Giving back from the ‘Hart’

Friday, July 9, 2004 | 9:46 a.m.

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Edgerton Hartwell has experienced what can be accomplished with a few goals, some guidance, and generous doses of positive reinforcement.

And a pinkie.

With his left one, Hartwell took down 5-foot-11, 260-pound running back Jerome "The Bus" Bettis of the Pittsburgh Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Dec. 28.

"I had a lineman holding me (on the right side)," Hartwell said. "I came up and shed the block, but the lineman still held my (right) arm and Jerome Bettis was coming out of the backfield and broke off a tackle to one side.

"Then Ed Hartwell reached out and grabbed him by the jersey. I didn't know if I had enough, but I just pulled as hard as I could and down goes Bettis! Down goes Bettis!"

The former Cheyenne High football star continues to surprise himself.

"I do things all the time that surprise myself, like bringing down a 260-pound man with just your pinkie?" said Hartwell, 26. "You hang on with that one pinkie, pull him down and think, 'Golly, that happened?' "

After the third and final day of his second annual football camp today at West Charles Middle School, Hartwell hopes every one of the six dozen kids who have participated say the same thing about their time with Hartwell and his friends.

Fellow Ravens linebacker and road roommate Bart Scott, Oakland linebacker Tim Johnson, Raiders tight end Roland Williams and George Perry, Hartwell's former coach at Cheyenne, helped Hartwell coordinate and run his camp.

In the morning, the kids were treated to breakfast before a couple hours of football instruction, in tight groups on four West Charles mini-fields.

"Grits, eggs, bacon, sausage and water, of course," said Hartwell's mother, Ruth. "We hope it gets bigger and better each year. I expect it to grow, until we have half the kids in Las Vegas, as many as we can reach, participating.

"I'm proud of him. It's exciting, and it's what he's supposed to do. Whenever you receive something, you give back. If you don't give back, then you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. When the Lord blesses you, he blesses you to bless others."

About noon, the counselors and campers broke for a lunch of barbecue chicken, vegetables, milk and frozen pops.

Williams kicked off an afternoon of workshops, a "community festival," with a 45-minute talk about goal achievement strategies. Other topics included financial literacy, computer and Internet competency and health and nutrition.

"It's important to support the hometown guy who's trying to do right," Williams said.

And it's all free, courtesy of Hartwell's Big Hart Foundation.

He ran a similar football camp/life-skills clinic in Baltimore last week.

"I'm proud of him," Scott said. "I just see someone who really wants to give back and genuinely cares about the kids and their futures. He shares his love and his heart everywhere, and he does have a big heart.

"He doesn't have to say it, but when you see the joy in his face and how seriously he takes it, how professional he tries to make it for the kids ... it's about going to school and getting an education, about being a man and maturing."

Hartwell helped Williams run his camp in Rochester, N.Y., the past two summers, Hartwell has participated in a library reading program in Maryland, and he has advised and tutored players at two Baltimore high schools during his tenure as a Raven.

"He wants to be a positive role model, showing these kids what's possible," said Eric Mathews, Hartwell's 29-year-old brother. "It's easier to get struck by lightning than to make it to the NFL, but he wants to show that you can make it."

Hartwell matriculated to the University of Wisconsin from Cheyenne, but feeling underappreciated as a Badger he transferred to Western Illinois.

In only three seasons as a Leatherneck, he established the school record for career tackles, with 512. In one memorable three-game winning streak, he accumulated 61 tackles.

He won the Buck Buchanan Award as the best Division I-AA defensive player, and the Ravens, who picked him in the fourth round of the 2001 draft, noticed. Baltimore re-signed the restricted free agent in May, for a one-year deal worth $628,000.

"I would love to be a Raven for the rest of my career and never go to another team." Hartwell said. "But the truth of the matter is, this is a business ... you never know."

He has learned the finer points of his position under coach Mike Singletary and beside Ray Lewis, whom Hartwell filled in for two seasons ago to record a team-best 191 tackles.

The Ravens stuck with that 3-4 defensive alignment last season to keep Hartwell in the starting lineup.

"I think Ed will emerge as one of the great linebackers in the league," said Johnson, a Youngstown State grad who knew of Hartwell in the Gateway Conference.

"And I think helping kids in his hometown will give him drive and fortitude in training camp, and I think he'll blow up (succeed). I think it's great for Ed and this community."

Hartwell believed his career might have ended long before he had a chance to yank down Bettis with his left pinkie. Sixteen months ago, back pain turned into a 2 1/2-month ceiling stare due to a herniated disc.

He recovered from his third surgery as a professional football player to start 15 of 16 games, and he made 10 tackles in a wild-card playoff defeat to Tennessee.

"I had great doctors, and I have to give some 'ups' to the man upstairs for helping me out," Hartwell said. "I didn't come this far to not keep going. The true fact is, by being in the NFL, you have a draw for the kids that not a lot of people can have."

That's the kind of thing he wishes he could have been drawn to in his youth, but there were no free football camps, much less Las Vegas-born NFL players to meet.

Life skills were challenging, too, since, as a single parent, Ruth was either busy working one of her two jobs or resting from both.

"(Ruth) didn't have time to teach me certain skills that I would need when I got older. A lot of us grow up learning that on our own, so it's a rocky road," Hartwell said.

"We lose some of those battles. Here, we're trying to teach kids these life skills so when they go into these battles they have an idea of what they can do. They can sit down, plan it out and be successful."