Antoine Bethea a quiet leader in the community

He answers the front door in a white undershirt, athletic shorts and socks, no shoes.

A shy grin creeps across his face as he looks down to the floor, holding his hand out to shake. It's a little uncomfortable to have a fuss made about you, a photographer in your house, when you're Antoine Bethea.

He's quiet. Unassuming. Humble. Everyone who knows the Indianapolis Colts safety — from his teammates to his fiancé to his old high school teacher — describe him that way.

"And 'Toine," says his mom, Verina Bethea, using the nickname he grew up with, "he has always been the great unknown."

He's known on the football field, where he has played for the Colts since 2006, topping 100 tackles in each of the last five seasons, holding the record for most-consecutive starts for an NFL safety and being a two-time Pro Bowler.

But what is unknown is everything he does off the football field where he works quietly in the community. Writing checks from his personal account to buy laptops and iPads for inner city youth going to college. Giving 15 tickets and meal vouchers at every Colts home game to under-served youth. Holding clothing drives in the locker room for the city's homeless, then hand-delivering the items and staying for a meal.

"Unknown, underrated," Bethea says, as he bounces his baby girl, Siani, on his lap in the basement of his Carmel home. "I like it that way."

But the unknown is being revealed.

Colt's coach Chuck Pagano just named Bethea the team's Man of the Year for his commitment to community service and his leadership on and off the field. That puts him in contention for the national Walter Payton Man of the Year award, the highest distinction an NFL player can receive for community service.

And Bethea is ready to make a splash, launching his Safe Coverage Foundation in the city he's called his football home for eight years. He will host a cocktail reception Monday at the Chase Tower, where he will schmooze for his foundation's cause — resources for inner city kids to go to college.

He wants sponsors, big sponsors, to help supplement what he's already put into the foundation. He won't say how much he's given but says, "I can't really say to a tee, but it's enough where... I'm kind of needing some help."

The foundation is up and running in Newport News, Va., where Bethea grew up. He personally takes inner city youth on college tours. He wants to do the same in Indianapolis for IPS students.

"You have a lot of people who think football is the be-all and end-all but really that's not even half of it. That's just my occupation," said Bethea, 29, who in June will marry Samantha Romantini, his college sweetheart and mother of Siani. "I just feel as though if when I leave this earth if I can feel as though I helped some young kids, that's what's really worth it."

In the eyes of at least one young woman, he's already accomplished that goal.

As a junior at Warwick High School in Newport News, Terri Clarke was trying to figure out her future. She was filling out college applications but felt overwhelmed. Then she got an invitation in 2011 from Bethea to go on tours of Howard and Georgetown universities.

"I had never heard of Antoine Bethea, and he's from my hometown," she said. "So I really wasn't making a big deal about it. I was like, I might as well go."

But when Bethea showed up, he wasn't "just there," she said. He was really there.

He offered advice, wisdom, joked and talked about what really matters in life. His personal interest in her future prompted Clarke to keep filling out applications. Today, she's a pre-nursing student at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

"Even though I didn't know him at the time, I was like 'Oh my gosh. He's such a positive role model,' " she said.

With his foundation, Bethea says, he has put together the two things his parents taught him: Never be too proud to help others and education is the key to success.

The Betheas — Larry, a retired military man and Verina, a retired federal government worker — were strict in their teachings, not just to Antoine and his older brother, Alexon, but to all the kids who passed through their house.

"We taught them it's 'Yes sir, no sir. Yes ma'am, no ma'am," Verina said. "I don't care whether they are white, blue, green or purple, you show respect."

But more than all of that, Antoine remembers the college talk.

"That was something they really harped on, going to college, continuing education," he said. "Just trying to better yourself. For my dad, his thing was he wanted me to get out of the area that we were in."

It wasn't that the area was terrible. But Antoine says plenty of kids were from broken homes, there was crime and teens got into trouble.

Antoine says he was fortunate to have a solid family, and his parents' prodding paid off. By his junior year at Denbigh High School, he was considered a senior because of the credits he had earned, and he was an honor student.

He also juggled being a student athlete, starting as point guard on the basketball team and as a linebacker and running back for the football team.

He graduated with a 3.1 GPA and went on to play four years at Howard University.

One person he thanks for making it to college is Ivy Lee. She taught Antoine in the AVID program (Advancement Via Individual Determination) his freshman through senior year at Denbigh.

That program does much what Antoine's foundation aims to do, enable students to go to college.

In the class, they wrote essays, gave speeches and talked about life beyond academics.

Lee, who is retired, says she felt like she became a second mother to Antoine, who was quiet but could be rambunctious.

"His mother and I would put our hands together and make sure he stayed on the straight and narrow," she said.

It didn't take too much steering. Antoine was dedicated and focused.

"His studies were first," Lee said. "His focus and his priorities were his studies and athletics."

Lee and Antoine still text one another, and after he made it big, Lee told him to remember where he came from.

"Which he does," she said. "He's always appreciative, never arrogant or obnoxious."

So much so that Colts quarterback Andrew Luck said he wasn't aware of all the good Bethea does in the community.

"He's not the type to self promote," Luck said.

He watched the locker room clothing drive that Bethea urged Colts players to take part in.

"I was really impressed with how many people volunteered to go help," said Luck. "That's a testament to how he is viewed in the locker room as just a good, good guy."

And a guy Luck said he looks up to.

"He's such a great example for young guys like me ... you know maybe finding a passion and using that," he said. "And helping people out."

Bethea talks about helping people out all the time, says fiancé Romantini.

"For him, you grow up and aside from your parents there are lot of people who have helped you along the way — coaches or teachers," she said. "He wants to really give back because he feels like he has been given so much in terms of guidance and support."

And there's another reason that his foundation has become even more important to Bethea, 5-month-old Siani.

"I was like, 'Daddy's going to do this,' " he said. "For Siani."

He does plenty of other things for his daughter, too.

"He's changing diapers, he's feeding her," said Romantini. "He puts her to sleep better than I do."

And when he looks at his daughter, Bethea said he thinks of all the other kids who don't have it as good as she does.

"Most definitely, she makes me want to do this foundation even more," he said. "Makes me want to be even better."

Call Star reporter Dana Hunsinger Benbow at (317) 444-6012. Follow her on Twitter: @danabenbow.