Meet Joe • Recent Press

2009

September 23

Former NFL star tackles domestic abuse head-on

By William Wilkerson

Joe Ehrmann was once featured on the cover of Parade Magazine along with the headline, "The Most Important Coach in America." Not for the championships he’s won while patrolling the sidelines, though, but for the lives he’s helped change in and out of sports. Ehrmann, founder of Coach for America, an organization that aims to empower men and women to be their very best "personally, professionally and relationally," will look to win over a few more hearts today as part of the Verizon Foundation’s fourth annual National Domestic Violence Prevention Summit at the Verizon Corporate Office Auditorium in Irving from 5 to 6 p.m.

Ehrmann, the 10th overall pick in the 1973 draft, spent eight of his 10-year NFL career with the Baltimore Colts. He was an All-America football player and lacrosse letterman at Syracuse, where he was named to the university’s All-Century Football Team. He was named one of The Most Influential Sports Educators in America by the Institute for International Sport and was the subject of TheNew York Times bestseller Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx, in which he was recognized for his revolutionary concepts of team-building, mentoring and coaching. Ehrmann, who has co-founded two organizations with his wife, Paula, also helped to establish Baltimore’s Ronald McDonald House. The Star-Telegram spoke with the Pro Bowl defensive lineman Tuesday:

Why did you start Coach for America? It started about five years ago. I came to the recognition that there probably isn’t a better place in America to address deep social problems, as well as the healthy development of boys and girls in this country. So I started teaching coaches how to use sports for the educational, emotional and social well-being of players.

Why is it important to you to spend your life promoting these messages to men and women? I’ve been doing this stuff for 40 years. I am a product of the ’60s and have been working on issues of racism, poverty and abuse for a long time now. I’ve done it in a number of different venues. But there isn’t a single activity that brings more individuals and families into a shared community than sports. One of the most powerful persons in the life of young people is a coach. So if we can get coaches with proper understanding of the position they have, we can address the deep problems and do a tremendous amount of good in this country.

How big of an issue is domestic violence in professional sports? It is a huge problem in this country. Somewhere between 1 and 3 million women will be physically and/or sexually abused by partners alone. We’ll have over 650,000 rapes. One out of five teenage dating relationships involve some kind of physical or sexual force. So we’ve raised a generation of men that some of whom think they can use their size, strength and power to hurt girls and women. It’s an incredible issue because it becomes multi-generational.

Without giving away all of your speech material, what points do you try and get across in this matter to stop domestic violence? The first thing is you need to redefine masculinity in this country. We’ve got a false concept that is creating chaos in America. I define it as 'the capacity to form meaningful relationships and to learn how to love and be loved.’ The second part is all of us should have some purpose in life that is bigger than who or what we are. So I’ll address the cultural messaging.

You must be a big Tony Dungy fan, given his documented character and way about coaching? Tony and I were in town about a month ago for that official high school kickoff together. He’s one of the great models in this country of a coach who does it right. He addresses the issues of his players and society without watering down the will to win.

What do you think about (Duke point guard turned Syracuse quarterback) Greg Paulus so far? I think he’s doing a terrific job. That’s incredible to make that transition. Boy, that’s a program that’s in need of some positive publicity. The media he’s (received) has helped bolster the hopes of that entire community and alumni.