"Because he can't drive, Donte Stallworth gets picked up most mornings before 7. Usually, fellow Washington Redskins wide receiver Jabar Gaffney will shoot by, or it'll be Bobby Crumpler, the team's director of player programs.

Because Stallworth is riding shotgun, the music is all over the map — from Notorious B.I.G. to R.E.M. — and because it's Stallworth, so is the early-morning conversation. Football, sure, but also current events, philosophy and especially politics.

"He's into it more than any other athlete I've seen," Gaffney said. "Any time I'm around his house, he tries to put it on CNN, and I change it quickly."

Stallworth is midway through Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers," and reads the Economist and U.S. News & World Report on a weekly basis. He estimates that 95 percent of his bookshelf deals with U.S. history or psychological self-help. His active Twitter feed reflects that, as he might discuss nuclear arms one minute and gay rights the next. He quotes Einstein, Emerson, Locke and that philosopher of the hardwood, John Wooden.

Stallworth tweeted on Nov. 9, "The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us," quoting Voltaire.

It's a good reminder for Stallworth, 31, a nine-year NFL veteran who drew national headlines two years ago when he drove drunk and hit and killed another man in Miami. Stallworth spent more than three weeks in jail, struck a plea deal and accepted a year-long suspension from the NFL. He's had plenty of time since then to think."