Steelers linebacker Moats carries on family tradition of giving

Arthur Moats was 7 years old (maybe 8, he doesn't quite remember) when his parents became pastors and started a church — the Selah Christian Fellowship Church in Virginia.

In the beginning, the congregation consisted of maybe a half-dozen people in the Moats' living room on Wednesdays and Sundays.

“The TV would be in there, and when it was time for church, you would move the TV out and put the chairs in,” Moats said. “We would have drums, and I'd play drums.”

That's where and when Moats, the Steelers outside linebacker, was molded into the person he is today — a giving person.

Moats and his family would deliver loaves of bread door-to-door to some of the city's less fortunate neighborhoods close to the church. In the winter, they brought hot chocolate to the homeless.

“Being introduced to community outreach at a young age, it made it a part of my life,” Moats said.

Moats continues to make giving back to the community a priority in his life some 20 years later.

“Why not?” Moats said. “My thing is that if you can better others and are in the position to do that, and it doesn't hinder your success or progress, then it makes perfect sense. You don't realize how much you can help one person and how much they can grow just by you lending a helping hand.”

Moats has a practical approach to his giving.

“You are going to spend money regardless, right?” Moats said. “Some guys spend money on cars and jewelry, and others spend it on clothes and shoes. I spend it on helping out the community. You are going to spend money anyway, so why not spend it on bettering people?”

Moats was a star five-sport athlete in high school before going to play football at James Madison. He was one of the top defensive ends in Division I-AA and found time to help the community through the United Way and the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program.

Moats was picked in sixth round of the 2010 draft by the Bills, and he immediately made an impact on and off the field.

Late in his rookie season, Moats delivered a hit on Brett Favre that ended Favre's 297 consecutive-game streak.

While in Buffalo, Moats hosted students from the city's Closing the Gap/Say Yes to Education program. He provided participants with holiday gifts, and he spent time in the offseason at Buffalo's Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts, where he urged students to pursue their artistic passions.

In 2013, Moats was the Ed Block Courage Award and the Bills' Walter Payton Man of the Year winner, both given to players involved in the community.

“It was something that I saw guys get nominated for before, and to get mentioned and nominated for that was a special honor,” Moats said. “It was like, ‘OK, you are doing something right.' You don't this for awards. You do it to help people.”

Moats also donated $5,000 to his high school's football program and $2,500 to the school's art program, posed as a Bob's Discount Furniture employee to surprise a family that was receiving a house full of furniture donated to them, visited a wounded Navy SEAL at the La Jolla VA hospital when the Steelers played in San Diego this year, participated in a cooking competition at Magee-Women's Hospital during Breast Cancer Awareness Month and helped give Thanksgiving dinner to 200 families in Hazelwood, to name a few acts.

“If you can help, then why wouldn't you?” Moats said. “Look at it like this way, if you have the opportunity to help somebody out, and you can make the whole area better but you want to keep it to yourself, then it is not going to help out the area and not help you.”

Moats makes sure he gets his family involved in his charitable work.

His family — wife Shonda, daughters Kaylor and Ava, and son Grey — spent an evening decorating cookies with families staying at the Ronald McDonald house.

“They love it,” Moats said. “It accomplishes multiples things at once. For me, I love to spend time with my family, and that's the reason I work so hard at what I do. When I am able to spend time with them and also better the community, it is a plus for me. Then I am instilling that giving mentality in my kids.”

Moats made his biggest donation this year. He signed a three-year, $7.5 million deal with the Steelers in March and decided to make a $300,000 donation to James Madison for improvements to the Convocation Center and an endowed scholarship for the studio arts program.

“I've given back to my high school, have done different things with my community and charities, but it wasn't a place where I have made a huge impact yet and I wanted to,” Moats said. “I met my wife while at JMU, I got my education there and was able to play football and make it to the NFL. It was a huge part of my life.”

Mark Kaboly is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at mkaboly@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MarkKaboly_Trib.