WILL ANYTHING BE LEARNT FROM SEAN'S DEATH?
| 19
|
by Jamel
So here is another death of another young athlete who plays in professional sports...
R.I.P. Sean Taylor- I will continue to pray for you and your family- you are in a good place now:
"His father called and said he was with Christ and he cried and thanked me": Taylor's former lawyer.
Will anything change? Will anything be learned throughout the NFL? Or the NBA? Or even MLB and NHL? Probably not! And that's a shame. What's it going to take for the upper powers in professional sports to step up and to accept the responsibilities they have.
From yahoo sports: "Taylor's death comes nearly a year after Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was killed in a drive-by shooting following an argument at a Denver nightclub on Jan. 1. University of Miami defensive lineman Bryan Pata was shot to death in November 2006 several miles from Taylor's home in an unsolved killing."
So what responsibilities do these owners/managers/coaches have? Well they have chosen (yes chosen) to draft young men and women and hire them (yes hire them) into their business (and yes sports is first most a business). As soon as this happens I believe they should be held accountable and mentor these young kids (yes they are kids). Football and basketball take young men out of their elements- from nothing to "BAM" millions and millions of dollars. And it is the OWNERS/MANAGERS/COACHES responsibilities to mentor these kids and shadow them into a healthy conversion into this new lifestyle-- as the saying goes- "you can take the "nigga" out of the 'hood but you can't take the 'hood out of the "nigga"-
So what is it going to take? Should their be legal action against the owners and teams if mentoring and counseling isn't provided? Where should it start?- college is the answer- not high school but college-- college is the first step out of the norm' surroundings these athletes first encounter. Colleges need to start prepping these athletes for what they are going to encounter in the big leagues-- and who should fund these costs- MAJOR LEAGUES!!!- yes the NFL. NBA, MLB and even NHL should be paying for these programs at the college level-- why? Because they have everything to gain--. Start at the college levels: make it mandatory that all athletes go through this program and start making a change. Once the player is drafted it is up to that team to continue the process-- perhaps a veteran player needs to take in a rookie for the first 2 years (yes actually take him in and have that player live with them)- whatever it takes!! Sound ridiculous? Sound drastic? Drastic times take drastic measures and what's going on now certainly isn't working. Tyrone brought this up and yes I kind of blamed him for trying to stereotype Sean-- but one thing he is right is that programs need to be set up and set up fast.
God Bless you Sean-- R.I.P
And for the higher ups in sports- wake the FACK UP and let's make them survivors.
What the hell is wrong with the world?
