This time last Sunday Ted Williams was living behind an abandoned gas station with several other homeless men. Now, just seven days later, his “golden voice” will be heard all across America tonight when Kraft Foods uses Ted in a nationally-televised commercial. He’ll do the voice-over for a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese advertisement. The spot will be featured during tonight’s Fight Hunger Bowl, when Boston College plays Nevada.
"The Man with The Golden Voice" - Ted Williams
Playing devil’s advocate are conservatives posing the question, “Doesn’t it make you nervous?”, in lieu of the fact that Williams is a man who shunned homeless shelters to stay outside, and lived in garbage behind an old gas station. While he claims he’s been sober since the middle of 2008, he’s still a drug and alcohol abuser. Although he’s had a touching reunion with his mom, don’t forget the fact that he long ago deserted his partially-blind wife and “nine kids.” Today was the first time I heard he had nine kids, last week I heard he had five daughters. The preceding factoids in this paragraph from chattanoogan.com.
“How is Ted going to handle all of this?,” pundits are asking. There was a story on CNN where others wondered the same thing. The CNN reporters interviewed a psychiatrist from Los Angeles. Dr. Charles Sophy, who is the medical director for the County of Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services, says: “You’re taking someone who has nothing … to having all the hopes and all the dreams. Right now, it’s exciting. He can show his mom he’s a success. But to sustain it we need to make sure he has what he needs.” Dr. Sophy has never met “The Man With The Golden Voice” but the psychiatrist said Ted would be real smart to get a thorough medical and mental evaluation, to try to find out what triggered the lapses and past abuses and – just as importantly – get an able support system in place. “Giving someone success isn’t always the answer to make sure someone feels successful,” Sophy told CNN.
While many will say those with negative or analytical things to say; or those that say things that are adverse to Ted’s new found success are merely hating, there’s definitely validity to these scrutinies and/ or assessments. I for one, am not one to scrutinize Ted’s new source of hope or any actions he’ll take, good or bad. To Ted Williams I wish all the best and pray that he keeps it together.
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