It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

I went to live with her when I was in second grade. She was amazing. She had three jobs. Cleaned dishes at the Atlanta airport. Cleaned hotels. Was a grocery-store cashier. She'd work till two in the morning, then get up to make me breakfast before her airport job. She'd come home from that, and before she left for her next job, she'd have lunch on the table for me when I came home from school. I could never, ever repay my mother for everything she did for me.

• ON HIS MOTHER'S LASTING LESSON Humility. Through all my success, the wins, the Pro Bowls, she tells me, 'Be grateful for your opportunity. Be humble.' She still works, at a high school cafeteria, and when I go there to have lunch with her, the people say, 'Man, your mom works harder than anyone.' That makes me so proud. That's how her life has been. My mother wanted no government assistance. Nobody gave her nothing. Like me in the NFL. Nobody's given me anything

// posted by Kirk @ 10:52 PM