Insightful Player™ Heath Evans A True Champion for Children Around the World
Extraordinary Profiles
in a disciGrowing up plined and faith-filled home has had an astounding impact on Insightful Player™ Heath Evans. Today, he is the Running Back for the New Orleans Saints and he’s living the life of a champion on and off the field. As a young child, he learned many of life’s lessons through his father’s experiences, which also enabled him to build a solid foundation for his future. As an ex-Marine, his father instilled in him the importance of being open and honest with himself and others. With the strength and inspiration Evans gained from his father’s stories and the help of both parents, he was well prepared for the challenges that he would encounter. As a child, Evans suffered from ADHD and dyslexia but with the support and encouragement of his parents, he developed strong study habits and performed very well in his classes. Evans was delighted to take a few minutes from his busy schedule to share his story with Exceptional People Magazine. Monica: I’m interested in knowing what life was like growing up in the Evans’ household. Heath: Disciplined. It was, I would say, focused. My father was an ex-Marine -- well, I guess you’re always are a Marine -- who served during Vietnam. My mom worked until I was about five and then decided to sacrifice the financial benefits to stay home with her kids, so a loving home, a home from my father’s side that was very driven. I think my parents knew early on what I wanted to be and they were very instrumental in helping me achieve those goals. Monica: Wonderful. In a sport where you are constantly in the spotlight, especially during the football season, external forces can negatively impact your life. How do you remain grounded? Heath: Wow. For me I was raised in what I’d call a faith-filled home. I wouldn’t call it a religious home. We were a family that believed in what the bible said and we tried to live and act accordingly. And I think grounding in my faith is really what keeps me grounded. I’m far from perfect but it’s a belief system that I know that I ultimately want to raise my family in, and ultimately I know it will protect my family and guard us and help us prosper. It comes back to my faith in Jesus Christ and trying to live a life that is backed up according to the word of God. May-June 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 11
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Monica: Absolutely. You use your success as a professional football player as a platform or vehicle to help impact the lives of others for Christ. What are some things you are doing to use your life and your success to spread the gospel? Heath: We do a lot of things. Most of it is through our charity work, through the Heath Evans Foundation. We do a seven-on-seven football event where we basically invite the best high schools in the state of Florida to compete in a one day tournament. With the seven-on-seven brand of football we’ve become very big across the country and with my name and the NFL platform obviously behind us, we’ve been able to grow a seven-on-seven that’s now one of the best in the country, according to recruiting and scouting sites such as Scout.com and Rivals.com. So in that event we basically use the football tournament to appear before 450-500 of the best football athletes in the state of Florida to present the gospel to them. Obviously in and through the foundation as long as the victims that we’re working with aren’t dead set against it, most of our counselors are of a Christian background, or I’d say all of them are. But everything we do is ultimately trying to point people back to Jesus, whether it’s a football tournament, or whether it’s the healing that our foundation provides. Monica: That’s wonderful. What inspired you to start the foundation? Heath: My wife was a victim and that’s why we do what we do. But ultimately the spark that always existed in me was built in by my family and by men that were around when I was growing up. I knew from an early age, that you are blessed to become a blessing. You aren't blessed to hoard it, you aren't blessed just for you and your family, you’re blessed to give back to the less fortunate. So it was a natural fit to move in the direction that we chose with the Heath Evans Foundation. Monica: What types of programs and/or services are offered by the organization? Heath: We exist for two reasons: To bring hope and healing to victims of childhood sexual abuse through free-of-charge professional counseling for the victim, as well as the family, to heal through the process after being victimized, and secondly, to bring awareness to the subject matter. Obviously it’s a subject that’s frowned upon and it’s one that is shamelessly kept quiet. So, one of our biggest goals is to constantly bring awareness to the epidemic of sexual abuse. 12 | Exceptional People Magazine | May-June 2011
Extraordinary Profiles
Monica: What should parents do if their child has experienced such abuse? Heath: Wow. First and foremost they need to get it out in the open. For some reason your initial response as a parent is let’s keep this thing quiet and let’s guard our child and not cause anymore shame or heartache. But that is ultimately the worse thing that a parent can do. That’s the equivalent of putting a band aid on cancer. It’s eventually going to fester and it’s eventually going to kill you. People say what do you mean it’s going to kill you? Well, it will eventually emotionally kill you and sometimes it drives victims to kill themselves. So we constantly challenge families to do the tough thing, show tough love and ultimately find qualified professional counselors who can walk the family and their child through this process in a healthy manner. Teaching the victim how to deal with the thoughts and the fears and the anxiety, the depression, the anxiousness and all the different characteristics that accompany this specific type of abuse, is important. Monica: How long has the Heath Foundation existed and how can people donate or contribute to the cause? Heath: Since '06. www.heathevans.org is our main site. We have a few others. One that I’m really most proud of is an idea that we wanted to create called www.iamthevictim.com and it’s a place where victims can login to the website and tell their story. It’s an anonymous site. You’ll see stories about other victims and it’s just a community of