Mother shows way for Bell brothers

She has never strolled up and down the Strip, never walked through the Forum Shops at Caesars, never seen the water fountains dance outside Bellagio, never fed bills into a slot machine at New York-New York, never experienced the side of Las Vegas most of the world knows.

Which makes this part all the more ironic: She and the city hold an inseparable bond.

One only a mother can understand.

"These are three capable men," Joanne Wilson said. "They are giving, sincere, strong, willing to work hard. They're going places. I think they're going to be OK.

"In fact, I know they will."

The men she speaks of are her sons, all of whom chose to attend school and play football at UNLV, because if there is one thing Zach, Beau and B.J. Bell learned growing up, it's that education was never to be viewed as a discretionary choice.

Another thing they learned is that she, who raised them, who loved them, who nurtured them, is a remarkable woman.

She divorced when Zach was barely 7 and his two brothers still in diapers, a mother who then made the decision that if she was going to be poor, she would be so with a college degree.

She and her husband had moved from Chicago to California to offer their children a safer and better life. Suddenly, she and her sons would face it together.

"We basically started from scratch," she said.

She looks back on it now -- on the rough neighborhood in Santa Ana, on the time she attended Chapman College in Orange and she and the boys lived in a one-room apartment on campus, on the three little guys having their own college student IDs to roam and run free around school grounds, on the move to Tustin and her visit to the police station when her sons kept getting stopped on the streets for no reason other than their skin color, on the food stamps and stale bread and empty bank account, on baking cookies and cakes and tutoring others to earn extra money -- and knows it was worth it.

The proof: Those boys who are now men.

Zach was the first to embrace UNLV, choosing the Rebels over Boise State once John Robinson came calling in 2001 with a scholarship offer.

Beau would visit on weekends and stay with his older brother, dreaming of a day when both played on the same field. The linebacker and future NFL player signed with the Rebels and realized that dream in 2004.

B.J. arrived from junior college and has started this entire season at defensive end.

"UNLV turned out to be a great place for all of us because it was close to home and our mom could come see us play and we could get to her quickly in case she needed us," said Zach, a spot starter at linebacker in his time with the Rebels. "This is a special lady ... . There are no words to describe what she means to us. There isn't enough time to tell you how much she has done for us. She is our unsung hero -- spiritually, mentally, financially. Whatever we needed, she always found a way. She talks to at least one of us every day. She always showed us the way. She practiced what she preached every day, keeping us together as a family through all the hard times."

She knows the way to Sam Boyd Stadium because it is the route she has taken to watch games for years now. She knows U.S. Highway 95 and Russell Road but not a short cut to the MGM Grand.

It makes so much sense, really.

She sent her boys here to earn an education and play football and grow into responsible men. That was always the goal, the purpose behind all their choices.

Everything else is secondary, and always has been.

Hey, the dancing water outside Bellagio isn't going anywhere.

"I always tried to make my sons realize they were only as good as the foundation they came from," said Joanne, who has had to cut back on her teaching of late because of stress in her job. "It was up to me to teach them to be good members of society, to be altruistic, to help others, to look at someone and realize they were looking at themselves, that we are all very alike.

"Las Vegas has given them an opportunity to be all they can be. I laid the foundation, and Las Vegas gave them the tools to start building."

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," FOX Sports Radio 920 AM.