CANTON − Andre Tippett was a great football player and enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
The linebacker from the University of Iowa was drafted by the New England Patriots in 1982, and played for 11 seasons, including in five Pro Bowls and Super Bowl XX in 1986. He also was named to the NFL’s Team of the Decade.
Tippett is less known for his expertise in Okinawan karate, his philanthropy and his conversion to Judaism more than 30 years ago.
The Hall of Famer recently shared his journey during a talk co-sponsored by the Canton Jewish Community Federation in partnership with the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“I hang my hat on ‘Tikkun olam.’ That is, to repair the world, helping those who can’t help themselves,” said Tippett, who was raised Baptist. “That’s my rallying cry.”
Tippett and his wife, Rhonda, have been married for 33 years. He recalled that when they were dating, he was struck by her deep devotion to her family and her faith.
The couple live in the predominately Jewish community of Sharon, Massachusetts, and have two adult children.
“It’s been an awesome experience,” he said. “It’s been all about family because of her. … I tell my wife it was destiny that she and I were going to meet. Me meeting her, I immediately understood the importance of her Judaism and her love for her family. When we were dating, it was always, ‘I’ve gotta go meet my family.’ It hit me right away, the importance of her family, and how she talked about her faith, which was really important to her. For me, it was a no-brainer.”
According to the Pew Research Center, an estimated 1% of Black Americans, or about 100,000, identify as Jewish.
“It’s a love story that became a faith,” said Ori Akrish, CEO of the Canton Jewish Community Federation, who moderated the event. “He wanted to understand her world, not just inhabit it. His path to Judaism was not given, it was earned.”
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, the 66-year-old Tippett grew up in Newark. New Jersey, in a neighborhood he says was a Jewish enclave until the riots of 1967.
“Some parts of New Jersey still haven’t recovered,” he noted.
‘We go where the need is’
Tippett said he took up martial arts as a teenager for self-defense. A practitioner for 50 years, he holds a seventh-degree black belt and is recognized as a top instructor.
“It truly is a way of life. I live my life a lot by discipline, perseverance − all those things that are supposed to give you in training. I actually like karate more than football, but football paid better,” he said to laughter. “Fifty years of training has taken me all around the world.”
One of seven children, Tippett recalled “missed-meal cramps” and walking in the snow with holes in his Chuck Taylor sneakers. He added that because people helped his family when it was in need, he is compelled to help others.
His late mother, he said, was his first role model.
“My mother was as tough a woman as there ever was. She raised seven of us. She was, by far, the scariest woman I know,” he said to laughter. “Until I was 19, I was still afraid of my mother. Then I figured out, OK, I got a little size on her. I had so much respect for my mother.”
Tippett said he also was hugely influenced by the late Franck Verducci, his high school coach and a father figure who taught young African American men “the right way.”
Tippett recalled that when he initially had to attend a junior college in Iowa because his grades weren’t good enough for Division I, he begged Verducci to find him an exit. Tippett said Verducci told him could secure him a job as a trash collector.
Tippett said the two regularly kept in touch until Verducci died in 2025 at 92.
Tippett now works for the New England Patriots Foundation, saying he further was inspired by Myra Kraft, the late first wife of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who is also Jewish.
“She was an amazing woman,” he said. “She grew up wealthy, but she was serious about helping others; it wasn’t just a tax write-off. She walked the talk. She was this tiny woman but she would call guys out on the carpet who were there just so they could say, ‘I’m on a board with Myra Kraft.’ We go where the need is, and speak for people who can’t speak for themselves.”
‘I felt like I belonged’
Rhonda Tippett noted that Robert Kraft attended her husband’s conversion ceremony. The couple met when she was working at a Black radio station in Boston, and Tippett came in to be interviewed.
“I was walking past to my office,” she recalled. “And when he got done, he came to see me and the rest, as they say, is history.”
They dated for seven years before eloping to Las Vegas, accompanied by her sister and a retired FBI agent friend who served as his best man. They were married by a Harley-riding rabbi.
“He was the coolest rabbi you’d ever want to see,” Tippett said. “To this day, we call to see how he’s doing.”
“I knew I was going to make the conversion because it was important to us that if we decided to have children, we wanted religion in our house,” he said. “I did the ‘rabbi search.’ The first time, I got pushed away. The second time, I got pushed away. I’m starting to take it personally. She tells me that I have to keep at it. That it’s a custom.”
Tippett said he finally found an Italian rabbi to oversee his conversion.
“We’ve become as thick as thieves,” he said. “If you saw us together, we look like ‘Mutt and Jeff.'”
These days, the Tippetts host the major Jewish holidays at their home.
“We have about 30 guests, and every year, I complain,” he joked. “Thirty people, 30 place settings.”
Tippett said he is an unabashed supporter of Israel, and has visited seven times.
“I felt like I belonged,” he said of his first trip. “It never gets old. My daughter had her bat mitzvah in Jerusalem. I cried like a baby. It was so special.”
Rhonda Tippett added that their children have visited Israel on their own as young adults through “birthright” status.
‘It’s a hard time to be Jewish’
Tippett was sporting a blue, square pin on his gold jacket during the visit. He pointed out that it is the symbol for the “Blue Square Alliance,” an awareness campaign launched by Robert Kraft in 2019 under the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.
Reported incidents of antisemitism have skyrocketed in recent years.
“It’s about a conversation. I’ve gotten nasty e-mails. I’ve got two strikes: I’m Black and I’m Jewish,” he said. “We’re teaching people to advocate for others, to not be afraid but still exercise situational (awareness). We want to help people better understand what Judaism stands for.”
Tippett said he recalled hearing anti-Jewish remarks as a child, noting that some people say hurtful things out of habit.
“Right now, it’s a hard time to be Jewish,” Akrish said to Tippett. “What do you want Jewish people to hear right now?”
Tippett urged people to exercise unity and vigilance, and to resist fear.
“Come together and check on each other, now, even more so,” he said. “If you’ve gotta check somebody, you’ve gotta check somebody.”
The Tippetts have attended Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Week 17 of the past 18 years, missing only one because Tippett needed surgery to repair an Achilles tendon.
“We’ll be back in August, ” said Rhonda Tippett, who also announced her husband is to be inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame during the summer.
Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Pro Football Hall of Famer discusses his journey to Judaism
Reporting by Charita M. Goshay, Canton Repository / The Repository
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Charita M. Goshay, Canton Repository | USA TODAY Network
