SALAAM'S MOTHER: BEARS HELPED HER SON RECOVER

Khalada Salaam Wants To Set The Record Straight.

Her son, former Bears first-round draft pick Rashaan Salaam, startled the
sports world during an ESPN interview Sunday, admitting he smoked marijuana
excessively during his stint in Chicago, especially after he broke his ankle.

"When I got hurt, I knew (marijuana) was a problem because it pretty much
consumed all my time," he said in the interview. "I wasn't going to practice
or anything like that, so I pretty much spent a lot of my time sitting
around and getting high, and that's when I knew I had to let it go. I wasn't
outgoing. I was just to myself. All I wanted to do was go home and do what I
wanted to do. I wasn't a social person. I was an outcast."

The media reaction to Salaam's admission has been overwhelming for him and
his family. The running back currently is in the Oakland Raiders' training camp.

"It's like having a pillowcase full of down feathers that blow out the
window," Khalada said Wednesday from her home in San Diego. "Once they're
out there, you can't go out and pick each feather up. You have to leave them
alone. Hopefully, tomorrow's news will be better."

Khalada said reports that her son was high on marijuana while playing for
the Bears are erroneous. "That talk about him being in a smoking haze . . .
it wasn't like that," she said.

She revealed that the entire family has been undergoing counseling over the
issue, at the suggestion of Rashaan.

Khalada Salaam applauded the assistance the Bears gave her son. The club
directed him to a drug-rehabilitation center in Kansas City, Mo.

"What I hate about the whole (media reaction) was the negative talk about
Dave Wannstedt and about Michael McCaskey," Khalada said. "Because when
Rashaan really needed some help from the Bears, they were there. Rashaan
went to them and they called me. The trainer, Tim Bream, told me he was
going to pack his clothes and take Rashaan to the airport (to travel to a
rehab center)."

Salaam hinted his marijauna use contributed to his excessive fumbling (14 in
31 games) with the Bears.

"I don't think that should be attributed to the marijuana, though," his
mother said. "But I told him that he put too much emphasis on the fumbling.
He made it a big issue for himself. Running backs do fumble."

Salaam left Colorado after his junior season as the Heisman Trophy winner.
He gained 1,074 yards as a rookie, but never lived up to his billing thereafter.

"I think it was a lot of nerves and a lot of pressure expecting him to be
all this and all that," Khalada said. "Being away from home . . . the whole
issue with his contract. Everybody changed. I changed, too, with the idea of
money. When you have never had anything and you suddenly have some money, it
really is scary."

Salaam's biological father, known as Harold "Teddy" Washington in his
playing days at San Diego State and briefly with the Bengals, had problems
off the field with alcohol abuse, hastening his exit from the NFL. He later
played in the CFL. But Washington, now known as Sultan Salaam, adopted the
Muslim religion before his marriage ended with Khalada, a former
Chicago-based flight attendant. She is currently married to Hakim Alaji.

"Rashaan didn't live under a household where there was a lot of drinking and
stuff," she said. "When we joined the Nation of Islam in 1975, all of that
(drinking) had stopped years ago. We're not saints or anything like that.
We're just average people."