Warren Moon Hopes Current NFL Players Don't Repeat His Mistakes

During much of his 23-year Hall of Fame career as a quarterback in the Canadian Football League and the NFL, Warren Moon kept his inner turmoil simmering beneath a poised, polished exterior.

As a trailblazing African-American quarterback, he tackled racism and stereotyping to hone a wildly successful playing career. But Moon never shook the psychological burden of becoming man of his household at age seven when his father died of liver disease, and forever feeling he had to financially provide for a huge family that included his mother, six sisters and other relatives.

Ultimately, Moon's personal demons wouldn't hide forever. As his playing career wound down, years of pent-up pressure, stress, frustration and anger led the popular NFL star to make news off the field -- embarrassing, troubling arrests for domestic violence and DUI that led him to undergo years of therapy and renewed accountability to his family, friends and those who idolize him.

"There is a lot on your plate for professional athletes -- the pressure to perform, to provide for your family, friends, everyone -- that a lot that people don't really know,'' said Moon, 52, who talks about his life, career and his myriad personal mistakes in a new book, Never Give Up on Your Dream: My Journey, co-written with Don Yaeger. "Eventually, if you're not careful or not aware of what's happening, it can come out and destroy you."

Moon told FanHouse he hopes his personal tale of the pitfalls that often accompany athletic success can serve a cautionary tale for young NFL players. And there are plenty of guys who can use this life lesson.

Thursday, former NFL running back Travis Henry was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in a cocaine trafficking ring. And how's this for a damning character trait -- Henry also is universally reviled for his admission that he can't afford child support for the 11 kids he has fathered with 10 different women.

On Monday, former Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who remains under indefinite suspension by the NFL, will begin life as a free man when his two months of home confinement ends. Vick served 19 months in federal prison after being convicted of financing a dogfighting operation.

"Doing time in the pen" isn't part of the NFL experience, but off-field mayhem often is. From Donte' Stallworth's guilty plea to DUI manslaughter after striking and killing a Miami pedestrian with his Bentley, to Plaxico Burress' gun charges, to soon-to-be-inducted Hall of Famer Bruce Smith's DUI conviction last month, these incidents assume their sorry place in what's become an NFL Hall of Shame.

"There are plenty of young guys that I'd like to grab around the collar and shake some sense into them,'' Moon said. "A lot of those guys are going through probably the same stuff I was, at that time.

"I probably wish someone would have shook me."

As a player, Moon largely maintained a stoic demeanor on the field and a quiet life off of it. He was respected as a model athlete, husband and father, and revered as a role model.

That sterling reputation quickly unraveled one awful night in 1995, when Moon and his wife, Felicia, were involved in a widely publicized domestic violence incident at their Texas home.

Although acquitted by a jury of charges that he punched, scratched and choked his wife in a physical dispute over credit cards, and despite Felicia's controversial pleas that prosecutors abandon the case before it went to trial, the Moon family remains haunted by that incident.

"My wife and I had our squabble; that's the biggest negative of my career, personally,'' Moon said. "We dealt with that as well as we possibly could, and I made sure I took steps to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. She did the same thing, because we were both fault. It was just a very public situation because of who we were at the time."

Later, two 2007 DUI stops in Washington that led to admissions of guilt in court, but reduced sentences for negligent driving, would tarnish his image further.

"I went to dinner and had a few drinks. I made a mistake but I thought everything was overblown,'' said Moon, who still believes the DUI charges were unwarranted since he tested under the limit in the first stop and was arrested for refusing field sobriety and breathalyzer tests in the other.

Still, Moon knows his fans and the public will not forget, nor will many forgive, these personal blemishes.

"Once you're in the news for something like that, it's hard to erase,'' Moon admitted.

Former eight-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Cris Carter knows all about demons. He battled alcohol and cocaine addictions that nearly derailed his 16-year NFL career, but he resurrected his life and image to win the Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 1999 and a spot on the NFL's 1990's All-Decade Team.

During the 2009 NFL Rookie Symposium earlier this month, Carter tore into the incoming class of NFL stars after one of them -- still unnamed -- fell asleep during his fiery speech about the challenges they face trying to earn a living "in a grown man's league."

Carter recalled seeing Burress, Vick, Ryan Leaf (indicted in May on one count of burglary and eight drug-related counts associated with the narcotic painkiller hyrocodone) and Adam "Pacman" Jones (trouble ad nauseum) in the audience at his previous "avoid the pitfalls" lectures to rookies.

"Every one of 'em said, 'You know something, Cris? It ain't gonna be me,' '' Carter recounted.

Moon hopes that Carter's powerful words got through to these incoming NFL players, and he wants his message to do the same.

He offers some simple advice to the younger, wealthier breed of NFL stars as these players negotiate their way through challenging playing careers and equally challenging personal choices.

"Watch the people who are around you and the people you associate with and hang out with,'' Moon cautioned. "A lot of times these are the guys you grew up with, that you don't want to turn your back on. But those guys aren't going in the same direction as you.

"These young players, these guys, really need to pay attention who they associate with and where they associate, the places they hang out. If they eliminate those two things, for the most part, they're gonna be OK."