Penn State's lost linebacker hopes to beat the odds again
STATE COLLEGE — The linebacker believes he is being saved all over again.
Call it a miracle, maybe, just to make it to another chance like this one ...
Nyeem Wartman-White grew up in a home with seven other kids, sometimes more, and moved from one inner-city Philadelphia neighborhood to the next. He became wise enough, and fortunate enough, to survive the drugs, guns and dead ends of all kinds.
He made a dramatic escape from the city.
He earned a scholarship to Penn State.
He was beginning to make a national name for himself — only to have football stolen from him not once, but twice.
And so he doesn't expect to be selected in the April 27-29 NFL Draft because he's still recovering from a second knee operation. He could run only a few half-speed drills for scouts last month in Holuba Hall.
But he's determined to stick on a pro roster when his opportunity truly does come — while swearing he's a changed man for going through it all. This second salvation, he said, is carrying him to unimagined places.
"I just keep telling the people closest to me it's going to be one helluva story. I know I'm not going to quit. ... I'm going until the wheels fall off."
• • •
He never played organized football of any kind before high school.
Rather, Wartman-White's unique development centered around pickup games in the streets and video games in a home crowded with brothers, sisters, cousins and step-siblings. There, his mother was the provider and rules-maker.
A decade ago, she moved them from one part of Philadelphia to the next because of circumstance and opportunity. The kids had to fend for themselves and yet assimilate in close confines. They had to police one another, so as not to "get sucked into a life that will destroy you."
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Wartman-White admitted to having troubles in school, but he was transfixed by those video games, spending hours at a time studying teams and their tendencies, becoming an X's and O's savant of sorts.
The alternative was drowning in those neighborhoods. He talked of friends ending up dead or in jail or forced to raise children far too young.
Take his older brother, Markel, his idol. He was shot three times in an incident near their home but survived. Soon after recovering, he was arrested and convicted of robbing a corner grocery store, although he and his family still believe he was wrongly accused.
He would spend more than six years in prison.
Unable to bear any more, Wartman-White's mother and stepfather moved to Scranton and took with them whoever wanted to go. At the last minute, Wartman-White went along instead of staying with an uncle.
There, he had his own bedroom for the first time. The neighborhood was quiet, every home with a yard.
"The air even felt different, just everything," he said.
He played high school football on a new field. He easily made friends despite being one of the only African-Americans in his classes.
He became the first in his immediate family to attend college.
He knocked down one barrier after another.
At first, "I went to high school mad. ... The only encounter with white people I had (in Philly) were my teachers. I'm going there with a standoff thing, knowing I'm not like anyone here. I remember my first day of school I just stood up against the wall and had my hood up, thinking, 'I'm just here because my mom's here.' But after a while I started learning more and more and more.
"You see how narrow-minded I was and how understanding I've become."
Now, he perseveres and vows to play in the NFL, in part, for the woman who raised him.
Veronica White worked construction, gas stations and at Walmart to raise her family.
"Anything broke around the house, she fixed it. Painting needed to be done, she did it," Wartman-White said. "She knew how to be the disciplinarian and the lover at the same time."
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To honor her, he legally added her maiden name — White — to his as a Mother's Day surprise in 2015.
He also pushes on for his brother, Markel, who attends community college since leaving prison. He said Nyeem's football career in high school and at Penn State provided a saving motivation for him. He watched the games on TV whenever he could.
"It gave me so much life, man. It gave me so much to look forward to. ... I was so prideful," Markel White said.
"He handled (his injuries) strong. I would have did nothing but cry. Some dudes, after two years, they would have just quit. He's my inspiration. If he can do that, I can never quit."
NFL agent Jim Ivler calls Wartman-White "one of the most dedicated and motivated players I've ever encountered.
"It was never an issue that he was going to rehab and come back and prove teams he belongs on the NFL level. That takes a lot of guts and character."
• • •
He drove 16 hours to Florida as soon as the team plane landed with a Big Ten Championship.
Wartman-White drove alone to the renowned Exos training facility in Pensacola to prepare for his potential NFL career. He expects to be completely healthy by July but may have to continue proving himself for months to land a serious opportunity. He hopes to follow the lead of former teammate and Penn State linebacker, Mike Mauti, who overcame three knee injuries to make an NFL roster.
Wartman-White has already learned the values of patience and leadership during the past two years of mostly watching and coaching from the sideline.
Go back to the opening of the 2015 season. The redshirt junior was the leader of the defense as he returned to play in front of his hometown fans at Lincoln Financial Field. And he began devouring ballcarriers to the point where the Temple Owls looked like they might not ever earn a first down.
He confided this in teammate Brandon Bell: "I'm about to go off this year. I'm about to do so good this year. Everything's so slow, everyone's moving so slow out there."
A few minutes later, his knee gave out.
As he hobbled to the locker room before halftime, he swayed between crying and laughing, stunned by the irony of the time and place.
Almost immediately, though, he steeled himself for surgery and rehabilitation. He was determined to be even better for his final Penn State season.
Back then, Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry was convinced of it.
"I'm not sure I ever had an athlete like him in my career. Never had somebody with his size and agility, carrying almost 250 pounds," he said a year ago. "His lateral movement and agility are off the charts."
Wartman-White did earn back his starting role to open last season. But in the third game everything blew up, once more, against Temple. He tore his other ACL.
"It was time to be humbled because I was getting ahead of myself," Wartman-White said. "I felt like that Nyeem was blinded, that he was looking for all of the good things he could have for himself. He was selfish.
"I became mindful and thoughtful — as a person I've improved. You realize you're not the only one going through things. Once you get hurt you talk to people and realize they're going through things, too. And they've been going through them for a while ..."
If given the chance, he said, he wouldn't change his journey, even the injuries. They are preparing him for whatever obstacles may appear next.
He talks of wanting to be a coach one day, maybe even a general manager. He loves the details of the game too much to leave it, no matter how his latest comeback ends.
He works and prays and said he is at peace with this ongoing salvation.
"I want to know who's going to take a chance in me, who believes in me. That's what I'm excited about."
