Every player in Sunday’s Super Bowl is from somewhere. But not every player remembers where he’s from and reaches out to consistently help those back home. Not like Steve Weatherford. Make that not like Terre Haute’s Steve Weatherford.
As has now been chronicled by national media — most especially by Associated Press national reporter Nancy Armour whose story on Weatherford appears on page Ax of today’s Tribune-Star — the New York Giants star punter and kick holder is known around the National Football League for what Armour calls his “unending generosity” to his hometown.
She goes on to write: “He has donated money for groceries, and helped raise funds to pay off one family’s electric bill. He has sent countless autographed items to be auctioned off for the local United Way and Boys Club.”
And then there are the shoes. Regularly, Weatherford passes through the Giants’ lockerroom collecting slightly used football cleats and tennis shoes from his teammates, who trade up to new shoes after a few wearings.
Weatherford — who can be credited with saving the Giants’ game-winning, advancing-to-the-Super-Bowl kick against San Francisco by righting a bad snap — sends those shoes home to Terre Haute, to be given to students at West Vigo, Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South high schools. “They wear them [the shoes] with such pride,” Vigo schools superintendent Dan Tanoos told Armour for her story, “because many of these kids, the best shoes they’re wearing are the ones Steve sends them.”
Two boxes of those shoes arrived here Wednesday, two days after a Weatherford-autographed football and another pigskin signed by Giants quarterback Eli Manning together brought in nearly $1,500 for the United Way.
And then there was the homecoming pep rally on Tuesday at Weatherford’s alma mater, North, in the gym where, a few years ago, he sped breakneck down the floor and drove hard to the basket in one of his sports besides football.
As our Arthur Foulkes described it, the three players who touched the ball on the Giants’ game-winning play were there, as were what Armour estimates as 2,000 students and other fans.
The accolades choked up Weatherford, and they made the hair stand up on the back of Tynes’ neck. “You know a lot of people give back and [Weatherford’s] not one to seek out the spotlight for doing so. But it’s special,” Tynes told the AP.
To which Tynes added: “He’s taking care of Terre Haute and you know what? He’s a stand-up guy. They should be very proud of him.”
We are, Mr. Tynes, we are.
On second thought, maybe Terre Haute’s Steve Weatherford is the wrong way to say it. Maybe it should be Steve Weatherford’s Terre Haute — because even given what could have been head-turning success in the nation’s biggest city, in one of the nation’s most popular sports and now in one of the world’s biggest sporting events, Weatherford has kept his head screwed on straight, his feet on the ground and his priorities focused on his family and friends, and on paying back his Terre Haute.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: Big ‘kick’ from a native son
Community can be proud, grateful for Steve Weatherford
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EDITORIAL: Correcting the prison imbalance
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EDITORIAL: When it’s IU vs. UK, there’s got to be a way
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EDITORIAL: Reviewing the landscape
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EDITORIAL: GOP changed; Lugar didn’t
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EDITORIAL: Fight against child abuse demands ongoing attention
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EDITORIAL: The politics of Primary 2012
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
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EDITORIAL: Hoosier Republicans should stick with Richard Lugar
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EDITORIAL: Matt Branam: 1954-2012
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EDITORIAL: A transplant from St. Ann’s
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EDITORIAL: Pragmatic approach to downtown development benefits community
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TRIBUNE-STAR EDITORIAL: A salute to pride of ’55
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EDITORIAL: A match of Mitt and Mitch?
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EDITORIAL: Drilling for fairness
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
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EDITORIAL: Be fair, consistent, but keep smokefree ordinance on track
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EDITORIAL: Inspired by tradition, celebration
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EDITORIAL: No need to sing the blues
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EDITORIAL: Traps abound in online world
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