After reading this diary currently on the rec list and the comments in it about Michael Brown not being an athlete - I had the thought, I bet he could have been an athlete under the right circumstances.
Another Big Mike was in similar circumstances and he did become a good athlete under the right conditions:
Football star Michael Oher was born Michael Jerome Williams Jr. on May 28, 1986, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was one of 12 children born to Michael Jerome Williams Sr. and Denise Oher, who provided their children with little to no support. Michael Sr. was frequently in prison, and Denise was addicted to crack cocaine. As a result, Michael Jr. was in-and-out of foster homes and frequently homeless. He also performed poorly as a student, repeating first grade and second grade and attending 11 different schools during his first nine years as a student. Oher's estranged father, was murdered while Oher was a senior in high school. ... The young boy was finally taken in by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy when he was 16, and the Tuohys became Oher's legal guardians when he was 17. In his junior year, Oher began to excel in football. By the beginning of his senior year, Oher was the starting left tackle on the varsity football team. He quickly became a top football prospect in the state of Tennessee, which led to multiple scholarship offers from Division 1 schools.
The Blind Side Story
Michael Oher went on to become a star in the NFL and the focus of the Michael Lewis book, The Blind Side, which was turned into a major feature movie.
We need more Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy's and fewer Joe Scarboroughs, fewer Rudy Gullianis, fewer of the so-called leaders we see in St. Louis and others around the country and in our politics who just don't get it.
Come on America, these stories are not only happening on the big screen with a Hollywood budget ... they are happening each and every day on the streets of our country.