|
Catching Up With . . .
Renaldo Nehemiah, Would-be Football Star
April 26, 1982
Posted: Tue September 22, 1998
| |
(Rich Clarkson)
|
Although
some
observers would say it was dropped passes that sank Renaldo
(Skeets) Nehemiah's attempt to become a top NFL wide
receiver, Nehemiah maintains that the beginning of the end
of
his tenure with the San Francisco 49ers was a vicious hit by
Atlanta Falcons defensive back Kenny Johnson in 1983 that
knocked him unconscious. "It changed the course
of my career," says Nehemiah, who in
1982 had taken a detour from
his record-smashing track career to try pro football. "I felt
that coach [Bill] Walsh was very protective of me after
that. It stymied my ability to run wild out there and do
what I do best as an
athlete."
What Nehemiah did better than anyone else in
the late 1970s and early '80s was run the 110-meter high
hurdles. Though he missed the '80 Moscow Olympics
because of the U.S.
boycott, he thrice set the world
record in his event, the
last time in the summer of
'81, when he ran a 12.93
in Zurich to become the
first hurdler
to break the
13-second barrier. The leap
to the NFL, however, proved
to be too great: In three seasons with the Niners,
Nehemiah caught just 43 passes. San Francisco released him
in
'85.
(Al Tielemans)
| | After a bitter
4 1/2-year court battle with track and field's U.S. and
international governing bodies to regain his amateur
status, Nehemiah returned to the hurdles in 1986. However,
the seven pounds he had gained and the hits he had taken in
pro football had slowed him.
His bitter rival, Greg Foster, whom Nehemiah had beaten 28
times in their 34 meetings before Nehemiah joined the NFL,
now defeated him
regularly.
After retiring from track in 1994, Nehemiah was host of
The Kid Club,
a children's exercise show on a regional sports cable
network,
and he worked as an assistant track and field coach at
George Mason University until last fall. These days
Nehemiah, 39, is a partner and financial analyst at Lara,
Nehemiah and Associates Ltd., a financial planning and
investment firm in Vienna,
Va.
Last December, Nehemiah, who lives in
Potomac, Md., with his second wife, Gloria, and their two daughters,
Ariel, 8, and Samara, 5, was named to the Track and Field
Hall of Fame. Still, he laments that track and field has
faded in popularity in the U.S.
"I did all I could to bring it into the
consciousness," says Nehemiah. "You couldn't turn
on
Wide World of Sports
without seeing me running right through the TV screen [in
the opening montage]. It pains me now that it's not that
big of a
deal."
—Bev
Oden
Issue date: September 28, 1998
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
|
