Kornacki: Leaving Footeprints
8/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Larry Foote speaking to Detroit youth in July
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- He's leaving his Footeprint in so many places.
Larry Foote, an All-America linebacker at Michigan in 2001 who played 13 NFL seasons, takes so many steps in the right direction that he leaves imprints on much more than just football.
Foote returned to Michigan Stadium in July to speak with 100 "at-risk" middle school boys from his hometown of Detroit to offer tough love and harsh reality during a Youth Impact Program presentation.
He hopes to someday open a center in Detroit to supply mentoring, job training and sports programs with a good dose of faith-based lessons.
He is married to Jonelle and is a loving father to four sons -- Treyveion, Larry, Trammell and Mason -- and daughter Jalyn.
He won two Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers and also played one season with both the Detroit Lions and Arizona.
And now, at 35, he's embarking on his first season as inside linebackers coach for the Cardinals.
"Larry Foote will bring great passion and great enthusiasm to coaching," said Lloyd Carr, his coach at Michigan. "And I guarantee you that he will inspire his players. He was never about the individual awards. What was so beautiful about Larry Foote was that he was a great team player.
"He was motivated by winning, and that's why he was fun to coach. He set a high standard for himself, and he sets a high standard for everyone around him. He's really something special. Anybody who gets to play for Larry Foote is lucky."
One of the players he'll be coaching is another former Wolverine, Kenny Demens, an inside linebacker and special teams player entering his third season in the NFL. Arizona has a definite maize and blue flavor with former Michigan offensive lineman Harold Goodwin serving as offensive coordinator and outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley joining the team this year.
Woodley, Goodwin and Foote were Steelers teammates and have been reunited.
"We've got a lot of promise," Foote said of the Cardinals. "We had a great season last year."
The Cardinals were 11-5 in 2014, losing a wild-card playoff game, and Foote led the team with 105 tackles.
He had 802 tackles and 25 sacks in the NFL. When asked how he managed to play so long in a league where the average career lasts between three and four seasons, Foote, who also played in 17 postseason games, revealed, "Lots of prayer. The good Lord upstairs has taken care of me. And a lot of it was leadership from the older guys when I got to Pittsburgh (in 2002). They took me under their wings and taught me how to be a pro and stressed always being in shape."
Before heading to Phoenix last month, Foote gave a powerful speech to Youth Impact Program campers in Ann Arbor and took joy in the hiring of Wolverine head coach Jim Harbaugh.
"It's exciting," said Foote. "He's a natural winner who has won on every level. He brings accountability, and the program needs that. It needs a jolt, and he's the right man to do it."
Foote said that Carr, a Hall of Fame coach, had a major impact on him along with assistant coach Erik Campbell, now Harbaugh's recruiting coordinator.
"Erik recruited and mentored me," said Foote, an All-American at Detroit Pershing High. "Those two guys really stick out for me, and (former defensive coordinator) Jim Herrmann, of course, teaching me about the game of football."
Carr said, "I love Larry Foote. More than anything else, what made him great was his love and passion for the game. He brought great fun and excitement to the practices and games."
Foote was a two-time All-Big Ten first-teamer, the 2001 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and an All-American as a senior, when he tied Mark Messner's single-season school record with 26 tackles for lost yardage. He played on Big Ten championship teams in 1998 and 2000 and was a fourth-round pick by the Steelers.
However, he became more than just an impact player.
"I mean, look at what he's done," said Carr. "He's matured so well, and now he's making a difference in the community.
"What he's done off the field is as impressive as what he's done on the field."
Carr recalled taking Foote to speak about mentoring to a group in East Lansing, Michigan. He knew Foote had wisdom to share and showed him the way.
Of Carr and Campbell, Foote added, "Those two men molded me into who I am today."
And now Foote has taken their lead in that regard. He impacts not only the football players he coaches but the kids he connects with.
Foote told the boys in the Youth Impact Program that he was a "knucklehead" until seeing the light in church and recounted the misdeeds and poor judgment of his youth for them.
The campers sat on the carpeted floor at the Jack Roth Stadium Club in front of Foote, who leaned forward from a cushioned chair to better connect with them. One boy propped elbows on knees, resting his chin on his knuckles. He was captivated by Foote's honest approach to helping them.
Foote spotted a boy with Ali on his name tag, pointed to him, and said: "Ali, you are laying a foundation right now. The 13-year-old Ali needs to set up the 33-year-old Ali for his future kids, his future family. You are defining who you will become right now! And the 33-year-old Ali, he doesn't want to be in jail; he doesn't want to be dead."
It was a lesson that Foote, who lived next door to a crack house and across the street from another drug den, learned by watching his friends fail and die after making the wrong choices by selling drugs and becoming "gang bangers."
"We're all from Detroit," he told the boys. "We're all 'at-risk,' as they say. They call us statistics? Doesn't that make you mad?
"Who wants to be a leader? Who wants to be a trailblazer? Who wants to be different? It's easy to be a fool in school and sell drugs. Anybody can do it! That's the easy way out. A real man is going to go right through that. If you are going to be different, you are going to make it."
He gave them the Footeprints to follow to a successful life.
Foote said, "They are from Detroit -- the same place I'm from. Hopefully, I gave them some golden nuggets that they can put in their back pockets."
William Tandy, who coached Foote on the West Side Cubs youth league football team, accompanied him to that session at Michigan Stadium.
"I've seen a kid who came total full circle," said Tandy. "I know the things he went through in life before he got to Pershing and Michigan recruited him. He had struggles as a player at Michigan (before blossoming as a junior). I saw him grow up the whole way, and he is one of the guys who made me the proudest. I've seen the transformation from before Pershing to Michigan to becoming a grown man, a family man.
"What he did here was special. I watched him talking to those little kids and remembered when he was one of them."
Foote idolized Detroit Tigers shortstop Alan Trammell as a boy and had a Trammell bat that he treasured. Foote named one of his sons for Trammell, and they got to meet when Foote played for the Lions in 2009 and Trammell was in Detroit as a coach with the Chicago Cubs.
"It's quite an honor," Trammell said, "naming his son after me. I'm very appreciative of that."
Trammell was very impressed with Foote during their meeting and has followed what Foote has done on and off the field ever since.
"He's a quality human being for sure," said Trammell. "He has the dedication to succeed and displays the things I hold highly in terms of character and involvement."
Foote can be followed on Twitter at @LarryFoote313, where he labels himself "Man of God, Husband, Father, Friend, Brother," and passes along words of wisdom, the inspiration of pastors, moments with football's biggest names and a peek at his beautiful family.
He uses the area code of his hometown in his Twitter address rather than his uniform number because that is where he most identifies himself.
His journey continues, as will those Footeprints.
