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Running For My Life: My Journey in the Game of Football and Beyond
by Warrick Dunn and Don Yaeger, 288 pages, $25.95

If you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas/holiday gift idea, I suggest the great new book by Tampa Bay Bucs running back Warrick Dunn — Running For My Life. I received my review copy from Harper Collins a few weeks ago and I can tell you it’s a very inspiring, uplifting and eye-opening read.

Warrick is truly one of the good guys in the National Football League. It’s pretty well-known what he does for families through his Warrick Dunn Foundation and amazing Homes for the Holidays program. In case you don’t know, about 12 years ago Warrick started this program where he makes the down payment on a home selected by a single parent associated with an approved, non-profit, affordable homeownership program. He provides furniture for every room, kitchen appliances and dishes, washers, dryers and refrigerators, lawn & garden equipment, linens, a fully-stocked kitchen, cleaning supplies and home decor items. The whole nine yards. To date, Warrick has assisted 78 single parents and 205 dependents in Tampa, Atlanta and Baton Rouge. He’s really an amazing and caring person. He’s helped change a lot of people’s lives for the better.

Anyway, in this revealing autobiography, which was written along with New York Times author Don Yaeger, Warrick tells his incredibly moving story of courage and determination in the face of the devastating loss of his mother, Betty Smothers. Warrick and his five brothers and sisters all idolized their mother, who was a Baton Rouge police officer. As the oldest, Warrick was the closest to her, and thus the man of the house. On January 7, 1993, while Warrick’s mom worked a second job as a supermarket security guard, she was ambushed, shot, and killed while making a bank deposit. At the time, Warrick was a high school senior, just a few weeks away from choosing among his college football scholarship offers. As you can imagine, the loss of his mom devastated him. In fact, that isn’t even a powerful enough word. He was only eighteen when his circumstances changed and he had to look after his five siblings, but he somehow managed to enroll at Florida State and, in only his freshman year, help their team quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner and roommate Charlie Ward, win the National Championship for the 1993–94 season. This was just the beginning of a successful career as a student athlete, which resulted in his selection to the FSU Hall of Fame.

Despite his small stature by NFL standards, Warrick’s athleticism, incomparable drive, and personality convinced Tampa Bay Bucs coach Tony Dungy to select him in the first round of the 1997 NFL Draft with the 12th overall pick. He proved coach Dungy right. During his career with the Bucs and, subsequently, the Atlanta Falcons, Warrick amassed five 1,000-yard rushing seasons, was selected to the NFL Pro Bowl three times, and became one of only twenty-three running backs to exceed the 10,000-yard career rushing mark. This season, he returned to the Bucs and continues his NFL success story.

I was surprised to learn that despite how much Warrick has helped others throughout his lifetime thus far, there was one person he neglected to help — himself. He spent all of his emotional energy on his siblings and their pain, and never focused on his own pain. His only solace was the football field, where he truly was “running for his life.” It wasn’t until a Falcons teammate suggested psychological counseling that Warrick began to battle the demons that still haunt him from his mother’s death.

Running for My Life is really a must read. It’s the story of an athlete’s drive to help his family and ensure that his mother’s legacy and values continue. It’s the story of what it really takes to be a man.

Post from: Every Morning Quarterback

Book Review: Running For My Life

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Warrick Dunn was presented with the 42nd annual Byron “Whizzer” White Award, the NFL Players Association’s (NFLPA) highest honor, yesterday at the NFL PLAYERS Gala featuring the JB Awards in Washington, D.C. Warrick was one of several NFL players honored by James Brown, host of “THE NFL TODAY” on CBS, along with “THE NFL TODAY” analyst and former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher.

The event, which recognized NFL players for their individual contributions to their communities, raised nearly $1 million, the net proceeds of which benefit Special Olympics D.C. It was the fifth consecutive year the NFLPA and NFL PLAYERS partnered with James Brown to honor some of the NFL’s biggest heroes.

Warrick was selected from among 12 JB Award winners as a result of his commitment to the nationally-renowned community project Homes for the Holidays, an annual program he created to help low-income families buy homes in Atlanta, Tampa, Baton Rouge and Tallahassee. As the primary focus of the Warrick Dunn Foundation, the program provides down payments on homes and works with area sponsors to furnish them. Motivated by the memory of his mother, Betty Smothers, Warrick launched the program during his rookie season in 1997 and has since enabled 74 single parents and 192 children realize their lifelong dreams of home ownership.

Warrick was selected by an independent celebrity panel of judges which included NEA Foundation President and CEO Harriet Sanford, Gatorade’s Senior Vice President of Sports Marketing Jeff Urban and Rick “Doc” Walker, host of SportsTalk 980’s “The Doc Walker Show” and Comcast SportsNet’s “Doc Walker’s ProView.” The “Whizzer” White Award is presented annually to the player who serves his team, community and country in the spirit of Byron Raymond “Whizzer” White. The late Supreme Court Justice was a scholar, athlete, patriot, humanitarian and public servant – the personification of the ideal to which professional football players aspire.

Post from: Every Morning Quarterback

Tampa Bay Bucs’ Warrick Dunn Given Top Honors at 2008 NFL Players Gala, JB Awards