Adams: Graduation is better than a touchdown for Staley

Tennessee coaches told Maurice Staley he was blowing a great opportunity. Family members told him the same thing.

But he couldn't hear them for the roar of the crowd.

The crowd got in Staley's head early. It helped identify him as a football star by the time he was in the second grade. Every game, every season reinforced that self-image.

He scored three touchdowns in a game before he attended his first class as a high school sophomore in Charlotte, N.C. Blue Chip Illustrated rated him as the No. 1 receiver prospect before he signed with the University of Tennessee in 1994.

College wasn't a goal. It was a gateway.

One day, the gate would open and Staley would step into the NFL, where further stardom awaited. He had no doubts.

"No doubt at all," Staley said with a laugh.

The laugh reflects Staley's transformation. He will graduate from UT today, 14 years after he enrolled the first time.

"Attaining my degree is better than any touchdown I've ever scored," he said.

The degree means more because it comes from UT. It means he has finished what he started 14 years ago.

"I wanted to come back and face what I had done," Staley said. "When I looked at my transcript (upon his return to school in 2004), I was embarrassed. It was terrible."

Staley accomplished virtually nothing academically in his first two years at UT. He didn't live up to his recruiting billing as a football player, either.

After the 1995 season, in which he caught 25 passes for 307 yards, he was dismissed from UT following a positive drug test.

"Coach (Phillip) Fulmer told me it was an attitude thing," Staley said. "He said talent was never my problem. It was my off-the-field issues.

"I thought because of my talent somebody owed me something."

The dismissal from UT didn't change his mind. A year later, he tried out for the Carolina Panthers, still confident that his talent would prevail.

He said he impressed the Panthers by catching 150 passes without a drop in a tryout.

"But I was noncompliant, just as I was at UT," Staley said. "I had the audacity to take (the same attitude) from a university to the NFL business."

Staley never played a down in the NFL. He never scored another touchdown. And the crowd that once applauded him fell by the wayside.

"When you lose what you have identified with for so long, I can't even explain the void - the pain I felt," Staley said. "You feel like you don't know the person that stares back from in the mirror. All those people who were cheering you because you are an athlete, they're gone."

As stunning as that must have been, it didn't change Staley. He still partied and drank too much while working in a series of "dead-end" jobs.

But that didn't cure his deepening depression. And it didn't alter the reality of his failure. He had wasted his football ability.

"All I had been told by family and coaches - 'It's nobody's fault but yours' - was right," he said.

The self-realization was the first step toward a different life. He then reclaimed his Christian faith that his mother and step-father had introduced him to as a child.

"I guess you could say I had a 'burning bush' experience," he said. "It was just me and the Lord.

"The date was June 6, 2003. That's the last time I had a drink or any other mind-altering stuff."

A year later, he called Dan Carlson, the director of UT's RAC (Renewing Academic Commitment), which assists former student-athletes. Staley moved to Knoxville, got a full-time job at night and re-enrolled at UT as a part-time student. He also visited his former football coach.

"The first thing I did when I got back was talk to coach Fulmer," Staley said. "I told him that I respected him and loved him, and I thanked him for the opportunity to come back."

Staley's second UT experience has been nothing like his first.

Two years ago, he married Becki Wells, and they now have two small children. His transcript looks different, too. He will graduate today with a degree in psychology.

"And my family will be just as happy as if I had been drafted in the NFL," he said.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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