RAY Sydnor seemed to have it all.

His athletic prowess had propelled him from a poor upbringing in Baltimore all the way to the riches and fame that come with NFL stardom.

By the age of 23, Sydnor, in his second season as a tight end with the Philadelphia Eagles, was part of the team that reached the Super Bowl in 1981.

But Sydnor played no part in the match. He missed practice the night before, because he was smoking crack cocaine at the time.

SYDNOR shared this memory with a crowd of around 400 people at CedarBridge Academy gym last Saturday night as he captivated his audience with a brutally honest talk about his extraordinary life.

The multi-talented athlete, now 47 years old, was part of the SportsPower International basketball team, made up mostly of former NBA players, which beat the Bermuda national team in an exhibition match.

During the half-time interval, the 6ft 9in, 300-pound Sydnor spoke about his rise to success, his subsequent plunge into the misery of drug addiction and how he has managed to get his life back on the rails through religious inspiration.

He is now the US national spokesman for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), as well as the chief executive officer and founder of the Baltimore-based Mentoring Academics-Athletics Partnership (MAAP), a role in which he passes on the benefit of his experience to young people.

Speaking this week with the , Sydnor reflected on his past problems and how he now inspires groups all over the world by explaining the way he managed to overcome his demons.

"My sporting talent affected my life in a positive way and a negative way," Sydnor said. "It created many opportunities, opportunities I was not prepared to deal with.

"It all happened very quickly. One minute I was playing in high school, four years later I was with a team who reached the Superbowl.

"The problem was I was a very good athlete, but not a very good person. I did not have a good foundation."

His success in football and basketball at Northwestern High School in Baltimore earned Sydnor a scholarship with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and more success opened up the door to the NFL.

It was in 1980 that Sydnor signed a $276,000 contract with the Eagles that changed his life.

"That was a lot of money back then," he said. "I was leading the fast life that comes with success. Basically I could get whatever I wanted. Anywhere I went, I didn't have to pay for anything. There were all kinds of women coming my way and making themselves available to me.

"There were a lot of so-called friends who hung around me just because they wanted a piece of the pie. I never had to say no and no one ever encouraged me to say no.

"I didn't get much support. And it was difficult coming from a family like mine, as we had no money growing up. Suddenly I had a lot of money and I didn't know how to handle it."

Drugs were a part of Sydnor's life well before he got into professional sport. He had his first alcoholic drink at the age of 14 and between the ages of 15 and 20, he smoked marijuana. It was then he started snorting cocaine, before he started smoking crack cocaine at the age of 22.

"It's a thing you see a lot in the US with child actors and actresses who enjoy success at a young age," Sydnor said. "By 21 or 22, many of them are involved with drugs.

"One of the problems is that people take the word 'no' out of your life. As far as the people who associated with me were concerned, 'no' was a word for other people, not for Ray.

"The reason I turned to drugs was that although I had all the trappings of success, inside I felt empty and lonely. I did not know how to fill the void.

"The night before the Super Bowl ? the biggest game of my life ? I missed practice. That's how bad it got. I just couldn't put the crack pipe down."

Despite his drug-taking, Sydnor said he was still able to function at a high level on the football field. He became addicted to crack cocaine in his second year with the Eagles and during 1982, his third and final year with the franchise, his level of play dipped noticeably and team-mates and management became aware of Sydnor's addiction. He was kicked out.

"Other NFL teams called me up and said, 'we want you'," Sydnor recalled. "One team said to me, 'we know you're doing drugs and we don't care'.

"After that, I did a bit of everything. I still had a lot of money and I set up a couple of businesses. But they folded because every time I made a bit of money, it all went on drugs. I was an addict for 15 years and I was in and out of prison for ten years."

The turning point in Sydnor's life occurred in prison, at a time when his drug use had reduced his weight to 190 pounds.

"I was lying on the floor in jail and I was broke, busted and disgusted," Sydnor said. "In prison, they tell you when to do everything, when to eat, when to take a shower. A guy came up to me and gave me a bible and said: 'Jesus loves you'.

"I had tried everything else and I was desperate enough to try Jesus. So I started reading my bible. I had a supernatural experience. A man came into my cell and kissed me on the cheek and said: 'Go home'. I believe it was an angel."

Since then Sydnor has managed to stay off drugs and now dedicates his time to trying to steer young people in a positive direction. MAAP, the organisation he founded in 2002, provides tutoring and athletic programmes for youngsters aged between seven and 18, often from impoverished neighbourhoods in the Baltimore area. The activities are designed to foster self-esteem, leadership, community service and strong inter-personal skills.