By Lisa Zimmerman, Player Engagement Insider
In 2015 Washington Redskins right tackle Morgan Moses, a 2014 third-round NFL Draft pick, launched the Morgan Moses Foundation. The mission of the foundation is “to motivate children through educational activities.” Moses himself learned the hard way that not giving appropriate attention to education can derail goals and impact the potential for success. His objective now is to reach out to others like him and help them avoid some of the pitfalls he encountered.
A native of Virginia, Moses was a standout high school player at Meadowbrook High School in North Chesterfield just outside of Richmond, but unfortunately, he was not a standout in the classroom, and it had nothing to do with his intellect.
“It was never that I couldn’t learn or had the capacity to learn,” Moses said. “I went to a school that was primarily a sports school and all that mattered was sports. I found out the hard way that sports don’t take care of anything.”
Moses points to teenage immaturity and a lack of supervision to contributing to his issues. His parents tried to be vigilant, but they worked long hours running the family’s limousine company and Moses learned how to get away with things, especially when no one at his school was setting any limits or holding him accountable for any of his actions off the field.
“At the age of 15 if you can get away with stuff, you get away with it,” he said. “I was able to come to school late, leave when I wanted to leave. No one ever sat down and talked to me and told me that, hey you’re blowing a chance. There’s not much coaches can really do. They’re not there during the time period you’re in school.”
Moses received his first college offer to play football in the ninth grade and dozens of others followed, but his academic record became a barrier. Among the schools recruiting him was the University of Virginia but academically he wasn’t going to be eligible with his high school grades. Moses realized he needed to do everything he could to get himself back on track. He enrolled at Fork Union Military Academy, his grades went up and after graduating he entered Virginia where he ultimately became one of the stalwarts of their offensive line.
He also embraced his academic career, graduating with not one, but two Bachelors’ degrees in African American Studies and Anthropology and he did it in just three-and-a-half years.
Early on he stopped going home during school breaks and instead invited his friends to come up and spend time with him at Virginia.
“I was smart enough to know in the summer if I went home I was going to get into stuff. So I stayed the summer and took classes. When I wanted to see my friends they came up and hung out with me. I knew if I went home trouble was going to find me.
It was during college that Moses knew he wanted to find a way to help other kids who were in a similar situation that he had been in and whose circumstances might prevent them from reaching their full potential.
“One of the things that made me start my foundation is I got tired of seeing highly talented people without someone to push them or someone who cares,” Moses said. “It allowed me to focus on the bigger picture. There are so many kids who have the talent and they’re screaming for help. Being a teenager is the hardest part of life. You’re trying to fit in with people and you’re trying to do other things at the same time, be cool. If you had somebody who made it and sat down and told you their story, they’d say, I went through the same thing.”
Moses now has three children of his own, so the issue has become even more personal. For now, he is focusing his attention on children in Virginia with a strong emphasis on his Meadowbrook High, but he hopes to slowly branch out.
For Moses, being able to set himself on a better path to now have the opportunities afforded by being in the NFL is not lost on him and it reinforces his commitment to positively impacting as many others as he can.
“Our jobs as athletes all around is to be able to give back in some kind of way because you never know how close in life their story is to yours.”
Lisa Zimmerman is a long-time NFL writer and reporter. She was the Jets correspondent for CBSSports.com, SportsNet New York’s TheJetsBlog.com and Sirius NFL Radio. She has also written for NFL.com.