Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 19 February 1998 — Page 5

The Muncie Times, February 19,1998, Page 5

Sports fame often leads to shattered dreams

COMMENTARY

During Super Bowl mania week I always think of Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams. Ten years ago, Williams was the toast of the sports world. He was the first black quarterback to play in a Super Bowl. He passed for a Super Bowl record 340yards, andfourtouchdowns. He was the hands down MVP choice. But it was a different story off the field. Herecievedno major endorsements. Two years later, he waas dumped by the Redskins after an injury. He was forced to file a workman’s compensation claim to get the Redskins to pay his wages and medical expenses. During the next few years Willimas drifted fromjob to job. He was rescued from obscurity in 1995 when he was offered an assistant coaching position at the Naval Academy. Now headfootballcoah

at Gramblng State University, Williams has stated the obvious about his treatment. “I haven’t recieved too many offers over the lastfew years.” Williams learned the hard way that-- even for a balck Super Bowl MVPwithout a degree and professional training the career prospects for the black athlete are dim. Many balckfootballplayers still haven’t learned thatlesson. They dream of big pro paydays. This is pure delusion. The chance of a black high school athlete making the pros is one in 18,000. In 1995 only 2.3 percent of 215 of the 9,500 college football seniors were drafted by the NFL. A group of black hihg school athletes was told that the odds against them miking a pro team were nearly impossible. Fifty- one percent still believed they could beat the odds. It might be worth the chance if colleges would educate them. Butmany still refuse. The report card on the graduation rates for black athletes at 50

division I schoolsisan abomination. In the 1990’s the majority of the schools have graduated less the one- third of their black players. Four graduated none. The coaches and administrators at these schools go through verbal contortions in an effort to rationalize their failure to educate theirathletes. They insist that the non- graduates transfer, dropout of sports or turn pro. This is nonsense. Only a tiny percent of the more than 8,000college players are eligible for hardship status in the NFL. Few ofthem choose it. Most of theathletesdon’ttransfer. Those that drop out succumb to the intense pressureoftryingtojuggle practice and travel with thensupposed classroom duties Many football players waltz through 3 or 4 years at colleges and still emerge as educational cripples. Thencourse curricula is the tip- off. How many algebra, English, history and chemistry courses do they take? Now, how many physical

education, craft and general studies courses do they take? There ’ s a message in the tragic saga of the educationally unprepared black sports hero. African Americans must demand that colleges educate and prepare black athletes for careers outside of sports. Black professionals and educators must create academic self- help programs to recycle young blacks from sports junkies to serious students. They can provide educational scholarships for academically sound athletes and establish career counseling, job skills training programs. Black parents whose sons or daughters are involved in athletic programs must hold coaches, teachers and school administrators accountable for their children’s courses, grades and campus activities. Super Bowls provide fame and fortune to the Reggie Whites and the Jerry Rice, but for countless others it provides only delusions. Ask Doug Williams.

BRIEFS from page 4

stadium and always will be. But several African American Memphians said they believe the classic had been ousted becau se it is a black event. Guest Injured During Vibe Taping Los Angeles—During a recent taping of the Vibe Show hosted by comedian, “Sinbad”, eight members of the audience were injurd when arail collapsed. The guests were participatingina preshow warn- up where CD’s and cassettes were being thrown to them Six of the victims of the accident are women and another an eighty- year- old man. One womanreportedly is eight months pregnant and is listed in serious condition with a dislocated elbow. Reportedly, Sinbad was not on stage and did not see the accident

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