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Football Fame Gone Awry
February 7, 2007
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The New York Times is running an article entitled, "A Football
Standout’s Final Uniform Is Red, the Color of His Gang."

Yesterday, 33 year old, former Oklahoma high school football
standout, Mandrell Dean, was laid to rest.

The article explains, "Richard Allen Dean, known as Mandrell, was
killed Jan. 27 when a 17- year-old boy shot him, the police said, after
Dean broke into an apartment, assaulted a woman and demanded
money and jewelry."

The article reports that Florida State University football coach, Bobby
Bowden, whose staff recruited Dean said, "It’s a kid that could have
made millions of dollars and been a success that is in a grave right
now."

Coach Bowden concluded, "It’s a sad story."
Read it!!


Discussion-Starters for Younger Children

  • Ask your students if they think it's important to read?
    Why/why not? Encourage them to explain their thoughts.
  • Students might develop television commercials
    emphasizing the importance of reading.

  • Inquire: If you see your friends doing things that you know you
    shouldn't do and there are no adults around, what should you
    do?
  • Students might create a set of "rules" telling them how
    to get out of situations that they don't want to/should
    not be in.

  • Ask your students if they think it's ok to hurt other people?
    Why/why not? Are there some things that people need to make
    sure not to do so that we don't hurt other people? What?
  • Instead of hurting other people, we should try to make
    other people feel good. Therefore, ask every student in
    your class to say one nice thing about another student.
    (Make sure that every student has something nice said
    about him/her.)

  • If your students picked one thing that they would like to keep
    forever, what would they pick? Why?
  • Students might draw a picture of this item or write a
    few sentences explaining why it is important.

Discussion-Starters for Older Children

  • Vocabulary terms to discuss: Visitation; Junction; Recruiter;
    and, Vagabond.

  • Ask: What lesson can be drawn from the life of Mandrell Dean.
    Explain!!
  • Consider having students respond to this question in
    writing. (They might work in groups.)

  • Pose: Imagine that you had the chance to chance to speak with
    Mandrell Dean when he was in 9th Grade. What would you
    have said to him? Why?
  • Students might develop conversations between Mandrell
    Dean and themselves. On the other hand, you might ask
    students to write songs designed to inspire others who
    might be in situations similar to Dean.

  • Ask your students to respond to the following statement: "Sure
    Mandrell Dean is partly to blame for his own death. But so is
    society. We failed this potentially great football player by not
    letting him play college ball at a top tiered school."
  • This prompt might make for an interesting class
    discussion.

  • If society is in part to blame for Dean's death, what should we
    do that make sure that someone else does not suffer the same
    fate as Dean? Explain!!
  • Students could develop proposals for improving society.
    Consider submitting these proposals to your local
    newspaper. I'd also be happy to post them on my
    Lesson-Wiki.
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