Published: October 27, 2007 10:32 pm      

Stills encourages respect for parents

Current NFL player, former WVU star addresses FOP Colts

FAIRMONT — There might have been a member of the Baltimore Ravens NFL team at the podium Saturday, but the room was decked out with the logo of the Colts.

But that would be the FOP Colts, Fairmont’s five-team member of the American Youth Football Conference,

and that was all right with Ravens defensive end and linebacker Gary Stills, whose two sons, Darius and Dante, play on the pee-wee team.

The Ravens have a bye on Sunday, so that gave Stills, a West Virginia University player from 1996-98, the opportunity to address the 2007 Colts Banquet, held Saturday evening at Fairmont State University’s Colebank Hall.

“You can ask me anything about (quarterback) Peyton Manning of the (2007 Super Bowl champs Indianapolis) Colts or Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers,” Stills joked to the audience after his finished his brief remarks.

The city of Baltimore might not be too fond of the Indianapolis Colts, which were the Baltimore Colts until 1984.

But right now, Stills is more focused on the Steelers, the team the Ravens will be playing next Sunday, with Darius and Dante in attendance to see their father in action on Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

A native of Trenton, N.J., Stills was drafted in the third round by the Kansas City Chiefs in 1999 and played for the team through 2005. He joined the Ravens in 2006.

Stills delivered a brief speech in which he encouraged the young attendees to respect their parents.

“I see all the children participating in football, and it’s not all about the children,” he said. “It’s also about the parents. Tomorrow when you get up and get going, look at your mom and look at your dad and say, ‘Thank you. Thank you for everything that you’ve done, for food, clothing, somewhere to live. They go shopping, buy clothes, and they only do it because they love you.”

Stills noted that he wished he could spend more time with Darius and Dante and go to their games, but if Darius mentions that to him, “I have to tell him, ‘Darius, while you’re playing and while Dante is playing, I have to play about two hours after that.”

As a boy growing up in Trenton, N.J., Stills was inspired by linebacker Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants and their 1987 Super Bowl win.

“I said to my mother, ‘I’d like to do that,’” Stills said.

Even though she had trouble coming up with the $25 Stills needed to join a local team, she scraped it together. Ten years later, he was playing for Don Nehlen at WVU.

In another coincidence, the Ravens’ only Super Bowl win was against the Giants in the 2000 season, before Stills joined the team.

After Stills finished his remarks, David Hawkinberry, president of the FOP Colts, presented the football player with a Colts sweatshirt.

“I triple-dog dare him to wear it,” Hawkinberry laughed.

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.