Poet Laureate of the 'hood', the inimitable Notorious B.I.G., stated in his song "Things Done Changed," that the only way to escape the ghetto was either to "sling crack rock or [have} a wicked jump shot." In this song he established a dichotomy, young black males only have a chance at riches by being a drug dealer or a star athlete. Today comes the news of a young man who tried to do both. Sam Hurd is, or I guess was, a wide receiver for the Chicago Bears, by way of the Dallas Cowboys. Hurd allegedly conspired with undercover agents to purchase 5 to 10 kilograms of Cocaine and 1000 pounds of marijuana. Moreover, this was to be a weekly arrangement. Hurd was selling a veritable cornucopia of drugs, that would make a consortium of Tony Montana, Keith Richards, Hunter Thompson, and Marion Berry, blush and probably remark that this guy had a problem.
Hurd was relatively low paid for the NFL making 685,000 dollars this year, though clearly that's a large amount of money. It's a sad and strange story, that only gets stranger now that police claim to have a laundry list of NFL players that bought drugs from Hurd. It's hard to speculate about what Hurd was thinking, in Biggie's paradigm, one's athletic gifts are a blessing that leads to not having to engage in the dangerous life of a drug dealer. But Hurd it seems embraced the life style, attempting to become a major drug distributor in a city rife with violent crime. Before this Hurd's life was a feel good story, an undrafted rookie free agent out of Northern Illinois, Hurd became an established NFL player. For whatever reason, playing in the NFL wasn't enough for Hurd, he wanted more, and it seems like instead of catching passes, his past caught him.
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