SUPER BOWL XXVIII / BUFFALO BILLS vs. DALLAS COWBOYS : A Wild, Satisfying Journey : Pro football: Former Bruin, Ram James Washington overcomes tragedy and excels as a Cowboy.

He never knew his father, his mother gave him up when he was 4, many of his relatives have been--and in some cases, remain--in jail, his best friend was shot in the head and died and Tuesday morning James Washington was having his picture taken with America’s team on the 30-yard line in the Georgia Dome.

“People just can’t realize how incredible that is,” said Henry Washington, Southwest L.A. College athletic director and football coach. “Come down and spend some time in the area where he grew up; you’d say it’s impossible.”

James Washington, a former UCLA Bruin, former Ram and present-day safety for the Dallas Cowboys, is no relation to Henry Washington, the former Jordan High football coach, but they were together in Watts at a most important time in a young man’s life.

“A lot of people had it worse off than I had,” James Washington said. “Coach Washington is why I am where I am today. That’s the man. He gave me a break and I made the best out of it.”

He is still wild and raw, armed with an attitude that keeps strangers on edge, but he is dressed in Cowboy blue and white because he had the sense to listen when others would not.

“It could have gone either way,” Coach Washington said. “When I caught up with him, he was leaning toward the bad part. I gave him an ultimatum to do it this way--the right way--and he wanted to do it because he wanted to play football.”

Henry Washington monitored the youngster on the football field, and then took him home after practice, allowing no time for temptation.

“He was wild, really wild,” said Anthony George, who is now in business with James Washington. “He was one of those kids who didn’t take mess off anybody. He’d fight you, and I’m sure you could find some old articles during his UCLA days that would say just that.

“He had a certain amount of aggression to get out of his system. He’s matured a lot, but let me tell you, this was a wild kid.”

Football motivated the young man to earn his high school diploma and then his college degree. And it gave him the opportunity to start his own business--Summation Financial in Los Angeles.

The journey to Atlanta, fame and fortune might have appeared easy now as he stands tall and confident before the Super Bowl photographers and reporters. But if only they knew. . . .

“My mother gave me away,” he said. “My grandmother and grandfather raised me. I know where my mother is, but I have no contact with her.

“I take care of people who take care of me. I only help people who want to be helped. We have a homeless shelter for people in Los Angeles, and it’s focused around people who want to be helped. My mom didn’t want to be helped. She had the opportunity, so to hell with it.”

He doesn’t say it, but the look on his face communicates clearly that there will be nothing more said on this subject.

It’s all about moving on, overcoming obstacles, sticking to the game plan.

“There are things deep inside me that keep me motivated,” Washington said. “I had a friend in high school, Keith Solman, and we were going to become councilmen, take over Los Angeles and one of us was going to run for mayor. That was our goal.

“When I wasn’t with Coach Washington, this was the guy who stayed on my back and kept me straight. The football thing was just a fluke. We had bigger plans. I loved him dearly and he got killed.

“He’s standing in a Church’s Chicken on 103rd, there’s some shoving, a guy who had just gotten out of jail has a gun and he shoots my buddy in the back of the head. Keith is the main person that I draw most of my energy from when I’m out there on the field.

“(Former UCLA safety) Don Rogers is another. Everybody knows he died from cocaine abuse, but he was a dear friend to me. He wasn’t a guy who did drugs around me, so I didn’t look at him as that. Unfortunately, he had his own personal problems.”

Rogers had replaced Kenny Easley at UCLA, and Washington followed Rogers. Big shoes, but Washington was chosen the Fiesta Bowl game’s most valuable player his freshman year when the Bruins defeated Jimmy Johnson’s Miami team.

A knee injury during his junior season, however, took the luster off what was going to be a mighty fine four-year ride.

“The knee injury was a blessing,” Coach Washington said. “He got a lot of attention and he wasn’t handling it too well. He lost his focus academically, and he was back on his way to the ‘hood with nothing to show for it. The knee injury allowed him to refocus and get his degree.”

Back home, though, they don’t mention the degree much, and that upsets Coach Washington. They look at James Washington, the football player who is getting ready for a Super Bowl, and they declare themselves ready to turn pro.

“We got guys who aren’t 6 feet tall playing as backups and talking about going pro,” Coach Washington said. “It’s the wrong message. We ought to be playing up the fact that James Washington finished high school, finished college, started a business.”

Beyond the Super Bowl there is more. There is James Washington, the community activist who has contributed time and money to the Parents of Watts. There have been time and money spent on rehabilitating parolees, and plans are under way to build a homeless shelter for 30 residents.

At UCLA, he selected his fraternity based on its involvement in community service. He started an organization, “Athletes for the Future,” and persuaded teammates to speak and work to keep kids in school.

“It’s something that I must do,” he said. “You hear people say there’s a certain percentage of people who won’t make it out, and I do it for those people. I saw a couple of guys at the game in Dallas last week. They had driven from L.A. in their ragged Cadillac. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I asked. ‘To see you, to see you play,’ they said.

“I’m no role model, but I want to provide opportunities where there have been no opportunities. A lot of guys I grew up with had a bad childhood and teen-age type of situation, so they had a bad start. I mean, I’ve seen people get killed who were standing right next to me. I got cut, but they got shot. I figure the man upstairs is looking out for me; all He is asking of me is to give back a little.”

Washington was in position to make a personal impact on his former neighborhood after the Rams had selected him in the fifth round of the 1988 draft. Theirs was not a happy union, however. He did not earn start a game in his first two years, and the Rams failed to protect him in Plan B free agency.

“I got to the Rams and John Robinson screwed me around,” Washington said. “They didn’t like my attitude. I come to Dallas, I have the same damn attitude, but Jimmy Johnson puts me on the field and I’m making plays. Now I’m getting ready to play in my second Super Bowl.”

He has a great opportunity to win a second Super Bowl ring, too, but that will not ensure a happy ending to this journey.

“My contract’s not up, but I’m going to ask them to do some things,” said Washington, who plays in all nickel situations. “I can’t take it anymore. I got two great guys playing in front of me, but I think I’m capable of starting somewhere in the league. If not, then I’d like to back up where I don’t have to kiss a whole lot of. . . .

“If I can’t get back to Los Angeles, I’d love to stay in Dallas. But I’d rather be in Los Angeles, starting or backing up.”

There might not be a harder hitter on the Cowboys’ roster, but Thomas Everett received Pro Bowl recognition as the team’s starting free safety; and Darren Woodson, a second-round pick in 1992, is a star on the rise at strong safety.

“He’d be a good Raider,” Coach Washington said.

Washington acknowledged, “I was a Raider fan growing up and I still am.

“I’m not somebody who idolizes people, but I idolize Lester Hayes,” said Washington, who wears No. 37 in Hayes’ honor. “I’d be out on the sandlot as a kid and I’d want to be Lester Hayes. That was the dream. I’d take . . . corn-bread mix and spread it on my hands like it was stickum and I was the coolest back in the business.”

The Cowboys might not like to hear such talk just days before the biggest game of the year. They might have a problem with his chippy attitude. They don’t have to trade him.

“Hey,” James Washington said, “I’ve been through so much adversity, whatever they shoot at me, to hell with it. It just can’t be that bad.”