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Check Out These Inspiring Stories of Humble Beginnings from the NFL Draft

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  May 02, 2021 10:00 PM

Even if you didn't watch the 2021 NFL Draft, which was from Thursday to Saturday, it's still inspiring to know the story of two particular picks. Micah Parsons, who was selected by the Dallas Cowboys as the 12th overall pick, was almost aborted. The 21st overall pick, Kwity Paye, who was selected by the Indianapolis Colts, was born in a refugee camp in Guinea. After some particularly humbling beginnings, these men are now going on to doing great things.

Micah Parsons was, as PennLive Brian Linder noted in his subheadline, "spared from abortion." The endearing piece, "Mom’s ‘biggest blessing,’" is from April 20: 

No matter how far Micah Parsons goes — or doesn’t go — in the NFL, he will always be Sherese Parsons’ “biggest blessing.”

Relationships rarely exist like the one the Penn State All-American enjoys with his mom.

Both will look you straight in the eye and tell you divine intervention played a role.

That’s because one of the most-gifted athletes Harrisburg has ever produced was almost never born.

Micah dropped that bombshell when he arrived alone — no posse, hangers-on or agents — at PennLive for a pre-NFL draft interview.

“It’s actually a crazy story,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this before. My mom already had two kids when she got pregnant with me. She just didn’t know if she could afford it.” 

...

Sherese was 24 and juggling two jobs to keep food on the table for two children, when Micah’s impending arrival caught her off-guard.

To make matters worse, Micah’s dad, Terrence, was in and out of their Jefferson Street house.

“I was like, ‘I’m already struggling,’” Sherese said. “I told his dad, ‘I think I’m going to the clinic.’ I was really thinking about it.”

What happened next could be chalked up to coincidence, but Sherese believes something spiritual occurred.

Outside of Terrence, no one knew she was pregnant, and they certainly didn’t know she was contemplating an abortion.

One day the phone rang, Sherese said, and on the other end was Sister Hall from the church. When Sherese told her that she was “doing fine,” Hall said she was hiding something and eventually surfaced the truth.

“She talked my mom out of it,” Micah said. “I think that is why (my mom) was always like, ‘God looks over you, son, and you should continue to keep doing good things in your life and give back to God.’ That was one of the first lessons she taught me.”

The Parsons family insists Sister Hall’s call wasn’t the last supernatural happening on the road to Sherese giving birth to a 10-plus-pound baby boy.

Even the name Micah has a story. It came to Sherese in a late-night dream.

“That’s why,” Micah said, “it’s always seemed like I was brought into this world to do something bigger than just play football.”

Well, Nicole Auerbach, a sports writer at the Athletic couldn't fathom that someone would tell a story like that, as Joe Kinsey at OutKick reported, writing that "WOKE ALL-STAR IS FURIOUS NEWS OUTLET WON’T CONFORM TO HER VIEWS WHILE TELLING MICAH PARSONS’ LIFE STORY." 

As Fox News' David Rutz also reported, Brian Linder even had to address why he covered the story in such a way, though at least it just made for a more hopeful story, while it made Auerbach look more deranged in her pro-abortion hysteria. Still, it should never have been necessary, no matter that the language "offended" someone; to be "offended" is to basically say you're "offended" Micah Parsons' life wasn't ended before he was born.

I thought we were supposed all be about someone's humble beginnings? When they were so eager to share those beginnings with others? Well, except when it rains on a pro-abortion writer's parade.

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Fortunately, the takeaway from this story is that Micah continues to be blessed. Even just a cursory glance of his Twitter account shows how humble the young man is. He looks to be going places, too. On Sunday morning, Mike Florio wrote for NBC Sports that "Micah Parsons opens as favorite to win defensive rookie of the year."

In an April 24 piece for ESPN News, Hallie Grossman wrote "Meet the NFL draft's most extraordinary prospect, Kwity Paye." It's hard to argue with such a title, considering he was born into a refugee camp in West Africa, came to Providence, Rhode Island, when he was 9 months old, and didn't even have a birth certificate. 

His love of football started when his mother signed him and his brother, Komotay Koffie, up for the sport as part of the Boys and Girls Club. 

Despite the cost of Kwity's education at Bishop Hendricken requiring her to work multiple jobs to keep the family financially afloat, his mother, Agnes, did so, especially after he told her if she kept him in school there she wouldn't have to pay for college. 

Eric Rueb of the Providence Journal also highlighted Kwity's story, writing "From refugee camp to Colts: These moments launched RI's Kwity Paye's NFL football career." A theme of Rueb's piece was how clear it was Kwity would be good at the game even in high school. "There wasn’t one play or moment in Kwity Paye’s career at Bishop Hendricken that you could point to and say yes, this is the player who's going to be Rhode Island’s first NFL first-round draft pick since 1939," he opened his piece with. 

Perhaps one of the most famous moments of the draft is Kwity sharing his mother is "done working and she's retired."