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Former 49er follows his calling -- missile defense system advocate
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Washington -- Riki Ellison, a bruising linebacker on three San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl-winning teams, is competing in an even tougher game these days.
Ellison is campaigning for the government to create a full-fledged missile defense system. It's a controversial proposition that he contends with evangelical zeal is the best way to protect the United States in an era when more countries can get their hands on missiles and nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Terrorist groups also dream of getting such weapons.
Still trim and fit at age 44, although he admits his surgically repaired knees can ache and creak, Ellison is the founder, president and chief promoter of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. The 4,500-member group, one of thousands of organizations large and small pitching a rainbow of causes in Washington, is the product of Ellison's 22-year obsession with missile defense, born out of former President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983, which critics dubbed "Star Wars."
Proponents such as Ellison and President Bush say ground-, sea- and air- based systems that can detect and knock down incoming enemy missiles are vital to the nation's defense. Critics say the multibillion-dollar missile defense program, dogged by repeated test failures, is never going to work well enough to be fully deployed and takes money away from more effective techniques for stopping attacks, such as better intelligence on potential enemies and enforcing nonproliferation agreements.
Ellison is tireless in promoting his cause, traveling to 20 states during last year's presidential campaign, not to support a candidate but to talk up missile defense among Republicans, who are the program's natural supporters, and with Democrats, who he realizes are more skeptical. He is determined to convince liberals in the Bay Area and elsewhere that they should side with him.
Ellison returns often to the Bay Area, where two of his four children from his first marriage attend school. He met the woman he will marry in Alexandria, Va., next month, San Franciscan Heather Bodwin, while skiing at Squaw Valley with his kids.
"I play with a lot of passion and heart. I'm a linebacker,'' the veteran of seven seasons with the 49ers and three with the Raiders said in his small suite of offices in Old Town Alexandria, a historic and upscale bit of Virginia across the Potomac River from Washington.
Ellison admits his cause isn't what most people expect from a former NFL player, even one with a 1983 degree from the University of Southern California in defense and strategic studies.
"I've had to fight the football image,'' he said. "In my line of work, it's taken quite a bit of time to get credibility.''
His interest in the topic began while he attended USC, where Ellison suffered repeated knee injuries that convinced him he would never get a shot at the NFL. In time off from football, he took a course in Middle East politics, which led to an interest in the Soviet Union, and that led him to Reagan's 1983 speech announcing the Strategic Defense Initiative.
"This is what I want to do, I thought, instead of playing football, which I figured I'd never get to do again anyway,'' said Ellison, whose office is loaded with 49ers, Raiders and USC memorabilia.
That year was doubly eventful for Ellison, a native of New Zealand, because 49ers coach Bill Walsh took a chance on the USC linebacker with the gimpy knees and drafted him in the fifth round.
Ellison kept his interest in missile defense during his playing career, making for some unusual locker room conversation in a world populated by jocks.
"Others walked away,'' said Ellison's longtime 49ers roommate Tom Holmoe, a defensive back who also won three Super Bowl rings. "But I was in his room, so I had to listen.
"It was all over my head,'' said the former Cal Bears head football coach who is now the athletic director at Brigham Young University in Utah and remains a close friend of Ellison's.
A tough inside linebacker, the 6-foot-2-inch Ellison admits he was ribbed as an egghead.
"The players teased me, but it was fun," he said. "In the locker room, they pick on anything out of the ordinary locker room sphere.''
So far, the United States has spent $120 billion on missile defense research, testing and deployment of a skeletal system that includes the "exoatmospheric kill vehicle" based at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County and at Greeley Air Force Base in Alaska.
The ground-launched missiles are designed to be shot into space to bring down incoming missiles, a defense against such opponents as North Korea and its new long-range missiles.
Ellison's group gets support from some of the contractors working on missile defense. But he has little patience with the contractors or the Defense Department for their failure to build a system that works.
"The failures frustrate me," he said. "We need to push the government continuously to perform.''
Bush has proposed a Pentagon budget of $419 billion and wants to cut spending on missile defense to $7.8 billion from about $10 billion in previous years. To Ellison, it's money well spent.
"We're spending $419 billion on defense," he said. "Let's get some real defense, and really protect our communities."
To critics of missile defense spending, Ellison's vision is an attractive illusion.
"It's easy to make a case for missile defense in 30 seconds, but if you look at it for 30 minutes, you'll see it's a waste,'' said Stephen Young, a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
He said successful technology for shooting down missiles in space has proved elusive and expensive, and has diverted resources from more important programs, such as intelligence designed at finding real threats to national security.
"In an unlimited budget, missile defense might make sense, but the proposed cuts in the missile defense budget is the first sign of the Bush administration's recognition that they can't spend money on everything,'' Young said.
Ellison says he'll keep fighting. He says his ardor for his cause impresses people, even the famously phlegmatic Walsh.
Once during a visit to San Diego for a preseason game, the Navy invited Ellison to fly to a carrier at sea to look at its missiles. The ship encountered mechanical problems, and Ellison was three hours late returning.
Walsh was furious and announced he would fine Ellison $3,000. Ellison told him what had happened.
"Walsh said it was the best excuse he'd ever heard," Ellison said. "But he still fined me.''
