Dreams Come True
February 15, 2017 | Football, Mike Lucas
James White scored the Patriots’ game-winning touchdown in overtime of the Super Bowl. Despite his newfound celebrity status, White’s staying true to his down-to-earth family roots and humble Badgers work ethic.
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — On Monday morning, James White traded high fives with a New York City studio audience, hugged Kelly Ripa and exchanged banter with David Muir, the anchor of ABC World News Tonight and Ripa's co-host. White was on the "Live with Kelly" marquee with Jeremy Jordan, a Broadway star ("Newsies"), and Kal Penn, who has dabbled in acting, producing and civil service.
Penn does many things well. Sort of like White, the former Wisconsin tailback and the de facto Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl LI after catching a record 14 passes from Tom Brady (the official MVP) and scoring the game-winning touchdown in the New England Patriots' historic come-from-behind 34-28 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons. White scored three times, tying a Super Bowl record.
Attired conservatively but sharply in a grayish-blue suit and open-collared dress shirt, White looked comfortable and very much at home in the presence of Ripa and Muir, who conducted the first one-on-one television interview with President Donald Trump after taking the oath of office.
Almost all of White's responses were accompanied by a throaty laugh — a trademark — along with his smile, which he flashed often while fielding questions and comments, including Ripa's unusual observation, "I'm always shocked you guys don't get more injured hugging each other than tackling each other," which overlapped a replay of White's two-yard scoring run off right tackle with 11:02 left in OT.
"We're actually pretty surprised, too — it's just fun celebrating with your teammates," said White, who added that seeing the video always spurs the same reaction. "It still feels surreal to me. It doesn't get old. But I get nervous watching it — every time I see it — like I don't know what happens."
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Less than two hours after his appearance on "Live with Kelly" — one of a plethora of variety/talk show commitments that he has kept the last two weeks — the 25-year-old White was on the phone confirming what he has been saying about his narrative to everyone on the interview circuit.
"You definitely dream about something like this," he said Monday.
Like most youngsters, he grew up with the ambition of performing on the biggest of stages, the Super Bowl. And it happened, the dream came true. But he says his newfound celebrity won't change who he is. White is adamant about staying grounded, which is how he was raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
"I'm still the same guy," White emphasized. "I'm not going to change."
"Wisconsin prepared me well. I was asked to do a lot of things in the offense and I learned the playbook inside and out and that helped me once I got here to the NFL. ... The Patriots and Wisconsin are similar organizations. They have guys who work hard and put the team first. They have guys who go out and just try to do their job when they step on the field. Nobody cares who gets the credit as long as we get the win."
That can't be easy considering his burgeoning national profile, however fleeting.
"It's easy for me," he countered. "I'm never going to change as a person. No matter what, I'm going to be the same humble guy with a smile on my face. I'm going to go to work every day and I'm going to work hard. It's the same old, same old, I'm never going to change."
White has stayed in touch with many of his old friends, his former UW teammates.
"I have a group chat with a bunch of guys," said White, listing tailbacks Melvin Gordon and Montee Ball and defensive lineman Warren Herring, among others. "I talk to them all the time. It's always good to stay in touch with good friends who helped you along the way."
In retrospect, the 5-foot-9, 205-pound White felt his UW training paved the way to being a solid pro.
"Wisconsin prepared me well," said White, the fifth-leading rusher in school history with 4,015 yards (6.2) and 45 touchdowns. "I was asked to do a lot of things in the offense and I learned the playbook inside and out and that helped me once I got here to the NFL.
"The Patriots and Wisconsin are similar organizations. They have guys who work hard and put the team first. They have guys who go out and just try to do their job when they step on the field. Nobody cares who gets the credit as long as we get the win."
White never had any trouble sharing reps or playing time with others. It was a way of life with the Badgers. In 52 career games, he had only 14 starts, 12 his senior year. It was something that he addressed after the Patriots selected him in the fourth round (the 130th pick overall) of the 2014 draft.
"I just played my role (at UW)," White said then. "And it's something I have to do once I get to this organization (New England) is play my role. Wherever the coach puts me, I'm going to go out there, whether it's special teams or offense or whatever they want me to do. I'm going to go out there and do everything I can to help the team, just like I did at Wisconsin."
It didn't hurt that White was familiar with how the Patriots had utilized Kevin Faulk and Danny Woodhead, a couple of products of the New England system, interchangeable running backs. During his rookie season, White played in only three games (nine carries) and was inactive for Super Bowl XLIX, a 28-24 win over Seattle. Shane Vereen, in the Faulk/Woodhead mold, had 11 catches for the Pats.
"I wasn't expecting to play at all (against the Seahawks)," he said. "But it was still a great experience. I saw what it took to get to a Super Bowl. I saw all the work that the guys put in. Players have different roles. Each player is different. But everybody does their role and nobody complains. When our number is called as a running back, we just try to answer it."
After Vereen signed as a free agent with the New York Giants and Dion Lewis tore up his knee, White's number got called more frequently during the 2015 season. He wound up with 40 receptions, including 10 for 115 yards against the Philadelphia Eagles. As it turned out, it was a foreshadowing of what was to come. This past year, he was the Pats' second-leading receiver with 60 catches.
White has always had confidence in his hands and route-running even though the Badgers rarely threw in his direction early on. Over his first three seasons, he had 34 catches in 39 games. As a senior, he came under the guidance of a new UW offensive coordinator (Andy Ludwig) and got far more involved in the passing attack. White caught 39 passes on his way to setting UW's career records for receptions (73) and receiving yards (670) by a running back.
