Riverdale hooks up with NFL stars

A room of about 30 Riverdale High School students hooked up via teleconference with schools in about 9 different states south of the border and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio to listen to former NFL stars Ken Houston and Doug Williams talk about the importance of working hard to achieve their goals earlier this morning. "There are no more excuses not to succeed," Williams said to the both the auditorium in front of him and the virtual crowds watching from across the continent, citing the example of the first black U.S. president, Barack Obama, as something anyone can aspire to.

Williams, who now works as a scout co-ordinator with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, broke a few barriers down himself when he became the NFL's first black quarterback to lead a team to Super Bowl victory in 1982.

In their broadcast message to watching students, both Williams and Houston emphasized the importance of discipline and hard work to succeed in any endeavour. "You have got to go to college to get an education," Houston, a former defensive back for the Washington Redskins, said to the students, even if they intend only to pursue dreams of playing professional football.

Williams insisted on the importance of leading a clean lifestyle, stating nobody who parties around too much and ignores their school work will be able to be a quarterback in the NFL.

He added the NFL is known to use private investigators to look into the lifestyle of potential recruits. "They know who your mom is, your dad is, where you hang out, that Hershey's bar you stole at the store, they know everything," he said, to much laughter around the room.

Riverdale's community co-ordinations officer Otis Grant told The Chronicle he was made aware of the teleconference opportunity through LEARN, a non-profit educational organization that works with English-language schools throughout Quebec.

Grant said he then got different teachers at Riverdale to select students they best thought would benefit from the day’s event.