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BALTIMORE (JTA) — The rain dripping from his uniform provided an unceremonious end to London Fletcher’s career as the Washington Redskins linebacker headed to the locker room following a recent road loss to the New York Giants.
His team’s last-place finish was hardly the idealized final walk off the gridiron for Fletcher as a professional player.
But his 16-year National Football League career might never have launched were it not for Charlotte Kramer and Leonard Schwartz.
The Cleveland philanthropists first met Fletcher when he was a sixth-grader in the city’s East Madison Elementary School — one of 71 to whom the Jewish couple promised college tuition assistance. He would be the student they got to know the best.
Fletcher would graduate from John Carroll University; make the NFL as an undrafted free agent; star at linebacker for the St. Louis Rams, Buffalo Bills and Redskins; win one Super Bowl and compete in another; and play 256 consecutive games, fourth most in league history.
“I had the drive and determination, but the resources and opportunity they provided made it a lot more feasible,” Fletcher, speaking of the couple, told JTA in an interview two days after his final game. “Some of the things they exposed me to gave me more of a drive and hunger to succeed. I knew the way of life I wanted to have and what I needed to do to attain them.”
Fletcher, 38, seized on the opportunity to ultimately earn a life far beyond what his childhood seemed to offer. A Sports Illustrated profile last August described a string of family tragedies, including the rape and murder of his teenage sister in Fletcher’s Superior neighborhood, where crack cocaine and gunfire were prevalent.
Role models — notably the director of the local recreation center, where Fletcher excelled at basketball, and the mentoring couple — encouraged him to seek success.
Fletcher’s accomplishments are gratifying for Kramer, 94, who has maintained contact with him over the years but never attended any of his football games.
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