Many professional athletes come from tough backgrounds and have difficult upbringings. Many had broken families, divorced parents, relatives in jail, or even parents who sold drugs or were addicts. There are so many examples of athletes overcoming difficult childhoods that it feels almost cliche to point out another story. But what Demaryius Thomas dealt with is one of the toughest situations I’ve heard. It captured my attention enough where I wanted to share it here.
ESPN profiled the Denver Broncos wide receiver on E:60 and shared the story of his childhood. One of the central points of the feature was that Thomas’ mother has never seen him play a football game. That seems weird considering he is a star wide receiver in the NFL and was pretty darn good at Georgia Tech.
Thomas’ mother hasn’t watched him play not because she is disinterested, but because she is serving a lengthy prison sentence for her part in a crack cocaine operation.
Demaryius’ mother, Katina Smith, had him when she was 16. His father, Bobby Thomas, was 19 when he was born, and the dad was hardly around because he had just enlisted in the military and was off on different assignments. When Demaryius was three, his mother was arrested and went to prison for 18 months for drug trafficking. That meant Demaryius spent a lot of time with his grandmother while his mother was gone and after she came back. And according to Demaryius, his grandmother ran a crack house. Literally.
Demaryius says he would see them selling crack cocaine. He saw people come in and buy the crack and he saw some of the materials they used to ingest the crack. He says his grandmother ran the whole operation.
When Demaryius was 11, he had a bad dream that someone would go to jail for a long time because of the drug operation. His bad dream became reality a year later. In March 1999, the home was raided and his grandmother and mother were handcuffed while the home was searched.
Because she refused a plea deal that would have required her to testify against her mother, Demaryius’ mom was sentenced to 20 years in prison for possession of cocaine and crack cocaine with intent to distribute. She would have been sentenced for four years had she accepted the deal.
She was taken away when Demaryius was 12 and is not scheduled to be released until 2016. She has never seen him play football in person. Demaryius’ grandmother was sentenced to life in prison.
Though losing his mother for so long sounds terrible — and no doubt is — Thomas ended up in good hands. He went to live with his father’s sister and her husband. The husband happened to be a pastor, and they got him involved with the church. He also had some structure to his life and some rules, such as not being able to wear baggy clothes or braids in his hair.
Thomas began playing football as a sophomore in high school, earned a scholarship to Georgia Tech, and was drafted by the Broncos in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft. With Peyton Manning as his quarterback, he’s posted back-to-back spectacular seasons, which includes at least 92 catches, 1430 yards and 10 touchdowns each year.
In a few years he’ll hopefully still be in his prime when his mother is released and able to come watch him play in person for the first time. After watching that feature and learning more about Thomas, I’ll be rooting for him in the Super Bowl and during his career. It’s hard not to respect someone who went through that and is doing as well as he is.
