The New York nightlife. Courtside seats to watch the Miami Heat in the playoffs. The beaches of the Virgin Islands.
These are all places that at one point in his life would have called out loudly to Winston Justice, the 26-year-old starting right tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Now, a different place beckons Justice, 26, a place that hardly registers with most millionaire athletes but one that Justice can’t get off of his mind.
Justice, heading into the third year of a four-year, $19 million deal (complete with $6 million signing bonus), visited earthquake ravaged Haiti in March following the season. The 6-6, 320-pound lineman responsible for protecting Mike Vick, visited Port-au-Prince and saw the destruction up close done by the 7.0 magnitude quake that killed more than 300,000 and left more than 1 million homeless.
“I have been to third world countries before,” said Justice, who has also done mission work in Uganda and South Africa. “But when I got off the airplane in Haiti I knew this was different. This was a third world country that had been devastated by a killer earthquake. There are no real words to describe it.”
Before the earthquake in Jan. 2010, 80 percent of the population lived below the poverty line, and most Haitians live on less than $2 a day. The country is now in its rainy season, and there are fears that the rainy season could continue the spread of cholera and destroy the efforts to build housing, which is Justice’s focus.
Justice, who is also the Eagles’ union representative — the players are currently locked out in a labor dispute with management — has already made charitable contributions to Haitian rebuilding efforts. He has partnered with Mission of Hope, a faith-based mission started in Haiti in 1998 that houses an orphanage, a medical facility with a 250-bed hospital and a church. Mission of Hope, run solely off of charitable giving, serves more than 50,000 meals daily and approximately 1.5 million monthly.
“This has been perfect for Winston because he has a heart to serve,” Mission of Hope president Brad Johnson said. “He has a heart to serve and he is selfless. In pro sports it’s easy to lose that. He hasn’t. The things that God has blessed him with, finances, a great career, he sees those things as wasteful if he’s not sharing with others less fortunate.”
What stuck Justice most deeply about Haiti is the alarmingly high number of homeless and the sub-standard living conditions.
“There are homes there that are built from garbage,” Justice said. “Literally out of garbage. Mission of Hope has a plan to build 500 homes. I knew right away that’s where I wanted to help.”
Mission of Hope said it costs about $6,000 to build a home. Justice, who is involved in multiple giving project in and around Philadelphia, has already given funds for one home and has plans to give much more. As an added bonus, he also plans to help with the actually building of these homes.
Why so charitable?
Wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, Justice compares the rampant materialism of the United States to Haiti and makes an astute observation that belies his age and stature.
“I have met people in Haiti who are happy with nothing. Meanwhile, there are people here (United States) that are very unhappy,” Justice said. “We fall into this trap – myself included – that the more stuff I get, the more money I make, the happier I’ll be. This is why people shop; they are buying a state of mind, buying how they feel about themselves and it’s just a lie.
“The more stuff you buy, the more empty you will be,” Justice continues. “It doesn’t make you happy but we keep on doing it. It’s a lie we keep telling ourselves. Many of the people of Haiti have a relationship with God. They are happy with whatever you give them. What does that say about us?”
Sadly, when Justice turned to other players around the league, only one, Eagles safety Quintin Demps, took him up on the offer to make the trip. Not deterred, Justice is going to circulate invitations through the National Football League Players Association to give players another chance to visit when he returns in June. Considering that the players need to curry public favor with during the lockout, this might not be a bad idea. Many of Justice’s colleagues have already damaged the union’s position with off-season arrests.
“I’m hopeful some guys will join me there in June,” he said, wishfully. “It’s transformational.”
Justice should know a thing or two about transformations — he desperately needed one not long ago.
A high school All-American out of football factory Long Beach Polly (CA), Justice, by his own admission, arrived at USC a broken teenager. A day one starter as a freshman in 2001, he was arrested twice, once for solicitation and once for possession of a pellet gun, a pair of misdemeanors, and was kicked out of school for what would have been his senior season.
“Looking back on it now, it’s like looking at a totally different person,” he said. “We got into a lot of trouble and to be honest with you, I should’ve been kicked out of school 10 times before they actually got rid of me. It was a tough part of my life. I started smoking, drinking, doing drugs – you name it.”
But Justice’s talent was undeniable, and eventually former USC coach Pete Carroll invited him back to USC for the 2005 season. Justice stayed in shape the year out of football by boxing, and when he returned he was immediately named a starter.
But he was still broken.
“I was back in school but it was still all about me – I was just living to satisfy myself,” he said. “It cost me because I slipped out of the first round because of my stupidity. Truth of the matter was, I was back on the field but I wasn’t right.”
He entered the draft in 2006 and despite an impressive showing at the NFL combine he slipped to the Eagles in the second round. A year later he made his first career start and was embarrassed on the field, something that never happened in college. Stepping in at left tackle for injured Eagle Tre Thomas, New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora, who lined up over Justice, notched six of the Giants’ 12 sacks on Sept. 30, 2007.
Still incredibly self absorbed, Justice says he hit rock bottom when Dania, now his wife and the mother of their two young children, left him at the end of the 2007 season.
“I was bottomed out,” Justice said. “She left because I was being young and immature — I didn’t care for anyone else but myself. It’s not healthy for anyone to be in a relationship like that so she did the smart thing and left. And I did the smart thing and I went after her.”
Since then, Justice has lived a charmed life. He was benched in the Eagles’ playoff loss to eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay, but it turns out that this was because he was playing on a bad knee that has since required off-season surgery. He’s just 26, so if he stays healthy he has at least one more big contract left in him.
In the meantime, Justice will continue to “stay connected to Haiti,” adding that he sometimes feels “the world has already forgotten” about the country’s condition.
“As long as Haiti has a problem I’m going to continue to do what I can to make it better for these people,” Justice said. “I’m in it for the long haul.”