To millions of New York Giants fans, safety Antrel Rolle is an exuberant, passionate athlete who, since joining the Giants as a free agent in March 2010, has brought some much-needed swagger.
But to his mother, Armelia, he’s simply Antrel Rocelious Rolle, the youngest of her three children who, despite living on his own for several years, regularly visits the house he grew up in to relax on the couch watching a Miami Heat game after enjoying one of his mother’s home-cooked meals.
He’s also a son who, despite a very busy schedule of football activities combined with the temptations of the New York City lifestyle, makes it a point to text or call both of his parents as well as his older siblings several times a day.
Antrel Rolle: NFL star, celebrity, philanthropist, and “Mama’s Boy.”
“Yeah, I would definitely say I’m a Mama’s Boy,” Rolle said via phone from the Miami International Airport during one of his numerous offseason commutes between his home in Homestead, Fla., and his New Jersey townhouse located not too far from the Giants’ team headquarters.
When you get to know both Rolle and his vibrant mother, whom he refers to as the “root” of his family, it’s easy to understand why, despite his being 31 years old and a part of a sport in which fans often perceive pro athletes as independent, “he-men,” Rolle relies on the sage advice and guidance his mother.
An Unbreakable Bond
Antrel Rolle has been playing organized sports since he was a little boy of six years old. And like many other young athletes growing up, he has his sports-related triumphs and his disappointments.
But one disappointment he never had to worry about was not having his parents be there to cheer him on.
“We didn’t know any other way,” Mrs. Rolle said via telephone from her family’s Florida home. “It wasn’t anything we had to think about or had to put any extra [thought] into. It was just the way it was, and who we are as a family. I couldn’t fathom not being there for Antrel, no matter how old he gets.”
With the exception of one game—Rolle’s first road game with the University of Miami, which took place shortly after 9/11—he always knew he could look up into the family section and see the beaming faces of Armelia, a semi-retired high school counselor, and his father Al, the Homestead Police Chief.
For Antrel Rolle, that bond with his parents—who are often joined by their other two children, Antuan, a police officer in the Miami-Dade County school system, and Alexia, a Doctorate in Educational Leadership—is priceless.
“It’s a lot for them with traveling week after week after week,” he said of his parents who faithfully travel to all home and road games, no matter where they are. “But it’s meant everything to me as far as my career.
“Their being there has allowed me to be calm and just focus on the game, and not worry about anything. That’s why the older I’ve become, the more appreciative I am of that sacrifice they make for me.”
That’s also a big reason that Antrel Rolle takes his commitment to his teammates very seriously and why he wears his jersey with the utmost of pride.
“I represent the Giants organization and my teammates and the Giants fans,” he said of the “honor” to wear a Giants jersey. “But I also represent the name on my back, which is my family.”
Making It
New York, New York. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere—or so the classic cover by the late Frank Sinatra would have millions of people who have never set foot in the world’s most famous concrete jungle believe.
Yet for Antrel Rolle, a three-time Pro Bowler and a Super Bowl champion who became a first-time defensive co-captain for one of the NFL’s oldest and most storied franchises last season, there was a time when he wondered if he would indeed make it here.
That time came shortly after he signed with the New York Giants as a free agent in 2010. Rolle, who had spent the first five years of his NFL career with the Arizona Cardinals (who made him the eighth overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft), experienced a culture shock when he came to the Giants.
For instance, he couldn’t understand why head coach Tom Coughlin was so stringent regarding everything from what color of socks the players wore to practice, to his insistence that they be ready for the start of meetings five minutes before the actual scheduled start time.
Rolle tried to understand where his coach was coming from, but at times, he wondered just what all these seemingly mundane rules had to do with winning football games.
So he voiced his opinions, speaking from the heart, as his mother had taught him to do, but at times struggling to find a way to articulate his thoughts without alienating his teammates or coaches.
Suddenly, Rolle became vilified by certain members of the press who portrayed him as a loud-mouth “diva” who was developing into a locker room cancer.
Those unjust portrayals hurt Rolle inside, although he tried his best to not let them interfere with his commitment to the Giants.
“It was definitely a learning curve,” he said. “It took a lot of soul searching.”
Armelia Rolle watched as her son tried to find his way. She read the stories being written about her son and she admitted to occasionally checking the message boards of popular fan websites to see what was being said about her son and the team.
“I’ll be honest. If you could have taken my blood pressure the first two years that Antrel was with the Giants, I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it,” she said, admitting that early in that 2010 season, she and the rest of her family became as protective as ever of Antrel.
