I would love to know the decision making process on this one. If you didn't catch this in the Golden Nuggets Thursday morning, a report from KPIX came out about how former San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald was invited to speak to Hayward High School students about self control.
Yes, you read that right.
Oh, but it gets better. The speech was to at-risk students.
In case you forgot or have been living under a rock, McDonald has been investigated and arrested multiple times, for domestic violence and sexual assault which led to his mid-season release from the 49ers and later, the Chicago Bears. His latest arrest, violating a restraining order, happened in May of last year. So not even a year has gone by and this guy is speaking about self control.
I'll play devil's advocate for a second and remind everyone that McDonald is certainly innocent until proven guilty. Given his rap sheet that began not even two years ago, there's a small chance that innocence is on a timer. That said, guilty or not guilty, how the hell can a high school, located in the Bay Area of all places, with students that have no doubt heard of at least one of McDonald's arrests, even think of bringing this guy in to give an inspirational speech about life, let alone talk about self discipline?
Here's a better question: How can the school's students take this guy seriously? You'd be better served grabbing one of those lame motivational speakers wearing loud clothing and having zero charisma than this guy. Did McDonald even bother taking questions at the end? Someone could ask, "How's your case working out?" to which McDonald can reply, "Which one?"
Come to think of it, even if it was clarified to 2015 alone, McDonald could again say, "Which one?"
If this was five years later and he was talking about past mistakes, it may be a different story. Unfortunately, McDonald isn't even a year removed from charges concerning an apparent lack of self control. In fact, his trial starts in a month. Apparently, I'm not the only one who thought this was terrible because the superintendent wrote a letter to parents basically saying, "Yeah, our bad."
To be fair, McDonald appeared courtesy of the Drop Out Prevention program, and the school may have had no idea who was speaking until McDonald wandered the hallways. Sometimes these programs don't even advertise what high-profile name they'll bring in and some are so small they will take whatever is available. How this was worked out is probably going to remain a mystery.
I guess in McDonald's situation, he'll take whatever speaking gig he can get. What do you think? Should McDonald be speaking to high schools given his current situation?