Reggie White

Football Player

• Born: December 19, 1961
• Birthplace: Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Died: December 26, 2004
• Place of death: Cornelius, North Carolina

Sport: Football

Early Life

Reginald Howard White was born on December 19, 1961. His mother, Thelma, married Leonard Collier when Reggie was seven years old. Reggie had an older brother, Julius, and a younger half sister, Christie.

At Howard High School in Chattanooga, Tennesee, Reggie participated in basketball, track, and football. For three years, he lettered in football as a nose tackle and a tight end. Robert Pulliam, his high school football coach, was an important influence on Reggie, teaching him the fundamentals of football as well as discipline and toughness. While in high school, Reggie was an all-state selection in basketball and an all-American in football. When he was seventeen years old, he became a licensed minister.

The Road to Excellence

Reggie attended the University of Tennessee and became one of the nation’s best defensive ends, earning the nickname “Minister of Defense.” As a senior, he was named the Southeastern Conference player of the year and a consensus all-American. Although Reggie left college before graduating to begin his professional football career, he later returned to earn a bachelor’s degree in human services in 1990.

Reggie was chosen by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1984 NFL draft. However, he began his pro career with the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League. He played for the Showboats in 1984 and the first part of 1985, and during this time, he had 23 sacks—the talent for which he became best known. Early in the 1985 season, Reggie joined the Eagles. As a defensive end, he was named the rookie of the year for the National Football Conference (NFC) and recorded 13 sacks and 62 tackles.

The Emerging Champion

After his rookie season, Reggie quickly became one of the defensive stars of the league. At 6 feet 5 inches and 300 pounds, he was physically powerful and remarkably quick. In 1986, he was an all-NFL first-team pick after accumulating 18 sacks during the season. In 1987, Reggie improved his performance with 21 sacks, setting an NFC record, and was named the NFL defensive player of the year. He also scored a touchdown in 1987, after he took the ball from Washington quarterback Doug Williams and ran 70 yards for a score. Reggie was one of the most durable NFL players, never missing a regular-season game while with the Eagles.

Reggie was also active off the field during this period. In 1991, he published a book titled The Reggie White Touch Football Playbook and donated much of his earnings to a maternity home. From 1989 to 1992, he spent many Friday afternoons after practice talking to young people in Philadelphia about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, urging them to stay in school.

In 1993, Reggie was signed by the Green Bay Packers as a free agent. By this time he had married, and he and his wife, Sara, had a son, Jeremy, and a daughter, Jecolia. At Green Bay, Reggie was widely recognized as the best defensive lineman in the NFL and the leader of the Packers defense. Green Bay defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmer called Reggie the best defensive end ever to play in the NFL.

Continuing the Story

Reggie made a big difference in the performance of the Packers. Beginning in 1993, Green Bay went to the playoffs six years in a row, winning the Super Bowl after the 1996 season. The Packers improved dramatically on defense after Reggie’s arrival, going from twenty-third to second in the league in one year. Although Reggie was thirty-one when he moved to Green Bay and was beyond the prime of his career, he averaged 11 sacks per year, compared to 15 sacks per year while an Eagle. He became an inspirational team leader. In 1996, the Packers’ defense was ranked first in the NFL and allowed only 19 touchdowns throughout the sixteen-game season. Reggie was voted to the NFL all-pro team year after year.

Reggie announced his retirement from pro football after the 1998 season, his fourteenth in the NFL. At that time, he was recognized as one of the greatest defensive linemen in NFL history. He held the NFL career record of 192 1/2 regular-season sacks, a figure he later raised, and had made twelve Pro Bowl appearances. From 1985 to 1994, he had started 117 consecutive regular-season games and was feared by many quarterbacks—in fact, he sacked sixty-two different quarterbacks during his career. Reggie was elected to the seventy-fifth anniversary team in 1994. In 1999, the Sporting News ranked him as twenty-second in the list of the one hundred greatest professional football players of all time.

In 1998, Reggie made a controversial speech to the Wisconsin legislature using racial stereotypes in a failed attempt to stress the value of ethnic diversity. In the same speech he denounced homosexuality, as he had in advertisements, while wearing his Packers jersey without the team’s permission. After the incidents, the Columbia Broadcast System (CBS), which had hired him to give pregame analysis of its broadcasts, fired him.

In July, 2000, he came out of retirement and signed a contract with the Carolina Panthers. He hoped to make another trip to the Super Bowl, but the season was a disappointment, and he retired after playing one year with the Panthers.

Reggie died on December 26, 2004, shortly after his forty-third birthday, from a heart attack. He suffered from pulmonary sarcoidosis and sleep apnea which could have caused the fatal attack. After his death, he was honored by the Eagles, the Packers, and the University of Tennessee. All three football teams retired his number, 92. He was often described as a “gentle giant” because of his ferocious play on the field and his contrastive kind and caring nature off the field. Quarterback Bret Favre, Reggie’s teammate with the Packers, called Reggie “the best I’ve ever played with or against.”

In December, 2006, Reggie was elected posthumously to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Most likely, he would have been elected in his first year of eligibility if he had lived.

Summary

In 1992, Reggie White’s leadership off the field was recognized, as he was awarded the Byron “Whizzer” White Humanitarian Award by the NFL Players Association. In 1996, he received the Tolerance Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Reggie also actively helped inner-city residents of both Knoxville, Tennessee, and Green Bay. He preached in many different churches and was ordained as a nondenominational minister in 1992. However, Reggie became somewhat controversial because he was outspoken about his Christian faith and his opposition to homosexuality. Despite his controversial views, his achievements in football were never questioned.

Bibliography

Attner, Paul. “White Was a Man of Many Layers.” Sporting News 229, no. 2 (January 14, 2005): 41.

Kennedy, Kostya. “Remembering Reggie.” Sports Illustrated 102, no. 1 (January 10, 2005): 30-31.

Moyer, Susan M. Reggie White: A Celebration of Life, 1961-2004. Champaign, Ill.: Sports, 2005.

Piparo, C. A., et al. Reggie White: Minister of Defense. Ridgewood, N.J.: Infinity Plus One, 1998.

Ross, Alan. Remember Reggie White: Friends, Teammates, and Coaches Talk About the NFL’s “Minister of Defense.” Nashville, Tenn.: Cumberland House, 2005.

White, Jeremy, and Brett Favre. In His Shadow: Growing Up with Reggie White. Champaign, Ill.: Sports, 2006.

White, Reggie. Broken Promises, Blinded Dreams: Take Charge of Your Destiny. Shippenburg, Pa.: Treasure House, 2003.

White, Reggie, and Jim Denney. In the Trenches: The Autobiography. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1997.

White, Reggie, and Andrew Thomas. Fighting the Good Fight. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1999.