For numerous football players, the game is their ticket to a free education, an opportunity to play at a prestigious division I school or a chance to showcase their skills and possibly move on to the next level.
For Oregon linebacker Ramone Reed, football has given him a place of refuge. It has kept him preoccupied from the streets where many youth choose the wrong path. The game has comforted him in his worst times and has provided him a family outside of his own to, if at all possible, soften the blow of losing his mother.
“I’m still trying to deal with it,” Reed said. “Even today I was walking on campus at the same spot I was told that she had passed away, and it just kind of hit me.”
Now a senior and getting his first chance to shine as a starter, Reed has taken full advantage. The 6-foot-2, 226-pound Reed leads the team in solo tackles (19) and total tackles (28).
“My success is due to the guys in front me,” Reed said. “The d-line, Jerry Matson and the rest of them make it easy on me.”
But what resonates most with his teammates is his ability to play through the pain.
“I love his heart,” safety J.D. Nelson said. “He’s out here hurting worse than anybody on our team right now that is suiting up everyday.”
According to Nelson, Reed had the choice of sitting out this season and recovering, but chose not to.
“He made the choice to come out here and help us win football games and has been doing a real good job,” Nelson said. “I have a world of respect for him.”
Adversity hits home early
The second of three boys born to his mother, Debra Fite, tragedy struck early. According to Reed, his father died when he was one or two years old and Reed does not know the cause of his death.
Reed doesn’t remember his father, but said his older brother was his
father figure in his life. He said his brother introduced him to football, which, in turn, changed his life.
“At first my mother didn’t want me to play because she thought I would get hurt,” Reed said. “Once I got into it, she found out it was keeping me off the streets, so she accepted it. I would be too tired to hang out at night and get in trouble.”
But football wasn’t the only sport Reed participated in. Unlike many football players, he also played golf and lacrosse.
‘It felt like home’
Eventually Reed stuck with football, but thought he would end up at a junior college.
“My high school wasn’t putting out athletes at the time,” Reed said. “At the end of my senior year, colleges started getting in contact with me.”
Reed gave colleges something to look at his senior year as he was named an honorable-mention all-state linebacker and also ran for 1,189 yards and 15 touchdowns.
He was offered scholarships to San Diego, Hawaii and Arizona, but once he came to the campus at Oregon, he knew it was the right fit for him.
“I took my trip here and it felt like home,” Reed said. “Everybody here was so welcoming, and it felt like the place for me.”
One thing he does regret is canceling his visit to Hawaii’s campus.
“Once I decided to come here (to Oregon), I canceled my trip to Hawaii, and I still don’t know why,” Reed said.
Being a Duck
Reed came in and got to experience one of the best football teams Oregon has fielded in recent history.
“My first year was great,” Reed said. “I was young and excited to play with all of those great guys like Joey (Harrington), Maurice (Morris) and Keenan (Howry). It was exciting to watch those guys play. For me to even get an opportunity to get on the field was more than enough.”
He established himself his freshman year as an excellent special teams player and led the special teams in tackles before a wrist injury slowed him down.

Unfortunately for Reed, he was riddled with injuries during his first two years.
“For two years it was just injuries,” Reed said. “I broke my thumb, I sprained my MCL real bad, and I haven’t really recovered from that still.”
The loss of a loved one
Coming into 2003, there were great expectations on Reed as a special teams player and a backup linebacker. Two days after a loss at Arizona State on Oct. 13, Reed got the worst news of his life. He was told his mother had died.
This struck Reed hard and he was in and out of the lineup for the rest of the season and didn’t go to the Sun Bowl.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do at that time,” Reed said. “My teammates helped me through it and coach, Jerry Matson, Demetrius (Williams) and all the other guys were there for me.”
Another tough thing for Reed was knowing his 17-year-old brother was without his mother now. He knew if he left school to go back, that would not have been what his mother would have wanted.
“My mother would want me to get my education and become the first to graduate from college in my family,” Reed said.
He knew his brother would hurt because of his mother’s loss and his presiding in Eugene.
“It’s kind of hard because you can only do so much over the phone,” Reed said. “He’s never had that father figure, and he really doesn’t understand how to listen to his elders, especially since our mother passed. I was really the only one who could put my knee down on his neck.”
Beyond Oregon
Though this season has been successful for Reed, he says football is taking a toll on his body.
Once he finishes at Oregon, the family and human services major wants to start his own Big Brother program and give back to the community.
“I want to work with troubled youth because I was heading in the same direction,” Reed said. “There was a time that I dropped out of school myself, but football is the reason for me to come back.”
Head coach Mike Bellotti said Reed is one of the bright spots on this Oregon football team.
“We talk all the time about Ramone overcoming all the difficulties in dealing with losing your family,” Bellotti said. “It has lead me to be very proud of Ramone and pleased with what he has done. He’s doing the things he needs to do to graduate, get his degree, play football and to hopefully ensure a bright future for himself.”

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