Tagliabue Has Message for Prep Team

Stressing the importance of perseverance and tolerance, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue visited Monday with members of the Dearborn Fordson High football team, which is 96% Arab American.

Tagliabue was accompanied by Detroit Lion General Manager Matt Millen. The two spent a half-hour talking to the team at the school, which was profiled on ESPN in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We are all very well aware of the issues today about pulling together in our society and respecting diversity,” said Tagliabue, in town for the Lion-Ram game. “The thing that struck me the most was that [Fordson players] have all of the top-notch characteristics of good football players. And they were committed to what they were doing, and understood hard work and teamwork. I told them, if they brought those same skills to the long-term that they would be all right with the challenges they face.”

Fordson players have endured taunts on the road before--students wearing towels on their heads, signs reading “No Camels”--but they said, in general, people have been friendly and sensitive toward them since the attacks. After starting the season 3-0, Fordson has not won since the first week of September, dropping to 3-3.

Two weeks ago, before a game against Wyandotte High, players from both teams met at the 50-yard line and held a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims. “Between administrations, players and coaches, the communication has been fantastic,” said Mark Shoosanian, Fordson’s athletic director. “Fans are sensitive to what’s going on. They realize that these were football players, and they’re also American citizens too.”