With all of the latest “incidents” happening in sports, it seems the bad apples are getting all of the press. ESPN is clouded with 24 hour coverage on the Alex Rodriguez steroids scandal. TNT has a dark shadow after Charles Barkley, one of their NBA analysts, got arrested for a DUI. The country is still abuzz over the picture of Michael Phelps smoking marijuana.
But somewhere in the back pages, behind all of these overplayed stories, are a few stories out of the sports world that show the good guys still exist. Here’s 2 I’d like to share with you:
You probably don’t know the name Ted Leonsis unless you’re a huge hockey fan and from Washington D.C. Leonsis is the owner of the Washington Capitals NHL franchise. In other words, he’s a very wealthy and powerful man. According to Tarik El-Bashir of The Washington Post, Leonsis and El-Bashir were meeting together when the two men passed a homeless man at the train station. Even though everyone walked right on by the man, including El-Bashir, Ted Leonsis stopped and talked to the man. He noticed he didn’t have any shoes. When Leonsis asked him why, the homeless man told him they were stolen. Ted Leonsis proceeded to talk to the man and give him a large significant amount of money, on the promise that he would use it to buy shoes.
It’s easy to say Leonsis probably got scammed. It’s easy to think it’s not big deal because Leonsis is loaded with money anyway. But the thing is, how many people just like you and me walked by the man and did absolutely nothing? How many people just like you and me would walk by and do absolutely nothing? Ted Leonsis didn’t have to do anything, but he wanted to do something. He may have more money to give than the average person, but compared to the homeless man, don’t all of us?
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Johntell Franklin is an 18-year-old senior and basketball player at Milwaukee Madison High School. On February 7, Franklin’s mother died after a five-year battle with cancer. The coach of the basketball team, Aaron Womack Jr. rushed to the hospital to be with Franklin. Womack offered to cancel that night’s basketball game against Dekalb High School, but Franklin insisted that they keep the game on schedule and he encouraged the guys to go out and do their best.
During the second quarter of the game, to the surprise of everyone, Johntell Franklin showed up to the gym. He wasn’t just there to watch; he was there to play. Unfortunately, since Franklin’s name was not in the scorebook at the beginning of the game, the referees were forced to call a technical foul against Franklin. It wasn’t that they wanted to, but they had to. Even though Dekalb’s coaches complained about the call and tried to have it removed, it the call stood.
As a result of the technical foul, Dekalb received 2 free throws. Dave Rohlman, coach of Dekalb, devised a plan. He sent in senior Darius McNeal to shoot the free throws. Instead of knocking both free throws down, however, McNeal did something extraordinary. When receiving the ball, he took it and rolled it right back to the referee for his first shot. When the ref bounced the ball back to him for his second shot, McNeal shot the ball about 2 feet in front of him, negating the free throw attempts.
When asked why he intentionally missed the shots, McNeal said he did it for Franklin, because it was the right thing to do.
Madison went on to win the game 62-47 and Franklin finished with 10 points.
With all the media craze over A-Rod, steroids, scandals, etc. it’s nice to know some of the good guys still exist. These are the guys we should be hearing about. These are the guys we should be praising!
(Story from the Journal Sentinel)
Tags: A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez, Charles Barkley, Darius McNeal, Johntell Franklin, Michael Phelps, steroids, Ted Leonsis