The Minister's Mysterious Move

No one is quite sure why Reggie White decided to return to the NFL, including White himself

REGGIE WHITE JUST CAN'T leave football alone. At age 38, the NFL's all-time sack leader is back from retirement for the second time. Convinced that God led him to Charlotte, the "Minister of Defense" joined the Carolina Panthers in late July and set out to beat the odds yet again and add another chapter to a miraculous career.

The Panthers didn't quite know what to make, of it all, but they gladly welcomed the future Hall-of-Famer to a defense that ranked 26th in the NFL in 1999 and 30th in 1998. Carolina signed the defensive end to a six-year, $19.5 million contract, but the deal is heavily back-loaded, and the team will be happy even if it can get a year or two out him.

Whether White and the Panthers ultimately can coalesce the way he and the Green Bay Packers did in the 1990s remains to be seen. But there's no doubt White is back on the field, even though the sight of the grizzled warrior still causes some people to rub their eyes in amazement. For instance, Panthers quarterback Steve Beuerlein catches himself daydreaming occasionally when he sees No. 92, marveling to himself: "That's really Reggie White in our uniform."

Why do it, though? Why come back to a game he left on top, as the NFL defensive player of the year in 1998?

Make your own assumption, because White rarely gives a clear answer to this question. He says his spiritual sense told him to relocate to Charlotte some time ago. White began building a monstrous house in north Charlotte in 1999, the year after he retired from Green Bay. But White also will tell you in that raspy voice of his that he missed the camaraderie with the players; he missed the locker room and the anticipation of the main event.

Still, if anyone would have seemed capable of filling a Sunday without football, it was the game's best-known Christian. But White wanted to give it another shot, saying his troublesome back had stopped hurting enough that he felt like there was some football remaining in a body designed for trench warfare.

White is proud of the fact that he owns the NFL record for sacks (192.5 entering this year). Only the Washington Redskins' Bruce Smith is within striking distance of the record, although White says Smith's unabashed pursuit of his mark isn't what prompted him to come back.

"I've come in here to do everything I can to play at the top of my game and help this team to win, not to pad up my numbers or anything like that," White insists. He adds that he would love to get "16 or 17" sacks this season, as long as they come within a team framework.

Much of what White says about his latest comeback seems a little mysterious, even to himself. "I'm back because, inside, I did want to play, and I feel like there's an ultimate purpose to it all that hasn't been completely defined yet," he says. As Mike Holmgren, White's former coach on the Packers, puts it: "He's like Lazarus. He always comes back and rises from the dead."

White retired in 1998 on a near perfect note. After briefly quitting following an injury-plagued 1997 season, he reconsidered and suited up for Green Bay one more time. Despite all the wear and tear on his body, he was wonderful, leading the NFC with 16 sacks.

Although Green Bay didn't win a Super Bowl that year, White already had his championship ring from the glorious 1996 season which culminated with the end sacking New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe a Super Bowl-record three times in Green Bay's victory.

This time around, it seems as if there is nowhere to go but down. The truth is, the odds are long that he'll finish up in Carolina like John Elway did on the Denver Broncos or Michael Jordan did on the Chicago Bulls: holding a championship trophy and grinning. The Panthers have some potential, but they still have a long way to go to be a Super Bowl-caliber team. What's more, they have had only one winning season since entering the league in 1995.

White isn't even a starter in Charlotte, which has led some NFL observers to say he can only sully his legend by returning to the game, like an ancient Willie Mays hobbling around the outfield or a used-up Muhammad Ali trying in vain to ward off punches.

However, Panthers coach George Seifert doesn't see it that way, saying the influence White has on the younger players is priceless. Besides, the coach will be perfectly happy if White stays healthy enough to contribute 15 to 20 plays week in and week out as a situational pass-rusher. "Anything more would be frosting on the cake," Seifert says.

For his part, White spent the summer warning Panthers fans not to get too excited about his signing. You couldn't blame the fans for going a bit overboard, though. On a team that has been haunted by names like Fred Lane and Rae Carruth, the arrival of White was like a ray of light. At last, there was something to cheer about.

"This team is never going to be about Reggie White," White said after hooking up with the Panthers. "I'm not coming in here proclaiming myself as the savior or anything. This has got to be Steve Beuerlein's team, and the rest of the guys have got to play their roles."

The roles of the Panthers players still are evolving, especially on a defense where more than half the starters are new. As a result, White has gone out of his way not to be overbearing. "It's not my place to come in saying, 'You guys were terrible last year,'" White says. "I think they realize they didn't play well. I don't think any defense wants to settle for being 26th in the league."

Nevertheless, if White ends up having anywhere near the impact he did in Green Bay, he will be the best thing that ever happened to the Panthers. In his first year in Green Bay in 1993, the Packers went from 23rd in the NFL in total defense to second. The Panthers are realistic and aren't expecting White to generate that kind of a transformation, although they do need him to start putting some heat on the quarterback since Kevin Greene, their one true pass-rusher, retired following the 1999 season.

Throughout his time in the public eye, White has been just as forceful off the field as on it. In fact, he says he wouldn't change a word of his controversial speech in 1998, which cost him a likely TV job with CBS and sparked a nationwide debate. While addressing the Wisconsin state assembly, White said that homosexuality is a sin and that those who practice it make a conscious decision to do so. He also characterized ethnic groups in ways that many people thought were derogatory.

An ordained Baptist minister since age 17, White's view of the world is based on a literal interpretation of the Bible. He doesn't smoke, drink, gamble, or swear, and he says he often hears the voice of God. He also believes he has been healed from serious injuries by divine intervention at least four times in his career; it is true that he has displayed a remarkable ability to bounce back from injuries.

On the field, White has been in a class of his own. In the strike-shortened 1987 season he had 21 sacks in only 12 games for the Philadelphia Eagles, and he has made the Pro Bowl an NFL-record 13 times. At his peak, he could run a 4.6 in the 40-yard dash, a truly amazing feat for a 6'5", 300-pounder. Although he never has been a dedicated weightlifter, he still has been known to toss off 300-pound offensive tackles with one hand. During his glory years, offensive coordinators frequently abandoned their strong side running game because White was hovering on the left side.

In addition, White had a major impact on free agency, helping to usher in that era in 1993 when he signed with the Packers and became one of the first big-name players to switch teams. Many people, including White, believe that signing was a catalyst for other well-known black players--such as Sean Jones, Keith Jackson, Desmond Howard, and Seth Joyner--to come to the tiny, overwhelmingly white outpost of Green Bay.

White has said many times that God led him to Green Bay, but he also was impressed with a young quarterback named Brett Favre. While playing for Philadelphia, White once separated Favre's shoulder, but the quarterback didn't leave the game. White couldn't believe Favre's toughness, and the two later formed the nucleus for Green Bay's Super Bowl run.

Can White find anything like that in Carolina? For the answer to that question, we turn to none other than Favre, who says simply, "When he's 50 years old, if he wants to play, he'll play."

More likely, though, after this season or the next one, we will witness White's third and final retirement. And five years after that, he will go into the Hall of Fame, a first-ballot inductee.

But White isn't quite ready to reflect on all he has done. Not yet. There is still more football to be played. There are more quarterbacks to be sacked. More doubters to be converted.

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COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group