McDaniel puts emphasis on education after playing career

Randall McDaniel had the means to go to the Super Bowl for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2009 announcement in January.

He chose to stay home and prepare for school on Monday.

“That’s totally him,” said Nancy Benz, the principal at Hilltop Elementary School in Mound, Minn., where McDaniel is a teaching assistant. “He’s committed to whatever he’s in.”

McDaniel works with second graders at the suburban Minneapolis school. The 12-time Pro Bowl guard began volunteering in schools while he was a player with the Vikings and gained a substitute teacher’s license after his retirement.

Being in the limelight was never a priority for McDaniel. Work always was.

That is why staying home the day of the Hall of Fame announcement was an easy decision.

“I know they make a phone call to let you know and figured that would be fine,” McDaniel said. “I know a lot of guys go to the Super Bowl and are there for that announcement. I’m like, ‘I’m doing what I love now.’

“Football was a small part of my life. I loved every moment of it. But now I’m doing my second career.”

McDaniel recently completed his first year at Hilltop. Benz met him through his wife, Marianne, almost 20 years ago when Benz was a Vikings training camp coordinator and a teacher in another school district.

“He’s just a natural with kids,” Benz said. “He can get down to their level and do a really good job teaching them.”

At the start of the year, the parents of McDaniel’s new students told them he was a former football player. The teaching assistant downplayed his past success.

“They would say, ‘You played football?’ ” McDaniel said. “I said, ‘I played a little bit.’ Then they would give me the line, ‘Were you any good?’ I go, ‘I did alright.’ ”

McDaniel’s students realized how good he was the Monday after the Hall of Fame announcement. Some said they remembered him even though they were born the year he retired.

“The kids see that No. 64 out on the field now and assume they saw me play,” McDaniel said.

Hilltop celebrated McDaniel’s election to the Hall with a purple and gold day. He did a photo session with every class but said he would wait until the end of the school year to sign autographs.

The media blitz followed.

Benz took calls from reporters who wanted to come to Hilltop and do stories on a future Hall of Famer at work. McDaniel wondered what all the fuss was about.

“I’d say, ‘We got a phone call from ESPN, and they want to come,’ ” Benz said. “He’s like, ‘Who do they want to talk to?’ I said, ‘You! They want to talk to you.

“It’s so neat that it happens to such an ethical guy. You could not find a more ethical, nice, caring, humble man as Randall.”

McDaniel’s interest in a career in education began when he was a student at Arizona State University.

An older friend taught at a school located in a rough area. Most of the boys were not interested in books, but McDaniel was invited in to read to them. He later student-taught at the same school.

Benz let McDaniel come to her class to help during his off days as a player. The visits were more frequent during the offseason.

“I showed up every day,” McDaniel said. “I kept doing that from 8 in the morning until school ended. Then she would send me to other schools to work at.

“I was fortunate all these teachers let me do this stuff in their classroom.”

Canton Repository