A Son, a Chance, a Dream

Arman Shields, right, with his father, Bertie, played wide receiver at Gonzaga and the University of Richmond, and has overcome a major knee injury. (By Jonathan Newton -- The Washington Post)
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Arman listened. As a little boy he woke early and watched his father leave the house to go to his job as a detective with the D.C. police. Bertie worked a great deal.

And yet he also made every youth league practice and every game, driving his children home that night with the same words ringing in their ears: "Hard work can't hide, it's got to show."

They had to listen; they had no choice.

When Arman was in high school, Bertie began talking about early-morning workouts -- to be held in that gray, fuzzy hour before the sun climbed above the horizon.

"You have to be working while the other person is sleeping," Bertie said.

Arman would rise, and together they drove to the University of Maryland a few blocks from their house and ran the Byrd Stadium steps until eventually it wasn't Bertie who was demanding the workouts, but Arman.

"You have to love it when your son wants to get up before you do and go to work," Bertie said.

Perhaps this sounds obsessive, but Bertie Shields never has pushed Arman too far. He has been careful to look for limits, to make sure he is making his children study as hard as they practice. He and his wife, Beverly -- the couple has five children -- have expected good grades. Academics came first. But football was never far behind.

Bertie remembers, almost incredulously, the elementary school teacher who undoubtedly thought she was doing right when she asked to speak to the father when he came to pick up Arman one afternoon. The class had been doing a lesson on careers, and Arman had raised his hand boldly and declared he wanted to be a professional football player.

That would not do, the teacher said.

"You need to sit him down and tell him becoming a football player is like trying to find a needle in a haystack," he remembered the teacher saying.

Bertie never did have that talk.

"His father is a different cat," Scott said of Bertie. "When it comes to parents, nine times out of 10 as a college football coach you don't want to deal with them. Mr. Shields is a special man. He's the kind of parent who wants the best for his kid but would come to me and say, 'Anything you need me to do.' "

When Scott first arrived at Richmond in Arman's second year, the player was a raw specimen: fast, eager and talented enough to give a coach hope. He remembers telling Arman he had a chance to play in the NFL, but it would take a lot of dedication; he would have to work. More important, he would have to listen.

And whenever Scott felt Arman might not be understanding his point, he simply called Bertie. Bertie took care of it.

Now it is NFL teams that are calling. Tampa Bay asked for a visit, as did Kansas City and Denver. The Jets have phoned a few times. Most projections have him going in the fourth round of this weekend's NFL draft. It's a dream turned into reality when you consider how far Arman had to come just to get the letter of his life.

Then, with one chance to shine, he remembered the great lesson of Bertie Shields.

He took nothing for granted.