Where are we headed?

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 04/09/2009

Some professional athletes are failing as fathers, combining with non-athlete fathers across the United States. They need to check themselves — it's downright frightening. I saw some alarming numbers recently that make it clear to me how our society has simply given up in some cases. We've become morally corrupt when it comes to personal responsibility.

I bring this up because this is something I know a bit about from the beginning, being a loving husband and responsible father. Somehow we've got to face the facts and correct it.

Travis Henry was an NFL star with the Denver Broncos until last year. Henry has 11 children by seven different women. Jason Caffey, former NBA star with the Chicago Bulls, has 10 children by eight women.

Two days after New Jersey Devils star Martin Brodeur set the National Hockey League record for most wins by a goalie, he was hit with an alimony setback by the New Jersey court of appeals. The court ruled that Brodeur must pay alimony to his ex-wife of $500,000 a year until 2020.

Obviously, these are extreme cases and examples. At least in Brodeur's case he was married; however, all three men have been in and out of court dealing with child-support fights with the mothers.

In the United States, 70 percent of all children born Black are born into single-parent households. Fifty percent of all Hispanics are born into single-family households; among Whites, it's 20 percent; for births nationally, counting everybody, it's 40 percent. How many of these kids wind up in gangs, dropping out of school, ending up in jail?

Are we talking about deadbeat dads? Or are we talking about women setting traps for men? Are some of these men targeted, particularly athletes? Are they nothing but sperm banks in some cases because of their status as stars? The old saying is that it takes two to tangle.

These are troubling numbers and glaring examples that things have gotten way out of control, and the children are the ones that get lost and misplaced and don't have a fighting chance because of our failure to exercise personal discipline.

Everybody makes mistakes — that's a given. However, a lot of this is simply being lazy, getting caught up in the moment, or being under the influence. The national numbers indicate that it's not limited to just athletes. This is a society-wide problem.

During a time in our country when real estate values have fallen, the stock market has crashed, the unemployment rate nationally is higher than ever, and oil prices are high, can it get any worse? This is about as bad as it gets. The question is what are we going to do about it?

One of the reasons why the great Tony Dungy retired prematurely from coaching was that last year in Indianapolis, Indiana, the graduation rate for high school students in that city was the lowest in the nation. That really bugged Dungy — his parents have always been champions for education. Now he is working with an organization that I'm a part of: All-Pro Dads.

Fitz Notes & Quotes

NFL leading rusher and Vikings star Adrian Peterson was honored by the Wild Tuesday, April 7, at the Minnesota Wild game versus the Dallas Stars: He was selected to do Let's Play Hockey.

Longtime retiring University of Minnesota Team Equipment Manager Harry Broadfoot has seen it all over the last 37 years at the U of M. He was also honored by the Minnesota Wild for his career achievement at the April 3 Wild versus Calgary Flames game by introducing Let's Play Hockey. Both men were presented with Minnesota Wild team jerseys with their names and favorite numbers on them.

It was a treat for this reporter to see Broadfoot honored when Jerome Iginla, the greatest Black hockey player in the National Hockey League today, was in town. He is Michael Jordan on skates; he has 86 points this season, 33 goals and 53 assists. He has scored over 400 career goals and 30 or more goals in a season for eight consecutive years. There are only 13 Black players currently in the NHL.

President Barack Obama (correctly, as I did) selected North Carolina to win the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. The Tar Heels won their fifth National Championship by beating down Michigan State 89-72.

The game was no more than another spanking administered by the ACC to the Big Ten, as they do annually in the ACC versus Big Ten Challenge. President Obama is the first president that I remember in my 30 years in the media business to talk about NCAA basketball and football games and players, not just the game of baseball.

Now, he is a huge Chicago White Sox fan, as I am, and will throw out the ceremonial first pitch, Tuesday weather permitting, at the White Sox versus Kansas City Royals game in Chicago.

Previous presidents seldom, if ever, would fill out an NCAA basketball bracket. They always seem to connect with Major League baseball, the game that has been riddled with scandal and steroids.

Former President George W. Bush, before becoming president, owned the Texas Rangers, you might recall. I'm hopeful that President Obama, considering all the bailouts and stimulus packages that are being exercised to help turn our fallen economy around, will do me a huge favor and find out what in the world the NCAA does year after year with the many billions of dollars they pocket from all these games, particularly on the backs of mostly amateur Black athletes, and identify who the NCAA is.

I'm certain that after a thorough investigation — just like we have found out too late, I may add, about the scandals and misappropriations on Wall Street and the financial district, the banking industry and real estate fraud that have floored our nation — we will learn about things that the public has a right to know.

Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio 89.9 FM at 8:20 am, and on WDGY-AM 740 Monday & Saturday mornings at 7:50 am and Fridays at 3:50 pm; he also commentates on sports 7-8 pm on Almanac (TPT channel 2). Larry welcomes reader responses to lfitzgerald@spokesman-re corder.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com .