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Joe Whitt Jr. is the cornerbacks coach for the Green Bay Packers.

(Courtesy of the Green Bay Packers)

Green Bay Packers cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt Jr. aspires to be a head coach. He's also dyslexic. And what's more, he wants people to know that.

"I've had people tell me, before I came out with it, 'Joe, you're not going to get a head-coaching job if people know this,'" Whitt told Kathy Crockett, the managing editor for the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity's web site. "My stance was: 'Well, if that's the reason somebody doesn't hire me as a head coach, well, shame on them,' because I think the world needs to know that there are success stories with people who have dyslexia."

Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability generally exhibited through a difficulty in reading. Whitt pushed through it growing up in Auburn, where his father was an assistant football coach for the university's Tigers for 25 years and an assistant athletic director and fundraiser for another nine.

Joe Whitt Jr. played two seasons for Auburn as a walk-on wide receiver until injuries ended his career and he turned toward coaching. He was at Louisville when coach Bobby Petrino was hired by the Atlanta Falcons in 2007. That's when he entered the NFL, and Whitt has been the Packers' cornerbacks coach since 2009.

He'd like to keep climbing the coaching ladder, but even more important to him is for youngsters with dyslexia to get the assistance that they need to reach their potential.

"The football part is the football part," Whitt told Joe Wilde of espn.com. "I'm not embarrassed about being dyslexic. I'll tell anybody. I'm at that point now. And I don't want kids to be embarrassed about it because most dyslexic people are brilliant. But they just have to do it a different way. I want kids to know, just because I learn a different way does not mean I'm not smart. It's just not learning the way everyone else learns.

"And if I never become a head coach because of it, I will be fine. I will be fine because I'm going to try to help as many kids as I can. And if somebody does give me a chance to be a head coach one day, we're going to win a lot of games."

Whitt has shared his story at professional conferences on dyslexia, including at Yale University.

"What's important to me is these kids," Whitt said. "They need to understand that just because you learn a different way, that doesn't mean you're not still smart. They're being told they're dumb. They're terrified to read in class. Their confidence is low. And if they don't break through, they're going to go the other way. And it's potential, it's talent that's lost forever. We're losing too many talented kids because of a misbelief that they're not capable of what they truly can be."

Whitt knows it's not easy to cope as a dyslexic student, but he also knows it can be done.

"My parents aren't big on excuses," Whitt said. "They believe in hard work. No matter what learning disabilities or anything you have, if you work hard, they feel that you can get the results. And I agree with that. I had to do some things differently. I had to really use my ability to memorize and go that route, other than just sitting there and reading things."

READ KATHY CROCKETT'S "TACKLING DYSLEXIA AS A TEAM WITH NFL COACH JOE WHITT JR."



Whitt has had to work extra hard in his job this season. The Packers lost their top cornerback, Sam Shields, to a season-ending injury in the first game of the year. LaDarius Gunter, a former Jeff Davis High School star who hardly played as an undrafted rookie in 2015, has had to become Green Bay's top cornerback as Whitt has worked around injuries to two other second-year players - Damarious Randall, a former baseball prospect who was a collegiate safety, and Quinten Rollins, an ex-basketball player with one season of collegiate football experience - by using safety Micah Hyde at cornerback.

Despite that, the Packers will play the Atlanta Falcons at 2:05 p.m. CST Sunday for a spot in Super Bowl LI.

"I think Joe, just his ability to teach and demand is excellent. It's excellent," Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said. "You see it each year. The ability to not only develop the guys who are playing, but guys who may have moved on and gone onto bigger and better things. He's an outstanding football coach. He truly gets into the art and technique and fundamentals of a position. That's what you want from everybody. That's what every coach wants to be."

One thing that Whitt can appreciate from experience is that different people learn differently. To hone his skill as a teacher, Whitt has taken time in the offseason to observe how high school teachers back home in Auburn reach their students.

"I shadow a lot of high school teachers," Whitt said. "I like to shadow an AP teacher and a teacher who has special-needs kids, because the students have different learning styles. That way, when I'm in the meeting room or the classroom, I'm able to reach everybody in there, from the guys who have a very strong background in football and defensive package to guys who've never really played the position before and are learning everything from the beginning. I took the idea from (Pittsburgh Steelers coach) Mike Tomlin a couple of years ago. It's probably one of the best things that I've done because it gives me a number of different teaching styles to get to my players."

The NFC championship game between the Packers and the Falcons will be televised from the Georgia Dome by FOX.

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