Some background about me… my father was a professor and coached football and basketball at small African-American colleges and my mother was the first in her family of nine to go to college but didn’t graduate until 15 years later…while growing up the longest we lived in one place was four years before I went off to college.
I was brought up around sports and athletes in small college communities. I carried my favorite players helmets after the game… I bounced a basketball on stage while the basketball games were played and during half time would go on the court and dribble and shoot…While in high school I would travel with my dad during the Christmas holiday with his basketball team as they played in Minnesota and in North Dakota and would listen to the athletes…they were from Chicago, Philadelphia, Mississippi, St Louis , Louisville, all from different backgrounds and I felt very comfortable in just being with them like my older brothers…
In my extended family there was Arthur JR, Jimmy JR, Sammy JR, Frank JR…I too was a JR but they called me Little Jonathan…go figure…and playing both sports when I wasn’t a big guy…wasn’t exceptionally fast…yes…very quick…moving before things happened…All-American in football and basketball my senior year in high school…yet…very insecure. I doubted my abilities and only felt free during the actual movement of the sport in the moment itself…so…being drafted by the Steelers in the 5th round and having this opportunity to play football was a dream come true…
I felt tremendous pressure to succeed as a professional football player not from the outside but there was no room to not make it…an inner pressure…….
Chuck & Ben…two defensive linemen from the south who had been with the Steelers for sometime…gave me rides into Pittsburgh…from the airport and back to camp at different times. Being with them relaxed me…they didn’t talk to each other…it was as if they saw the exact same thing at the same time and would both laugh with their eyes twinkling…not one word but how they understood each other…how they cared for each other…big brothers with big hearts who gave a rookie a ride and didn’t say much to me but without words showed me what friendship was about what working together and trusting each other and just how much joy they shared without one word being spoken…got me through a tough time…
Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades. To order, just click on the book:
