Remember in elementary school when the science teachers would ask the students to conduct a very simple experiment to show the difference between nature and nurture. The student would take two seeds and plant them in separate cups of dirt. One would be placed in the window, the other in a closet. Both would be watered on a consistent basis to maintain a control in the experiment. At the end of the experiment the seed in the window would grow to be a healthy spouting seedling, while the seed in the closet would grow to be a flawed seedling with very little color (aka chlorophyll).

Due to the healthy seedling’s normal exposure it was allowed to sprout, while the flawed seedling’s lack of sunlight hindered the ability to produce adequate chlorophyll. Basically, in the window nature took its course. In the closet, by the student withholding sunlight the seed developed flaws.

What do seeds have to do with sports, besides being spat out in dugouts? Well, that experiment showcases the very essence of nature vs. nurture.

This week, two very talented players were suspended in the NFL: Adam “Pacman” Jones and Chris Henry. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, along with a special six-man committee of players, decided that their frequent encounters with the law would no longer be tolerated. Jones, who has had 10 encounters with the police, received a one-year suspension, and Henry, arrested four times between December 2005 and June 2006, received an eight-game suspension. Jones and Henry are just footnotes in a more concerning issue in the NFL.   

It’s easy for white executives, rich corporations and many of the average NFL fans to look at these suspensions as a racial issue, and to some degree, they are. The truth is, many black athletes do not have access to happy upbringings, good schools, strong father figures. They lack the proper nurturing they’ll need to grow into a healthy adult, and that manifests itself in incidents such as the ones that landed Henry and Jones in hot water.

USA Today published an article last week that depicted how many NFL players were arrested in 2006. Naturally, the article was the headline for the sports section. So, just like with any headline, pictures were used. However, like the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words, and the pictures for this article made a bold statement. The pictures represented the stereotypical demographic in today’s prisons and penitentiaries: Young + black males = crime.

Now USA Today was not purposely trying to make black males or the NFL look bad; it simply stated the facts. The majority of the criminals caught and tried are African American males. However, the key statement in the last sentence is caught and tried. Nothing against any other race, but most African Americans don’t have trust funds set up by daddies to protect them. Many may not even have a relationship with their father or even know who he is. According to an article in the May 2005 issue of Essence, nearly 40 percent of black women are raising their children without a father.

Just like the seed in the closet you have deprived a child of a very essential proponent needed to mature into a well adjusted adult. Now, the seed in the closet grew, but it had flaws.

What if the student put the flawed seedling into the sunlight the next week and placed the healthy seedling in the closet. The results would be same. The flawed seed would slowly but surely gain the strength needed to mature; while the healthy seed would begin to grow weaker. However, that one week of sunlight does not correct all of the flawed seed’s problems; on the other hand, the loss of sunlight for one week does not hinder the healthy seed from producing more chlorophyll when it receives adequate sunlight. In order for the flawed seed to become as mature as the healthy seed, it needs to be nurtured continuously, until the seed is on equal footing as the healthy seed.
 

So, giving a young black male millions of dollars does not reverse the effects of not having a father figure to look up to. It was not the poverty that shaped the young man; it was nature. His environment was his father figure. Some black athletes are blessed to find coaches, like the late, great Eddie Robinson, who understood that you did not have to be a product of your environment. The statistic that is commonly thrown out when you speak about Robinson is that he sent about 200 players to the NFL; however, the aspect does not get much attention is that 85 percent of his athletes graduated. Eighty-five percent of roughly 4,000 players is 3,400.

What if … the Titans had recognized that Jones needed to be surrounded by nurturing individuals like his college and high school coaches had realized? In a recent interview with ESPN, Jones’s strength coach at West Virginia stated that he saw that Jones needed to be surrounded by positive influences to remind him to stay on the right path. And what do you know – it worked. He had only one incident in which he beat a fellow student with a pool stick, but after that incident the coach placed him on a tighter leash (placing him on a one-year suspension) and Jones went on to excel on the field and in the classroom as well, making the honor roll and achieving all-conference honors.

Now assaulting a fellow student with a pool stick is not exactly manners the queen would condone, but does anybody know what the dispute was over? No one has asked what made Jones explode that day. No one took into consideration the environment in which he came from. Jones lived in an urban setting a lot longer than he lived in a collegiate setting. And his urban setting was not any different than the other “ghettos.” Every day was struggle for him to survive. The only way to survive in the concrete jungle is to possess and use good instincts. The ironic twist of Jones’ story is that his instincts are what make him such a good player, but they also negatively impact his character, weighing him down like an albatross.   

Now, the fact that all of Jones’ high school and college coaches have nothing but good things to say about him should not shock anyone. Jones used his athletic prowess to levitate himself out of his environment in an attempt to better himself. Along the way there were plenty of coaches who took him under their arm and nurtured the young man because they knew he was a smart and talented individual that could do better with his life. People who genuinely help others do not help because they know the person can’t make it; they help because that person can.  
 
Does the punishment fit the crime? Actually it is a little excessive, but everything happens for a reason. If Jones really wants to play in the NFL, he will use this consequence as an eye opener. Instead of believing that the suspension is closing the door on his career, he should realize that it is actually opening it. He can get all of his legal affairs in order, work on his community service hours, and shed his albatross (friends who don’t have his best interest in mine).

By the time reinstatement comes around, he can walk into the commissioner’s office a changed man. No longer will the commissioner see a bad seed that looked like it would grow into a weed that needed to be snuffed, but a budding seed that is ready to show the world that positive and effective nurturing can trump nature any day.