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| Gary, In. high school football player, Edwin Parker Deloney Jr., shot dead at 17! |
Last week in my hometown of Gary, In. a young high school football player named Edwin Parker Deloney Jr. age 17 was shot and killed on his way home from football practice. What makes this story so tragic is that he and his younger brother Eric, 16 had just moved to Gary from Riverdale, Ga. to live with their father less than a month ago.
They were walking home from practice when they were attacked. The teens saw a car circling but didn't pay any attention to it because they had no enemies because they were new in the area. Now a kid is dead for no apparent reason. Do you realize that more than 70% of the players in the NFL and NBA are African- American and the vast majority of them come from environments just like Gary?
Not only do these guys have to be extremely talented but they have to be extremely blessed just to make it to graduation day. Even once they make it to college the threat of violence doesn’t go away. If any, it escalates because so many in the hood become jealous of their success. How many times do you hear of kids coming home on a break and being killed for whatever reason?
According to 2004 data (the most recent available) from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for black teens and young adults in the age groups 15 to 19, 20 to 24, and 25 to 34, homicide is the leading cause of death. (The CDC data is the leading federal resource ranking causes of death.) For blacks aged 15 to 24, 40 percent of all deaths (2,803 of 7,049) were homicides. Eighty-nine percent of these homicides were perpetrated with a firearm. Those numbers are even higher among African-American males at the same age.
I’m constantly aware of the dangers that so many of our kids face daily. So when I watch sports I'm not as quick to criticize players for mistakes that they make along the way. That's why I ride so hard for players like Lebron(NBA) and Cam Newton(NFL) because I understand just how much grace, mercy and Big Momma’s prayer got them through. Now I'm not sure if Cam grew up in the hood or not but someone from his family did and made it possible for him to be where he is today. They deserve to be supported more than they should be criticized for being young and immature. We all have made mistakes along the way and many of us have made much worse decisions than LeBron‘s “The Decision.” For the record, I thought that it was pure genius from a marketing stand point!
For every guy that makes it to the league whether it's the NBA or the NFL there are thousands of Edwin Parker Deloney Jr’s that somehow didn't make it home from practice or school. Kids don’t choose to live in the ghetto but somehow make the best of the situation. I wish that fans were forced to trade places with some of these kids sometimes so they could get a bird’s eye view of what it takes to make it to an 18th birthday in the ghetto let alone make it to the league. Then they won’t be so quick to hate guys like Lebron or Cam because they’ll have a better understanding of the sacrifice and grace that it took to get on the field.
So when you're watching your favorite team this week. Think about all of the kids that didn't make it home that had every intention of playing in the league or just being a productive adult one day. It's all grace and mercy that we even get to live as long as we do. So the next time you want to spit venom at a player, encourage him because he could easily have been a homicide victim.
Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Twitter:@jaygravesreport
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