Fifteen years ago, Bruce Springsteen captured the New Jersey seaside town of Asbury Park, home of his musical roots, with a song evoking images of boarded up windows, empty streets, young men on corners "like scattered leaves."
My City of Ruins, he called it.
Jamar Small grew up on those same mean streets and wanted better, which is how he ended up a long way from home at Texas Southern.
Small once had NFL dreams like any other 6-3, 215-pound quarterback. But it doesn't help your odds if you don't win much or play any more than Small did for TSU, a historically black college in the University of Houston's shadow.