Our next guest is an incredible athlete
who just found out he is going to play football
for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Right?
Great teams.
The day of the NFL draft, he decided
to celebrate by throwing a party for homeless kids
in a shelter or he himself once lived when he was young.
From Northern California, please welcome Najee Harris.
So, hey, how are you?
Before we start, I got to say congratulations
on becoming a Pittsburgh Steelers.
Not only are they one of the great franchises, but bro--
those uniforms-- the Steelers uniform is the best uniform
in the NFL, don't you think?
Steeler uniform is hands-down one of the best.
But, you know, thank you for inviting me on the show.
I can't put into words how excited I
am to be a Pittsburgh Steelers.
You know, it was one of my dreams,
that I would make it here in the NFL.
Now I'm here, so you know, thank you
Art Rooney and Kevin Colbert for picking me.
And you know, I'm ready to go to work and not take anything
for granted, that's for sure.
So you were invited to go to the actual NFL
draft, which is a huge honor.
I think they only pick like 29 people or something.
But.
Instead of going you decided to celebrate in a different way.
Tell me about that
Yeah, so like you said-- the draft,
only a certain people can get invited to the draft.
You know, it is a special event, and I thanked them,
I thank them for inviting me, because it is a special thing.
But you know, yeah, I decided to decline it and do it
a different way.
I feel like I wanted to do something that was more
giving back to my community.
You know, only a certain people could get invited,
so I declined to meet.
And so you actually spent the draft at the homeless center
that you grew up in when you were a kid, isn't that right?
Exactly, so I'm born and raised in the Bay Area,
northern California.
There's a homeless shelter there that I used to stay in.
And only a certain people get invited to the draft,
and then I was like, there's no way in hell
only this much people help me out to get where I'm at today.
So I felt it was the whole community of the Bay Area
who helped me get where I am today.
I decided to not go there, and to have it in the Bay Area.
And in Richmond, is Richmond's Gribbs Stop Soup Kitchen,
that's where I stayed with my family.
And I wanted to make sure I want to do something for the kids,
and to know that I was once in your position.
And I always want to be a motivation like a big brother,
to kids like that.
I understand I can't be everybody's big brother,
but I can play some part.
So if you could say one thing to somebody who was in your shoes
12, 13 years old, living in a homeless shelter, probably not
feeling great-- what would you say to him?
Yeah, like I said, I've been in their shoes,
so I understand how embarrassing in a way
can be to be in that position.
Because I once was, and I was really embarrassed sometimes.
I remember I used to have, for practice,
and I used to get dropped off at the corner,
just so people don't know where I'm staying at,
and I used to walk the rest.
You know, when I was a little kid.
So for the kids that's in that position,
and that's struggling, that's going through these obstacles--
I want to tell them that there's always
light at the end of the tunnel.
Might not seem like things is going well and things that's
going your way, but it's a good saying
that always helped me, is faith is a seeing light with all
your heart when all your eye sees is darkness.
You know, so even though you might not
see the light in the tunnel, but there is better things
out there in the future.
You've got to keep pushing.
OK, and I love that.
I love that.
That's great advice for anybody.
Before we go to break, so you are a record-breaking
running back at Bama.
Alabama. tWitch, I know you're a massive Alabama fan.
Absolutely.
100%.
I got to have--
I have to have a fanboy moment and just say,
I've done many, many victory dances with you
during some of your many touchdowns in Alabama.
And I say thank you, congratulations to you,
man, and many blessings.
Roll Tide.
Well, you're an amazing guy, and I want to keep talking to you,
so there's going to be more with Najee right after we come back.
And we're back with Pittsburgh Steeler, Najee Harris.
Now I heard you want to keep giving back,
and that you're starting your own nonprofit.
Tell me about it.
Yeah, so I'm starting my own nonprofit.
It's called The Bigger Picture Foundation.
There are a lot of things I want to do, of course.
I want to have a heavy focus on giving back
to the kids that are in need.
I want to bring awareness to homelessness of course,
because I was once in that position.
And I want to help get homeless shelters and stuff they need.
So one of the ways I hope to get resources, of course,
is my foundation.
You can go on my page called najee.net.
I sell tees, hoodies, and stuff like that.
And all the proceeds and stuff that I raise,
it's all going back towards shelters.
It's all going back to my nonprofit,
so we can help out other people, of course.
And so make sure you guys check me out, at najee.net.
But you know, we have a lot of stuff planned to do.
I just got out of college, so am kind of just
starting things up.
But you know, I'm moving fast with it.
We already sold a lot of stuff.
We raised a good amount of money,
and we're going to give back to all these homeless shelters
and be a resource for people to fill them.
Love that.
Well, we here at the Ellen Show, want
to help you get started with that project.
So Ellen's friends Shutterfly love stories like yours.
And they want to help you by giving your non-profit $10,000.
What?
Oh!
Now I don't know, but he wasn't wearing Bama colors,
but I think you need to take this check anyway.