Bernstein will probably grow to hate him since he is religious and looks up to Tebow. But article confirms what I have been told. A pretty good kid. Illinois will be getting a great football player
By Mike Helfgot, Special to the Tribune
10:14 p.m. CDT, October 20, 2012
Aaron Bailey doesn't date, but he's not above playing matchmaker.
His mother never suspected him that day in 1999, when 4-year-old Bailey came home from a trip to the bowling alley with his aunt .
"He was always talking about his friend. He wanted me to meet him," said Bailey's mother Sharitah Carter, whose last name was Jackson at the time. "When I saw this man I was like, 'This is your friend?' Then I met 'O' and he was a big kid. Still is."
"O" is Oliver Carter.
Over the next year, the relationships progressed. Bailey sensed what was coming. Before Carter proposed marriage, Bailey had a proposal for Carter.
"I want to call you my dad," Bailey said to Carter, "but you have to marry my mom and go to my church."
***
Aaron Bailey spends most of his waking hours with a smile on his face, and it's wide as he answers a knock of the door at his parents' two-story, single-family Bolingbrook home Wednesday night.
The quarterback of Bolingbrook's 2011 state championship team is walking with a hop in his step rather than a limp, and he is on schedule to return from the knee injury that has sidelined him the last four games in time for the start of the playoffs next weekend.
He's wearing a navy blue T-shirt with the orange letters "I-L-L-I-N-I," putting to rest any notion that he may be wavering on his oral commitment in the wake of Illinois' difficult season under first-year coach Tim Beckman.
There is no evidence of the family's religion on the walls. No mementos to indicate it's the home of a budding football star. Just pictures of family: Sharitah and O, whom Bailey considers his real father; the three boys they had together — 9-year-old Olando, 6-year-old Omarion and Chase, who's nearly 2. And, of course, big brother Aaron.
They lead a devout Christian lifestyle, yet they're cool, casual, unguarded people whose frequent jokes sometimes toe the PG-13/R border.
In explaining that Chase wasn't exactly planned, O makes a crack about the mailman.
Bailey isn't bitter about his lack of a relationship with his biological father, Aaron Bailey, the former Indianapolis Colts receiver best known for dropping what would have been a game-winning Hail Mary pass from Jim Harbaugh on the final play of the 1995 AFC Championship Game.
He's not uncomfortable talking about him, either.
"When people ask me about it, it's not like I get sensitive or touchy," Bailey said. "Nothing bad happened to me. I feel great with my family. I've got my dad right here. I've got my mom. I've got my brothers. I feel great.
"I have been blessed by the Lord, and I believe he gave me football as a vehicle to spread his message."
***
Bailey wasn't always so open about his beliefs.
Kids are tough on one another, and someone who treats the Bible as the letter of the law is an easy target.
"My freshman and sophomore year, when some people found out I was a Christian, they said, 'You are going to change through high school," Bailey said. "They tried to get me to go to the party, tried to get me a date or to talk to a girl I really didn't want to talk to. They would try to set you up for anything."
Last season's championship run proved to be a turning point, only not Bolingbrook's.
Bailey, his parents and Bolingbrook coach John Ivlow all credit Tim Tebow for cracking Bailey's shell.
"When I saw how Tim Tebow was, that let me be carefree about it," Bailey said. "He was so successful, winning championships and the Heisman Trophy, and throughout all of that he still had Christ. If he can do that at the University of Florida with girls all around, I thought, 'Why can't I continue to go through high school and college and life in the same way?'"
"He did a 360," Sharitah Carter said. "He was kind of a quiet kid. He was goofy at home, but when we were out he wasn't the type to initiate. He felt like he was the only one."
***
The Tebow comparisons extend beyond religion.
Like Tebow, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Bailey has critics who believe he doesn't throw well enough to play quarterback. Like Tebow, he responds with smiles and respectful words while his insides burn to prove people wrong.
Fast, powerful and brilliant at running the option, Bailey rushed for just under 2,000 yards last season, and another 574 in five games this fall. But Bolingbrook's success in the running game has limited his opportunities to showcase his arm.
He did overcome nasty weather conditions to complete 8 of 13 pass attempts for 140 yards in the 21-17 victory over Loyola in the Class 8A championship game, but most of the elite programs that recruited him pinned him with the dreaded "athlete" tag.
There's no question he is big enough and fast enough to play safety or running back or receiver or even linebacker. There's less certainty, at least among BCS conference schools, about quarterback.
"From the people who watch our games, I kind of understand it," Bailey said. "Our offense is built for 4 or 5 yards a play. It looks boring, but a lot of people don't understand the defense is getting weary.
"At the same time, I am a quarterback. I feel that I'm not any other position. Some schools wanted me as an athlete, some as an athlete/quarterback. Illinois was the most confident in me as a quarterback."
Ivlow has no doubt, nor does his buddy Jeff Christensen, a local quarterback guru whose list of pupils includes nine NFL quarterbacks.
"We have one last thing to correct with his feet, but his throwing motion is flawless," Christensen said. "And he is so coachable and genuinely wonderful as a kid, he actually embarrasses me. You think you're a good person, then you meet someone like that and you realize maybe there are a couple things you need to work on.
"I truly believe he has changed the culture at that school. I've been going out there for 10 years. The kids used to walk around with a gangsta mentality. Now all the football players are the nicest kids."
Ivlow, a former NFL player who doubles as the school's head of police, is not prone to hyperbole or pandering.
He didn't reject Christensen's theory.
"Aaron has had a tremendous influence on the student body," Ivlow said. "He does everything right. Everyone wants to talk to him, and he'll stop and talk to everybody.
"I'm walking out to the field with him last year, I take 20 steps and he is gone. I look around and there he is talking to the freshman baseball team. I was like, 'Aaron, what are you doing talking to the freshman baseball team?' That's just who he is."
***
Bailey wants to be a sports broadcaster.
He hopes to play in the NFL first, but he does not plan on becoming a minister like Tebow.
"I think God's plan is to use me through sports," Bailey said. "He has different plans for me and Tim."
Bailey frequently talks about his faith, but he's also asked about it a lot.
When he's not doing homework — he has a 3.5 grade-point average — or chasing Chase around the house, there's usually a ball in his hands and a game on the television.
"I want to put a camera in here," O Carter said. "When there's a game on, he acts like he's the quarterback, calling out the plays. The dude is a sports nut."
Bailey's athletic gifts come from both sides — Uncle Trent Jackson, his mother's brother, played basketball for Wisconsin in the late 1980s.
The love of sports came from O.
"My dad taught me sports," Bailey said. "I had it in me, but he brought it out. Our connection isn't just about sports. We talk about everything. I consider him my biological father."
Carter was raised on the South Side as a Jehovah's Witness, but he wasn't overly religious.
Bailey changed that.
"He brought me to church, he brought me to God," Carter said. "He's always had an influence on me."
_________________ Frank Coztansa wrote: conns7901 wrote: Not over yet. Yes it is.
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