An ordained minister and two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Reginald Howard White was known as the “Minister of Defense.”
The 6-foot-5, 300-pound defensive end spent 15 years playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers before retiring in 2000 as the NFL’s all-time leader in sacks (198). Buffalo’s Bruce Smith broke White’s record in 2003.
An All-American lineman at the University of Tennessee, White joined the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League in 1984. When the USFL folded a year later, the Chattanooga, Tenn., native was drafted by the Eagles, where he contributed to Philadelphia’s “Gang Green” defense for eight years.
White was one of the plaintiffs in a class action antitrust lawsuit that led to the unrestricted, free agency system. In 1993, he was the first major black player to sign with Green Bay as a free agent, a deal worth $17 million over four years. His signing, along with a trade for Brett Favre, was credited with helping the Packers reach the Super Bowl championship twice, including a win over New England in 1997. White also set a Super Bowl record by making three sacks.
White missed only one game during his last 12 seasons and started all but three games during that same time period. He was elected to the Pro Bowl 13 times, and named to the NFL’s 75th anniversary team.
Off the field, White encouraged inner-city youths to stay in school and avoid drugs. He founded the Christian Athletes United for Spiritual Empowerment ministry and served as the associate pastor at the Inner City Community Church in Knoxville, Tenn. The church was burned down in 1998, and racial epithets were left at the scene.
Two months later, White’s image was tarnished when he gave a speech to the Wisconsin State Assembly that promoted ethnic stereotypes and referred to homosexuality as “one of the biggest sins in the Bible.” Although he later apologized, his comments cost him commercial endorsements and a chance to be a television commentator at CBS.
In later years, White moved away from the evangelical form of Christianity that once inspired him to hold prayer meetings in the locker room. He began studying the Torah and the Bible in its original Hebrew, and told the media he was less interested in the tenets of organized religion than he was in being involved with “the Jewish Messiah who died for my sins.”
White died on Dec. 26. Cause of death was not released. He was 43.
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Categories: Religious Leaders, Sports