The Caribbean has always made a solid contribution to international track and field by producing athletes such as Ato Boldon, Kim Collins, Obadele Thompson and Pauline Davis Thompson, and Merlene Ottey to name a few. Over the years Caribbean involvement has become so prominent that the 100M finals at the 2008 Olympics loosely resembled the queue to a flags fete: Richard Thompson (Trinidad & Tobago), Marc Burns (Trinidad & Tobago) , Churandy Martina (Netherlands Antilles), Michael Frater (Jamaica) Asafa Powell (Jamaica) and of course Usain Bolt.Although established in track and field, their contribution to other high profile sports has been minimal and largely gone unnoticed until now. The tiny Eastern Caribbean island better known for their rum than their athletes can now boast of its first ever NFL football player. Tthe sporting world inevitably sat up and took notice when it was announced that Ramon Harewood of St Michael, Barbados was the last draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens.
Harewood is not a second generation Bajan, nor is he Bajan on a genetic technicality. He is a genuine product of the former colony and is well on his way to becoming one of their biggest exports. The 6’6” 25-stone Offensive Tackle is not a dumb jock either – he was accepted to Morehouse College on an academic scholarship, majored in engineering and physics and graduated with a 3.0 GPA. It was only after he arrived at Morehouse that he decided to try his hand at football and found that it came to him quite naturally.
As far as Ramon is concerned there are a number of talented athletes from BIM (Barbados for those of you who don’t know) whom we simply don’t know about so watch this space:
‘It’s an untapped market. I can think of dozens of my peers from back home who , if given an opportunity to play American sports whether it be baseball, football or whatever would excel’.
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