From Little Brother to big time: How a mentorship turned around this Dolphin’s life
Terrill Hanks won’t be playing in next week’s Super Bowl.
Perhaps he’ll be there next year. Or the year after that.
Hanks is a second-year Dolphins linebacker and a South Florida native. All NFL players dream of someday taking their sport’s grandest stage. Hanks’ dream is only a possibility because of an important relationship forged a decade ago.
Back then, Hanks was a seventh grader at South Miami Middle School. And he was done with football.
Or so he thought, until Allen Bailey entered his life. Bailey is now a veteran defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons. He just finished his ninth NFL season.
But when he met Hanks, the then-University of Miami star had a more modest title: big brother. As in, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the national organization that “helps children realize their potential and build their futures” through mentorships.
Hanks, who remembers being “a 12 year-old kid finding out what I wanted to be,” and Bailey were paired. What he couldn’t have known at the time: His life would never be the same.
Allen and Hanks spent a year together, meeting regularly. Hanks was so taken by the experience that he decided he wanted to be just like his big brother — a big-time football player.
“I would watch him play and he would come back to school and meet with me,” Hanks said. “Bring me signed gloves. Little by little, him and his friends would bring signed posters. That’s when I got encouraged by him to play football [again].”
Hanks did give the game another chance, and he flourished.
And, thanks to Bailey, he got over some fears.
“I remember seeing him come out of his shell after the first couple of meetings,” Bailey said. “Goals he had, goals I had. It opened him up more and more each time I saw him.”
Like it always does, time passed, and the relationship inevitably changed. Allen went onto the NFL; Hanks later got a scholarship to play football at New Mexico State. The two lost touch.
Until this summer.
After an all-conference college career, Hanks got his NFL shot with the Miami Dolphins. In August, they played Bailey’s Falcons in the preseason, setting up a reunion a decade in the making.
“Just to see how big I got, his expression after the game was priceless,” Hanks said. “He remembered back when he gave me his first gloves, I told him I want to play football and want to make it to the league just like you. He will never forget that. God was using him and me.
“He saw the kids I was around,” Hanks added. “After school program, those were kids from single family households, didn’t have it. Seeing someone like that come up, paving the way, show me what he did. Little things like spending time, that matters. Some kids don’t have father figures. Most moms are working. They can’t be there during the crucial time in their life when they need that father figure in their life. Allen Bailey was there for me. That’s why I love Big Brothers Big Sisters, they tie in to kids like that. That’s how I’m here in these shoes today.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters is one of the 12 original grant recipients of the NFL’s Inspire Change initiative, which aims to move the nation “toward a more equal and just tomorrow by reducing barriers to opportunity.” As part of the program, more than $25 million has been awarded in grants to social justice organizations.
