Believe it or not, I grew up in a family where playing sports wasn’t a priority. Although my six brothers and sisters were athletically gifted, no one in my family ever played competitive sports. Moreover, as a single parent, my traditional Jamaican mom actively discouraged sports for either fear of injury or the expense of it all. But, as somewhat of a latchkey child, I had the freedom to do as I wanted. Fortunately, I had the right set of influences early and caught the right breaks in life that led me toward more productive ends. And so, to keep up with the neighborhood kids, I played every sport I came across. Except for Cricket, I was good at most things I tried, yet I was never serious about anything. In fact, I quit my peewee football team when I was 10 because I wanted to play with my best friend Jeffrey who didn’t make the team. Plus, we didn’t have a car in my household, so I had no way to get to practice. Fortunately, I would later give football another try in middle school and it was only by the grace of a higher power that I had a football coach who saw potential in me. One day, Coach Tony pulled me aside and gave me the following pep talk, “Clifton, you’re a man amongst boys and you can do anything in life you decide. Let football be a vehicle.” It was also then that Coach Tony told me about two local Jamaican-Canadian running backs, Dahrran Diedrick and Kerry Carter, who earned college scholarships to Nebraska and Stanford, respectively, and implored me to stay out of trouble and do everything in my power to be just like them. Coach Tony’s words were the encouragement that changed my life. It was only then that I began to see football as my passport to a bigger, brighter world of new people and new experiences.