Bowling Green State University Athletics
Hometown Brown Gives Back: Sanders Wants to Inspire Young People
August 22, 2007 | Football
Aug. 22, 2007
By Mary Kay Cabot, Plain Dealer Reporter - Browns receiver Steve Sanders handed East High's Alex Booth an orange box filled with Charlie Frye's shiny black cleats and a pair of receiver gloves after practice on Tuesday, and Booth's eyes lit up as if he had been given a stack of $100 bills.
"I'll feel like a star in these," said Booth, who was invited to Browns practice by General Manager Phil Savage along with the rest of the struggling but determined East High football team.
Booth, a senior outside linebacker and strong safety, didn't feel like much of a star last fall when he was robbed and shot in the arm while walking a block from his home at E. 105th and Lee. The bullet pierced his lung and stopped an inch away from a major artery, where it remains.
"I'm lucky to be here today," Booth said.
Booth and about 20 of his teammates left Berea with boxes of cleats, gloves and other equipment from dozens of Browns players who gladly handed over their new or gently used gear when Sanders, a graduate of East High, asked for donations.
But they left with so much more than that.
Sanders, who's hoping to at least make the Browns practice squad, delivered an impassioned speech to the players about overcoming their circumstances - and promised to be there to help them.
"As much as I'm an inspiration to you all, you're an inspiration to me," said Sanders, who spent time on the Browns practice squad last season. "Every day I wake up and come out here, I'm fighting for you. Once we break training camp, I'll be at your practices, your games and I'll be in your school. I'll be in the neighborhood. I want you to know that there are people who care."
East High third-year coach Marzell Pink was moved as Sanders spoke to his kids. The team has only about 30 players and they share equipment. Two years ago, they went 2-8 and last year 0-10.
A few years ago, Pink watched the gym roof cave in. The graduation rate for males at East High is 22 percent, and at least one student is killed each year. In the past year alone, three of Pink's players have been shot, including Booth. Another, Brian Hurt, was murdered, and the third, Hakim Harrison, was shot in the head and can no longer play football.
"We're lucky he's still alive," said Pink, who graduated from Benedictine and played there for the legendary Augie Bossu. "What goes on is crushing. This day has already made my season, to see the joy on their faces."
Sanders' story was the same as most of his successors at East: raised by his mom, no dad around, no money, surrounded by drugs, gangs and killings. The neighborhood, near E. 79th and Superior, is one of the most crime-ridden in the city. "We had no father figures to look up to, only coaches like coach Pink," Sanders said.
One of his best friends growing up was Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith, the former Glenville and Ohio State star who was drafted this year by the Ravens. "When we were kids, Troy and I talked about getting to the NFL, buying our moms big houses and getting away from all of the stuff around us," Sanders said.
But he stressed that life isn't a choice between selling drugs or playing pro football, basketball or being a rapper.
"There is an in-between," he said. "One of the most important things I did was graduate from college [Bowling Green]. Nobody from my family even graduated high school, and I went on to graduate college. I fought through adversity, but I'm here to give you hope and encouragement."
One day while Sanders was still at East, former Browns cornerback Corey Fuller brought the kids equipment and hope. Sanders never forgot it. Another day, a police officer came and asked which players thought they were the best on the team. Sanders, a little cocky back then, was one who raised his hand. The officer then delivered a sobering statistic: only one of them would make it.
"I said, 'I'm going to be that one,' " Sanders said. "I'm going to fight, I'm going to crawl, I'm going to scratch for every inch to be that one."
Sanders feels he's almost there now, and he invited 20-some rapt kids along for the ride.
"If you all want to grab onto my coattails, come on," he said. "Because I'll take y'all. I want the pressure on my shoulders. I want the neighborhood on my shoulders. I want the school on my shoulders to show that I can do it."
Sanders is certain he has a future in the NFL, but when it's over, he plans to coach football and help inner-city kids.
"I might even do something in politics just to see a change around the neighborhood," he said. "Not just my neighborhood, but all the neighborhoods."
While he spoke, a student named David Daniels snapped his photo with a camera donated for the school's photography program by the Army ROTC. He wore a T-shirt with a picture of a young man and the words, "R.I.P. Wimpy."
"My brother [Robert] was shot and killed in May," Daniels said. "It's tough to go on. Steve gave us a lot of hope."
