Baltimore Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb is a prime example of not letting adversity ruin opportunities.
Once dismissed from the Southern Mississippi football team for violating team rules after failing a drug test for marijuana, Webb blossomed at Nicholls State and wound up being an NFL third-round draft pick.
Last season, he came back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered against the Chicago Bears during his rookie year.
As a child growing up in Opelika, Ala., Webb had to deal with extremely difficult circumstances in his own home.
His mother was addicted to crack cocaine. His father was an alcoholic. And his older brother was imprisoned for armed robbery when Webb was a senior in high school.
Both his parents are clean now, but his brother remains in jail. And Webb is a single father who just conducted his first youth football camp in his hometown a few days ago.
Along with Ravens nose guard Terrence Cody and Detroit Lions safety Louis Delmas, Webb provided football instruction and counseled nearly 250 Opelika youngsters.
“It’s great,” Webb said. “A lot of kids don’t have the means to get what they need, and I want to give them support and have them look at me and say they can do anything they want. I love kids, anything to do with kids. I want them to know that the sky’s the limit. It’s real.”
Webb, 25, placed a lot of the focus at his camp on emphasizing staying out of trouble and doing well in school.
“I want it to be mostly about life,” Webb said. “My objective is to keep the kids off the streets. I want to find a Boys and Girls club in Baltimore that I can support. I’ve been around Baltimore and they’re aren’t too many places they can play.
“I’m from Alabama. We have all kind of green grass to play on. These kids are out on the corner and on the streets. When you’re out on the corner and on the streets, you can run into trouble. If I can get them off the streets and into these programs, I want to help at least one child. That’s all I want to do is change somebody’s life.”
Webb came back from the knee injury last season and recorded a career-high 54 tackles and two interceptions.
Webb would like to launch an after-school program in Opelika and get even more involved in the Baltimore community going forward.
“I’m going to start in my town, I’m from the country,” Webb said. “We don’t have a Boys and Girls club. I want one in my hometown, so the kids can have something else to do.”
