Former Baltimore Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth wrote in a 2013 Huffington Post blog that while he hadn’t yet been invited to speak at a commencement, he had a message he wanted to share with the graduating class that year.

“Sports fans and TV analysts put so much emphasis on what happens in the final seconds of the game, but players know that the choices made in the first quarter are just as important as the ones made when the clock is running out,” he wrote. “Our lives are no different. No single bad decision is damning, but a bad decision can leave you behind in the fourth quarter.”

Now, two years later, Foxworth will have the chance to address graduates in person — this time as commencement speaker at the May 21 campuswide graduation ceremony.

“It’s a great honor having the opportunity to talk to so many young people and try to influence them in some way on the biggest day of so many of their lives,” Foxworth said.

The commencement speaker selection committee chose Foxworth, a 2004 alumnus and former Terrapins football player, because of his connection to this state and his success across multiple fields, said Louis Schiavone, a member of the Senior Council and student chairman of the committee.

“We felt like Foxworth was such a good option because a lot of people know him from his professional athletic career, but he also brings a lot of other things people don’t know about,” the senior communication major said. “His diverse experience will be able to resonate with a lot of our graduates.”

Beyond his four seasons playing for this university and six seasons in the NFL, Foxworth is the chief operating officer of the National Basketball Players Association and previously served as president of the NFL Players Association. He is currently pursuing his MBA at the Harvard Business School.

“This guy doesn’t need to get an extra degree; he can retire, financially speaking, but he wants to pursue his education,” university President Wallace Loh said. “What you have is this relatively young man who takes leadership roles, important leadership roles, goes back to get a degree. … I believe he has an important message to give to the students.”

Foxworth and his wife Ashley donated $150,000 to the arts and humanities college in 2013 to launch the Foxworth Creative Enterprise Grants, which funds community-based arts and humanities classes.

“Arts and social sciences majors get a bum rap as far as I’m concerned, because those skills — independent thinking and ability to challenge constructs — are really what’s helped me professionally and personally,” said Foxworth, who graduated with an American studies degree.

Of the past three May commencement speakers, Foxworth is the second former athlete. Former Gov. Martin O’Malley spoke last year, and in 2013, former Orioles player Cal Ripken Jr. delivered the address.

Commencement

“It’s cool that the commencement speaker is someone people look up to,” said senior philosophy major Hannah Werblin. “He’s a UMD alum who has had success, which is cool, and he relates to us as a student body.”

But senior Aaron Fisher said he expected a more high-profile speaker to come to a large flagship university.

“It’s great he’s a former Ravens player,” the communication major said, “but I had hoped for someone bigger.”

Foxworth said he doesn’t know what his speech will focus on, but hopes to get feedback and suggestions from students — perhaps through a Twitter chat.

“Obviously, I don’t think my 15-minute speech is going to redirect all the students’ lives, but I like to think that out of the thousands of young adults listening, I’ll be a teeny pebble of influence, which is an opportunity not many people get,” Foxworth said. “I hope to have a slight impact or slight push for people to move away from the status quo and instead find what really drives and fulfills them.”