Coles Feeling Lonely

I didn't see this posted yet, if it was I apologize. Nice article about Coles and the mansion he's building in Fla. Couple of interesting points, one being all of the friends he has lost from the team this year; Wayne, Abe, Herm, etc. For a solitary guy like him this could be detrimental. Also, couldn't believe some a-hole from the Bills would actually torment him about him being molested. Enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/s...gin&adxnnlx=1153749602-IeZQnlsSuUi9p+d5NfOr1Q


A Sanctuary for Coles

By KAREN CROUSE
Published: July 23, 2006
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 16 ? The house being built for a hermit has enough space to entertain a large posse. Laveranues Coles?s sanctuary is 25,000 square feet, and like the luxury vehicles he will park in the five-car garage, it comes fully loaded.

There are all the accouterments of companionability: a movie theater, a gymnasium with bleachers, two bowling lanes, a swimming pool, an indoor golf simulator, an outdoor kitchen and a dance floor. On the surface, it seems like the kind of bachelor digs in which a worker writing ?Hooray. Beer? in construction dust on a first-floor cabinet top would inspire the raising of a glass, not an eyebrow.

Coles, the Jets? leading receiver last season with 73 catches, studied the scrawl while giving a recent tour. He walked away shaking his head, saying to no one in particular, ?Why is my house so filthy??

Life can be messy, which is why the 28-year-old Coles is content to live in grand solitude. ?I look at this house as more of a place where I can hunker down,? he said.

The contradiction at the core of Coles is that he is wired for sociability; his personality can be so engaging, his younger teammates frequently call him for counsel. And yet he can wall himself off from those same teammates, as he did at a minicamp last month, when he was the only player who took part in the collegial stretching sessions with his helmet strapped on.

Coles can burrow in plain sight or hole up in his house, which was designed so he could get away from it all and still have it all.

?I set up my home to entertain myself,? he said.

Bill Erwin, who was entrusted with turning Coles?s Xanadu into a concrete reality, said the eight-bedroom mansion ?is the biggest home I?ve ever seen, much less built.?

The places Coles called home as a child could fit into the master bedroom suite of his new residence, which is expected to be finished by October, when the Jets come to town for a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Raising his voice to be heard above the hammering and hollering of workers, Coles said before heading inside, ?I?m still amazed at times when I pull up here and realize, Man, this is mine.?

Coles?s property extends as far as the eye can see. He bought 21 acres three years ago after signing a seven-year, $35 million contract with the Washington Redskins. The house, which is surrounded on three sides by pine-filled woods where deer and turkey roam, is more than a monument to making it. It has been Coles?s shelter during a stormy off-season in which he lost the pillars that formed the base of his attachment to the Jets.

After the team finished 4-12 last season, Coach Herman Edwards was allowed to leave for the Kansas City Chiefs, defensive end John Abraham was traded to the Atlanta Falcons and receiver Wayne Chrebet retired.

Coles, who was drafted in the third round by the Jets in 2000, then reacquired from the Redskins last year, said, ?Every possible reason that made it easier for me to come back has left.?

Among Coles?s most trusted confidants, only quarterback Chad Pennington remains, and his future will be a major talking point when training camp opens Friday; he is coming off his second shoulder operation in two seasons.

?I?m so tired of change at this point,? Coles said. ?It?s frustrating.?

At least his $8 million house is built to last. (The gymnasium has such thick walls, Erwin said, it has to rank among the best storm shelters in the county.) There are other explanations for Coles?s view that it as his one safe place, reasons rooted in a childhood trauma and college troubles.

Sirretta Williams was nearly 17 and unmarried when she gave birth to Coles. His father, Laveranues Sr., was not involved in rearing him, and Williams worked long hours to support Coles and his younger sister, Rashetta. Sometimes they had a place of their own in the projects, but oftentimes they bunked with relatives to save money.

In those days, Coles never dreamed he would someday own a house with an eight-seat movie theater and a video game room. ?I grew up with TV?s where you had to use a clothes hanger that you tried to jiggle around to get a signal,? he said.

When Coles was in middle school, Williams married, giving the family the outward appearance of security. Unbeknownst to Williams, her husband was molesting Coles at gunpoint in the evenings while she was at work as a nurse. The sexual abuse continued for three years until Coles?s secret was pried from him by the police after he instigated a bloody schoolyard fight.

Coles?s mother left her husband, and they later divorced. The man, whose name Coles has asked to not be published because his fear of him remains acute, was sentenced to nine years in a Florida prison in 1992 after pleading guilty to lewd and lascivious behavior with a minor. He served three and a half years but returned to prison in 2001, convicted of an unrelated felony.

Coles said he was the object of a homophobic comment from a Buffalo Bills player after the Jets? finale last season.
As a result of the sexual abuse, Coles says, he has a hard time trusting people. It is not by happenstance that he is drawn to solitary pursuits like playing video games. Stepping into the game room during a house tour, Coles said: ?After what happened, I turned my whole life into a game. I try to extract myself from reality.?

Coles went public with his story of childhood sexual abuse to help others who might have been similarly traumatized. The reaction has been mostly positive, but every so often somebody will say something that causes Coles to pull back, turtlelike, into his shell.

After the Jets? finale last season against Buffalo, Coles said a Bills player, whom he would not identify, approached him and made a coarse homophobic comment.

?I just looked at him and turned away,? Coles said. ?One of the officials was right there, and I guess he heard what the guy said because he came over and said, ?Laveranues, you have nothing to be ashamed of.? ?

The memory stopped Coles in his tracks. ?You realize how mean people are,? he said.

It takes grace to be nice when you are dining by yourself at a restaurant, as Coles was this month, and your meal is interrupted by a woman who said acidly, ?Aren?t you the Florida State football player who stole the clothes from Dillard?s??

The incident the woman was referring to occurred in the fall of 1999, when Coles and his Florida State teammate Peter Warrick received an improper discount on their clothing purchases from a clerk at Dillard?s department store. The transaction was recorded on a surveillance camera; Coles and Warrick were arrested and charged with a third-degree felony, which was later reduced to petty theft. Coles, a senior, was kicked off the team because he was on probation at the time for a chain of prior incidents.

?That was seven years ago,? Coles said. ?I?ve tried to do some positive things since then and people still harass me about that. It bothers me.?

As the architect of his life, Coles would like to raze the past and reconstruct it. This address south of downtown is his attempt to build something better. It is his true north. ?Got to get my peace,? he said.