JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- His grandfather survived the political minefields
laid by George Wallace. Nearly 40 years later, Richmond Flowers III gets
training camp with Tom Coughlin.
The seventh-round draft choice of the Jacksonville Jaguars is the grandson
of Richmond Flowers Sr., the former Alabama attorney general who stood opposed
to Alabama's segregationist governor in the 1960s.
In 1963, when Wallace was giving his famous "segregation forever" speech
on the steps of the Alabama capitol, Flowers Sr. was urging for calm and
cooperation with federal authorities, who disagreed with Wallace's harsh
stance.
In 1966, Flowers ran an unsuccessful bid for governor against Wallace's
wife, Lurleen. He said he would appoint blacks to state offices if elected.
Years later, Flowers was convicted on federal charges of conspiring to
solicit payoffs in exchange for permission to sell corporate stock publicly.
Flowers said his strained relationship with Wallace led to the conviction,
although prosecutors denied it.
"There's no one I respect more than my grandfather. He's my hero," Flowers
III said recently. "I understand the courage it took for him to stand up for
what was right and what it cost him to make that stand."
The Flowers family also has a rich sports legacy.
Flowers Jr., was an All-American receiver and track star at Tennessee who
went on to play with the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. Jaguars coach
Tom Coughlin said he played against Flowers when he was a wingback at Syracuse.
Flowers III graduated from Duke in 1999, but enrolled as a graduate student
in the business school at Tennessee-Chattanooga last summer. As a wide receiver
for the Moccasins, Flowers caught a school record 86 passes for 1,035 yards.
"Flowers' main ingredient is that he's such a competitive kid and he loves
to play," Coughlin said "I'd take a truckload of those guys compared to a lot
of others."
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