NFL DISCOVER “MY CAUSE-MY CLEATS” 54 YEARS AFTER WILLIE WOOD AND LARRY BROWN WERE THE FACES OF THE NFL IN THE DC COMMUNITY.

November and December of each year, the holiday spirit is abundantly clear among the 1% of America’s rich and famous. For Example; NFL owners, suddenly, become the most generous philanthropists in America with turkeys at Thanksgiving and toys at Christmas for our homeless, lost, and forgotten children.

My question is, “Where were they hiding from January through October?” How about, they were looking for another gimmick to showcase, “We Care” about the children using the players as ‘Poster Boys.’ Has anyone seen Colin Kaepernick or American Black Ownership in the NFL? Please don’t take a knee!

The players are the poster boys for their latest campaign for the homeless and downtrodden. They have added to their “Man of the Year”, the Walter Payton Award in honor of the great running back of the Chicago Bears. This award is bestowed on the team player who has reached back and given the most to his community. The latest ‘Look at Us Now’ is ‘MY CAUSE My Cleats!’

According to an NFL press release, “My Cause My Cleats” participants are NFL players who wear custom cleats during a DESIGNATED game (more than likely NATIONALLY TELEVISED) to raise awareness for a charitable cause. Each player chooses his own cause and designs their cleats to represent it. All NFL player can participate in the initiative by selecting a cause and designing their cleats to showcase it.

Don’t ask about Black American ownership, (NFL-NBA-MLB-NHL) equal and civil rights are non-eligible causes!

I would guess NFL owners are asking, “What more do we want, despite the failure of “The Rooney Rule” you have almost double digits, head coaches, almost every team has a black QB and some have two. You now have black starting QBs in Kansas City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Green Bay, Dallas (Dak on IRS), Baltimore, Houston, and the Nation’s Capitol, come on man?”

In 1967 NFL All-Time great safety, Willie Wood and I worked together in the mean streets of Washington, DC for the DC Department of Recreation & Parks. We were assigned to work with the department’s elite, Roving Leader Program (youth gangs and at-risk children). This was 56 years before the NFL decided to give something back, other than a piece of the American Pie (ownership).

Willie and I were native Washingtonians and products of the DC Public School system. Willie played 12 years with the NFL Green Bay Packers led by legendary Coach Vince Lombardi. He was voted All-Pro nine times and played in the Pro Bowl six times.

Willie led the league in punt returns and interceptions. Lombardi said, “Willie is my coach on the field.” He played in 6 NFL Championship games, winning 5, and played in Super Bowls, 1 and 2 against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders. The Green Bay Packers won both Super Bowls.

The NFL blackballed Willie after he spoke out against the drug use by players on the San Diego Chargers. He was an assistant coach.

After being blackballed he had to go to Canada to find a job as a coach. Willie was named the first black head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League. Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League named him the first black head coach two-years later.

Despite, legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi anointed him as his coach on the field, and Legendary coach and NFL broadcaster, John Madden named him to his 1991 Silver Anniversary All-NFL Team. NFL voters blackballed him from the Hall of Fame.

He was finally voted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1989. Thanks to a media campaign led by legendary DC sports columnist Dick Heller and yours truly.

DICK HELLER RECEIVES THE KIT “MAN OF THE YEAR AWARD” FROM WILLIE WOOD FOR HIS SUPPORT IN GETTING HIM INDUCTED INTO NFL HALL OF FAME. WILLIE NEVER FORGOT.

MEMBERS OF THE NFL GREEN BAY PACKERS 1991 ALL-MADDEN SILVER ANNIVERSARY TEAM-HERB ADDERLY-JERRY KRAMER AND WILLIE WOOD.

I knew Willie from his high school days at Armstrong. He and my older brother Bobby were baseball teammates. They were the double-play combination, Willie played second base, and Bobby played shortstop.

Willie was a great all-around high school athlete, he played baseball, football and basketball.

In 1955 my freshman year in high school, I had a front-row seat on the bench when Spingarn upset the great Willie Wood and his Armstrong team for the East Division Championship at Cardozo High School 13-7. We won the right to play Cardozo for the DC Public High School Championship at the legendary Griffin Baseball Stadium.

Spingarn and Cardozo played to a 0-0 tie. Despite the tie, Cardozo earned the right to play the Catholic League Champion, St. Johns. Simply, because they crossed our 50-yard line twice to our one time. It would have been much fairer to have flipped a coin.

During the NFL off-season, Willie taught in the DC Public Schools. In 1967, we joined the DC Department of Recreation and Park’s elite Roving Leader Program. Our job description read working with youth gangs, and at-risk children. We spend most of our time in juvenile Court.

In 1967 I joined Petey Greene on his Sunday radio talk show on W-O-L, Petey Greene’s Washington. I had a 5-minute time slot to talk sports. As we headed into the Thanksgiving holidays a white businessman and friend of the show called and donated 50 turkeys for a turkey away for our listeners.

