TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

USF's Walker Tackles Use Of N-Word In Locker Room

ADVERTISEMENT

By BRETT McMURPHY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 17, 2007

Updated: 10/17/2007 12:11 am

TAMPA - These days the only N-word being thrown around the University of South Florida is 'national championship.'

Last season that wasn't always the case. At least not until Walter Walker spoke up.

After reading a column about the use of the N-word in society, specifically in athletic locker rooms, by ESPN.com's LZ Granderson, Walker decided to do something about it.

He said he would no longer tolerate the use of the N-word by his USF teammates.

'I felt if I didn't do it, I would somehow be found derelict of my responsibilities as a citizen of humanity,' said Walker, a 6-foot-5, 333-pound senior right tackle for No. 2 ranked USF.

'To step up in front of your peers and say what's right and wrong, it takes a lot of courage,' USF senior Nick Capogna said. 'Especially dealing with guys with high egos. He's not a talker, but his presence demands respect.'

Added defensive tackle Richard Clebert: 'I admire him for having the power and motivation to stand up and say that's not right. We need to stop doing it.'

After reading Granderson's column, Walker discussed it with offensive line coach Greg Frey and then with some of his teammates.

'Being a sociology major, these things are close to my heart,' Walker said. 'These issues of humanity, the human condition, I think ought to be important to everyone.

'We live here. We are human. To treat or say things to somebody just because they don't look like you, these kind of issues are important and I felt in my heart, God placed in it my heart to say something.'

Walker sent an e-mail to Granderson, stating that he and his teammates not only would stop using the N-word but remove it from their vocabulary. It was among more than 5,000 e-mails Granderson said he received.

'But when I got Walt's e-mail, it shook me to the core,' Granderson said.

Harry Edwards, the well-known sports psychologist and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, said Walker showed a great deal of courage.

'What he's going against is a youth culture phenomenon that is reinforced from rap video and rap records to common parlance on the street,' Edwards said. 'He's saying 'I'm going against that tsunami of culture direction and substance.' That took a tremendous amount of courage, a degree of independent thinking.'

Clebert considers Walker one of his closest friends. Last year Clebert remembers struggling through a two-a-day practice under the blazing Florida sun.

'I Look Up To Him'

'It was one of the hardest things I've been through,' Clebert said. 'I was praying for rain and Walt said 'don't pray for that. Ask God for a stronger back so you can carry your load instead of complaining like that.'

'Walt is always positive. I look up to him spiritually and mentally when I'm down. I go to him and he helps me through a lot of things.'

A month after Walker's decision, the Bulls played in the PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala.

He toured the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute with USF teammate Marc Dile and Frey and they met two men who once marched with Martin Luther King Jr.

'It was a nice and fitting moment for Walter and Marc,' said Frey, now the offensive line coach at West Virginia. 'They met some people that represented what he did in his life. It's nice to see that correlation. The bowl trip wrapped it up in a package.'

Frey and Clebert said Walker changed the music he listened to and what he watched on television. He didn't, however, change his attitude on the field.

'He's one of the nicest guys in the world,' Clebert said. 'But you don't want to make him mad.'

Walker, 23, said what he loves most about football is the 'grind.'

'That's what I'm here for, just going out and working,' he said. 'I don't know how to explain it. Playing offensive line, you don't get touchdowns, you don't get tackles, you learn to appreciate putting your 'Riddell' helmet into somebody's chin and seeing him fly back.

'When you square up, you see the defensive player, he sees you, you're running straight down and you run them over, that's all we get. That's a great feeling.'

Walker said he hasn't heard the use of the N-word much.

'The type of people we have on the team, you don't worry about it too much,' Walker said. 'You don't hear it like you would out on the street.

'We treat each other with the utmost respect. You don't hear people running around like, 'hey what's up...' Our team does a good job watching what they say to each other so they don't step on toes because we all have to play together.

'You don't want the man next to you thinking he doesn't respect you.'

Granderson Roots For Walker

Edwards, who sent a letter in February to the NFL and NBA commissioners asking that the N-word be banned from professional sports locker rooms and playing fields, agrees with Walker.

'You can have a racial divide, a fence, right down the middle of the locker room,' Edwards said. 'It won't work when you have black guys who can say certain things and white guys who can't.'

Granderson wrote about Walker's e-mail on ESPN.com. Several individuals wrote him to say they were moved by Walker's actions and they would do that in their own lives.

Granderson said he is a University of Michigan fan, but he's also now a big USF Bulls and Walter Walker fan.

'To take that to his teammates shows a tremendous amount of leadership,' Granderson said. 'How can you not root for a guy like that?'

To read LZ Granderson's original column go TBO.com, Keyword: Bulls Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT