NCAA Does Right by Ray Ray

From Gene Wojciechowski of espn.com, we get a heart warming story of the NCAA, normally a faceless, bureaucratic (and sometimes duplicitous and hypocritical) entity whose alleged mission is to take care of student athletes, getting one right. Ray Ray McElrathbey, a defensive back at Clemson, had taken on the responsibility of raising his 11 year old brother after his mother relapsed on crack cocaine (again), and with his absent father battling a gambling addicition of his own. For a while, the player's coaches and other university staff were fearful of taking the little brother to school or letting him do his homework in one of their offices for fear of the NCAA imposing sanctions on Clemson for providing "extra benefits" to one of its players.

Thankfully, someone in authority at the NCAA realized the absurdity of this situation, and Ray Ray and Clemson were granted a special waiver by the NCAA to make it OK for the school and the staff to help Ray Ray out with his brother in ways which might seem ordinary to anyone else, but which will ultimately make all the difference in allowing Ray Ray to successfully balance completion of his studies, the demands of football, and the sacrifices of caring for his brother.

I know firsthand how hard it must be on this young man to be a father figure to his brother at age 19, because this situation reminds me so much of my own father, is his early 20s facing a bitter divorce with two small children and an unfit (at the time) mother. Dad could have told the judge to dock his paycheck for child support and made my brother and I wards of the state, and God knows where we might have ended up and what might have become of us. But he didn't do that, he stood up and took responsibility for us and raised us the best he could, at great personal cost and sacrifice to himself and his dreams. It didn't go unnoticed and unappreciated by me, and I sincerely hope my Dad knows how much I appreciate it, and him.

Kudos to Ray Ray for stepping up to the plate as a man and taking care of his brother...he could have easily shuffled his brother off on the system in favor of a life of partying at college, and no one would have blamed him a bit...and big thumbs up to the NCAA for living up to its mission and helping out this young man and his brother, who have certainly had enough hard times for one lifetime already.