The friend of the show owned a supermarket in the NE 6th Street Business Mall. This was the first community turkey giveaway in the DMV. Thanks to Petey Greene in 2024, everyone wants a piece of the turkey giveaway. The DC Central Kitchen is the leader on Thanksgiving Day. The kitchen feeds thousands in the DMV.

My wife Hattie and I recently met Mike Curtin, the CEO of the DC Central Kitchell in SW Washington. I met Mike at the Miracle Theater on October 30th during a tribute to Muhammad Ali. It was a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle.

Our non-profit organization honored several young men who were the benefactors of the Kids In Trouble Program, James Young, a successful DC businessman, my favorite student/athlete as a football coach at Cardozo High School. Billy ‘Buck’ Johnson is a ten-year employee of the DC Central Kitchen. Billy invited his boss, Mike Curtin. Hattie missed the tribute, she was in the hospital recovering from surgery.

BILLY BUCK AND CEO MIKE CURTIN HANGING OUT AT THE DC CENTRAL KITCHEN

On Monday, December 2, 2024, Hattie and I were invited to the DC Central Kitchen to meet Mike, Thanks to Billy. Things were rather hectic at the Miracle Theater and we never got to introduce ourselves.

Hattie T just arrived back in DC on Saturday, November 30th. She spent the Thanksgiving holiday with her family in Atlanta-it was our 56th wedding anniversary. We celebrated with pizza and a glass of wine.

The DC Central Kitchen is located at 2121 First Street, SW, and was in a part of SW I never knew existed in the new DC. The Army Base Fort McNair was on this side of M Street SW. I remembered from back in the day. The community was known as “Buzzard Point.”

We had visited the SW neighborhood only for a play at the Arena Stage, a ball game at Nationals’ Park, lunch at the Wharf, and Jazz at the Presbyterian Church on Friday evenings hanging out with my friend Dick Smith.

When I finally found my way to the DC Central Kitchen it was an eye-opening experience. The building took up the whole block. One entrance and exit served everyone. We met Mike in front of his office near the entrance and sat down for a chat. Billy was on vacation for the Thanksgiving holidays.

I introduced Hattie, she arrived back home on Saturday. We celebrated our 56th wedding anniversary on her arrival. I rambled on for several minutes about being a native Washingtonian, Kids In Trouble, Billy Buck, and the Hillcrest Saturday Program. Mike finally jumped in and said, “Let me tell you my story!” And what a story!

He is also a native Washingtonian, a graduate of Gonzaga High School and the College of William & Mary.

This was common ground, Gonzaga High School is one block north of Mount Airy Baptist Church. My Great-grandfather, the Rev. Alfred Tyler laid the first brick to build the church in 1893. The Tyler House a senior residence two blocks north of the church, is named after my Great-Uncle, the Rev. Earl Tyler.

Once we are settled in, Mike takes us on a tour of the facility. We can see classes being taught. In some classes, former students are the teachers. We saw an assembly line of how food is prepared and shipped to the different clients of the DC Kitchen. It was an all-business environment, 90% of the students were black and neatly dressed. No pants were hanging below the beltline, and their hair was neatly groomed.

In my travels in and out of today’s public schools in the DMV, it is difficult to distinguish the students from the teachers. DC Kitchen is preparing its students for the ‘Real World’ of work.

Mike’s journey to SW DC is a story for “Believe It or Not.” He tells how he spent over a decade at the shelter on 2nd and D Streets, NW feeding the homeless.

It was the domain of ‘Homeless Advocate’ the late Mitch Snyder. In 1984 Snyder convinced President Ronald Reagan to give him government funds to run a shelter for the homeless-enter Mike Curtin.

In the 90s the shelter’s reputation suffered. Some homeless felt it was safer to sleep on the cold mean streets of DC than a homeless shelter. Mike, would use this opportunity to make his exit to a vacant lot on the corner of First Street, SW and he has never looked back.

Twenty years later, the DC Kitchen has become a landmark of hope for DC residents. The kitchen is open 365 days a year. America would be a better place for everyone if the 1% and NFL owners followed in the footsteps of Mike Curtin (wishful thinking). Mike Curtin does not just talk the talk, he walks the walk!

Many use TRANSPARENCY describing themselves and the people they serve (politicians). If you want to see the definition of TRANSPARENCY, meet Mike Curtin at the DC Central Kitchen.

There are two floors when you enter the building which covers the whole block of First Street, the VIPs, the staff, and the everyday people who visit will find his office on the first floor. It is in full view and enclosed with a glass window (no tint). He sees everyone coming, and going, and everyone sees him.

The only celebrities I can compare Mike to are Red Auerbach (NBA) and Jim Brown (NFL). Red and Jim had their telephone numbers listed and no answering service to take messages-they answered their own phones. Now that is the true definition of TRANSPARENCY!

We saw a wall of honors with the names of people who inspired him to be all that he could be.

Mike Curtin, has proven you cannot judge a man’s home or place of business by the company he keeps!

