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NAPA -- Last summer as a Florida State defensive lineman, Tony Bryant watched his former Seminoles teammate Andre Wadsworth sweat the details of his first NFL contract. ...story
Monday July 19, 1999
By Chauncey Bailey STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND -- When Robert Watts Jr. played for the Oakland Raiders, there were plenty of hard knocks.
But it was nothing like his battle with cancer in 1988.
"I don't like to think of myself as a motivational speaker," Watts said. "I just give people something to inspire them so they can look for that internal source of energy. After a motivational speaker leaves, there's nothing there for you. When people hear I not only played in the NFL and survived cancer, they want to hear what I have to say."
Watts is a speech communication and group dynamics professor at Fresno City College. He has been called on to speak to Fortune 500 corporations.
"Having cancer was not a low point for me; I didn't say, 'Why me?' I just handled it," said Watts, who believes people spend too much time "looking for revenge."
Watts has written a compelling 209-page book called "People Are Never The Problem" (Honor Books, Oklahoma). But he doesn't call it a self-help guide.
"It's more of an academic book. Self-help books are like warm showers that feel good, but never get you clean,"Watts said. "People should refuse to play the blame game. If people are the problem, then we are all problems."
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