Chris Leak Tries a Different Camp

Chris Leak is one of the greatest high school and college quarterbacks of all time. He started the incredible win streak at Independence High School (it eventually reached 109 games), winning three consecutive state championships while setting North Carolina state records for passing yards in a career (15,593) and completions in a career (1,013) as well as the national record for touchdown passes in a career (185). And not only did he end his University of Florida days by leading the Gators to the 2007 BCS National Championship (winning MVP), but he also left with school records for passing yardage (11,213), completions (895), and attempts (1,458), and is second all-time in touchdown passes (88).

But football can be a cruel sport. Despite all of Leak's heroics on the field at the high school and college level, he hasn't been able to establish a pro career.

Leak wasn't drafted in 2007 and while he's practiced the last two summers during training camp with NFL teams, he's failed to make the final rosters. Last summer he signed to the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League, so it'll be interesting to see how he plays when the season starts in June. Perhaps he'll follow the path of Jeff Garcia--excel in the CFL and get another shot at the NFL. If not, he just may have opened the doors to his future calling.

He's recently launched the Chris Leak Championship Football Academy, where he's planning to teach technique and fundamentals to 7-12 graders with the help off several of his former Florida Gator teammates. The first camp kicks of next month in Apopka, Florida. Hopefully, and I think it would be very likely, Leak eventually brings the camp to Charlotte. Someone with his talent and quarterback IQ could teach young athletes a lot (not to mention he earned his college degree). And who knows, this could be the making of the next Manning Passing Academy.

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High School Fights and YouTube

I was talking to a group of teenagers the other day whom I counsel, when they put me on to an alarming trend. We were standing around my laptop talking, when one of them asked me to go to YouTube and search for some crazy new dance called the "Stanky Leg" because they wanted to learn it. Unfortunately, all these ridiculous new dances that are out isn't the alarming trend I'm referring to (plus, I see that as just kids being kids). After looking up a couple of dances, one of them asked me to search for a fight. And that began them calling out different high school fights for me to look up.

So what I learned is that you can type in a number of Charlotte high schools, followed by the word "fight," and you're likely to find a video posted of students fighting. I did a quick YouTube search again just now and I found videos of fights at Independence High (a fight outside), East Meck (a fight in the classroom), and West Meck (a fight in the bathroom, which someone has posted and set to music). Each of the videos is less than a minute long, which leads me to believe the students were recording them on their camera phones, which usually only allow short videos.

This video of a fight at Independence High School was uploaded to YouTube last May and has received more than 26,000 views. (I only posted a still as opposed to the actual video because I don't condone this.)

Now before anyone jumps on the bashing-CMS bandwagon, understand that this is not a Charlotte problem. This is a societal problem. Fights have always happened and will always happen at school, and I can't say whether kids today are more violent than we were. But they have more technology at their disposal that brings these things to the forefront. Plus, these fights aren't just being captured at schools. You can find thousands of videos on YouTube of kids (and adults) duking it out in parks, parking lots, streets, backyards, and just about anywhere. If someone can sneak in a camera to capture Saddam Hussein's execution (which I refused to watch), anything can be caught on video at anytime. What we have to do, as a society, is stop lending credence to this kind of thing.

We shouldn't be enticed to run and see or hear every caught-on-tape moment. I reminded those group of teens that kids have gotten arrested over similar video postings. It may seem like something funny and entertaining until you're going to jail over it. My solution to this--and most other problems facing our kids today--is simple. Parents: Be more involved in your kids' lives. Find out what they're doing on MySpace, YouTube, and with their phone texting. Or learn about it the hard way.

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Hakeem Nicks Is Making A Mistake

University of North Carolina star wide receiver Hakeem Nicks announced today that he'll forgo his senior season to enter this year's NFL Draft. Some analysts predict that he'll be drafted in the second round, which is pretty good for the receiver position. But I see some eerie similarities to another receiver who left college early, which leads me to believe that Nicks is making a mistake.

Could Nicks meet the same fate as Carolina Panthers wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett? Like Nicks plans to, Jarrett left college after his junior season (at the University of Southern California). Like Nicks, Jarrett holds several of his college's receiving records (if I held records as a junior, I would be motivated to stay my senior year to put those records further out of reach). Like Nicks is projected, Jarrett was drafted in the second round. And I hope this is where the similarities end.

Jarrett has struggled greatly during his first two seasons in the NFL. His rookie year he only played in seven games, with 6 receptions for 73 yards. He didn't dress in several games as he struggled to adjust to the plays and receiving routes of the faster-paced professional game. This season was only slightly better: nine games (started one), 10 receptions, 119 yards. No disrespect, but Steve Smith gets that in a single game. I have to believe if Jarrett had stayed his final year in college, he could've improved his game. Instead, he struggled his rookie year in the pros, which has to have had a lingering psychological effect on him.

Nicks, I wish you luck. Though, I wish you'd stay. I'm not a Tar Heels fan, but I think you would be doing yourself and your team plenty of good by staying for your senior season.

I met Nicks in 2005 when he was a senior at Independence High School. I was writing a magazine feature on the Patriots' remarkable nation-leading win streak (it was 80-something straight wins at the time; the streak ended two years later at 109 games and seven state championships). While Independence has dominated Charlotte--and the state--high school football this decade, and has sent dozens of players to college teams (like quarterback Chris Leak who started for three and a half years at Florida and won the national championship in 2007), Nicks has the chance to become the most successful Independence alum in the NFL. His former high school teammate, wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, is also likely to be drafted this year. Massaquoi just completed his senior season at Georgia and it should be noted that he nearly doubled his receiving stats from the year before.

And lastly, I think this is what sealed the deal for Nicks. He enjoyed playing on the big stage. When North Carolina played West Virginia last month in the Meineke Car Care Bowl at Bank of America Stadium, Nicks had eight catches for a school bowl-record 217 yards and three touchdowns, including this unbelievable catch (see video below). And I know what a lot of local fans are going to start saying, that the Panthers should draft Nicks.

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