At least the coach cut the fine to $1,000.
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Washington -- Riki Ellison, a bruising linebacker on three San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl-winning teams, is competing in an even tougher game these days.
Ellison is campaigning for the government to create a full-fledged missile defense system. It's a controversial proposition that he contends with evangelical zeal is the best way to protect the United States in an era when more countries can get their hands on missiles and nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Terrorist groups also dream of getting such weapons.
Still trim and fit at age 44, although he admits his surgically repaired knees can ache and creak, Ellison is the founder, president and chief promoter of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. The 4,500-member group, one of thousands of organizations large and small pitching a rainbow of causes in Washington, is the product of Ellison's 22-year obsession with missile defense, born out of former President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983, which critics dubbed "Star Wars."
Proponents such as Ellison and President Bush say ground-, sea- and air- based systems that can detect and knock down incoming enemy missiles are vital to the nation's defense. Critics say the multibillion-dollar missile defense program, dogged by repeated test failures, is never going to work well enough to be fully deployed and takes money away from more effective techniques for stopping attacks, such as better intelligence on potential enemies and enforcing nonproliferation agreements.
Ellison is tireless in promoting his cause, traveling to 20 states during last year's presidential campaign, not to support a candidate but to talk up missile defense among Republicans, who are the program's natural supporters, and with Democrats, who he realizes are more skeptical. He is determined to convince liberals in the Bay Area and elsewhere that they should side with him.
Ellison returns often to the Bay Area, where two of his four children from his first marriage attend school. He met the woman he will marry in Alexandria, Va., next month, San Franciscan Heather Bodwin, while skiing at Squaw Valley with his kids.
"I play with a lot of passion and heart. I'm a linebacker,'' the veteran of seven seasons with the 49ers and three with the Raiders said in his small suite of offices in Old Town Alexandria, a historic and upscale bit of Virginia across the Potomac River from Washington.
Ellison admits his cause isn't what most people expect from a former NFL player, even one with a 1983 degree from the University of Southern California in defense and strategic studies.
"I've had to fight the football image,'' he said. "In my line of work, it's taken quite a bit of time to get credibility.''
His interest in the topic began while he attended USC, where Ellison suffered repeated knee injuries that convinced him he would never get a shot at the NFL. In time off from football, he took a course in Middle East politics, which led to an interest in the Soviet Union, and that led him to Reagan's 1983 speech announcing the Strategic Defense Initiative.
"This is what I want to do, I thought, instead of playing football, which I figured I'd never get to do again anyway,'' said Ellison, whose office is loaded with 49ers, Raiders and USC memorabilia.
That year was doubly eventful for Ellison, a native of New Zealand, because 49ers coach Bill Walsh took a chance on the USC linebacker with the gimpy knees and drafted him in the fifth round.
Ellison kept his interest in missile defense during his playing career, making for some unusual locker room conversation in a world populated by jocks.
"Others walked away,'' said Ellison's longtime 49ers roommate Tom Holmoe, a defensive back who also won three Super Bowl rings. "But I was in his room, so I had to listen.
"It was all over my head,'' said the former Cal Bears head football coach who is now the athletic director at Brigham Young University in Utah and remains a close friend of Ellison's.
A tough inside linebacker, the 6-foot-2-inch Ellison admits he was ribbed as an egghead.
"The players teased me, but it was fun," he said. "In the locker room, they pick on anything out of the ordinary locker room sphere.''
So far, the United States has spent $120 billion on missile defense research, testing and deployment of a skeletal system that includes the "exoatmospheric kill vehicle" based at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County and at Greeley Air Force Base in Alaska.
The ground-launched missiles are designed to be shot into space to bring down incoming missiles, a defense against such opponents as North Korea and its new long-range missiles.
Ellison's group gets support from some of the contractors working on missile defense. But he has little patience with the contractors or the Defense Department for their failure to build a system that works.
"The failures frustrate me," he said. "We need to push the government continuously to perform.''
Bush has proposed a Pentagon budget of $419 billion and wants to cut spending on missile defense to $7.8 billion from about $10 billion in previous years. To Ellison, it's money well spent.
"We're spending $419 billion on defense," he said. "Let's get some real defense, and really protect our communities."
To critics of missile defense spending, Ellison's vision is an attractive illusion.
"It's easy to make a case for missile defense in 30 seconds, but if you look at it for 30 minutes, you'll see it's a waste,'' said Stephen Young, a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
He said successful technology for shooting down missiles in space has proved elusive and expensive, and has diverted resources from more important programs, such as intelligence designed at finding real threats to national security.
"In an unlimited budget, missile defense might make sense, but the proposed cuts in the missile defense budget is the first sign of the Bush administration's recognition that they can't spend money on everything,'' Young said.
Ellison says he'll keep fighting. He says his ardor for his cause impresses people, even the famously phlegmatic Walsh.
Once during a visit to San Diego for a preseason game, the Navy invited Ellison to fly to a carrier at sea to look at its missiles. The ship encountered mechanical problems, and Ellison was three hours late returning.
Walsh was furious and announced he would fine Ellison $3,000. Ellison told him what had happened.
"Walsh said it was the best excuse he'd ever heard," Ellison said. "But he still fined me.''
At least the coach cut the fine to $1,000.
