coaches."
| Reggie White | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Position(s): Defensive end |
Jersey #(s): 92 |
Born: December 19 1961 Chattanooga, Tennessee |
|
Died: December 26 2004
(aged 43) Cornelius, North Carolina |
|
| Career Information | |
| Year(s): 1985-2000 | |
| College: Tennessee | |
| Professional Teams | |
|
|
| Career Stats | |
| Games Played | 232 |
| Sacks | 198 |
| Forced Fumbles | 33 |
| Stats at NFL.com | |
| Career Highlights and Awards | |
|
|
| Pro Football Hall of Fame | |
| College Hall of Fame | |
Reginald Howard "Reggie" White (December 19, 1961 – December 26, 2004) was a professional American football player. He was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and attended Howard School [1] during high school. He then attend The University of Tennessee where he was an All-American.
Nicknamed the "Minister of Defense", a dual reference to his football prowess and his Evangelical Christian ordination, White is one of the all-time leaders in sacks in NFL history.
He was married to the former Sara Copeland, with whom he had two children, Jeremy and Jecolia. It was discovered that he was related to college football player Kevin Rollins when he arrived at one of his games; Rollins went on to play for the Miami Dolphins but broke his hand playing in Amsterdam.
White played college football at the University of Tennessee, where he set school records for most sacks in a career, season and game. He still holds these records.
After college, White signed with the Memphis Showboats of the USFL, with whom he played for two seasons, while racking up 23.5 sacks, 192 tackles and seven forced fumbles in 36 starts.
After the USFL folded, White moved to the NFL and went to the Philadelphia Eagles because they held his NFL rights. He played with the Eagles for eight seasons, picking up 124 sacks to become the Eagles' all-time sack leader. He also set a then Eagles regular-season record with 21 sacks in 1987. He also became the only player to ever accumulate 20 or more sacks in just 12 games. He also set an NFL regular-season record that season by averaging the most sacks per game, with an amazing 1.75 sacks per game. Over the course of his tenure with the Eagles, White actually accumulated more sacks than the number of games that he played.
In 1993, while being wooed by several teams as a free agent, White went to the Green Bay Packers, where he played for six seasons. While not quite as prolific as in his previous years, White still notched up another 68.5 sacks, to become the Packers' all-time leader in that category. He also helped the Packers to two Super Bowls, including a victory in Super Bowl XXXI. That victory was the only championship White ever shared in at any level. White was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1998.
After the 1998 season, White announced his retirement, but in 2000 he returned to the league for one season as a member of the Carolina Panthers, then retired for the last time.
At the time of his retirement, White was the NFL's all-time sacks leader with 198. He has since been surpassed by Bruce Smith who has 200. White also recorded 3 interceptions, which he returned for 79 yards, and recovered 19 fumbles, which he returned for 137 yards and 3 touchdowns. His 9 consecutive seasons (1985-1993) with at least 10 sacks remain an NFL record. He was named All-Pro 13 of 15 seasons including 10 as first-team selection
White was caught in the middle of the arson scares at predominantly African American churches during the mid-1990s. The Inner City Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, a church where White was an associate minister, was burned to the ground in 1996.
In White's last year of football, a friend reportedly gave White a teaching CD from Messianic teacher Monte Judah. Following his retirement, White began studying Torah and Torah-observant Messianic theology. White also studied Hebrew under Nehemia Gordon. In October of 2003, White was interviewed by Messianic teacher and televangelist Michael Rood, and he discussed his studies of Torah. The interview was broadcast on February 4 and 6, 2005, on the Sky Angel cable channel. Following White's death, the January 2005 edition of Messianic magazine Yavoh was dedicated to him as a "Messianic Believer."
On the morning of December 26, 2004, White was rushed from his home in Cornelius, North Carolina to a nearby hospital in Huntersville, North Carolina, where he was pronounced dead. White had suffered a fatal cardiac arrhythmia most likely caused by the sarcoidosis he had lived with for years. [1] The Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner's Office ruled that White most likely died from cardiac and pulmonary sarcoidosis. [2] It was also stated that sleep apnea, which White was known to suffer from[3] may have contributed to his death.[4] Sleep apnea is known to affect large, muscular individuals like White more often than people of an average size and build.
During the 2005 season, three teams retired White's number 92 jersey. During a halftime presentation at Lambeau Field on September 18, 2005, White became only the fifth Green Bay Packer to have his number retired by the franchise. The Packers also wore a helmet decal honoring White for the remaining games in the season. The University of Tennessee retired White's jersey at a halftime presentation on October 1, 2005 during their game against the University of Mississippi, the third such retirement in the modern era of football at the school; a commemorative sign was also unveiled in the south end of Neyland Stadium. Finally, on December 5, 2005, the Philadelphia Eagles retired his jersey in a halftime ceremony during the Eagles' Monday Night Football game with the Seattle Seahawks, who were coached by Mike Holmgren, White's former coach in Green Bay.
White's retirement was not without controversy. He created a stir in March of 1998 with his comments before the Wisconsin state legislature that invoked positive racial stereotypes of Latinos, Asians, whites, blacks, and Native Americans, explaining that all were made in God's image. Consistent with his fundamentalist understanding of Biblical doctrine and his religious beliefs, he made remarks about gays and lesbians, and subsequently became an ally of organizations opposed to homosexuality, appearing in a newspaper advertising campaign to convince gays and lesbians that they could "cease" their homosexuality. As a result, CBS withdrew a five-year, $6 million contract for being a part of the pregame announcing panel because of his statements calling homosexuality a sin.[2][3] In addition, both the Green Bay Packers and the NFL objected to the ads, since White had appeared in his football uniform without the consent of the team or the league. Later versions of the ad removed the uniform.
Confusion arose after his death over media allegations that White had abandoned Christianity and was studying Judaism. This may have arisen because many consider Messianic theology to be a form of Judaism because it holds obedience to the Torah is an expression of one's faith, and it is frequently referred to as "Messianic Judaism."
White was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on February 4, 2006. He was enshrined at a ceremony on August 5, 2006 in Canton, Ohio. White's widow, Sara White, delivered her late husband's acceptance speech at the ceremony. She was introduced by their son, Jeremy White, who also released the first copies of his autobiography, In His Shadow: Growing Up With Reggie White, during the Hall of Fame weekend in honor of his father. Jeremy thanked the "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" in his introduction, echoing Reggie White's dedication to his faith. White is the first "Messianic" believer inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame [citation needed].
In 1999, he was ranked number 22 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, making him the highest-ranked player to have played for the Eagles and the third-ranking Packer behind Don Hutson and Ray Nitschke.