Looking back, at having to find a balance between letting Antrel figure things out for himself and wanting to act on her motherly instincts, Mrs. Rolle admitted that, at first, attending the Giants games wasn’t even fun because of all the pressures that came with the misconstrued attention her son was receiving.
However, as she’s done so many times before in raising her family, she found the strength to help both Antrel and herself get through the storm.
“The NFL can be a wrecking ball if you allow it to be, if you get too emotionally immersed in what goes on around you and you forget about who you are,” she said. “Once he really took the time to sit down and explain to us what was going on, then I began to understand more.”
She also learned something about herself as a mother.
“I’ve learned that although he is my baby, he’s a grown man and everything doesn’t have to be perfect,” she said. “Instead of trying to direct everything, I give him his space, sit back, and if he happens to fall, we will just be there to support him.”
A Leader Is Born
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Antrel Rolle says his rocky start to his Giants career was largely responsible for him becoming the leader he is today.
In looking back at that time, he recalled one of the most important lessons, which went on to set him up for future successes.
“My mother is very straightforward and has always encouraged me to speak my mind,” he said. “But she also told me ‘Antrel, you have to understand that you’re in an organization and you don’t want to be labeled as a problem in the locker room or someone who always has something to say.’”
While Rolle continues to take ownership of what he says, he also quickly learned that if he were to become a leader, he would have to learn not only when to speak his mind, but also how to present his thoughts so as to not risk alienating anyone.
As part of his soul searching and his long conversations with his mother about his struggles with adapting to Coughlin’s culture, he began to understand why things were structured the way they were.
Once he understood, a leader was born.
“My mom was like, ‘Just go out there and play the game the way you know how to play it. Go out there, play happy, and lay it all out there on the line for your teammates and do whatever you can do. Don’t sweat the small stuff,’” he said of his mom’s advice that helped him turn things around.
“I didn’t understand or see things the way that Coach Coughlin did at first, but it’s all part of maturing and understanding that his vision might be a little broader than mine, but at the end of the day, he’s the coach, and it’s his way or the highway,” he continued.
Just like his mother told him.
“He’s weathered storms before, but doing it in New York on such a huge stage, I’m sure that’s built his confidence and helped him mature,” Mrs. Rolle said.
“I know a lot of people play the part, but my son genuinely cares about his teammates and the organization. He’s taken pride in being part in the organization, and I think the lessons learned might be the most valuable thing he got out of that experience.”
His teammates noticed the growth in Rolle, as well. Last season, he was voted as a defensive co-captain for the first time in his Giants career.
“That was a very humbling experience,” he said. “It was something that was deeply appreciated because it came from my peers and it told me that they trusted me and believed in me as a leader. They expected me to lead by example and that they were willing to follow my lead.
“I worked hard to earn that ‘C,’ and just because I earned it, it made me want to work harder because it wasn’t something I was going to take for granted.”
That attitude, in part, was also part of the growth that his mother saw in her son.
“That ‘C’ might have stood for ‘Captain,’ but for Antrel, that stood for ‘Confidence,’” she said. “That was like a validation for all he’s done since high school. It was something that most guys—had it taken that long for them to earn that ‘C’ as it did for Antrel—might have given up a long time ago.”
Team Rolle
For as much as money, fame, and glamour seem to be part and parcel of the life of a professional athlete, there are often things that happen behind the scenes that people simply can’t fathom.
For example, there are players who, once they hit it big in the major leagues, end up having to support not only their families, but also extended family members, who think nothing of it to suddenly reinsert themselves into the life of the person they view as a human ATM.
When the money and fame dry up, suddenly those young athletes, who, at the time, didn’t know any better, are left with little to nothing for themselves, never mind needing to provide for children they might be trying to support.
Armelia Rolle has seen the ugly side of fame. She’s witnessed some of her son’s teammates throughout his life have to deal with the pressures of not only playing sports at a highly competitive level, but also have to financially support cousins, second cousins, and others who stayed away during the lean years.
When her children first started participating in sports, Armelia Rolle made a vow to herself.
“I would rather sleep under a bridge than to become any kind of burden to my son,” she said.
Not surprisingly, when she arrives from Miami to Newark, a journey that, with flying time, can take anywhere from four to six hours (or more) from door-to-door, the first thing she does is drop her bags down just inside the foyer of Antrel’s condo, and heads straight to the kitchen.
There, she’ll inspect what he has in his refrigerator and his cabinets. If, in her opinion, he doesn’t have enough food, she’ll make a beeline to the local grocery store to get him enough supplies to carry him over until the next time she’s in town.
When she returns from the store, she’ll then cook a few meals for him to enjoy.
“That’s the least I can do,” she said. “I can see the city any time. I’m doing what I can to make him comfortable so he can focus on his job.”
“That’s another way in which I’m fortunate, because there are a lot of people in the league who have to take care of their entire family,” Rolle said.
“In my case, everything my family has ever accomplished, they’ve done so on their own. To this day, no one in my immediate family has ever asked me for a single dollar.”
The Sanctuary
The City of Homestead was incorporated in 1913, making it the second-oldest city in Miami-Dade County in South Florida. Located approximately 35 miles southwest of Miami, Homestead boasts a little over 65,000 residents, according to the 2010 U.S. Census figures.
It’s also the city where, in 1979, Armelia and Al Rolle purchased a home in a middle class neighborhood that they’ve worked hard to make into a sanctuary of values and where they try to keep things simple for their children and grandchildren.
It’s also a place where Rolle can be himself and not the NFL superstar with the big contract whose every move, every association tends to draw an almost unhealthy level of scrutiny by the media.
It’s where he can pay nightly visits to the local racquetball courts or the playground basketball courts and be an honorary older brother to the next generation of Homestead’s youth who dream of making it big but who might not be fully aware of the pitfalls that come with a path to super-stardom.
“That’s extremely important to me,” said Rolle, who goes home—even if it’s just for a day—whenever his schedule permits.
“You’re in the limelight, where everything you do is scrutinized. I could live anywhere I want in this world, but having that sanctuary in Homestead where I grew up is what I’m most comfortable with. You’re representing your hometown where you’re appreciated, and you want to give something back because there’s not a lot of people who make it out of there the way I have.”
That’s why he’s made the city his permanent home. Instead of enjoying the luxury and privacy afforded to members of a private health club, he doesn’t mind spending hours with the neighborhood youth, encouraging them to take their studies seriously or to resist any temptations to not practice their sport.
“I want them to know that it’s not a fairytale life, that if you want success, you have to put in some hard work,” Rolle said. “If they have questions, they don’t have to Google them; they have an NFL player right there in their backyard willing to answer what you have to do to become the best at your game. And there’s nothing better in the world than sharing the benefit of your experience with kids.”
Just like his mother did with him.
Rolle remembers when he was growing up, his mother not only balanced her responsibilities of running a household that included three small children and a husband, she also worked a full-time job and studied to get her degree.
Therefore, it was no surprise when Rolle said that one of the earliest lessons his mother hammered into his brain was the importance of education.
“Education, education, education,” he said with a bit of a chuckle. “She preached it so much that by the time I got to middle school, she no longer had to look at my report cards because she knew that I was so in tune with my studies and that I wanted to make the best grades.”
Rolle also said that, despite his mother’s upbringing in a household with five other women, she had a big influence on helping to shape him into the man he is today.
“It’s interesting. There are a lot of things that men do that my mother didn’t understand because she grew up in a house with all women, but she understands a lot better now. She always raised us tough and wasn’t soft with us. She just always wanted us to be respectful to our elders and to people in general.”
At the End of the Day
Both Armelia and Antrel Rolle have no idea how much longer he’ll continue to play in the NFL—Rolle, who will turn 32 years old in December, is entering the final year of his contract with the Giants this season.
When the curtain does close on his NFL career, one of his mother’s greatest wishes, besides the overall health of her son, is that he will always remember that no matter what he chooses to do with his life, he’s still the apple of his family’s eye, the baby of the family whom they’ll support no matter what it is he chooses to do.
“I don’t ever want Antrel to look at us and think we see anyone else other than Antrel Rocelious Rolle,” she said. “Right now, the NFL is his job, and as long as he enjoys what he does and feels that he’s able to do so at a high enough level, we’re fine with that.”
That’s why the only thing Armelia Rolle wants from her son is to see him happy, healthy, and successful in whatever he does after football.
“The reality of it is I hope to live a long time and I hope Antrel is going to live a long time,” she said. “I don’t want him to be in a situation where he has to be responsible for us during his lifetime.
“I don’t think about me; I think about Antrel and any children that he might have in the future, and I want them to be okay. My husband and I have our own careers. We’ll accept gifts here and there, but we don’t want to be a long-term burden on him or any of our children. We lead a very simple life where our enjoyment is having our children come over to spend time with us. That’s what I enjoy the most.”
Well that, and spoiling her youngest son.
“As big and as strong as he is, he wears that baby label very well,” she said with a giggle. “At the end of the day, I just want him to be the baby of the family.”
Patricia Traina is the Senior Editor of Inside Football and the New York Giants featured columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow Patricia Traina on Twitter
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