Classy article by Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel

[gonzo13]

Credit where credit is due....This is an excellent article.

Here's the link to the article

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/columnists/orl-bianchi0407mar04,0,47403.column?coll=orl-sports-col


Mike Bianchi

Camon's death provides lesson for miscreants
Published March 4, 2007

ORMOND BEACH -- This story is for Ricky Williams.

This story is for Pacman Jones.

This story is for Lawrence Phillips and Ryan Leaf and Maurice Clarett and every other miscreant or malcontent who never appreciated the enormous opportunity he was given.

Let me tell you a story about a football player -- a real football player -- a good-looking, hard-working young man who would have died for the chance to play in the NFL.

As a matter of fact, he did die.

He died trying.

You don't know who Javan Camon is, but you should. He put his neck on the line -- literally -- to get to a place where Pacman Jones doesn't deserve to be. He gave his whole heart -- literally -- to get just one of the bazillion chances Ricky Williams has frittered away.

Javan, just 25 years old, broke his neck playing football Monday night. He went into cardiac arrest immediately. He died on the field instantaneously.

"My son died doing what he loved most," his mother, Nathalie Montgomery, said.

"Javan was born a football player," his teammate, Kwasie Kwaku, said, "and he died a football player."

Why is it that we get so caught up in the privileged and pampered that we forget about the passionate and persistent? Amid the racket and ruckus created by the numskulls and knuckleheads, we seldom hear the true song of sports anymore.

Javan played football for the Daytona Beach Thunder -- an indoor team in an upstart league. The minor leagues of the minor leagues. But you know what? Just because you don't have Jags or Bucs logos on the side of your helmet doesn't mean you're not a serious football player.

In fact, I'd say the men who play for the Thunder are probably more serious than the dregs and druggies who dot the roster of the Cincinnati Bengals. They might not excel at the game like their big brothers in the NFL, but they cherish it more.

"It makes me mad when I see some of these NFL boneheads blowing their chances," said Thunder Coach Leon Bright, a former NFL player. "The guys in this league would give an eye or a tooth; they'd play for free just for that one chance to make an NFL roster."

Actually, they almost do play for free. The players in the four-team World Indoor Football League make $250 a game, $300 if they win. Pacman Jones blows 100 times more than that in one night at a Vegas strip club.

The Thunder players sometimes sleep three and four to a hotel room. And sometimes they eat peanut butter and jelly for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Javan, on the week before the Thunder's first game, helped install the artificial turf and clean the dasher boards.

"If you love the game, you make sacrifices," Bright says.

The rosters in the WIFL are filled with teachers and truckers, barbers and bartenders, carpenters and counselors.

Almost all of them are dreamers.

"It's not about the money," Kwaku says. "It's about doing something you love."

They love the game so much. Or maybe they love the game too much. They mortgage their futures to play it. They endure broken bones and broken homes to pursue it.

Football defines their lives -- and their deaths.

At the memorial service for Javan, the front of the funeral-home sanctuary is arranged with memorabilia from his playing career. A photograph of him playing Pop Warner. Newspaper clippings telling of his exploits in high school. A team photo from the University of South Florida. His black Thunder jersey.

A football is passed through the pews so his teammates can sign it for the family. The eulogies are filled with football metaphors and memories. Football, football and more football.

"A football player; that's who Javan was," Thunder Vice President Brad Humphrey says. "He ate it, slept it and breathed it. He was determined that somehow, someway he was going to play in the NFL. He wasn't going to let that dream get away from him."

All you have to do is watch the final play of his career and the final moment of his life to understand. Javan chased Columbus Lions receiver Damian Daniels across the field. He was going full speed, gaining ground, about ready to make the tackle. And then, from nowhere, another Columbus receiver, Cedric Ware, delivered a devastating block. When Javan lowered his head to take on the hit, helmets collided and the sickening sound could be heard throughout the Daytona Beach Ocean Center.

A few minutes earlier, Javan danced and laughed after his second interception of the night. Now, he lay muted, motionless. Players from both teams prayed. And cried. And prayed some more. Please, God, let him move. Just let him move!

He always was coachable. And now, as he lay there lifeless, he was doing exactly what his coaches always told him to do:

Play like there's no tomorrow.

Pay the ultimate price.

Leave it all out on the field.

Play every play like it's your last.

See, here's something Ricky Williams and Pacman Jones never will understand. Javan Camon lived to play football.

Javan Camon died to play football.

The newspaper articles tell us Javan was pursuing a receiver when the fatal blow was delivered.

No, not exactly.

He was pursuing something far more important:

His passion.

[The Abyss]

Great article!

[indy legend]

Great article. I never met Javan Camon. I never had the opportunity to see him play, I had never heard of him until this tragic event, but this was a young man who minor league sports are all about. He gave everything he had for the game he loved and for the few fans in attendance who love their team and the game. He didn't go through the motions to get the game over with so he could blow off the fans and head to the nearest strip club to start a fight or rush to his dealer for his latest drug fix(Rickweed,Ms. pacman,and Looser Philips). It's hard to have any compassion for spoiled millionaires who don't give a damn about anything but themselves and piss away chance after chance and are still too stupid to realize what they have. It's little wonder fans are turned off by "big time" pro sports and are turning to the minor leagues where it's still a game and not just a paycheck the players can snort up their nose or tuck in a g-string. In the minors it's still about the game, it's still about the fans, and it's still about young men like Javan in near empty arenas the world over who give everything they have because they still have the desire and they still have a dream that they refuse to give up on. We minor league sports fans appreciate young men like Javan.For every 'major league "looser like Steven Jackson or Ron Artest, or insert the latest Bengal arrest here,there are a thousand kids like Javan. It's why we keep comming back to games. It's why we love our teams that the media rarely acknowledges exist unless something like this happens. Minor league players keep chasing your dream. Fans keep supporting your teams and Javan Camon rest in pease.