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| Bonnie McDonald, whose son won the Super Bowl, thanks The Leader for its coverage and brought Monday's New York Times with a front-page photo of her son rushing Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. |
Leader editor
Bonnie McDonald, the mother of Super Bowl champion Clinton McDonald, who was born and raised in Jacksonville, dropped by The Leader’s office on Wednesday to thank us for our coverage of her son since he was a junior high football player.
She had just returned from New York, where her flight home had been delayed by a winter storm. She brought back copies of Monday’s New York Times with a dramatic photograph on top of the front page of Clinton rushing Denver Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning — a favored son of the South who was pummeled by the Seattle Seahawks with a lot of help from McDonald.
“They never eased up,” said the proud mother of her son and his team, who won easily, 43-8.
The front-page picture was taken by the great Barton Silverman, the Times’ famous photographer, who has covered almost every Super Bowl going back 45 years.
Silverman took several pictures of Clinton rushing Manning: Another photo appears on the front of Monday’s sports section and still another on an inside sports page, which shows McDonald lunging at Manning.
“This is the greatest game in the world,” his mom told us, “and to have Jacksonville honored at this level on one of the largest newspapers in the world — it’s not about us. It’s about Jacksonville.
“We were so blessed to have such a great hometown to raise our family, right here in Jacksonville, Arkansas,” she said.
She and her husband, Larry, have raised four other children here in Jacksonville.
The big game was played last Sunday in the Giants Stadium in New Jersey. Her son — a former Murrell Taylor Elementary School pupil and Jacksonville High School Red Devil linebacker, but now an NFL nose tackle — helped lead Seattle’s defensive domination.
Like any mom whose son had just won the Super Bowl, Bonnie McDonald was beaming. She credited God and a tight-knit community for her son’s accomplishment.
She was especially grateful to Leader sports editor Ray Benton, who first started covering McDonald in 2001, when he was in the ninth grade at Jacksonville Junior High. That relationship continues today. (See story, page 1B.) McDonald’s mother said Benton has always written about him with professionalism and persistence.
At pre-game events, Bonnie McDonald mingled with Microsoft executives while wearing her son’s Seahawks jersey. (Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, owns the Seahawks.) Asked if she happened to be related to the team’s defensive star, they were stunned by the answer.
The McDonalds have many relatives in the New York-New Jersey area. To celebrate, the family held a fish fry in Queens, N.Y., a couple of days before the game. Clinton couldn’t attend, but he’s expected to come back to Jacksonville soon and visit with family and supporters.
There’s been no word from city officials about whether they will hold a parade or festival for McDonald, or if the Jacksonville Boys and Girls Club will invite him as the guest of honor at its spring banquet.
The hometown hero is the city’s first Super Bowl winner since another famous defensive tackle, Dan Hampton, won the Super Bowl in 1986 with the Chicago Bears.
