ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 4, 1996 TAG: 9610040002
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEITH POMPEY STAFF WRITER
AFTER TURBULENT TIMES at Hampton University, Rob Majors has returned to Roanoke to excel for the Rush.
There's not a day that Rob Majors doesn't second-guess his decision to attend Hampton University.
Hampton is a fine school with a strong football program, but the Roanoke Rush defensive back also had a chance to play for Virginia Tech.
``If I would have done that, I would probably be playing in the NFL right now,'' said the William Fleming High School alumnus. ``But back then I wanted to get away from home. I was tired of this area. And some of my [high school] coaches told me it would be nice to go to a historically black college.''
While attending Hampton on a track and field scholarship, Majors went astray and the closest he came to playing in the NFL was the Arena Football League.
Majors, 29, still plays football. He and his Rush teammates face the Charleston (W.Va.) Rockets in a National Minor League Football regular-season finale Saturday night at Victory Stadium. The winner claims the South-Atlantic division title.
Majors also is a counselor at the West End Center inner-city youth program, where he works to serve as a positive role model for youngsters.
Back in 1985, Hampton seemed like the perfect program for Majors. The Pirates were looking for a track star, and Majors fit the bill. The 5-foot-10, 200-pounder was one of the top high school long-jumpers in the nation. His Group AAA meet record of 24 feet, 9 inches stills stands. And Hampton said he also could play football.
Majors, however, became more of a troublemaker than a student-athlete. He joined a campus gang known as the Really Rottens and was suspended from school twice.
``We had a big name around,'' Majors said of the Really Rottens. ``But you rarely saw us in class. It got to the point where [Hampton] was a party school for me.''
Majors said he tried just about anything.
``I was even influenced to smoke a joint,'' Majors said. ``I didn't try crack or any crazy stuff like that, but I tried cocaine. It was laced in a cigarette. I guess I was kind of peer-pressured.''
If somebody looked at him the wrong way, Majors would throw him up against the nearest wall and pound some respect into him, he said.
During his first semester, Majors punched a delivery man in an attempt to steal a pizza.
``It was just a little thing we did on the weekends,'' Majors said. ``This time I was identified'' and suspended from school.
Not long after returning to campus, on the last day of summer classes, Majors beat up a girl's boyfriend when the boyfriend ``got mad because of the way we were dancing at a party.''
``I had to defend myself, so I did whatever it took to win the battle,'' he said.
The incident resulted in another suspension from Hampton - this one for two years.
That could have been the end of Majors' story, but he turned it into the beginning of another chapter.
``By looking at Rob now, you wouldn't know that was the same person,'' said Martinsburg, W.Va., attorney Keith Wheaton, a former Hampton classmate. ``I saw him a couple of weeks ago in Books-A-Million, and he's changed a lot. He has really calmed down.''
The conversion from gangster to choirboy started when Majors came home and worked for a year. He then accepted a football scholarship to Concord College in Athens, W.Va.
Although he never had heard of the NAIA school, Majors took the offer because he wanted to repay his parents for not turning their backs on him.
``I was trying to be a productive young man, instead of someone who no one wanted to be around,'' Majors said. ``After a while, I fit right in.''
While at Concord, Majors was an NAIA Division I All-American and was voted the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's defensive player of the year in 1991. That earned him tryouts with the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants and New York Jets.
``The scouts said that I had the speed and the ability to play in the NFL,'' said Majors, who was 24 at the time. ``They just didn't want to take a chance on my age. They said, `We can get a 21-year-old guy that can play three or four more years after you.'''
But Majors wouldn't give up on his dream.
In 1993, he signed with the Charlotte Rage of the Arena League as a defensive specialist. With Charlotte, he was playing pro football. It wasn't the NFL, but he still enjoyed first-class treatment.
The following season, Majors played for the St.Louis Stampede, still hoping to impress the scouts. But, at 26, it was too late.
So, Majors settled for being a quarterback's nightmare in NMLF. He has nine interceptions in eight games, including one he returned for a touchdown.
"I think Rob can still play in the [NFL]," Rush teammate Elvis Dudley said. "He has all the tools - size and speed."
Roanoke coach Duke Strager agreed.
"He was a NAIA All-American at Concord College," said Strager. "He got national recognition and a tryout with the pros. Rob has just been one or two plays from getting called up."
Receiving praises like that, Majors might keep second guessing his decision for years to come.
``If I would have gone to Tech, I probably wouldn't have gone through all of this,'' he said. `` And by staying close to home, I probably wouldn't have gotten into trouble.
``But everyone make mistakes and I learned from mine.''
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