BATON ROUGE, La. – Baton Rouge native Marcus Spears found a path to success at Louisiana State University, not just on the football field, but also in the classroom.
A consensus first team All-America selection in 2004, Spears left the program as one of the most respected defensive linemen ever to play for LSU. In 2005, this success parlayed that stay into a first round NFL draft pick in 2005, where he spent eight years with the Dallas Cowboys.
On Tuesday, Spears traveled back to Death Valley to speak with a group of LSU’s current football freshman, during their daily “SWAG” or “Students with a Game Plan” programming, an initiative designed to have rich discussions concerning character development and personal development issues and concerns. His message to the student-athletes focused on the process of becoming the best player, student and whatever they wanted to be in their respective futures.
“It was a different time when I was walking this campus,” Spears said. “You are dealing with a lot more, especially with social media.”
He explained to the group that you have to always “be on.” When the camera is on you are talking to the people that are next to you, but you have to realize that millions of people are also watching you.
Spears loves to watch LSU since he has left and explains that although there are up and downs with different team members and coaches, every decision that is made will determine what is next in their futures.
Growing up in south Baton Rouge was not easy for Spears. He told the student-athletes that much like them he came from a single-parent household and only had football. He knew that was his ticket out and to help his family. His dream was to get out of what he came from and make sure that his mom never had to work again. This is when he began to stress that every connection he made has been a step in the process to make his dream a reality.
“I had conflict when there was a demand for greatness from me,” Spears said. “My sole purpose for coming to LSU was to make it to the NFL. I thought about the league every single day. I believed all the people here were against me, but they were only a part of the process.”
Spears stressed the importance of understanding “the process.” He wished he understood that when he was younger. He always asked himself how he could beat the system, but then realized that C’s don’t make it.
“Average people get lost and left – especially in the NFL,” Spears said.
Spears came to LSU to change the course of his family history. He credits this to Anthony “Booger” McFarland, former LSU first team All-American guard. McFarland told Spears that you come to LSU to change the course of your family history. Since that day, Spears has admired McFarland.
“Life is not a quick fix, life is a hustle, and it’s a grind,” Spears said. “You must enjoy the process.”
Spears told the group that they do not have to like what they do every day.
“I didn’t like camp, I didn’t like working out early, I didn’t like the academic center then, but now, I realize how much that all changed my life.
For Spears in this setting, he feels that the wisdom he could impart would go further here than if it were done on the gridiron.
“This is what highlights my life, to be able to come back and talk with you 10 years later,” Spears explains. “It means more to me to come and talk to you about this stuff than it does for me to stand on the practice field.”
Jamal Adams, a safety from Carrollton, Texas, could relate to Spears’ speech, as his aspirations and goals were very similar at the end of the presentation.
“I took a lot from what Marcus said,” Adams, said. “We come to LSU with the same intentions. We want to make it, but there are times were we might not understand the process.”
Wide receiver Malachi Dupre, also a Louisiana native from New Orleans, was able to see the similarities between what Spears dealt with nearly 10 years ago, and what current players go through now.
“Although Marcus was here a long time ago, he still understands what we have gone through,” Dupre said. “We are here to get our education and play football, and I feel that LSU puts us in a great situation for whatever it is that we want to be successful in.”
It is very apparent that enter to learn and leave to serve is one of the most applicable keys to success and a motto that serves the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes well.
The Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes is a 54,000 square foot facility comprised of an academic affairs, student affairs and an information technology team, serving more than 530 student-athletes. The purpose is to provide an all-inclusive, student-centered support structure for all student-athletes from matriculation, through graduation and life beyond.