Sports of The Times; Justice Byron White: A Friend and a Mentor
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Nick Lowery was having a tough time of it. He had been a fine place-kicker in college, at Dartmouth, and expected a career booting balls in the National Football League.
Not so quick. Lowery was cut 11 times from eight N.F.L. teams before catching on with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1980. He beat out, of all people, Jan Stenerud, who to this day is the only place-kicker in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
And things hardly got better for Lowery in his first training camp with the Chiefs. He was the butt of numerous pranks; he was not only a rookie but a rookie from the Ivy League, which carried with it a special kind of contempt in that bruising environment. One evening in training camp, for example, he found fresh cow manure in his bed.
He tried to talk to his new teammates, to be one of the guys, but he encountered resistance. Shortly after that, he went home to McLean, Va., and sought out his next-door neighbor on Hampshire Road, who had become a friend and mentor.
The neighbor was Justice Byron R. White of the United States Supreme Court. White had also been a football player, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound all-purpose all-American back at Colorado. He picked up the nickname Whizzer while leading the nation in rushing, in scoring and in total offense. He was also a star basketball player, and led Colorado to a National Invitation Tournament final at Madison Square Garden. And he was a standout baseball player and the valedictorian of his graduating class.
He went to Yale Law School and to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. In between he played football for one season with the Pittsburgh Pirates (later the Steelers), in 1938, and two seasons with the Detroit Lions, in 1939 and 1940. He led the N.F.L. in rushing in 1938 and 1940. Then he joined the Navy and went off to fight in World War II.
So not only did Justice White know something of the athletic world, he knew something of the world.
”Nick,” Lowery said White told him, his strong bearing carrying a sense of gentle strength, ”the only way you are going to get respect from those fellows is not by anything you say, but what you can deliver, how you perform on the field.”
It was a simple piece of advice, but when you are foundering, when emotions cloud your perspective, it is such advice, and coming from someone like Justice White, that will make an impact. It did make one on Nick Lowery.
That and other thoughts about Justice White came back to Lowery upon learning of the death Monday of his neighbor of 40 years. White, who served 31 years on the Supreme Court, was 84.
Editors’ Picks
The Everyday Chemicals That Might Be Leading Us to Our Extinction
More Than You Need to Know About Harry, Meghan and Oprah
Why My Teenage Self Gave Woody Allen a Pass
Continue reading the main story
Lowery recalled the first full year he spent with Kansas City. He had a string of 11 field goals in 12 attempts, then kicked a game-winning field goal against the Lions. The guys who had been most vicious in riding him hugged him with tears in their eyes, he recalled.
”It was exactly what Justice White had been talking about,” Lowery said.
Lowery said Justice White was reluctant to talk about his athletic career — ”He would always change the subject” — and was perhaps happiest discussing history and people like Abraham Lincoln and Chief Justice John Marshall.
