By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Donte Stallworth made the biggest mistake of his life when he got behind the wheel of his car and killed a man while legally impaired by alcohol. On Monday at the Carson Student-Athlete Center, he begged Sun Devils student-athletes and staff to avoid the same mistake.
"Not a day goes by where I don't think about what happened," Stallworth said in the packed Dutson Theater. "It happened because of a simple decision I made."
Stallworth, a former NFL receiver who played 10 pro seasons with six teams, was a guest speaker in Sun Devil Athletics' Championship Life Program, designed to educate and prepare student-athletes for life beyond athletics. Stallworth addressed incoming student-athletes, the football team, the baseball team and Sun Devil Athletics staff members in separate talks.
The goal of Championship Life Program director Paul Randolph is to implement a number of initiatives and provide individual success plans for each student-athlete including:
· Tip of the Fork – A leadership and service certificate program through ASU's College of Public Programs (students fulfill more than 100 hours of community service, and design and implement a local leadership initiative)
· Red Carpet Launch – Graduating seniors meet with representatives from a variety of diverse organizations and skill development programs, including career services, graduate school and personal finance.
· Senior Finance Seminar - Student-athletes learn how to manage their money including what a budget is, why it is important to save for retirement and an overview of what a 401k is, as well as useful information on how to fill out new hire paperwork and tax forms
Other programs include the Sun Devil Career/Faculty Mentoring Program, the New Student-Athlete Orientation, the Sun Devil for Life Kick-Off Event, Résumé Workshops and Summer Transitioning.
Among the topics new student-athletes discussed over the most recent-two day program were the myriad resources available at ASU to help student-athletes, the expectations for their conduct, the perils of social media and the dangers of drugs such as alcohol.
"I can not even begin to list all the things I took away from this," freshman gymnast Justine Callis said. "Listening and actually putting into practice everything that was told to us the past two days is the most important part. I think 80 percent of the dangers we talked about could be avoided by just not drinking, smoking or doing drugs. It's just not worth it."
It was March 14, 2009, when Stallworth, then a receiver for the Cleveland Browns, took a call from a friend in Miami, asking Stallworth to join him for drinks. Stallworth showered, dressed, and took his Bentley to the Fontainebleau hotel, about 15 minutes away from home, where he says he had four shots.
He drove home afterward, slept until 7 a.m., woke up hungry and decided to drive to the News Café, 15 minutes away. That's when he struck and killed Mario Reyes, 59, around 7 a.m. on a busy causeway that connects Miami and Miami Beach. Reyes was heading to a bus stop.
Stallworth was suspended for the 2009 NFL season, he served 30 days in prison for DUI manslaughter and he lost the seven-year $35 million contract he had just signed with Cleveland, but that is not the loss he says still haunts him.
"I'm still here. Mr. Reyes is not," he said. "Mr. Reyes, at the time, had a 15-year-old daughter; his only child. She graduated from high school. He wasn't there. She graduated from college. He wasn't there. If she gets married, he won't be there to walk her down the aisle. If she has children, they won't know their grandfather. He won’t be able to hold his grandchildren… because of a decision I made."
Stallworth implored student-athletes to ponder the consequences of every action they take. He told them not to waste the incredible opportunity an ASU education affords them.
His message clearly had an effect on the student-athletes, who sat in attentive silence, and then asked questions afterward until they ran out of time.
"We're all part of a family here so we want to be safe and we want to be smart," freshman hockey player David Jacobson said afterward. "It's hard. There's a lot of temptations and what we learned from Donte Stallworth is that temptation is always going to be there.
"The mentally strong student-athletes are going to be the more successful people because they're going to be the ones that stay away from those temptations."
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