Rookies go back to class

NFL draftees visit PGA National for lessons on the pitfalls of fame.

PALM BEACH GARDENS — Charquez Giles, 10, looking forward to being 5 feet tall, scanned the hotel ballroom crowded with tall, wide and chiseled NFL rookies and said, "They're all so biggggg."

Charquez, a running back with the Riviera Beach Sharks, was one of 200 youth football players invited by the NFL on Tuesday to a special clinic.

But the ninth annual NFL Rookie Symposium is not aimed at kids. It's for the league's young professionals, who are learning the pitfalls that can go with sudden fame and big paychecks.

The four-day event at the PGA National Hotel and Conference Center ends today. All 255 players drafted in April attended, and a no-show meant a $50,000 fine. The rookies began their day at 7:30 a.m. and ended at 9:30 p.m.

"Really, I'm not surprised how hard this is because other players told me," said running back Carnell Williams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' first-round pick. "But it's really good hearing from (former) players like Cris Carter, things they've been through."

The warnings are detailed and can be surprising.

"Identity theft, it's unbelievable how someone could do that and ruin your credit," Williams said. "And HIV, it's wild how that can happen."

The NFL's teachers are a mix of current players along with Hall of Famers such as Willie Brown and Donnie Shell. Outside experts, such as professors from the Wharton School of Business, also were brought in.

"You come to realize that common sense is not that common," said Mike Haynes, Hall of Fame Class of '97, who is the NFL's vice president of player and employee development.

The rookies, he said, "find that here there's a lot to learn. We want guys to have the right information. HIV is a serious sexual illness that can be avoided with the right information.

"The NFL is not in its rookie season. A lot of issues guys have been dealing with for 50 years. But not identity theft and HIV. We don't want someone to be able to say, 'I didn't know that could happen.' "

The NFL begins by telling its newest players what to wear to "classes."

Paul Lomartire

By Michael Fabiano
Senior Fantasy Writer