Kuemper Catholic High School alum David Donovan (left), Class of 1976, is pictured with his boss, Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, one of the more powerful and familiar names in all of professional sports. Donovan is the general counsel for the team.
ASHBURN, Va. - As general counsel for one of the premier professional sports organizations in the world, there are certain things one would expect from Kuemper Catholic High School alum David Donovan.
The Washington Redskins top in-house lawyer since 2005, Donovan, a son of Dr. Jack and Darlene Donovan of Carroll, deals with the fine print behind contracts that put players on the field.
"I know Coach (Joe) Gibbs reasonably well," Donovan said.
He's a confidant of Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, a spectacularly successful businessman and one of the more well-known owners in sports.
"He doesn't miss much," Donovan says of his boss. "He has a lot of different, varied business interests."
It is Donovan who deals with the National Football League on Redskins revenue-sharing issues, high-dollar, higher-profile discussions in the growing and intensely watched industry.
He's involved in protecting marks and logos and handles collective bargaining.
Oh, and then there's this: Donovan goes to all the Redskins games, home and away. It's his job, you see. He chats with Redskins star running back Clinton Portis, too.
In short, Carroll, Iowa's David Donovan is an influential man working for one of the more powerful men in the NFL.
As power-broker images emerge from the movie "Jerry Maguire" or other films about the intersection of sports and business, money and the law, it fills out the profile of Donovan, a former Carroll Daily Times Herald paperboy, to note that he also collects comic books - the ones with superheroes.
Still.
To this day.
"I have to confess that I do," Donovan joked during a phone interview with the Daily Times Herald last Friday from Washington Redskins offices, near practice fields in Ashburn, Va. The team actually plays in Landover, Md.
Donovan, 48, recalled that a few years ago his mother called and told him that it was time he did something about the vast collection of comic books that were still in the family's Terrace Drive home in Carroll.
The majority of the comics are from the 1960s and 1970s. They have some value.
Not that Donovan would be interested in selling them.
"I'm such a sentimental pack rat," he said.
So David Donovan and one of his sons, Ben, drove from Washington, D.C., to Carroll in a van and trucked the comics back to McLean, Va. - "which my wife was not too happy about," Donovan joked.
A 1976 Kuemper Catholic High School graduate, David Donovan grew up in Carroll as a son of now longtime chiropractor Dr. Jack Donovan.
David has two brothers, Richard, an attorney in Columbus, Ohio; and Pat, a salesman in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
As a youth David worked as a paperboy here at the Daily Times Herald and also spent time in this newspaper's circulation department. He worked for the former Sernett's department store as well.
At KCHS, Donovan was student council president and editor of the student newspaper, The Charger.
Donovan earned his bachelor's degree in 1980 from Iowa State University in journalism and political science. During his time at Iowa State, Donovan interned for the Daily Times Herald, covering general news and sports under the tutelage of former Sports Editor Dennis O'Grady.
After ISU, Donovan headed to Florida with no assurances of landing a job, and no firm prospects.
"I moved to St. Petersburg and went to every newspaper in the area," Donovan said.
Only hours away from having to scuttle his journalistic plans and work in a warehouse so he could eat, Donovan talked his way into a copy-editing job at the St. Petersburg Times - widely regarded today as one of the best newspapers in the nation.
Soon, at only age 22, Donovan moved to the Sarasota Journal, a small, 6,000-circulation afternoon paper affiliated with a larger daily.
Donovan enjoyed newspaper work, but opportunity called in the form of acceptance to Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C.
He and wife, Rose Marie, a Des Moines native, were married in August 1981 in Des Moines. The couple moved to Washington, where David attended law school and Rose Marie worked for newspapers in the greater metro area.
David graduated in 1984, clerked for a federal judge and then joined the high-powered firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering. (Partner Lloyd Cutler was a famous adviser to presidents.)
Donovan was with the firm for 20 years, exactly, to the day.
He said that during law school it was his intent to use the legal education to further a journalism career.
"I went to law school without any expectations of practicing law," Donovan said. "But, unfortunately, I did really well in law school."
Donovan said there are similarities between journalism and the law - but one major difference.
"As a reporter, when you call people, they can hang up," Donovan said. "When you're a lawyer and someone doesn't talk, you can send a subpoena."
The Cutler firm served as outside counsel for the family of legendary Redskins owner, the late Jack Kent Cooke. That later led to representation of current owner, Daniel Snyder.
While with the firm, Donovan had the chance to do some legal work for Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, perhaps the only team boss in the league with more fame than Snyder.
"I think I was probably the only attorney in the country who represented Dan Snyder and Jerry Jones at the same time," Donovan said.
Snyder is involved in a number of additional business interests and media ventures. Donovan represents the Snyder family personally as well.
In the family arena, David Donovan has an active home life himself.
He and Rose Marie have three children: Ben, 19, a student at Fairfield University in Connecticut; Brigid, 16; and Reilly, 14.
In reflecting on the hard work that propelled him from a quiet tree-shrouded street in Carroll, Iowa, to the skyboxes of what most sports observers believe is now America's true pastime, Donovan said a Midwestern upbringing plays a major role.
"You do have a level of genuineness you don't see as much on the coasts," Donovan said. "You approach people with the assumption they aren't out to kill you."
Further, in Iowa, and in Carroll more particularly, "you're not trained to step on people on the way up."
Over the long haul, that's the way to build trust, respect and integrity - attributes moguls like Dan Snyder value as much as intelligence.
"I am with the Redskins for the foreseeable future," Donovan said.
So finally to the big question: Are the 'Skins going to be good this year.
"Absolutely," Donovan said. "We may be as good this year as everybody thought we would be last year."
