Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
White lives his dream
How St. Thomas Aquinas star became Super Bowl hero.
A few hours before the Super Bowl kickoff, a text message popped into James White’s cellphone.
“Good luck. We’re proud of you. I love you.”
George Smith, White’s coach at St. Thomas Aquinas, didn’t expect the New England Patriots running back to see the message, much less respond until after the game. But a few minutes later, Smith’s phone lit up in his Fort Lauderdale home. “Thanks, coach, I love you.” So began a shared Sunday between White, the unlikely hero of New England’s Super Bowl win, and the people who helped him there. It didn’t just connect people hundreds of miles apart. It pulled back the curtain on a wonderful truth about sports.
For every emerged star like White, there’s a community behind him. For every sports hero holding the trophy high, there’s a band that supported his journey to that point, who knew he was called “Smiley” in high school and sweated with him when no one watched.
“When he won it was almost like I won the Super Bowl,” said Giovani Bernard, White’s St. Thomas teammate and now a Cincinnati Bengals running back. “I was texting him during the game, like an annoying brother, even knowing he wouldn’t see them until after the game.”
He wasn’t alone. Smith was texting. Cody Riggs, now a Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback, was. Brandon Linder, a former Miami Hurricane and current Jacksonville Jaguar, did.
“When it was over, I immediately texted him — I don’t know if this is a good thing to say — ‘I really [expletive expletive] hope they give you the MVP,’ ” Bernard said.
Quarterback Tom Brady won that award after New England’s stunning 34-28 comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons in Houston. But Brady said White deserved the award after scoring the winning touchdown in overtime to cap a day with career highs of 14 catches for 110 yards, 29 yards rushing and three touchdowns. (The 14 catches is a Super Bowl record.)
“That’s the dream you have as a kid, ball in my hands with the game of the line; I’ve got to find the end zone,” said White, a thirdyear pro who turned 25 on Friday.
White’s dream started with Broward’s Pasadena Wildcats in youth football. His rival on the Boca Raton Jets? Bernard. Back then they saw each other on travel baseball teams as kids.
Finally, in 2006, they were surprised to meet as incoming ninth graders at their first summer workout at St. Thomas.
“You coming here?” Bernard asked him.
“Unbelievable,” White said.
The running backs became friends. And then something more. When Bernard’s father moved to Boynton Beach, the family asked if Giovani could live with the Whites in Fort Lauderdale to avoid an unbearable commute.
“So we lived together my junior and senior year,” Bernard said. “We became brothers. He’s the type of dude that always puts the other person first, always dedicated to what he does, just puts his head down and works.”
Smith and Bernard each scored 20 touchdowns as juniors during St. Thomas’ national championship season in 2008. As a senior, when the Wildcat offense became a craze, St. Thomas implemented the “WildWhite” to use his versatility.
“Did pretty damn good,” Smith said. “Faking stuff, running the ball, throwing the ball — he did it all.”
There were odd moments with Bernard and White living in the same house. When a college recruiter came to meet White, Bernard went to another room. And vice versa.
White’s sole in-state offer came from South Florida. That was fine. He followed his dream. He believed in himself. He went to Wisconsin, a school with a litany of runningback successes and became the Big Ten freshman of the year in 2010.
Four years later, the Patriots made him a fourthround pick.
“I thought, ‘You know what, he’s going to play a lot of games for those people,’ ” Smith said. “He’s one of those guys that does a lot. He’s on special teams. He can catch the ball and pass block, which running backs have to do. That was a good fit.”
Just how good was seen Sunday. White ran and caught and scored like he never had as a pro. He had the biggest game of his career on the biggest stage of all. And when he won, so did those who contributed to his winning.
“I wouldn’t be here without them,” White said Monday afternoon.
Here, at that moment, was a parade at the Magic Kingdom. Here was the top of the sports mountain. Here, for White, was a place he always dreamed of reaching in a way that Sunday swept everyone who dreamed with him along for a fun ride.