WARRICK DUNN HELPED FURNISH A SINGLE MOM’S HABITAT HOME

Former NFL running back Warrick Dunn started Homes for the Holidays to help single parents become first-time homeowners, in honor of his mother, Betty Smothers, who was shot and killed in 1993. On October 29, 2026, Baton Rouge station WBRZ reported that Dunn and Aaron’s Furniture had furnished a local single mother’s new Habitat for Humanity home.

Dunn, who played 12 NFL seasons, was the subject of an Atlanta Falcons profile published February 28, 2024, by Marlon “MJ” Scott and Raymond Ragland. It was part of the team’s Next Gen Storytellers project.

The kid with the 0.9 GPA

Dunn was born in New Orleans and raised in Baton Rouge as the oldest of six kids. That made him the family’s stand-in dad, the one making sure his siblings ate dinner, finished homework and took baths.

His mother was a Baton Rouge police officer who also worked as a security guard. Dunn was recruited to play football at a predominantly white Catholic high school, but a 0.9 GPA after the first nine weeks got him ruled academically ineligible. Smothers asked him, “Are you going to show these people you can do this?”

He did. Dunn raised that GPA to a 3.0, and his football and track coach, Maelen “Choo Choo” Brooks, became a father figure.

In 1993, three gunmen ambushed Smothers during a failed robbery and shot her to death, according to the profile. That same year, Dunn helped Florida State win a national championship as a freshman.

From Florida State to the pros

Florida State first wanted Dunn at defensive back. He made a deal with coach Bobby Bowden to play running back instead, and he finished in the top 10 of Heisman Trophy voting twice. He went into both the Florida State University Athletics Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

Tampa Bay drafted him 12th overall in 1997. At 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds, he was considered undersized, so he played with a chip on his shoulder and worked out three times a day. He won Offensive Rookie of the Year and made three Pro Bowls.

With the Falcons, he topped 1,000 rushing yards three seasons in a row, including a career-high 1,416 in 2005. In 2004, he won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for community impact, and he ranked it above the hardware for playing well.

“I would rather win the Walter Payton Man of the Year over winning Offensive Player of the year or an MVP.”

Keys, not handouts

According to WarrickDunn.com, Homes for the Holidays began in 1997, during his rookie season. Dunn has stressed that the program “does not give out houses.” Instead, it aims to “help families create stability, especially for single parent homes.”

Dunn described the package in a CNN report. It included a “$5,000 down payment” and a fully furnished home, “all the way down to the toothbrush.”

Warrick Dunn Charities says the program has furnished 250 homes and provided more than $1.25 million in down-payment assistance. Its Homes for the Holidays page, updated October 27, 2026, lists 252 families served. The charity calls it a “hand-up – not a handout” and works with local partners, and its story page lists it alongside the Hearts for Community Service Scholarships and the SCULPT health-and-wellness brand.

Business school and mental health

After he retired, Falcons owner Arthur Blank approached Dunn about becoming a limited partner. Dunn hesitated, consulted a financial advisor, then said yes. Then the meetings started. “A lot of the business verbiage would fly over my head in the business meetings,” he said, so he earned an MBA at Emory University.

He also started “Count on Your Future,” a service that helps people with financial literacy and building savings.

Dunn has been open about mental health, too. He was ashamed and embarrassed when he first went to counseling because football players and Black men are expected to seem strong and tough, but he came to a point where he no longer cared who knew. He said he tried to start a mental-health organization in 2012 but could not get funding or support, since the topic was not “sexy” then. He now pushes for mental-health services in communities. “Government dollars are out there,” he said.

The latest keys

WBRZ reported on October 29, 2026, that Dunn teamed up with Aaron’s Furniture to fill a Habitat for Humanity home belonging to a single mother named Gabrielle. The home got televisions, kitchen appliances and living-room decor. Gabrielle put in more than 200 hours to qualify for the house, and she also received an additional $5,000 toward her mortgage payment.

“I think each time we are able to hand the keys over and walk through a home it’s life changing,” Dunn said. He added: “So this is home will always be home and this is where it all started for me. I always want to come back home and help families that are trying to help themselves.”