NFL Greatest Players

Reggie White: The head-ringing blows he delivered on a football field stood in stark contrast to the messages of love and understanding he preached from a pulpit.

Reggie White was a contradiction in cleats, a 290-pound champion of peace and dispenser of controlled violence.

Over a 15-year professional career that started in 1984 with the Memphis Showboats in the USFL and continued with the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers, he handled both roles with vigor and passion, a tribute to his dual commitment as a licensed Baptist minister and football's "Minister of Defense."

His football passion was driven by a powerful body that could stampede blockers and move around the field with catlike quickness and sprinters speed.

The sight of the hulking White glaring at a quarterback from his defensive end position was enough to disrupt game plans and trigger premature exits from the pocket.

He was the focus of pregame meetings, the defender who could dictate offensive strategy and turn games by himself. His durability also was special. In 1985, in fact, he played in a combined 31 games (18 with Memphis and 13 with Philadelphia).

White's unyielding desire was to get to the quarterback, a goal he achieved 192 1/2 times -- more sacks than any player in history. Off the field, he was a humanitarian, a community servant and street-corner champion of the oppressed.

On the field, he was a relentless quarterback chaser and run-stuffer no one player could block. White's 21 sacks for the Eagles in 1987 fell one short of Mark Gastineaus all-time record -- and he did it in 12 games during a strike-shortened season.

It's no coincidence the Packers regained long-lost prominence in 1993, the year White ended his eight-season tenure in Philadelphia by signing a free-agent contract.

The Pack reached the playoffs in each of White's six Green Bay seasons and captured a Super Bowl -- their first in 29 years -- after the 1996 campaign. And it's no coincidence that before White retired after the '98 season, he earned an impressive 13 Pro Bowl selections.