If you are tired of all the criminals, turds, jerkoffs, whack jobs, hit-n-runners, dope fiends, parole board junkies, contract squabblers, hooligans, hoodlums and hos, the Jeremy Shockeys, or the HGH hobbyists who now seem to dominate sports and fandom, I offer the perfect antidote: Warrick Dunn.
"Please don't portray me as some sort of perfect person," said Dunn in a telephone interview with me. "I hate that. I'm not perfect."
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| Warrick Dunn was honored for his charity work the Byron 'Whizzer' White Award. (Getty Images) |
Still, if you were to pick an athlete who is the closest facsimile you couldn't do better than Dunn.
Dunn was just recently inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame, joining such legendary names as Tom Landry, David Robinson, Arthur Ashe and Jackie Robinson. The honorary chair of the organization is President George H.W. Bush, who replaced the previous honorary chair, President Gerald R. Ford.
Not bad company for Dunn, eh?
So for once this column will be a jerk-free zone.
This isn't solely about Dunn's indoctrination or the award he received some months ago for his work with the Warrick Dunn Foundation, which so far has awarded over 70 single parents with 192 children down payments to purchase their first homes.
This is more about Dunn being on his way out of the NFL and what the game -- and sports -- will miss once he's gone.
And also what he has to say about today's athletes.
In March, Dunn signed again with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he spent most of his career. I believe this is Dunn's final season in football.
It is always interesting to speak with someone like Dunn, with his kind of smarts and historical perspective, when he's on his way out the door.
Dunn made it clear he still likes the overall state of the NFL specifically and sports in general. To Dunn, sports remain a vehicle that underprivileged kids can use to better their financial circumstances and end the calcified and cadaverous cancer that is poverty.
