Doc Lawson arrived back in my mailbox today. The legendary Sidekicks defender signed six cards and also enclosed a flyer about the work he's doing with DonamiSport.
If you don't know, Doc has been working in his home country of Liberia to help the sport of soccer grow. The country has been through two civil wars between 1989 and 2003, been ravaged by Ebola, is dealing with labor rights abuses in the rubber industry, and now has an incredibly young population. Approximately 80% of its people are under 18.
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| A largely unheralded humanitarian |
Another example of Doc's selflessness came late in his playing career. The Sidekicks and Baltimore Blast agreed to a trade that would have sent Doc to Baltimore in exchange for former Sidekicks defender Richard Chinapoo. The Sidekicks were on their way to a poor finish and Lawson wanted to play for the Blast. But Lawson vetoed the trade. Chinapoo had just moved his family to Baltimore and he didn't want his former teammate to have to uproot them again in the middle of the year to come back to Dallas. Lawson retired at the end of the season, while Chinapoo returned to Dallas the following offseason before moving on to Harrisburg of the NPSL.
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