Winslow Catches Folks By Surprise Usually Quiet Former Tight End A Voice That Should Be Heeded

Few tight ends ever scored more touchdowns or caught more passes. Only a couple gained more yards.

Other than the fact he and his teammates never advanced to the Super Bowl, Kellen Winslow should have no regrets about his nine-year career with the San Diego Chargers. He did, however, have one.

Winslow lamented last weekend that despite his mostly unparalleled career, he really wasn’t so different from his peers. He really wasn’t so outstanding, he confessed.

Like most of them, he said, he rarely if ever used the platform afforded him as a superstar athlete to speak out on issues greater than whether his coach’s last-minute decision was the right one. He never, for example, said anything on behalf of the residents in East St. Louis, Ill., the impoverished Mississippi River town where he grew up.

The setting Winslow found himself in Saturday was not one in which he should have been expected to break such a silence. It was, after all, another day on the platform - the highest of platforms. Winslow was at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, to be enshrined.

It was a moment historically reserved for paying homage to old coaches and teammates, family and friends, the sport itself. Winslow did some of that. Mostly, though, he used this status as a call to arms.

Never again, the old tight end said before a bank of TV cameras, could he be so content with the celebrity and wealth professional athletics gave him. He had come to realize, he said, that to do so would be wrong. How refreshing.

Athletes, retired or current, who accept and embrace roles greater than what they play on the field, are as rare as everyday citizens who take on larger roles as they meander through life. Jackie Robinson. Hank Greenberg. Muhammad Ali. Arthur Ashe. Martina Navratilova.

Instead, most seem interested solely in maintaining their commercial endorsements and gaining more. Some reject out of hand the concept of being a role model for anyone or anything. Few are willing to risk their standing.

Winslow still has something to risk eight years into his retirement. He is a football announcer for his alma mater, the Missouri Tigers, and has ambitions to move up.

Winslow, however, said he has come to understand what he never did before - that an athlete’s access to the podium is much easier than most of ours and is a wasted opportunity if used only for self-aggrandizement. He said he refuses to waste any more time, and he started with the 20 minutes he was given to say what becoming a Hall of Famer meant to him.

“Being inducted … not only provides a place for immortality,” Winslow said, “it also provides a platform to address issues.”

So, he did.

He lashed out at those who wished to do away with affirmative action, including Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, there as a guest of Steve Largent, the receiver-turned-congressman, who was inducted along with Winslow.

“Look into the eyes of the various minorities - Native Americans, African-Americans, women, Hispanics, Asians and so on - and tell them that in spite of the odds before them … they can overcome those odds because now the playing field is level,” Winslow said.

Winslow suggested that even the game that made him who he is could be on a poster for that cause.

“Our significant numerical presence on the field has not translated into a significant measurable presence in positions of authority off the field,” he charged.

Finally, he urged others in the cleats and pads he once wore not to be the way he had been.

“I encourage African-American athletes to awaken and join me in accepting that challenge,” Winslow said. “To awaken and take our rightful role in society as leaders. To awaken and accept the responsibility that comes with fame and fortune. To awaken to the reality of the uncertain plight of the AfricanAmerican condition.”

The applause and cheers for Kellen Winslow’s speech weren’t as raucous as those for his catches and touchdowns. Because of who he is and where he was, however, at least everyone paid attention.