Former star Manley still a hit with fans

VIRGINIA BEACH

They screamed his name Saturday, begging for his signature on a ball, a jersey, a picture, anything. The autograph seekers barely came up to the towering football player’s waist.

Sweat rolled off his forehead as the horde of children, tiny Washington Redskins fans, surrounded him, dozens of them pressing closer and closer. Grasping at him, they chirped: PLEASE! He worked the pen feverishly, trying to accommodate them all.

After several minutes, an official-looking fellow pushed into the fray – “Sorry, folks, that’s all for now,” he said – and whisked the star attraction out the back door of the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

“Whew!” said the rescuer. “You were like Elvis Presley in there!”

Dexter Manley grinned. The former defensive end hasn’t played an NFL game in 17 years, yet he might’ve been the most popular guy at the annual Redskins Beach Blitz.

He knows the thousands of fans flocked here to be close to their favorite players. But Manley came to be close to them.

“It’s kind of overwhelming,” he said, tears briefly welling up in his eyes. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I don’t have to walk around looking at my shoestrings. I’m forever grateful that (team owner) Dan Snyder reached out to me and that these fans have embraced me.

“I don’t feel left out in the cold.”

The franchise and its fans seem to have forgiven Manley for his transgressions – he was banned for life by the NFL in 1991 after failing four drug tests, and served prison time in the late ’90s for cocaine possession – choosing to focus on his heroics on the field and his lovable personality.

Manley won two Super Bowls with the Redskins and recorded more than 100 career sacks, 18.5 of which came in his 1986 Pro Bowl season.

“He was one of the greats,” current Redskins offensive tackle Chris Samuels said. “And this team has the greatest fans in the world. They’re loyal to you, whether you’re playing today or back in the day. People understand that nobody’s perfect, and I think fans saw that passion in him.”

Passion is the part Manley hopes they remember. He said he feels a kinship with Sean Taylor, who also had something of an image problem early in his Redskins career.

But fans loved Taylor’s intense, hard-hitting style of play – “He could’ve played in that nasty ’60s and ’70s NFL,” Manley said – and were devastated when Taylor was killed last season.

Replica Taylor jerseys, No. 21, far outnumbered any current player’s Saturday.

“He’s still got a big presence here,” Manley said. “They remember. That’s the great thing about people: No matter what you’ve done, if they see that heart in you, they’ll reach out. They’ll remember you.”

Nicole Bolt has seen Manley’s heart.

Growing up in Virginia Beach, her mom raised her a Redskin. Now 28 years old, Bolt is doing the same with her son.

Her memories of Manley terrorizing quarterbacks have been replaced by scenes of the old star snatching her son playfully and running around with him at last year’s Beach Blitz. She was shocked when Manley sat and talked with her son for several minutes.

Noah Bolt, 6, doesn’t hesitate in naming his favorite Redskin.

“Dexter Manley!” he yelps.

“I think we love him because he still loves us,” Nicole Bolt said. “Some of today’s players, they’re still in the limelight, getting all this attention … it almost bothers some of them. But it’s always the guys like the linemen, who nobody really knows, who are the most humble and sweet to the kids.

“Dexter’s like that. This means something to him.”

It means everything to him, actually.

He said one of the darkest times in a player’s life is immediately after his career ends.

“People have no idea what that’s like,” he said, “when it’s all over and nobody’s watching. It’s painful.”

Manley’s not hurting these days, though. He said he’s living a happy life outside of Washington, D.C., trying to be a good father, working for a successful property management company. And going to every Redskins game, where people still yell out his name and extend a pen.

“I’m rich,” he said, “because of stuff like this. Still being loved by these fans, it’s emotional currency. So I’m rich.”