Priest Holmes Foundation
Publication: PriestHolmesFoundation.org
Date: October 18, 2008
Less than a year removed from his last game in the National Football League, San Antonio’s Priest Holmes has thrown himself “100 percent” into his charitable organization, the Priest Holmes Foundation.
Holmes is offering scholarships and other incentives to children in the Northside and Judson school districts to improve their attendance and scholastic performances in school.
Express-News staff writer David King talked with Holmes during a break in his second fundraiser, a golf tournament at the Quarry on Wednesday:
How has life been after football?
There’s three things I love doing, and that’s bass fishing, playing chess and riding my motorcycles … But I’ve also found something else that I have a passion for, and that’s my foundation. I retired two days before Thanksgiving, came home to San Antonio, and decided to put on an event (in June). We had over 2,000 kids who within a week participated. It was exciting to see that.
What’s the purpose of the foundation?
It’s designed to provide scholarships, which I think is a great way to give back. I was blessed to have a long tenure in the NFL, 11 years, and that speaks volumes. … So what I do now is I leverage my 11 years in the NFL, and I walk into a CEO’s office, and I can tell them how important it is to sponsor or partner up with us, with the community, with the things we want to do.
What got you interested in doing this kind of thing?
Well, when you look at the statistics for former NFL players, it’s not good. If you retire, within a few years your star power is gone. … You also have the history that shows that the financial decisions you’re getting ready to make are going to be all the wrong decisions. Somebody’s going to come and take all the money you just earned, all your sweat equity…
And there are changes in your lifestyle — not everyone can handle the fact that you’re not pulling in the big paycheck anymore. Relationships with wives or significant others tend to crumble because there wasn’t a foundation under it. With those statistics, and I’m looking at all 360 degrees of it, I’m thinking I need to figure out a way to bridge the gap between community and business, and I’m trying to figure out a way for me to bridge the gap, too, to take myself out of those statistics.
One of the best things is, if you’re doing something for someone else, that’s usually the best thing to do.
And you decided this was the best place to do it?
I really love San Antonio, I love the state of Texas … As soon as I could get back, I couldn’t wait. I love it here, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. In terms of getting back to ground zero, getting my bearings, I had to come back here to San Antonio.
What sort of things are you able to do now that you’re out of football?
For one, I get to see a lot more family … I just went to my family’s 128th reunion in Oklahoma — our family was there before Oklahoma was a state — and seeing all our relatives and family was great. It was on Aug. 4, and Aug. 4 for the past 15 to 20 years has been football camp, even when I was in high school. I had not been able to participate in reunions like that, and it felt really good to go back and have people see me for the first time since I was 15 or 16 years old.
So your full-time job is now the foundation?
It’s 100 percent of what I do. I spend from eight to 10 hours a day doing foundation work in some form. In meetings, I’m going out and pulling in those donated dollars, and it’s all geared toward enhancing kids’ educations and enhancing their lives.
