Former SU quarterback goes to Washington with goals that transcend the sport.
Donovan McNabb admires the view of the Potomac River and the monuments of Washington, D.C. from a penthouse balcony in Arlington, Va.Arlington, Va. — In a glass-walled reception room perched above the Potomac River, Donovan McNabb moves with ease among Washington’s titans of business, philanthropy and politics.
McNabb quietly introduces himself to those who have arrived via a chauffeured fleet of black Cadillac SUVs at the Top of the Town, an Arlington penthouse that rents for up to $7,000 per night with its prime view of Washington’s monuments.
He chats — mostly one-on-one — with about 50 chief executives, bank presidents, community leaders, even a half-dozen White House officials, who have gathered on a steamy afternoon in late July for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.
But this exclusive group has not been invited simply to meet the new quarterback of the Washington Redskins.
McNabb, dressed in a four-button gray suit, wants to talk about life off the football field — how he wants to become more involved in socially responsible business ventures, community affairs, public service and charitable causes.
The 33-year-old Chicago native makes it clear: He is ready to move to the next stage of a remarkable career — leveraging his status as a football superstar, and a top brand in sports marketing, to become an agent of change across America.
In a town obsessed with politics and Washington Redskins football, McNabb says he wants to take advantage of every minute he spends in the spotlight that shines on the nation’s capital.
“The game plan for me .¤.¤. is to inspire others to do right, and not do wrong,” McNabb says. “We have a new president from Chicago, and the thing he emphasizes is to make change.”
McNabb says he would like to partner with President Barack Obama’s administration on public service projects and lend his name to a variety of causes.
A dozen years after leaving Syracuse University — and becoming the most successful pro quarterback in school history — McNabb is thinking about his legacy. He says he wants to be known as “someone who is not just scoring touchdowns, but helping make changes” in the world.
A two-sport athlete at SU who played on the 1995-96 basketball team that lost the national championship game to Kentucky, McNabb said he views NBA Hall-of-Fame guard Magic Johnson as a source of inspiration for his future off-the-field work.
Johnson, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers, invested heavily in the city’s poor, inner-city neighborhoods, and eventually built a $700 million business empire. It includes charities that promote the health, social, educational and physical well-being of urban youth.
McNabb, whose career earnings on the field top $115 million, has already started laying the foundation for what he calls “a new chapter in the ‘Book of Donovan.’¤”
Since arriving in Washington in April after a trade from the Philadelphia Eagles, where he spent the first 11 years of his career, McNabb has embraced his role at the intersection of sports, politics, business and philanthropy.
In just four months in town he has:
• Quietly reached out to White House officials about playing a leading role in first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative, a federal program to combat childhood obesity through better nutrition and exercise. The president has committed up to $1 billion per year to the program. McNabb volunteered to make national public service announcements and take part in “Let’s Move” events. The first lady’s office said it was premature to discuss the matter.
• Introduced himself to members of Congress and legislative staffers at a Capitol Hill reception hosted by sports cable network ESPN. Among those in attendance were U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., basketball legend Julius “Dr. J” Erving and ESPN President George Bodenheimer.
• Committed to an undisclosed volunteer initiative beginning this fall with the U.S. Department of Education. Among those who attended McNabb’s reception was the deputy chief of staff to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
• Locked up a corporate marketing and community outreach partnership with Capital One, a McLean, Va.-based national financial services firm. The company recently took over one of the top names in Washington banking, Chevy Chase Bank. McNabb will appear in a TV commercial for the re-named Capital One bank next month with Alex Ovechkin, a two-time National Hockey League MVP and jewel of the Washington Capitals franchise.
• Emerged as the “health ambassador” for the Washington Redskins and started discussions with the District of Columbia about leading public health education campaigns.
Pierre Vigilance, D.C.’s director of public health, was among those who met with McNabb and attended the July 27 reception hosted by the Greater Washington Board of Trade.
McNabb said he remains passionate about raising awareness and money to fight diabetes. His father was diagnosed with the disease while McNabb was in college at Syracuse. McNabb started a charitable foundation aimed at the disease in 2000.
More than a half-dozen White House officials also showed up at McNabb’s reception to talk about potential partnerships on public awareness campaigns on other issues.
Obama’s representatives included Joshua DuBois, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and Ben Milakofsky, special assistant to the cabinet secretary.
