Multifaceted Draft Pick, William Beatty, Gets Giants’ Attention

By JOE LAPOINTE
Published: May 9, 2009

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Rev. Sylvia Beatty, the pastor of the Believers Fellowship of Arizona, has a 6-foot-6-inch, 305-pound son named William who studies the Bible, cooks, sews, paints portraits, honors his father and mother, and knocks opposing players on their rear ends in football games.
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Jeff Zelevansky for The New York Times

The rookie offensive tackle William Beatty, the Giants’ pick in the second round of the N.F.L. draft, has been described as a late bloomer with vast potential.

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William Beatty

A charcoal drawing by William Beatty, who turned down an art scholarship to college. The rookie is an imposing 6-foot-6, 305 pounds.

“A lot of people go, ‘Oh, he’s a momma’s boy,’ ” she said in a telephone interview from her home near Phoenix. “He’s never disrespected us — ever, ever, ever. I’m sure that is because of what the Word says.”

Beatty, an offensive tackle drafted by the Giants last month, also knows his playbook. Randy Edsall, who coached him at the University of Connecticut, says Beatty may be spiritual and humble, but he is not necessarily meek.

“He does have a mean streak,” Edsall said. “Our guys didn’t like going against him too much in practice. They would all look around to see if Will was getting downfield to block — always legally. They hated it.”

Beatty, chosen 60th over all, in the second round, is in rookie camp this weekend at Giants Stadium with the team’s other draftees. He is joining one of the N.F.L.’s better offensive lines.

Many sports teams welcome rookies in rituals that include meals, so Beatty may have an edge. He cooked for his teammates in college and said he hoped to do so as a professional. Beatty specializes in soul food.

“I do the fried chicken, the baked chicken, the baked fish,” he said. “I like to make the sweet potatoes and the yams and the macaroni and cheese, the collard greens, the cabbage, the rice puddings, the cheesecakes. Stuff like that.”

These meals provide more than just nutrition.

“It’s a great way to bond with your teammates, actually,” Beatty said. “You’re more at ease on a full stomach.”

Growing up in York, Pa., Beatty was a late bloomer and few major colleges recruited him. Edsall said coaches around York had said, “He’ll never play a down for you.”

One college offered Beatty an art scholarship, which he kept from his parents until he had accepted the Huskies’ offer.

“I was winning some art contests,” Beatty said. “I had like a raw talent that they could build on.”

He was also a raw talent on the football field. Edsall said Beatty needed to improve his focus because he got by on superior size and talent in high school.

“His dad let him have a car coming to campus, and that became a distraction,” Edsall said, referring to Keith Beatty. “I called the father and said, ‘Get the car out of here.’ So the dad took the car.”

Edsall said the Beattys told him, “Hey, Randy, you do whatever you need to do to make him a man, and you have our blessing.”

At the time, Beatty’s parents ran Mission Home Ministries to work with troubled young people.

Beatty helped out in group homes, his mother said. But she underwent a sudden transition as he started college, said Beatty’s younger brother, Charles, a defensive lineman at Wagner College on Staten Island.

“She had this vision,” Charles Beatty said. “She wanted to start a church in Arizona. So they packed up and moved.”

Sylvia Beatty said it was difficult to leave William in the East.

“We had just built a 7,000-square-foot home,” she said. “That was my dream home. It was like giving up everything to start all over again where we didn’t know one person. But I knew that’s where the Lord wanted me.”

In Connecticut, Beatty recovered from a broken leg, and his play gradually improved. A scouting report distributed by the Giants said Beatty’s maturity grew as he reduced his penalties as a senior in 2008.

Charles Beatty said his brother “got more intense every year.”

He added: “Coach Edsall didn’t let him get away with anything. He was tough and made my brother better.”

Edsall was an assistant to Giants Coach Tom Coughlin at Boston College and Jacksonville in the N.F.L., so Coughlin asked Edsall about Beatty before the draft.

“I said, ‘Coach, you’ve got to understand, this guy hasn’t even got close to where he’s maxed out,’ ” Edsall said. “He has so much ahead of him. In your type of program, he can flourish.”

Marc Ross, the Giants’ college scouting director, said Beatty had “raw athletic ability” and that he could learn from the established players.

“We are excited about his growth,” Ross said.

Beatty likes to learn new skills. He used to date a nursing student, he said, and he bought a sewing machine to make scrubs for her in fabrics and patterns she liked. At home, he tailors his father’s dress slacks.

Beatty says he is a friend of Alicia-Monique Blanco, who competed as Miss Arizona in the recent Miss USA pageant. He attended the event and studied the gowns but said he would not be designing one soon.

“I’m not at that level yet,” he said.

During Friday’s practice, Beatty played a little at right tackle as well as left and Coughlin said “he did a good job of picking things up.” Beatty said Coughlin’s strictness is much like Edsall’s, so that adjustment should be smooth.

Beatty often smiled and sometimes laughed softly as he spoke Friday. His face showed a trace of a beard and mustache. His hair was in cornrows, and his glasses had dark rims. At lunch, Beatty wore a loose-fitting team sweatshirt. He said he took it as a form of nonverbal communication from the staff.

“They gave me a 4X sweater,” Beatty said, “so I’m guessing they want me to fill it out.”