Double Devotion God Called Steve Wilson To Service - And Then It Was The Nfl’S Turn

It was in late March when lifelong Valley resident Steve Wilson received the call welcoming him to the National Football League.

“I was in a suit and I told our secretary if I was ever hired in the NFL I would run around the block whooping and yelling it up,” Wilson recalled. “Well, I had to do it in my suit.”

By becoming the National Football League’s youngest official, Wilson, 43, now has two Sunday callings. He’s an ordained pastor and business administrator of the Spokane Valley Church of the Nazarene. He’s also umpire No. 29 in the NFL, which some might also consider a national religion.

Last Sunday he worked the St. Louis-Atlanta game. This Sunday, he will be in Chicago when the Bears host New Orleans.

Religion and football have been staples of the lifelong Valley resident’s upbringing.

He combines the two to spread his inspirational message, as he did during a recent Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce breakfast gathering.

Wilson, the Nazarene cleric and football’s equivalent to the biblical Solomon, proved to be a talented and funny public speaker.

“I’m an old East Valley guy. We couldn’t win many games back then. I always attributed it to the fact our quarterback stuttered and our center was ticklish.”

Wilson was EV’s quarterback for three seasons, 1970 to ‘72, guiding the successful Knights out of the single wing and into the wing T era.

“I grew up two blocks from the high school and literally went to every practice when I was a kid,” he recalled.

The Knights didn’t have a single wing-style back so they turned to the 168-pound sophomore who scored his first touchdown against Pullman.

“I remember Rob Cameron saying, `Let the kid score.’ I thought someone else should,” said Wilson. “He looked at me and said, `You didn’t hear what I said, kid.’ I scored on a quarterback sneak in my first game.”

By 1972, the Knights of his senior year were perhaps the greatest team in school history. They went 9-0 and shut out seven opponents. They beat Central Valley for the only time in school history and allowed but one offensive touchdown all season.

“We threw only when we had to, maybe 40 passes, but I sure loved handing off,” Wilson said.

He does remember rushing for some 120 yards on three quarterback sneaks in one game.

“We were a well-oiled machine,” said Wilson. “The weird part about that is most of the guys were in their first year of organized tackle football as ninth-graders and went 0-6. Thirteen of the guys who were left went 9-0 and dominated.”

“My roommate graduated summa cum laude. I graduated `thank the Lawd.”’ The passing came while Wilson was at Whitworth College. It was there he met his wife-to-be, Terri.

Wilson was part of the three-headed quarterbacking system under Hugh Campbell. There were times when all three would play in a quarter. He quarterbacked most of a huge victory against Linfield. The next week he was third string.

“Campbell described us as a pitching staff,” said one of the three QBs, John Custer, “long, short and middle relievers. He truly believed that.”

During his senior year Wilson threw 23 of the team’s 38 touchdown passes on a strong team.

“I graduated from college, got married and had a tryout with the Seahawks all in two days,” he said.

His football playing career ended with the Seattle tryout. His officiating career would soon begin.

“Some things are just so funny on the field you can’t throw a flag. I’m working a game one time in Jacksonville. A kid swore at another kid and I said, `What did you say?’ He said, `Guess. You’ve guessed at everything else today.”’

Suffering football withdrawal, but with no desire to coach, Wilson became an official. Networking with fellow official Walt Wolf, a colleague at the financial planning firm where Wilson worked, led him from high school to Pac-10 work by age 26. He expressed an interest in professional football and four years ago began working NFL Europe games.

The call came earlier this year from the NFL and Wilson found himself reunited with one of his Whitworth coaches, Mike Riley, who is now head coach of the San Diego Chargers. He works on a crew that includes Aaron Pointer, brother of the women who make up the Pointer Sisters singing group.

He’s in awe of his new position, but not intimidated by it. Former teammate Custer believes the calm demeanor and poise that helped Wilson succeed as a football player, has helped him as an official.

“I had a good conversation with Bruce Smith,” Wilson said. “He called me rookie the whole day and I said, `I think I’ve got a lot more of your career in my hands than you do of mine.’ He laughed at that and said, `You’re right.”’ Being away from the Nazarene church while spending Sundays officiating in the NFL, he said, is not contradictory.

“Personally, I think the Bible as the basis and source we work with is a very sports-minded book,” he said.

One of five ministers at the church, he is involved with the daily operation of the church rather than preaching.

He attends services on the road as much as possible, often in fellowship with players. Wilson’s belief system carries over on the field.

When Atlanta linebacker Jessie Tuggle let fly a string of invective during a game, Wilson pointed to his microphone and said, “I don’t think your mother would be real proud of what you just had to say.”

Tuggle looked at him with giant eyes, took off his helmet, reached down and grabbed Wilson’s lapel.

“He spoke into the microphone, `I’m so sorry, momma,”’ said Wilson.

Football is also a source of the inspirational messages he imparts to junior high students and to business organizations.

He told Valley Chamber members that a football game is like life. The ultimate goal is to score a touchdown, with first downs being interim goals. The game is played within strict rules and boundaries. You can’t score a touchdown if you step out of bounds.

“In our personal life and business life we kind of adjust that sideline, we shift those rules,” he said. “I hope you don’t have to deviate from them, because rules are important, folks.”

He tries to reach youngsters the same way, talking to as many junior high groups as he can. He brings back two footballs from each NFL game he works and gives them away.

“I tell it pretty much like it is,” he said. “If they want nose rings, ear rings and wear their hat backward, they’ll be lucky, lucky to get a minimum-wage job. So I try to at least spur them on to something better in life. If I can do it through football, that’s fine.”

Steve Wilson took a pay cut when he left his previous job to become administrator at his church. His ascent into the National Football League thus seems almost to be divinely inspired.

“I always dreamed of being in the NFL. I grew up with that,” Wilson said. “Never in my wildest conception would I dream I’d be in the NFL someday as an official. But here I am.”