Let's Not Forget the Good Guys

Sports Commentary

Less than a week before Michael Vick appeared in Virginia courtroom dressed in prison-issued, black-and-white striped togs for his sentencing as a dogfighting ring runner, a single mother of two heavily swaddled in black clothing appeared at a Washington Wizards’ practice during a break. Her name was Patricia Scales.

It was early December but Scales wasn’t dressed from head to toe in drab black drapes because it was particularly chilly in the nation’s capital that day. Being so wrapped every day now is a practical fashion choice for her. It covers the pink and brown scar tissue on her arms and chest and legs from the near-countless skin grafts she’s undergone since the father of her son doused her with gasoline last December and set her ablaze.

The near-fatal injuries left her unable to work and she and her children without income to pay for housing. Forty percent of her body was burned. A Maryland-based mortgage company rescued Scales and her children with the gift of a five-bedroom house for two years for free.

Several weeks ago, however, the company became embroiled in a state lending investigation. Its finances were frozen and it informed Scales it could no longer continue its good deed. Scales, still unable to work after 20-some surgeries and nerve damage in one arm, and her family were scheduled for eviction.

That was what brought her to the Wizards. Wizards’ guard Antonio Daniels heard of her plight, told some teammates, and together with Wizards’ owner Abe Pollin pooled a $35,000 early Christmas gift for Scales and her family to house them rent free in another home.

If you weren’t in metropolitan Washington at the time, you probably didn’t hear of Daniels’ good deed. No matter where you were, however, you couldn’t escape coverage of Vick’s cruel crime.

You couldn’t get away, either, from the dominant sports’ story of 2007, that of athletes illegally using steroids and human growth hormones to perform better and longer on the field, sometimes obtaining such drugs from people who need them to live less painful and longer lives.

You couldn’t hide from stories of athletes involved in gun play like NFL star Pacman Jones, who at NBA All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas last February, was said to be involved in a shooting at a strip club that left a man paralyzed.

It is enough to create the perception that pro athletes are mostly careless reprobates bent on creating trouble. It couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Anytime we do something wrong, it’s blown up,” Daniels told me by phone following the Wizards’ game last Saturday at Indiana. “The thing about it is, society and the media feed off negativity. That’s the society we live in. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong; I’m just saying it’s reality.”

Truth is there were far more heartwarming acts by pro athletes this past year like Daniels’ than there were despicable ones. There always are. We just don’t pay as much attention in part because of how Daniels said those of us in the media go about our work.

That isn’t to say that we go out of way looking for stories of athletes gone wild or that we should ignore them. But to overlook what Daniels and others have done is to create an unfair impression of what most athletes are about. Most really are team players.

After all, there wasn’t a more captivating story of giving and caring in sports this year than the decision of retired All-Pro NFL cornerback Everson Walls to donate a kidney to a former Cowboys’ teammate, Ron Springs, who was succumbing to diabetes. Walls has been showered with numerous awards from myriad organizations for his selfless life-saving gift.

“I just couldn’t let him die,” Walls explained to me when asked why he opted to donate. Springs was recovering until an unrelated operation left him in a coma from which he hasn’t yet awakened.

How did the Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins celebrate his National League MVP? Upon returning to Philadelphia last month after receiving the honor, he didn’t throw himself an outlandish invitation-only party somewhere in town. He opened the J-Roll MVP Computer Lab for kids at a school in an at-risk community.

The NFL this month has been accepting nominations from its teams for its annual Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. One former winner who has been nominated again is Atlanta Falcons’ running back Warrick Dunn, who started a foundation five years ago to help single mothers realize home ownership. This year, he helped a single father get a home for the holidays by providing, as he always does, the down payment and everything a first-time homeowner needs -- from furniture to linens to equipment to care for the lawn.

“In the position we’re in now as professional athletes, we are young men of influence in our society,” Daniels explained. “We have an influence both ways, negatively and positively.”

Daniels said he is often amazed at the impact that his behavior as an athlete has on others, particularly youth who aspire to be in his sneakers one day.

“Watch how many kids in high school have an arm sleeve on or wear a leg sleeve who don’t need it,” Daniels said. “It’s amazing. “So when we have an opportunity to do something positive, we should.”

Antonio Daniels did. So, too, did many of his peers. It is too bad we’ve allowed their generosity to be overshadowed.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a regular panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, an XM Satellite Radio host and a frequent sports opinionist on other outlets like National Public Radio and The Politico. A former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News, he currently lives in Hyattsville, Md.