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Mark Richt & The Paul Oliver Network
Posted on 7/13/14 at 1:33 pm
Posted on 7/13/14 at 1:33 pm
quote:
It would be called the Paul Oliver Network, after the former defensive back who shot himself in front of his family the previous September, distraught about the end of his career.
And this is how the Paul Oliver Network is set to work:
Richt, Van Halanger and Greg Bingham (a former Georgia walk-on quarterback and now a staff member) are running the network, as far as connecting athletes. Rhonda Kilpatrick, an assistant athletics director, is helping with degree audits. Associate athletics director Carla Williams helps when it comes to getting former players back into school.
There’s also the group of businessmen in Atlanta whom Richt wants to remain anonymous. While Richt is happy to publicize what he and Georgia are doing, he is wary of people getting involved with the network just to get publicity. The group is helping to screen former players and help place them at job interviews.
In March there was a network event. More than 100 former players, including a couple who had been dismissed from the team, congregated at the team’s athletics facility. Players with successful post-football careers (Williams, David Greene, D.J. Shockley, etc.) mingled with ex-teammates needing a job.
Richt said for years he was helping players get jobs and go back to school, but it wasn’t organized and was more on an “as they come” basis. A former player would call him, and Richt or an adviser would put him in touch with someone they knew. But Richt found that often a former player needed more help than that.
Hence the network.
“I believe that the Georgia Bulldog nation is a real thing, and they love our guys, and they respect the guys that come through,” Richt said. “I tell (players), ‘If you come here, and you behave, and you play hard, there will be so many people who want to help you down the road, to just get started.’ So I want to tap into that in an organized fashion.”
Read more here: LINK
This post was edited on 7/13/14 at 1:40 pm
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Posted on 7/13/14 at 1:35 pm to undecided
Found the article courtesy of Reddit and thought it would be a nice break from all the arrest talk
IMO, all schools should have something like this set up. For the average person it can be difficult to network and reach out for help but for athletes who've essentially been isolated from traditional work force it is likely even more of a challenge.
IMO, all schools should have something like this set up. For the average person it can be difficult to network and reach out for help but for athletes who've essentially been isolated from traditional work force it is likely even more of a challenge.
This post was edited on 7/13/14 at 1:41 pm
Posted on 7/13/14 at 1:37 pm to undecided
I know a former player & I can attest that Richt was very influential in him getting into medical school. Smart kid...prolly would have gotten in anyway, but he does care abt them outside of football.
Posted on 7/13/14 at 1:42 pm to undecided
quote:
Found the article courtesy of Reddit and thought I would share as a peace offering
Thanks, undecided! Sometimes we get so worked up over pointing fingers and making accusations we forget about being civil and finding some nice things about our rivals.
I am just as guilty, and probably more guilty than most.
Posted on 7/13/14 at 1:44 pm to undecided
Very cool, thanks for posting.
Posted on 7/13/14 at 2:33 pm to undecided
IF I'm not mistaken doesn't Auburn have some type of program to help former players finish their degree. Maybe someone from the TIger fan base can post something about that.
Posted on 7/13/14 at 3:59 pm to undecided
Very cool. For all the banter back and forth about Richt, he truly is one of the good guys in the coaching world.
Posted on 7/13/14 at 4:13 pm to undecided
I remember a thread on this, but always glad to read about this stuff. Good to help the former players out this way and Kudos to Richt there
This post was edited on 7/13/14 at 4:14 pm
Posted on 7/13/14 at 4:14 pm to DawgsLife
quote:
I am just as guilty, and probably more guilty than most.
I like your posts
Posted on 7/13/14 at 4:16 pm to SpartyGator
REC being doing that for years. (Not a flame). It is a great way to do it
Posted on 7/13/14 at 4:17 pm to GurleyManandProud020
quote:
@EWall14: Cadillac Williams is back on campus, and he's just seven hours away from earning his degree. My story here: LINK …
We have a degree program setup. Cadillac is currently in school. However, I'm not sure of any network that assists players with obtaining jobs. Someone else may know?
This post was edited on 7/13/14 at 4:18 pm
Posted on 7/13/14 at 4:34 pm to undecided
Here's another very good article with a bunch of Quentin Moses & Danny Ware quotes from the ABH...
LINK
A few quotes from a long article which focuses a little more on Oliver, but still a lot about Richt's foundation. Turns out that Oliver had CTE...
LINK
A few quotes from a long article which focuses a little more on Oliver, but still a lot about Richt's foundation. Turns out that Oliver had CTE...
quote:
A week later, Georgia football coach Mark Richt huddled with some 40 or so former Georgia players after Oliver’s funeral at Burnt Hickory Baptist Church in Powder Springs. Richt vowed to make good on a promise he made to them when he recruited them, that he would take care of them while they were in Athens and afterwards.
“Coach Richt said that was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Des Williams, who played fullback for the Bulldogs. “He was really going to put some effort into helping us as former players.”
quote:
Chelsea Oliver started The Oliver Tree Foundation in Paul’s name.
It is focused on supporting youth, healthy living and supporting awareness and support research of CTE.
On a video on the website, Chelsea said her husband “did unfortunately have CTE” — Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a progressive degenerative disease of the brain that has been found in players with repetitive brain trauma. She mentions in the video that it’s caused by multiple concussions.
“When I talked to him, I never knew anything about that,” Ware said. “I knew he had went out and seen some doctors but I didn’t know as far as what it was for.”
CTE is associated with, among other things, depression, impaired judgment and impulse control problems, according to Boston University’s CTE Center.
Oliver is among 96 — including 48 former pro football payers — listed as brain tissue donors at the Sports Legacy Institute, a Boston-based non-profit founded in 2007 by former pro wrestler Chris Nowinski and Dr. Robert Cantu, a concussion expert.
Among those players is former Chicago safety Dave Duerson, former Atlanta safety Ray Easterling, former Philadelphia safety Andre Waters and former Denver receiver Kenny McKinley, all of whom committed suicide
Posted on 7/13/14 at 5:40 pm to dallasga6
Thanks for sharing. That was a good read from the players perspective
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