Diana Askew is about to make the mother of all football speeches for NY Jets legend Darrelle Revis
Diana Askew helped Darrelle Revis take his first steps. Now, she’ll pave his last on the road to football immortality.
This week, Revis announced that his mother Askew will serve as his presenter when he is inducted into Canton, Ohio’s Pro Football Hall of Fame on August 5.
Askew joins several gridiron legends in welcoming the Canton class of 2023, as Tiki Barber, Jimmy Johnson, Bob Lilly, and Marty Lyons are likewise set to serve as presenters at the ceremony (respectively opening for Ronde Barber, Zach Thomas, Chuck Howley, and Revis’ fellow Jets legend Joe Klecko).
Revis has frequently cited Askew’s influence on him throughout his football journey and she has been involved in his business affairs, including the contract negotiations during his training camp holdout during the summer of 2010. Askew was also an athlete in her own right, previously serving as a track runner in high school.
“I went outside of my area to search for stuff for him to do, to keep him out of the streets,” Askew told Jenny Vrentas of Sports Illustrated in a 2015 interview. “If he went to the streets, I would go get him. I would come on the corner, and I would say, ‘Let’s go. This is not the life for you.’ I told him, you need to make a decision. There are a lot of people pulling at you to come another direction. Is this what you want to do?
“I used to tell him, you’re a leader, you’re not a follower, so you have your own mind. You know how to walk away. And he did. As a parent, you have so much control and power that you can put into your child, and build your child up enough to teach them the things they’re going to encounter in life, and then they have to make the decision.”
The modern Jets will be active participants in the Hall of Fame ceremonies. Two days before the induction, they’ll help open the 2023 NFL preseason in the annual Hall of Fame Game exhibition against the Cleveland Browns.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
