Last Saturday, he helped the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul roll over the Los Angeles Kiss, 73-37, in front of 5,802 fans at the Sun National Bank Center.
TRENTON - If you're looking for a role model in this city, Keith Newell won't be hard to find.
After all, he's 6-foot-6, 310 pounds.
He is so much more, though.
Last Saturday, he helped the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul roll over the Los Angeles Kiss, 73-37, in front of 5,802 fans at the Sun National Bank Center.
Newell, 27, is a Trenton guy, born and bred and a 2007 graduate of Trenton Central High School. He has a degree in Psychology from Delaware State and is playing his second season in the AFL.
"I have aspirations to go to the NFL,'' he said the other day after a team practice at the arena. In truth he aspires to much more.
Since graduating from college he has spent time helping out in the city's school system. He has worked with special needs students in middle school, worked in security, and has spoken to youth groups that include sports teams, camps and churches.
Eventually he wants to teach or counsel.
"I'm an up-front kind of person,'' says Newell, who smiles easily and often. "It's not about, 'Look at him, he's this big whatever.' It's, 'Nah, I'm a guy from here and I just want to encourage you guys to keep what you're doing and stay focused. It's hard, but you stay focused."
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Keith Newell "Understand that you're going to have to sacrifice something. Ask yourself every day what you're willing to go without. You may not have a lot of friends, people may not understand you. You may spend a lot of time by yourself because everybody's not trying to go where you want to go or be what you're trying to be. But in the end it's all going to add up."
He knows from experience.
On a football scholarship to Rutgers, Newell used a medical redshirt freshman year after breaking his leg. He spent the next year struggling to catch up, but the fit just didn't feel right. So he transferred.
"That's what I hope to give back to the kids,'' he said, leaning against a padded wall on the turf field. "I tell them to do their research. Don't go to a college because the uniforms look cool or they got Nike or Under Armour. Do they have programs you want to study? Geographically does it work for you? No matter how much you love the program, you have to go somewhere that's the best fit for you.
"I was immature when I was at Rutgers,'' he said. "I was nothing like I am now. I had a lot of growing up to do. And I love Rutgers to this day.''
Obviously he loves football, and the offensive lineman hopes his AFL experiences lead to an opportunity in the NFL.
Eventually, however, he'll be coming home.
He travels from his South Jersey residence in Blackwood about once a week, he said, to stay in touch with the community.
He grew up in South Trenton - just a couple of blocks from Arm & Hammer Park off Route 29 - and has spent time at Sun Bank attending Mercer County Tournaments in basketball, taking his niece Tayrn ("She's my heart") to see Disney On Ice, and recalled coming to the Arena as a middle school kid to watch a basketball showcase highlighting a kid from Ohio named LeBron James.
A tattoo on his right bicep displays a drawing of his grandmother, a nurse.
"She was super cool,'' he said with a warm smile. "I think that's where I got my honesty from. I was told she pulled no punches. She passed in 2005.
Two brothers, his mom and dad and an extended family continue to support the big guy. "My mom's my biggest fan,'' he made sure to point out.
He has plans to create a couple of programs in the city. One is for youth guidance, the other to help athletes to transition into, as he put it, "quote unquote civilian lifestyle. I want to have a hand in that.
"I don't feel humble people say they are humble, but I feel I've been humbled by life. When you see the world as a kid, and then now, I'm glad I dodged those bullets,'' he said. "As a kid you think you're invincible. You think it can't happen to you and it happens to you, and it makes you look at the world differently.''
That includes Trenton.
"I've lost a lot of friends to violence,'' he said,'' his voice lowering. "Actually I lost a former teammate last week. He was shot in broad daylight on Hamilton Avenue. Death is prevalent here, it's a reality. And we've become so desensitized to it. Every day somebody's goin'."
"It's super unfortunate,'' he said. "I hate it.''
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