One White House official noted privately that McNabb has an influential fan in Vice President Joseph Biden, a fellow SU alum. Biden has been a big Philadelphia professional sports fan who sometimes travels to games.
The combination of top officials from the White House, business world and nonprofits who wanted to discuss potential partnerships with McNabb impressed Jim Dinegar, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade.
“It is rare that any athlete takes such an interest in our community and reaches out this way to so many different people,” Dinegar said. “Athletes like Donovan McNabb don’t come along that often.”
Andrew Stroth, McNabb’s Chicago-based lawyer and business adviser, said the gathering was simply a beginning.
McNabb has moved his wife and four children — ages 5 years to eight months — from the Philadelphia area to a $2.1 million home in Great Falls, Va., a wealthy Washington suburb, where they plan to sink roots into the community.
“The reception with the Board of Trade was a testament to the McNabb brand and Donovan’s commitment to the Greater Washington community,” Stroth said.
“Donovan wants to have an impact both on and off the football field, and this event demonstrated his ability to bring together a dynamic group of leaders,” Stroth said.
With all of his newfound obligations, McNabb and his wife, college sweetheart Raquel, have not forgotten where they came from. Both remain deeply involved with Syracuse University, their alma mater.
Raquel, whom friends call Roxi, is on the board of SU’s School of Education.
Donovan, who in 2002 became the youngest member ever appointed to SU’s Board of Trustees, said he will continue to serve as an ambassador of the university where he played football from 1995 through 1998 after redshirting his freshman year.
McNabb especially wants to engage SU’s large alumni base of 14,000 in the Greater Washington area, the school’s second-largest concentration of graduates in the United States.
McNabb prefers not to draw attention to his financial contributions to SU. He and his wife sponsor scholarships but decline to discuss their financial commitment.
McNabb also declined to say how much he donated in 2005 for construction of a $3.3 million football strength training facility on campus. At the groundbreaking, he was given the honor of moving the first shovel of dirt. In August 2000, he donated $100,000 for new football lockers.
Michael Veley, director and chair of the Department of Sport Management at SU, said he is not surprised at McNabb’s effort to expand his national reach — and influence — while in Washington.
“It fits the pattern of what Donovan has been able to do basically since he walked onto campus,” said Veley, an expert in the field of sports marketing, communications and corporate sponsorship.
“He’s a quintessential role model,” Veley said. “He’s got an infectious personality. And he understands the role philanthropy can play in society.”
Veley said McNabb remains a grounded, humble person, even with his success, and that will help him off the football field.
“He’s got some attributes that can effect change,” Veley said. “If you look at the two most important attributes someone has to have for a cause, they are trustworthiness and source credibility. He has both.”
Veley credits McNabb’s parents, Sam and Wilma McNabb, for the values that motivate their son. Wilma McNabb is active in a variety of public service efforts, and serves as president of the NFL’s Professional Football Mothers Association, which helps the families of young players entering the league.
To underscore the importance of his family, McNabb’s parents, wife, brother, Sean, and other family members were by his side to meet Washington’s movers and shakers at his Top of the Town reception.
“I think the roots he has established, with his terrific parents, he has just carried into adulthood,” Veley said. “He’s a great communicator, he’s charismatic and he doesn’t shy away from visibility. Most important, in his heart he wants to be a difference-maker.”
Just how much of a difference he makes may depend on his success on the football field for the Washington Redskins, where McNabb has rekindled hopes — and expectations — for a once-proud franchise.
McNabb’s arrival in Washington in April received more attention than a recent visit from Queen Elizabeth. Local television stations broadcast his first news conference on live TV in the middle of the day. About 200 reporters gathered at the Redskins training facility in Ashburn, Va., to hear every word.
Now his image is everywhere in Washington, from billboards to bus placards; children wear his new No. 5 jersey, which sells for $72, and fans and pundits alike talk about a return to the glory years when the Redskins reached four Super Bowls in the 1980s and early 1990s.
McNabb, however, makes it clear that as he begins playing for only the third football team in his adult life after Syracuse and Philadelphia, he’s looking to broaden his interests and settle into a long future in Washington.
“I wanted you guys to learn a little bit more about me, not just as a football player, but as a person,” McNabb told the Washington leaders. “I plan on being here for years to come.”
Contact Washington correspondent Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751.