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DESTREHAN, La. — To Jeanne Hall, he always will be Edward Reed, the teenager wise beyond his years who simply needed a little extra help.
Hall was the secretary for the disciplinarian at Destrehan High School, about 20 miles up the Mississippi River from New Orleans, when Reed, the son of a welder, arrived at Destrehan as a freakish athletic talent. Her eyes told her Reed had the ability to make a future living in whatever sport he applied himself to — football, baseball, basketball or track.
But her brain told her Reed needed “some direction,” which went beyond a few after-school tutoring sessions at her home.
That’s how Reed, with his family’s blessing, came to live with Jeanne and her husband Nip during the school year. The rigorous academic work Hall required also opened doors on the football field. Reed went on to become an All-America safety at the University of Miami and a potential future Hall of Famer with the Ravens.
“He’s a very intelligent young man and he’s a wonderful athlete, but he hadn’t applied himself and his grades were poor,” Hall recalled. “I pushed him a lot. He realized, ‘If I don’t get good grades, I’m not going to be able to play.’ ”
Every night after practice or a game — the calendar dictated the sport — Reed would come home and wolf down his dinner that Hall prepared. Usually, he was so tired he fell asleep, but he would wake up at 10 p.m. to start his homework.
“It was maybe his junior year when he threw himself into the homework,” Hall said. “I remember him telling me one night, ‘I don’t need help. I got this.’ ”
When the Ravens defeated the Patriots last week to advance to Super Bowl XLVII near Reed’s hometown, one of the first calls he made was to Hall.
“It was Monday after the game, and he was so giddy he was still on cloud nine,” Hall said. “He told me, ‘You know, if you wouldn’t have made me go to summer school I wouldn’t be playing in the Super Bowl.’ He was remembering all the different things he had gone through to get to this point.”
Ben Parquet, a student advocate for the St. Charles Parish school system, first spotted Reed as a student at Albert Cammon Middle School in St. Rose, where his wife was a teacher. She kept telling Parquet about this kid who could run rings around everyone.
“He was a bright kid who just needed that little extra motivation,” Parquet said.
But because Reed had fallen behind in class, originally he was going to have to repeat eighth grade at Cammon, and he would have been too old to play sports at that level. Parquet pleaded with school authorities to allow Reed to enter Destrehan High and get his academics in order.
“He was actually in a program called the 8½ Program,” Parquet said. “It was a transitional program between eighth and ninth grade where he could catch up. He was always a bright kid. He just hadn’t grasped on to how important education was. When he realized his potential, he realized he was going to have to hit the books.”
One play in his high school football career remains a legend. Destrehan was playing South Lafourche in the final game of the regular season, and Destrehan needed to win by more than three points to advance to the playoffs based on a tie-breaking system.
Destrehan led by three inside the final minute, but South Lafourche had the ball.
“We were certain at that point that that was it,” Hall said. “This was not going to happen.”
Just then, Destrehan cornerback Aaron Smith intercepted a pass deep in his territory, started to run, and then was close to being dragged down.
“It was typical Edward,” Hall said. “He kept shouting, ‘Give me the ball! Give me the ball!’ Aaron pitched the ball to Edward, and I don’t know how many tackles he broke, but he ran for the touchdown. That was normal for him. When he did that a few years later at Miami (running 80 yards for a touchdown after a lateral from teammate Matt Walters), I said to myself, ‘Seen that before.’ ”
Just like she had seen him leave a baseball game and head directly to a track meet, pick up a javelin and set the district record with one throw.
“My husband used to tell him, ‘If you picked up a doggone hockey stick, you’d be the best,’ ” Hall said.
Reed’s leadership, which grew under Hall’s supervision then flourished at Miami, has been the glue of the Ravens’ defense. At 34, he has made eight Pro Bowls, was the 2004 NFL Defensive Player of the Year and holds the NFL record for the two longest interception returns (106 yards in 2004 and 108 yards in 2008).
Reed is the rock. When his younger brother Brian died tragically in January 2011 while trying to evade police by jumping into the Mississippi River, Reed stayed with the Ravens and led them to a 30-7 playoff victory over the Chiefs.
“That’s just his makeup,” Parquet said. “He didn’t want to let somebody else down. He loved his brother and his brother looked up to him, and his brother probably would have wanted him to play. He just felt, ‘I need to step up.’ ”
Reed is making sure Hall and her husband will be at the Super Bowl to see the fruits of their labor. The tickets are on him.
“It’s sort of like coming full circle,” Hall said. “He was standing in the Dome as a freshman for the state championship game, and he said, ‘One day I might come back here and play as a professional.’ What more could you ask for?”