Patrick Hayes of the FLINT (MI) JOURNAL previews the prospects of the local Northwestern High School football team by focusing on the squad’s new head coach: Former NFL star and Northwestern alum Andre Rison.
Rison was hired last February, beating out 13 other applicants for the job, despite local media concern about his criminal background.
Laura Angus of the Journal reported on 2/11/10:
It appears that former Pro Bowl wide receiver Andre Rison’s past legal woes won’t keep him from leading a Flint high school football team.
Rison made headlines in the past for mounting child support debts in Genesee County and Georgia.
The Flint native and Northwestern grad spent almost a month in a Georgia jail in 2004 after failing to pay $107,000 in child support there and declared bankruptcy in 2007.
Now the leading candidate to become the new football coach at Flint Northwestern High School, officials say he has paid off those support debts.
But then there’s court-ordered attorney fees to the mother of two of his children, Randall Kessler of Atlanta. Rison still owes Kessler $30,000.
Angus reported of that debt:
Kessler said he isn’t aggressively pursuing the remaining $30,000 in attorney fees he said Rison owes and doesn’t think he will file a lawsuit to get the money.
School board member David Davenport said Rison has attempted to rectify his problems and be a role model for young people.
“As long as he doesn’t have any felonies, I have no problem with him coming to be a role model for the students,” Davenport said.
School officials said they aren’t concerned about Rison’s past, and Flint schools spokesman Bob Campbell said he is the front-runner to fill the position as long as he is approved in a standard background check.
Now there’s a high standard for an employee charged with mentoring dozens of high school students.
As for the program itself, it appears Rison might be in the right place at the right time. Flint is coming off two winning seasons after a disastrous run of ineptitude dating back to ‘84 - when Rison was a basketball star at the same school.
And Rison, to his credit, is saying all the right things:
“It’s not just about football. It’s about getting in the mindset of education comes first. Football, we’ll deal with the X’s and O’s. But we’ve been working on character building, being on time and doing well in school more so than the X’s and O’s right now.
“Sports are a great window of opportunity for them to earn a scholarship to college. I drill them on how they can make a difference, not only with themselves, but with their community, and I think they’re buying into it.”
Having covered Rison when he played for the Chiefs in Kansas City, I can’t help but chuckle at those comments as they are so incredibly out of character for a guy who just 13 months ago called himself the greatest NFL wide receiver of all-time.
Regardless of Flint’s seemingly lax hiring standards and Rison’s well-documented, lengthy list of legal entanglements, I’m willing to give his post-career, down-and-out the benefit of the doubt.
For now.
4:25 pm on August 26th, 2010
Brock Middlebrook lives!
6:26 pm on August 26th, 2010
Hey.. Flint need what it can get. If Andre has his stuff together than who better to teach the kids with his talent and also to tell them what not to do? And attorney fees?? Randall Kessler isn’t missing dinner okay. He’s a superlawyer here in Atlanta.. I’m sure he can sue a trucking company, or some other big company and make his blood money.
10:40 pm on August 26th, 2010
Rison will always be a chump. Slapped down by Prime in his own house…not to mention having a girl burn down his own and all his worldly possessions…then he got back with her.
…AND he can’t even pay his child support.
2:46 pm on August 27th, 2010
“As long as he doesn’t have any felonies, I have no problem with him coming to be a role model for the students,” Davenport said.
Way to set the bar high Flint.
7:03 am on August 30th, 2010
Well well well….ain’t this something. LOL
11:03 am on August 30th, 2010
Rison deserves a chance and kids in Flint deserve to have him. There’s still some great kids in Flint, but they don’t have quality instruction. Look at what Courtney Hawkins did in Beecher, he took kids that were failing and brought pride and respectibility back to Beecher. I’ll say it again, it’s not the kids but the quality of instruction they get. In an urban setting many of the traditional ways of doing things are failing kids everyday, yet we keep doing the same things. Sometimes you have to break with tradition to find success.
8:48 pm on August 31st, 2010
hey,you have posted such a effectful article that it will certainly help me
9:51 am on September 1st, 2010
Another former, highly paid NFL star is broke; NO WAY, this can’t be correct!!!
9:55 am on September 1st, 2010
Another former, highly paid NFLer is broke; NO WAY, this must be a mistake. But he went to college and …, oopps, sorry, he didn’t GO to college, he played college football, my bad.
12:36 am on January 25th, 2011
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12:53 am on January 25th, 2011
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2:58 am on June 16th, 2011
Hey.. Flint need what it can get. If Andre has his stuff together than who better to teach the kids with his talent and also to tell them what not to do? And attorney fees?? Randall Kessler isn’t missing dinner okay. He’s a superlawyer here in Atlanta.. I’m sure he can sue a trucking company, or some other big company and make his blood money.
9:15 pm on July 28th, 2011
Now there’s a high standard for an employee charged with mentoring dozens of high school students.
8:47 pm on August 9th, 2011
If they are wearing jerseys Pittsburgh Steelers, suddenly you are a huge Steelers fan. Conversation picked up, to find a way to enter your company or product’s remarks.
2:18 am on November 22nd, 2011
so far today You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
3:51 am on November 22nd, 2011
highly paid NFL star is broke; NO WAY, this can’t be correct!!!
11:12 am on January 9th, 2012
Congrats Andre, Nobody is perfect everyone makes mistakes and coming from a single mother of 3….I understand you could and should have paid your child support when you had it but I also understand that you can’t pay what you don’t have now so that being said I’ll keep you in my prayers&I wish you the best!
10:35 am on January 17th, 2012
He deserve a second chance. He has no felonies so it shouldnt be a problem with him working with the kids. It’s trying to do something positive. Everyone need to stop being so judgmental. Who hasn’t made mistakes in their lives. Coming from where he’s from he didn’t know what to do with his success. Now he wants to make a difference. Hold you’re head up my brother.