His name is John, and as a quarterback he has thrown more than 400 touchdowns for Colorado. But where he’s really a big star is at a tiny orphanage in Africa.
“It’s amazing what can come into your heart to change your life,” said Crush quarterback John Dutton, who went on a 10-day trip to Ethiopia a year ago, only to discover a calling and find a challenge bigger than anything in sports.
To calculate the true value of Dutton as a Denver athlete, you must look beyond his name recognition, the Arena Football League championship won in 2005 and all the dollars in the three-year contract he signed Thursday with the Crush.
Superstars with big salaries often think they can save the world from the back of a limousine.
What Dutton hopes to do is make a difference in one new child sitting at his dinner table.
Miki, a 10-year-old boy, was adopted out of Africa by the Dutton family last month.
“You can’t save the world. You can’t save every kid in need. I don’t have a big enough house to do that,” said Dutton, who now actively raises funds for the orphanage in Holeta, Ethiopia, where he met Miki. “But you can make a big change in one life.”
On the A-list of stars in this great sports town, Dutton would not make the cut against the likes of local heroes Champ Bailey, Carmelo Anthony or Todd Helton.
But as a good neighbor, no ballplayer in Denver is more valuable than Dutton.
Fans ask me all the time who are the really good guys in pro sports.
And the answer is always the same.
There are too many to count.
Hockey defensemen creating laughter in the children’s wing of a hospital, a 7-foot center playing secret Santa at Christmas or an NFL linebacker lost in the rough at a charity golf tourney are all charitable acts that athletes make without looking for applause.
It’s all good and all done from the heart.
But Dutton has taken giving of himself to a whole new level.
“I grew up in a family with boats and toys and vacations all over the place. But you come to realize we don’t really need that stuff. In Ethiopia, 95 percent of the population’s No. 1 concern every day is searching for food. We in the United States can go in the house and get a nice, cold glass of water right now. In Ethiopia, they can’t,” Dutton said.
“Now, I’m not going to give away all my possessions and go live on the street. But it makes you realize everything we do have in this country. We just throw money away. And, in Ethiopia, they are lucky to make a dollar a day.”
While I will take Peyton Manning over Brad Pitt on any given Sunday in terms of entertainment bang for the buck, the truth is most athletes’ real impact on society can be measured by little more than the number of sneakers they sell.
In a happy Colorado household that already contained a 31-year-old football player, his wife and their two young sons, the Duttons made room in their hearts for a kid who confidently speaks only a few words of English and scavenged for food in the trash until an Ethiopian orphanage rescued him from the streets two years ago.
“You make that commitment, and right away, you think, ‘Omigosh, what did I just do?’ There was that anxiety,” Dutton said. “But Miki and my other boys are brothers now. They fight. They play. They do what brothers do. I’ve never had a 10-year-old in my life. From football games to Disneyland to his emotional stages to the language barrier, you just pray about all the changes facing him and take it as it comes.”
When we sit on a barstool and dream of the life led by a pro athlete, our imaginations are often crowded with fast cars, the finest cuts of beef and five-star hotels at the beach.
Dutton, however, cannot wait to get back to Ethiopia, where he already is planning another trip in December.
“I have a great time in Ethiopia. It’s obviously not a resort in Hawaii,” Dutton said.
“But, for me, a trip to the orphanage is a lot more fulfilling.”
As quickly as you can turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper, the sporting world loudly hails men as heroes for doing everything from hurling a baseball 95 mph to eating five dozen hot dogs to pedaling a bicycle up the side of a mountain.
Those deeds are all unbelievably dramatic, but hardly qualify as truly heroic.
When Dutton traveled to Ethiopia, he was not trying to be anyone’s hero.
But what happened is more amazing than anything you will see in any arena, stadium or ballpark all year.
With the same arm that throws a football, Dutton took Miki by the hand and gave a 10-year-old boy somebody to call Dad.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