victims, and it helps them realize that hey, I’m not the only one. There are other people in this battle with me and there is hope that can be gained through this. I don’t have to live this devastating lifestyle that I feel like I have fallen into or have been trapped into. So www.heathevans.org contains all the info about the foundation and www.iamthevictim.com is for victims to begin the healing process by blogging out their story along with other victims. Monica: You began your football career on a high note with the 2001 NFL draft for the Seattle Seahawks, and then in 2005 you signed with the Miami Dolphins. You were cut six weeks later. I’m sure you’ve probably experienced other disappointments as an individual and also as a team, even possibly some injuries. In terms of your football career how have you been able to handle your disappointments and how do you use your disappointments to help you grow? Heath: You know it is really simple. I always direct everybody to one bible verse and its Jeremiah 29:11 that says, “I know the plans that I have for you declares the May-June 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 13
Extraordinary Profiles
Lord; plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future.” And for me I’m very careful and thought-out and prayerful about every major decision in my life. So when things come my way, whether it’s tearing up my knee in the '09 season with the Saints, the year we won the Super Bowl, or getting cut back in '05, I know there is a method to the madness. Again it goes back to the grounding in my faith. I don’t believe I serve a dead God; I believe I serve a living God who is active daily in our lives and wants to play a huge part in our lives, if we’re willing to submit to his authority. A lot of people don’t like the sound of those two words: submit and authority. But I’m not God. I don’t know what’s around the corner, so I have found in my life it’s best suited for myself and my family when I am seeking someone who has the answers and knows what’s best for me. When I decided to follow the compound of the word of God, it’s amazing how blessed my marriage became, my parenting skills improved, my leadership skills improved, my teammates were more responsive to me. And so adversity has always gone back to that verse, knowing that my God has a plan for my life. The good, the bad and the ugly, they’re all going to work out in my favor. And that’s just the truth of the matter. Monica: Absolutely true. What are some values that you learned from your father that you pass on to your kids? Heath: Toughness and hard work. And they are two things that are irreplaceable. I think we live in a world where men and women just can’t stand up to do the right thing; they’re not tough enough in the face of adversity, they’re not tough enough physically to do the things that they need to do. Ultimately my father was a man who didn’t always feel like doing the right thing, but he would force himself to do the right thing because he knew it was in the best interest of himself and his family. Monica: An author by the name of Maryanne Williamson once said, “Success means that we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others.” What does success mean to you? Heath: Honestly there’s a selfish side where you look around and you say man, we’ve got a great house and we’ve got nice cars and we’ve got daughters that are healthy and I’ve got a beautiful wife and we have money in the bank. Obviously those are the worldly sides of success. They’re hard to miss at times. But there is something to be said about being able to lay your head down on a pillow at night and go to sleep peacefully. And I think very few people in the 14 | Exceptional People Magazine | May-June 2011
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world in this day and age have the ability to do that. I think there’s just so much weight on people for different things or different reasons, but I also think that people are chasing the wrong things in life and haven’t found true contentment or true happiness. Therefore they don’t have the ability to truly rest. Monica: You’re right about that. In what ways has playing football changed your life personally and professionally, as well as your perspective on life? Heath: Wow. You know I think – my perspective, I don’t know if it has ever really changed. My family always raised me to have a good head on my shoulders. I never expected this game to really bring me happiness. I never really expected it to do much more for me than obviously provide a great way to make a living for my family. And obviously that money goes a long way to do a lot of things in the community and for our foundation and it blesses many other people. I definitely was not one of the people who thought football was going to make me happy or bring contentment and peacefulness to my life. The game has taught me a lot about life. The team aspect of the game of football is probably what I appreciate the most because in our game if one guy is wrong, all the others are wrong. In basketball you may have one guy throw a three-point shot and it’s the perfect shot, but four other guys are doing the wrong thing. That never works in the game of football. You’ve got to have all the guys on the same page. That teamwork aspect really drives home a lot of different things in families because you can take the game of football and the principles that you learn in football home to family, and I think it will help you build a successful home life as well. Monica: What is your plan for life after football? Heath: Two things. The foundation is not going anywhere, Lord willing. It is something we have huge dreams and huge plans for and we want this to far outlive Heath and Beth Anne Evans, and even my daughters. And so we want to eradicate the issue of childhood sexual abuse and it’s a huge goal, a big vision. People say we’re crazy -- but a lot of people told me I was crazy thinking I could make it to the NFL and I’ve done that for ten years. Secondly, I’ll probably enter the broadcasting world when I’m done. I love the game of football. It will allow me to remain connected to the game and it will obviously allow me to continue to appear before the public, which equals exposure for the foundation. Monica: That would be a clever decision and I wish you success in both areas. Heath: Thank you so much. May-June 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 15