"I learned a lot of things at Wisconsin," he said. "I can't pick out just one."
When he arrived in New England, it was just a matter of time, he figured, before he would get a chance to prove himself. "I didn't have any doubts," he said of his abilities to contribute. "I just continued to work and continued to show the coaches what I could do. And they found a role for me."
That role obviously expanded against Atlanta. But he didn't treat the lead-up to the Super Bowl any differently than any other work week. "I just wanted to be accountable," he said. "If my number is called, I'll be ready. I stayed ready, so I didn't have to get ready. Nobody knows on our team who's going to get the most snaps, who's going to get the most balls. Everybody is ready for the moment."
Nobody more so than Brady, a five-time Super Bowl champion.
"He works extremely hard at his craft, he's such a competitor, he has that drive to win," White said. "He's everything that you could ask for in a teammate and a player. He's the greatest of all-time."
Returning the compliment, Brady praised White at the Super Bowl MVP news conference the day after Super Bowl LI: "James is everything you want in a teammate. Dependable. Consistent. Durable. The best attitude. We kept going to him. I think that speaks for itself."
Brady has gone so far as to compare White to his son, Jack, who's 9.
"He (White) just does everything right and you can never get mad at him," Brady said. "Even when he doesn't make the play, he feels worse about it than you do."
Truth be told, White wasn't even aware that he had 14 catches (on 16 targets). "I knew I was catching a lot of passes, but I wasn't keeping track of the number," he said. "I was just trying to be open every single time and be a viable option. I was just playing hard for my teammates."
James White: Super Bowl hero Super Bowl champion Super Bowl record holder Wisconsin Badger #OnWisconsin || #Badgers
— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) February 7, 2017
White is hoping to run into some of his old teammates this weekend when he returns to Madison. He will be introduced during Sunday's basketball game between Maryland and Wisconsin at the Kohl Center. "It will be special to get back with Badger nation," he said.
This won't be White's last trip to the UW campus. He still has work to do on his undergraduate degree and he has promised his parents and grandmother that he will graduate.
"Yes, it's important to me and I will get it done," he stressed. "Everyone in my family has been supportive."
His mom and dad were in Houston. And after the locker room cleared out following the Super Bowl, White spoke on the phone with his grandmother. "She let me know how proud she was of me and how many phone calls she was getting back home," he said. "She told me how many times she was praying on her rosary, 100 times a day. Her prayers were answered, I guess."
So were his. "I don't really have one quote that I live by," White said. "I just try to do everything in my life with a smile on my face. I'm blessed to have this opportunity that I have. A lot of people would die to be in my shoes. I don't take it for granted."
That's why he has been such a willing soul on the talk circuit despite his shyness.
"How many interviews have I done? Too many," he said, laughing. "I can't count. There have been way too many. I'm pretty reserved, I don't talk too much. But that's what comes with it (a Super Bowl win and the type of game he had). It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I'm enjoying all of it."
White loved Walt Disney World, a three-hour drive from his home.
"I've been plenty of times," he said. "But this was something I will remember forever."
His most enjoyable interview was with Conan O'Brien, the TBS late night talk show host. Since the Super Bowl MVP is no longer awarded a truck — Brady gave his from SB XLIX to cornerback Malcolm Butler, who intercepted Russell Wilson on the goal line — O'Brien, who has strong Boston ties, presented White with a white Ford F-150. "That's pretty cool, I wasn't expecting that at all," he said.
So, what was White expecting after the Patriots trailed by 25 points in the third quarter?
"I just stopped looking at the scoreboard after awhile," he said. "I knew if the defense continued to stop their offense and if we continued to score points, we'd continue to get more into the game and eventually we were within striking distance. Once Dont'a Hightower got that strip sack (of Atlanta's Matt Ryan) that gave us the energy we needed. And, then, we got the ball first in overtime."
What was talked about in the huddle before the game-winning march?
"There really wasn't much said," he recounted. "We just wanted to end it on that drive."
On Monday, he was quizzed on the ending; his two-yard TD run – "I think everyone has one of those toss plays in their playbook," he said – that put White in the history book with another former Wisconsin running back, Alan Ameche, who rushed for the winning score in sudden death of the 1958 NFL championship game. "I didn't know that," White said innocently. "But I heard of Ameche."
And, now, thanks to that short but determined run, millions have heard of White.
"As soon as they called the play in overtime, and I knew that I was getting the ball, I felt like everything went into slow motion," White said. "It was like, 'I'm about to get a chance to win this game with the ball in my hands.' And I was going to find any way to get into the end zone."
Great praise from one of the game's greatest. #OnWisconsin || #Badgers
— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) February 6, 2017
There's not another carry of that magnitude in his resume. Understandably so. But he does have a favorite run at Wisconsin and it wasn't his school-record 92-yard TD dash against Indiana at Camp Randall Stadium. "But that was a pretty cool deal," he conceded.
Instead, he hit rewind to his freshman year and a matchup against No. 1-ranked Ohio State. David Gilreath electrified the home crowd by returning the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown as the Badgers jumped out to a 21-0 lead. The Buckeyes didn't surrender, though. They fought back.
In the fourth quarter, Ohio State made it a one possession game, 21-18, after an impressive 19-play, 94-yard scoring drive that was capped with a successful two-point conversion. But the Badgers answered by traveling 73 yards, with White covering the final 12 yards to the end zone.
"It was the game-sealing touchdown," White said. "That's what made it special."
Speaks for itself.
