A league spokesman is explaining how it is not against any NFL rules for Green Bay defensive end Reggie White to pay his friends extra money for smashing an opponent with, let’s say, emphasis. White pays off for “big hits,” reportedly $500.
This is not unlike a quarterback giving his offensive line watches or buying them dinner, the NFL guy says. As long as the team or coaches aren’t involved, it’s OK.
And who determines when a hit is big enough for a reward?
“It’s my money,” said White. “I do.”
And just how much did he give out last week when the Packers knocked the ambition out of the defending champion 49ers?
“Let’s just say, some guys are very happy right now,” White said.
A piece of work is this White, a man of the cloth, and not just the green and gold of the Packers. He is a minister of God and an administer of pain. More to the point, he does not see any conflict between violence and the Christian ethic.
“You think football is violence?” White asks. “Shooting on the street, that’s violence. Football is an aggressive game. My life on the field represents my life off the field.
“Telling people how to live their lives, that takes aggression. Taking on a drug dealer, that takes aggression. To put yourself in dangerous situations, that takes aggression. To be like Jesus, that takes aggression.”
A man is entitled to his philosophy, even when it does not make any sense.
“People burn the flag, protest, say anything they want to,” White said. “We can’t be letting people do things just because of some things in some amendments.”
In America’s playbook, those are called the Bill of Rights.
The extended prattle of White is as sincere as it is compelling, so much so that one game from the Super Bowl, White is not talking about Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith but about how it was the press that made the O.J. Simpson trial a racial issue, and how God has cured White’s hamstring.
The first one can be argued, the second has to be taken strictly on faith.
One moment White is out for the season and the next he is bull-rushing 49ers quarterback Steve Young in the playoffs.
“The Lord healed me,” White said. “People are not used to hearing someone say that. I mean, they can’t interview God, like he was a doctor or an acupuncturist or a massage therapist.
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“He’ll talk to the media one on one, but not as a group.”
God does not, as does White, give press conferences.
If he did, I might ask why he has healed one of his ordained ministers only enough for White to play just part of the game. He’ll certainly need to play more than he has recently if the Packers expect to beat Dallas.
It is not God who makes that choice, but Packers coach Mike Holmgren, and Holmgren is still not even a saint, not like, oh, Vince Lombardi, for instance, never mind anything more elevated.
“We have to decide how many plays Reggie gets before the game,” Holmgren explains, “because he can be very persuasive.”
Anyplace is a pulpit for White. His official one, at a Knoxville church, was burned, and racial slurs were written on the door.
But he sees redemption even in so malicious an act.
“I believe good comes from bad,” White said, “and the people of Wisconsin, people all around the country, have rallied to help.”
White will play as much as he wants against the Cowboys, as much as he is needed and with as much aggression as is necessary.
“Just because I’m a Christian and a minister,” White said, “doesn’t mean I won’t try to knock a quarterback’s tail off.”
Amen.