each year, morethan 3,000 americans drown in the u.s. did you know that? as a child, cullen jones almost did. now, he has the first african-american to hold a world record for swimming. tonight s human factor. reporter: beijing, the 2008 olympics, cullen jones wins the gold medal in the 400 freestyle relay, becoming the second african-american swimmer to take home gold and the first to hold a world record. but growing up, learning to swim was the last thing on his mind. my dad was a basketball player. i watched the nba. he s like, you want to play basketball? reporter: a trip to a water park at the age of 5 changed his life. we went down this ride and i ended up flipping upside down because i was so light and i almost drowned. my mom tried to come down and
save me and she couldn t swim. the life guard had to come get me and my dad had to get my mom. reporter: after that, learning to swim became a priority, not easy when growing up in the inner city neighborhood. i grew up in the area, not the nicest area, wasn t the friendliest persiest place to a walking around with a brief. i was 15 years old, dad, there s no black people here. he was like, well, forever you stuck to basketball, you wouldn t have this problem. we laughed about it. that was a big step for me. overcoming it was hard. how many of you guys have ever had a swim lesson. reporter: why it is so important to him to inspire kids like him. i was getting sixth and seventh place and now i have an olympic gold medal. there is hope. you stick with it and keep with it. that s what i tell kids. there we go. reporter: jones is sharing his story with kids who never imagine they would be getting swimming lessons from an olympian.
a recoworld record. growing up, learning to swim was the last thing on his mind. my dad was a basketball player. you want to be in the nba. reporter: a trip changed his life. went down a slide and the flipped because i was so light. i almost drowned. my mom tried to save me. she couldn t swim. so the lifeguard had to come get me. my dad had to get my mom. reporter: after that, learning to swim became a priority pi not easy growing up in an inner city neighborhood, i grew up, it wasn t the nicest area. reporter: he found challenges and simply being different. 15 years old. dad, there s no black people here. he was like, well, you sucked at basketball, you wouldn t have this problem. we laughed about it, but, i mean, that was a big, you know, step more me and overcoming it was hard. how many of you guys have ever had a civilian lesson? why it s important to him to
six pack. first, the nfl playoffs are starting and after a season where the issue of player safety and head injuries landed center stage, at all levels of the game. more than 100 former professionals are suing the league over safety and health issues. one a former star on the road at georgia tech, latary pro bowl running back with the green bay packers and played for the giants and eagles. retire fld 2004 and now making a documentary. about the struggles of many former players. i start way clip. you re about to see ellis hobbs talking about the hit he took running back a kickoff that ended his career. as i braced myself, there he was right in my face, and my next reaction was, just like last time, even worse. i just ducked, buckled in. it just so happened he did the exact same thing with his helmet. when he hit mine, had compressed my head down worse. when you see it onni inning ang the initial camera, okay, he got hit. when they flipped it around and i saw it from the
the full blessing of a judge. at the heart of all of this, a federal law that makes it illegal to break up native american families. george howell digging into this case for us. he joins us. explain how this girl s biological dad was able to do this after two years? dustin brown is the biological father and he used this law child the indian child welfare act. it s basically designed to keep indian families together, to keep them from being broken up. he is enrolled in the cherokee nation, his daughter, partially native american. so through the courts, he was able to get his daughter back from matt and melanie. as you can imagine, they didn t rell realize that this would happen a day sooner than they had predicted for it to happen. she s adorable, too. they raised her since her birth. they say this was an open adoption that. they know her biological mother. but given the court s decision, they had to basically transfer their daughter over to dustin brown. this happened,