Clemson cornerback Ray Ray McElrathbey never had much of a family life. When your mother is a drug addict and your estranged father has a gambling addiction, you find love wherever you can get it.
And you give as much as you get.
In McElrathbey’s case, he gave it to his 11-year-old brother, Fahmarr, whom Jay Jay tried to save by bringing him to Clemson, S.C., to start a new life. If you think playing cornerback in the Atlantic Coast Conference is tough, try doing it while going to school full time and taking care of an 11-year-old by yourself at 19.
The surprising hero in this story isn’t just Ray Ray McElrathbey. It’s an organization that until recently has been nothing more to college athletics than a four-letter word.
The NCAA.
It recently granted Clemson permission to give McElrathbey a desperately needed helping hand. He didn’t ask for a condo and a Lexus. He merely wanted someone to give Fahmarr transportation to and from school, a little supervision and some minor financial relief.
The NCAA said OK.
“I’m very relieved,” McElrathbey said Thursday from Clemson. “I’m very thankful. Thank God, thank everyone who helped out.”
Until the past year or so, I always thought the NCAA had the heart of a computer printout and just as much personality. But anyone who heard McElrathbey’s story would have melted like a teenage soap star.
He’s the oldest son of eight kids who grew up in Atlanta with a mother who spent all the welfare money on drugs – when she was around. He said occasionally she’d leave and just wouldn’t come back for days.
“There were times when we had nothing to eat but ice,” he said.
She tried rehab a couple of times but it never took hold while she had eight kids running around with no father. He was off figuring out how to pay off mounting gambling debts.
“We were bad kids,” McElrathbey said. “With drugs, it’s an addiction of the mind. Without all the stress she was OK. With all of us together, it was really stressful. I’m under stress, and I just got one (child).”
Soon the kids started splitting up. Ray Ray went to live with youth football coaches. His mom wound up in Las Vegas with Fahmarr, among others. While Ray Ray redshirted last season, his constant worry was Fahmarr.
“There were struggles,” Ray Ray said. “What were they going to eat? Who was going to be there?”
Worried that if Fahmarr didn’t move, it would be too late, Ray Ray had Fahmarr make the cross-country trek to South Carolina this past summer. He quickly realized that figuring out a cover 2 defense is easier than figuring out how to care for an 11-year-old.
Fahmarr, Ray Ray says, is real smart, has good manners and is funny. But who would he be playing with while Ray Ray was at practice? How would he get to school? How would he feed him on the pittance an athletic scholarship allows?
He asked Clemson for help. Clemson went to the NCAA for help, a practice once akin to peasants going to the King of France for a loan. But Ray Ray knew something others didn’t.
“I was very optimistic,” he said. “Me being me, I’m a very optimistic person. I always look for the greater good. People say the NCAA never do things right, but I had faith in them.”
With the NCAA’s OK, Clemson will provide transportation to and from school and assistant coaches’ wives will supervise Fahmarr when Ray Ray is away. Clemson is establishing a trust fund to help with normal living expenses.
Who knew that inside an NCAA handbook that’s thicker than the Tokyo phone directory lies a heart?
“The rule that you can’t provide for an athlete anything a regular student can’t receive doesn’t apply here,” said Kevin Lennon, the NCAA vice president of membership services. “This is so unique. Clearly the young man is in need of help. Everyone agreed that it was absolutely the right thing to do.”
The NCAA appears to becoming more athlete-friendly under president Myles Brand. Remember, it also granted transfer waivers to those athletes in Gulf Coast schools affected by Hurricane Katrina last year.
The ruling has made McElrathbey, who leads Clemson in special-teams tackles, a sudden public figure. He was featured in The New York Times and will be on ABC’s “World News Tonight” and will be featured on ESPN’s “GameDay Saturday.”
But it also made him a role model for all those teenagers out there who’ve become sudden fathers or mothers.
“I’ve received a lot of inspirational messages,” he said. “A lot of people are in the same situation. But I’m doing it and am being public about it. They say, ‘I’m going through the same thing. If you ever need someone to talk…’ I’m the same way. ‘If you ever need to talk…”‘
Today, Clemson flies to Tallahassee, Fla., to face ninth-ranked Florida State, and one backup cornerback is relieved he can concentrate on his assignments on the field and not off it. He also learned a valuable lesson that may help his team as well.
“Knowing,” he said, “that your first priority isn’t you.”
Peterson eyeing NFL
Oklahoma’s offense is clicking surprisingly well without the exiled Rhett Bomar, but if the Sooners are going to make a run it better be this year. Star tailback Adrian Peterson told The Oklahoman that he’s heading to the NFL a year early this spring.
“My goals when I got here were to win a national championship first and then have an opportunity to win the Heisman,” Peterson said. “Those are the things I want to do, but the only thing right now I know for a fact that would keep me next year is a major injury. God willing, that won’t happen.”
Peterson, who has 304 yards in two games, is only 718 yards behind Billy Sims’ school record of 4,118. But think Oklahoma is relying too much on him? Oklahoma has rushed 64 times for 324 yards and passed 57 times for 499.
BCS vs. non-BCS
If there is any more whining out there by non-BCS schools about a lack of respect, pipe down. Now. The Bowl Championship Series already threw you a bone with a bowl spot that you won’t be able to fill unless Florida State falls into the sea.
Through two weeks, non-BCS schools are a whopping 5-44 against BCS schools.
The lone ranked non-BCS school, No. 20 Texas Christian, has held up its end by beating Baylor and can make its biggest statement Saturday by beating No. 24 Texas Tech.
Also, you may keep an eye on Marshall at Kansas State, Fresno State at Washington and Tulane at Mississippi State.
Footnotes
Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn hasn’t thrown an interception in his past 119 attempts, and the Irish haven’t committed a turnover in two games….This is Texas Christian’s third 12-game win streak since 1999….Miami hasn’t topped 10 points against three of its past four 1-A opponents. … The Southeastern Conference already has recorded five shutouts. It had three last year.
John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
