NFL Gets It All Wrong When It Comes to White

By J.A. Adande

April 30, 2006 12 AM PT

DENVER — In a disappointing draft for USC’s NFL prospects, LenDale White had it the worst on a day that started with a dubious drug test report, continued through six arduous hours of waiting and resulted in one angry grandma.

White, once projected to go among the first 10 picks, wasn’t selected until the Tennessee Titans chose him in the second round, 45th overall. He went the latest and fell the furthest, more than Reggie Bush slipping to No. 2, Matt Leinart falling to No. 10 and Winston Justice, who also dropped out of the first round.

Welcome to the NFL, kid. It’s a place of nasty rumors and stubborn convention. It gang-tackles dreams and steps on them in the bottom of the pile.

He sat in a big easy chair, in a room filled with family and friends, in the back of a recreation center at the park where he used to play football. There was a buffet table to the side, and a small bank of cameras facing him. He wore two wireless microphones and clutched a pair of cellphones.

White watched the first round go by without hearing his name. Then almost half of the second round progressed and still no White. He watched four running backs go ahead of him. He heard television commentators question his work ethic.

And yet, when he finally could look in the box of 32 NFL caps and grab the one with the Titans’ logo, he was able to compose himself enough to say: “It’s still a great day. My dream came true. I’m in the National Football League. The second round’s not bad at all. There’s people that still want to get drafted that never have a chance.”

That was a more positive take than his grandmother had.

“He was cheated,” Sharon White said. “I feel that way. He should have gone first [round].... “Yes, I am [angry]. He’s taking it all in stride, I’m the one that’s really [mad].”

White’s stock began its slide on April 2, when he didn’t bother to take off his sweatsuit and run a 40-yard dash and other drills for the scouts at USC’s pro day. A couple of weeks later an MRI exam that revealed a hamstring tear provided an excuse for his missing workout, but it didn’t make NFL teams excited about drafting a damaged player.

Then it took one last hit when a story appeared in the Daily News citing unnamed sources that said White had failed a drug test. White said he had not been tested since the NFL scouting combine in February and had never been told of a positive test.

“Nobody’s ever called me in on it, I never knew,” White said. “The first thing I heard on it was this morning.

“I don’t understand how the NFL wouldn’t know about it already, if it was a positive [test]. I would know about it too.”

Titan Coach Jeff Fisher said the newspaper report was “not correct.”

“We got the results from all the testing at the combine,” Fisher said, according to the Associated Press. “The [news] reports were false.”

Still, the damage had been done.

When Herman White, LenDale’s uncle and mentor, was asked whether the report had an effect on his nephew’s slide, he said, “I believe it did. His work ethics were being questioned. The injury was being questioned. Then the allegations of the drugs all came out. All that affected him in today’s draft.”

I keep wondering how many teams are affected because their front offices get so caught up in the NFL’s conventional thinking that they don’t actually take the best available football player.

The NFL teams were spooked because White had not run a 40-yard dash. Apparently it didn’t matter that he had scored 57 touchdowns at USC, the most in school history. It didn’t matter that four people who played in the Rose Bowl were picked in the draft’s top 10, and White outplayed three of them in that game.

White had a better 2005 season than Florida State cornerback Antonio Cromartie, who was selected by the San Diego Chargers with the 19th pick. That’s because Cromartie missed the season because of a torn knee ligament. But he had great workouts and ran the 40 as fast as 4.43 seconds. So he’s a first-rounder.

Stopwatches and scales. That’s what rules the NFL draft. White was 244 pounds at the combine and said he weighs 239 pounds now. Both of those are lighter than what he weighed in all of those highlights you see, but apparently not light enough for the league.

This isn’t what Herman White expected when he put the draft-day party together.

He had 90 T-shirts printed with action photos of White on the front and different inspirational messages or identifications on the back. Herman’s read “Tough Love.” Others indicated family relationships, such as “Proud Mommy” and “Little Cuz from H-Town.” (White wore a T-shirt picturing his cousin, Detroit Piston guard Chauncey Billups).

White took breaks to sign pictures or mini footballs for the kids at Hiawatha Davis Recreation Center, a 5-year-old facility built in White’s old Park Hill neighborhood in Denver. It’s the same park where White once played for the Skyland Pirates.

“This is where I’m from,” White said. “These are the people that have always been around me, have always shown me respect and love.”

White looked at the positives of his new team. He would be joining Vince Young, the Titans’ selection with the third pick in the first round. He would be reunited with offensive coordinator Norm Chow.

Hey, his former teammate Lofa Tatupu went to Seattle with the No. 45 pick last year and became the heart of the Seahawks’ Super Bowl defense.

“I know how hard I worked,” White said. “I don’t believe that you can have success unless you work for it.

“I feel every team that passed me up, I have something to prove. I have to prove something to Tennessee still, but after I get done proving it to them there’s 31 other teams after training camp that I have to visit.”

And the family rallied behind him, saying it was good he wound up with a better team, that he and Young would be a devastating combination.

I believe White is a worthy NFL player based on what I saw from him at USC.

I also know family spin doesn’t stand a chance against the NFL Thought Process. On this day, the same old attitude -- represented by the stopwatches and the scales -- won again.

J.A. Adande can be reached at [email protected]. To read more by Adande go to latimes.com/adandeblog.