Willie Roaf living big and easy after Hall-of-Fame career
 

Just days away from his enshrinement into the cathedral of professional football, former Saints left tackle Willie Roaf can look back on his life and his professional career with more than a modicum of satisfaction.

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Former Saints tackle Willie Roaf now manages rental properties in California and in Kansas City.
From his youth in Pine Bluff, Ark., to two distinctly successful pro stints in New Orleans and Kansas City, Roaf earned a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame thanks to a rèsumè replete with honors and achievements and good work. Those attributes were forged by loving and patient parents who recognized that the bespectacled behemoth who would become arguably one of football's greatest left tackles was deep inside an individual possessing great human dignity.

"He was always a good guy," said Roaf's father, Dr. Clifton Roaf, who will be Willie's presenter in Canton, Ohio. "You could have a joke on him. He would always laugh and go along. He was a very, very good child. He would listen. He's the type of person who responds to positiveness. If you praise him, then he is motivated to try to do better. He doesn't respond well when he's criticized. I guess that's a sensitivity in him. But he basically is just a good, free-hearted man.

"He's been so good in helping me and other family members. ... I just love him to death. He's just a solid, easy-going human being."

Clifton Roaf points to his son's unheralded benevolence, lending quiet financial assistance to friends, teammates and youngsters and exhibiting a gentleness that rarely manifested on the football field, where his technique and tenacity made him a feared competitor.

Living in California

Today, Roaf, six years removed from his NFL retirement and seven years after the last game he played in 2005, lives a quiet life in Southern California. He owns and manages apartment buildings there as well as in Kansas City, where he continued his career after being traded there in 2002 following an injury-shortened season in New Orleans in 2001 when he played only seven games, the fewest of any in his 13 seasons.

"I've got some rental properties and a house there (in California), a building in Kansas City," Roaf said of his current projects, "and I'm just spending time with my kids and doing some stuff with football right now. I've been to some golf tournaments and doing some autograph shows now that I've made it into the Hall."

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Man thats good to hear. Here's to a great life after football.

Here's to staying healthy for the rest of your long life. Thank you for your time. I know you didn't want to leave New Orleans. The business model is different now. If you had had todays staff you would still be a Saint.

When the stand-out on your team was an offensive lineman, you HAD a pretty shatty team.

I'm really proud of the time he spent in NOLA, and wish he could have been a part of our Championship season.

Alaska

That's good news from a big that's injury free right now

Smart guy, rental properties is one of the very best ways to keep your money, and get some more in the process.