On April 4, 1968, Willie Wood and I had just finished having lunch at Che Maurice Restaurant, a hang-out of the DC in-crowd. I remember we were standing on the corner of 9th & U Street on a bright sun shiny spring day Harvey Cooper aka ‘The Oldest Teenager’ hollered out of a passing car, “Hey Harold, they just shot Dr. King in Memphis, Tennesee.”

We looked at each other and Willie asked, “What did he just say?” I repeated in disbelief what I thought Harvey had yelled at us. Suddenly, people were coming out of the restaurant yelling and screaming, “Dr. King is dead!”

Willie and I started down the U Street corridor toward Ben’s Chili Bowl. U. S. Marshall in-charged our friend Luke C. Moore got out of a car and walked arm and arm with us. For the next 72 hours, I walked throughout the city with nothing but a DC Police Badge.

“HERE COMES THE JUDGES” LUKE MOORE AND EUGENE HAMILTON.

I was sworn in by the highest-ranking black in the department, Assistant Chief Tilmon O’Bryant. I was expected to help keep the peace without a gun. It was not a walk in the park, I blended in well.

I met FBI undercover agent, Wayne Davis in NE DC and we walked the last night of my tour. Wayne moved on to become a great friend and the first black to be named FBI Agent in charge of the Detroit Office.

He tried to warn “The Mayor For Life” Marion Barry to step back before ‘The bitch set him up!’

In 1991 Marion’s last media interview was heard on Inside Sports on W-U-ST Radio. His last words as he left the studio were, “Harold Bell is always going to tell the truth!”

WAYNE TAKES ME ON A TOUR OF FBI HQ IN DETROIT

In November of 1968 after the riots, I married my fiancee, Hattie Thomas. We founded the Kids In Trouble Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program in December for neighborhood children.

DECEMBER 1968 HATTIE T AND I WERE THE HOST OF OUR FIRST “KIDS IN TROUBLE” CHRISTMAS TOY PARTY FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN.

The first Santa’s Helper was my Virginia Sailor Minor League football teammate, LB George Kelly. I am standing in the back assisting him.

In 1970 Washington Redskins players LB Harold McLinton, RB Larry Brown, WR Roy Jefferson, and DB Ted Vactor joined Willie Wood as Santa’s Helpers. RB/WR Lenny Moore (Baltimore Colts) and DB Johnny Sample (NY Jets) later joined the KIT team. Fifty-four years later the NFL discovered, “MY CAUSE My Cleats” better late than never.

KIT was the host for 45 straight years of Christmas toy parties for elementary school children in the DMV. Children in the DMV were the benefactors, no child was left behind.

We helped thousands of kids without grants or loans. We stayed off the front pages of the Washington Post for misappropriating toy dollars for kids. We never would have been given a pardon or second chance.

HAROLD McLINTON IS SANTA’S HELPER DURING ONE OF OUR ANNUAL TOY PARTIES.

NFL FILMS VIDEO TAPED LARRY AND HAROLD TEACHING WATER SAFETY TO INNER-CITY CHILDREN AT THE KIDS IN TROUBLE HILLCREST SATURDAY PROGRAM IN 1971. THIS WAS NFL FILMS’ FIRST COMMUNITY PROMO FOR NATIONAL TV.

NFL ALL-PRO WR ROY JEFFERSON UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL AS SANTA’S HELPER FOR THE ANNUAL KIDS IN TROUBLE TOY PARTY.

Afro-American NewspaperAugust 1969

In 1969 the white students seen above were bussed in from Takoma Park High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. For two hours every Saturday, the Hillcrest Saturday Program elementary school students were the benefactors of the tutors.

There were no black students at Howard University or DC Teacher Colleges available. The Hillcrest Saturday Program tutors were the trailblazers of why today’s high school students are getting college credits for volunteering in their communities nationwide.

DC SUPERIOR COURT JUDGES, TED NEWMAN, HARRY ALEXANDER AND EUGENE HAMILTON HONOR LARRY DURING A KIDS IN TROUBLE BENEFIT BASKETBALL GAME AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

SANTA’S HELPER HAROLD McLINTON RECEIVED A THANK YOU FROM JUDGE HARRY ALEXANDER FOR HIS COMMUNITY SERVICE

LARRY, HAROLD, AND JUDGE HAMILTON PARTICIPATE IN THE KIDS IN TROUBLE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS TOY PARTY AT BOLLING AIR FORCE BASE IN SE DC.

THE NFL ALL-PRO PLAYERS WHO HELP START COMMUNITY REACH-BACK. L-R ROY JEFFERSON-WILLIE WOOD AND JOHNNY SAMPLE.

We are blessed that Willie Wood, Roy Jefferson, Harold McLinton, Ted Vactor, Johnny Sample, Lenny Moore, Jose Andres, and Mike Curtin are not our “Everyday Heroes.” They saw something and did something!

They were and are my, “Super Stars in the most important GAME being played in the World today–it is the GAME called Life!”

RESPECT IS EARNED AND NOT GIVEN: 

Harold Bell’s Black History Mouth