Boldin finds higher calling than NFL ANN KILLION

It comes as no surprise to anyone who has interacted with Anquan Boldin that he brought a unique sensibility to his retirement announcement this week.

“Seeing how things transpired over the last week or so, I think for me, there’s something bigger than football at this point,” the former 49ers receiver said, referring to the events in Charlottesville, Va.

In January, Boldin participated on a panel full of heavyweights at San Jose State, the inaugural event for the Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change.

Tommie Smith, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Harry Edwards were among the participants. But the star of the show was Boldin, who willingly accepted the power athletes have and the difference they can make.

Boldin, the NFL’s 2015 Walter Payton Man of the Year, is active on many issues. He spoke of going to Congress to lobby on behalf of Senegalese communities that had been devastated by the actions of mining companies. The antipoverty group Oxfam had tried to get face-toface meetings with representatives unsuccessfully. That is, until the athletes got involved.

“That just goes to show the power that we have,” Boldin said in January. “There are a lot of guys in the locker room that are willing to help, but they don’t understand how powerful their voice is. People pay attention to athletes. For whatever reason, they like us.”

Boldin was a voice of the modern athlete, a generation that has been traditionally careful, unwilling to risk endorsements or standing. That may be changing.

“You just have to put in perspective what’s important,” Boldin said. “Yeah, you may lose endorsements, but I think it’s more important to be able to shape the world your kids are going to come up in. You have to be unselfish.

“We have a great life, but think about the ones that came before us and didn’t have the opportunities that we have now. It’s because of what they stood for and what they stood against, so we have to do the same thing for those behind us.”

Boldin was one of the great receivers of his era. His next chapter may be even more rewarding. Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion