“I put him down on the other side of the room” said Mike Minter, “and he started crying and kept crawling back. It was very tough and it was also an awakening.”
The Carolina Panthers star was talking about a visit to an orphanage in Africa, part of a trip he took to Senegal and Gambia on behalf of the YMCA.
Minter announced his football retirement this week, effective at the end of the upcoming NFL season. That retirement will close the curtain on a career that has made Minter one of the best and most popular of the Carolina Panthers.
The former Nebraska star is Carolina’s all-time leader in tackles, forced fumbles, fumble recoveries and interceptions returned for touchdowns. He has started 141 straight games, a franchise record.
All of that only scratches the surface of Mike Minter’s life. His retirement will be the Panther’s loss, but an even greater gain for the Charlotte community, which has already reaped the benefits of having Minter here.
He is involved with any number of charitable causes, most notably the YMCA where he has made a pledge of $160,000. His recent trip to Africa was part of an effort to raise $90,000 to help the YMCA in Senegal and Gambia.
He talks with great emotion of a trip in which he saw poverty, hunger and a life far removed from that of an NFL star.
“It’s a minor thing to us, but they need water. Fresh water is a continual problem.” Minter said. He goes on to say they need a way to plant crops, not to harvest for sale, but for food.
The orphanages and poverty were emotional, but one other place perhaps even more so.
“Goree Island was where they housed all the slaves before they shipped them off to America,” Minter said.
It was the place where husbands were separated from wives, and parents from children. Millions left Goree Island for a life of slavery in America. For Minter it was a trip back in time with a connection to the present.
“Emotions came over me,” said Minter, “and I just started crying and that right there I did not expect. It was touching. What I was seeing was my grandmother. I was seeing my Mom. I was seeing me as a little kid. It was amazing.”
Minter’s perspective has always been far wider than just football, but even more so now. Seeing what those in Africa did not have, he says, makes him appreciate what is here. He will go back and he will help.
“It refocuses you on knowing that there’s a lot in this world we’ve got to attack” he said. “It’s not about me being comfortable. It’s about the world being comfortable.”